Hello friends,
As this year winds to its close, I thought I’d share a little about the book club I am honored to be a part of and invite you to participate in it too. But first, I have news about my poetry. Several of my poems have been published by Kind Over Matter, including one that was published on November 25th. I will be a regular contributor to Kind Over Matter’s poetry corner starting next year. Also, I am contributing to another poetry anthology. I’ll share more about this soon.
images to convey a sense of the personalities behind girls in white dresses book club. all are copyright free stock photos.
Girls in White Dresses Book Club was born when I happened to be reading one of India Holton’s books at the same time as my dear friends Megan and Mercedes. We decided since we have similar taste in reading, it would be a lot of fun to form a book club. Soon after, our friend Gilly joined us.
The four of us choose one book per month to read and discuss together, but we also want to encourage any of our followers on Instagram (or elsewhere) to join in by posting to your stories or grid with our hashtag #girlsinwhitedressesbookclub
Last month, we read Before the coffee gets cold, and I’ll share my thoughts about that book in a bit. This month we are reading Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. You are welcome to join us. And no, you don’t have to identify as female or wear white dresses to join in. If you are interested in reading the book of the month alongside us, please do.
If you go to my Instagram page and visit the book club highlight, you can see a list of all of the books we read as a book club in 2022 and 2023. We haven’t posted our book picks for 2024 yet, simply because we are still deciding. If you have any recommendations, or think there are some books we must read, please put your suggestions in a comment or in the email reply to this newsletter (depending on whether you are reading via email or Substack). We mostly read magical realism, cozy fantasy, romance, classics, and mysteries with a magical element, but are open to anything with great characters and an interesting premise.
Starting next year (or maybe the end of this month if I get around to it), I will do a wrap up post at the end of each month on my Instagram page with discussion prompts and my thoughts about the book of the month. I’ll also post templates and prompts in my stories and save them to the book club highlight on my bio page.
This post on my Instagram at the end of each month will be a place for you to join the discussion and share your thought about the book of the month.
Several of you have already joined us by posting about one or more of our reads and using our hashtag. This seemed like the next step to enable you to be a part of Girls in White Dresses Book Club while at the same time keeping our own discussion with just the four of us separate since it is like a sacred ritual amongst dear friends that we want to keep nurturing over time. So, while we will keep our smaller group discussion private, we are opening the doors for a larger group to join in the discussion either on my wrap-up post, or by sharing your thoughts in a post of your own.
We look forward to you joining us this month as we read A Christmas Carol! I’ll post our reading list for 2024 as soon as we finalize it, so you can plan ahead for next year too.
And now for some thought about our November choice, Before the coffee gets cold.
Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a book that is supposed to be a novel but reads more like a collection of short stories that are united because they all take place in the same cafe. It was originally a play that was so popular the author adapted it into a book. The genre is magical realism.
I think I would enjoy this more as a play than as a book. When I think of a novel, I expect it to follow the three-act structure (or something similar). This did not. As I already mentioned, it was more like reading short stories.
The book takes place in a cafe in Japan that is quite special because people visiting the cafe can choose to travel back in time. There are oddly specific rules the time traveler must follow, including the fact that they can only travel back in time for as long as it takes to finish their cup of coffee before it gets cold.
It was a book with a fascinating premise, but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters. One story moved me a fair deal, but as with most short story collections I didn’t love all the stories.
This book was originally published in Japanese and my English copy was translated by Geoffrey Trousselot. It is the first book in a series.
I rate this 3.5 stars!
Thanks for reading. Please do drop a comment with a book recommendation for #girlsinwhitedressesbookclub to add to our list.
Caitlin
Mother to a Fawn for a Moment is such a beautiful piece. Congratulations on that poetry spot..