Page 98 - Philly Girl

82 Janice Shapiro

owned, including the Oxford English Dictionary. Eventu-
ally, she called her librarian mother in Massachusetts. Her
mother actually knew the word, and gave us the definition,
off the top of her head.
Recently, my dear friend Bonnie, a former English major
(none of us were English majors), and now an editor, vis-
ited me on a weekend that I was to host the book group.
She attended as a guest, the first time we ever did that. She
brought a lot to the group with her “English major” type
insights—who knew about “the omniscient narrator”? Not
us. It was a great group that day.
Wendy keeps track of all of our choices over the years.
Our very first book was One Hundred Years of Solitude by
Gabriel Garciá Márquez. Our all-time favorite: A Fine Bal-
ance by Rohinton Mistry.
Each of us is an avid reader, who escaped into reading
for hours and hours as girls. Each of us has turned to lit-
erature for comfort, for transformation. We love the story,
we appreciate the tone, the voice, the style, and the point of
view. We like to step outside of our lives, into another world
that the books create.
We take turns selecting a book for the group to read. We
might do research on the author. We may find reviews of the
book and interviews with the author. We preside over a nar-
rative thread and we elicit opinions from one another. We are
artful and diplomatic in our guidance. We are a sensitive lot,
but we try not to take it personally when a member dislikes
our choice of a book.
Sometimes it is a challenge to get a consensus on a meet-
ing date or even a choice of a book. But we’ve been reading
together for 28 years, so we’ve obviously overcome that chal-
lenge on a regular basis.
Some of us are friends outside of group, some not. There
is a sweetness and positive energy every time we meet. We
would do anything for each other, and we have. We love