Read With Us: Sorrow and Bliss, the Wrap Up

It’s my turn today to do the wrap up of our Sorrow and Bliss experience. Can I be completely obvious and say that we found both sorrow and bliss . . . and everything in between?

I should have taken notes during our Zoom discussion last week but I sort of . . . forgot . . . that I was doing the wrap up this time. I think we had 10-12 people on screen, a comfortable number for our group. Kym started things off, as she always does, and I’m so appreciative of how she handles it. A little ice breaker question that everyone answers and by the time we’ve done that we have probably already brought up the book a bunch of times and the discussion evolves from there.

Our discussion was lively and, while most people enjoyed the book, some did not. And that’s not only to be expected, it’s also perfectly okay. How boring would the world be if we all agreed on everything? (well, except for some things like human rights and equity and democracy.) The bottom line was that the people that enjoyed the book liked the characters and their relationships with each other, felt comfortable with the ambiguity of Martha’s illness, and were satisfied with the ending. Our friends who didn’t enjoy the book as much commented that they still enjoyed the discussion and saw some things about the book in new ways. I call that a win all around.

In case you haven’t realized it before, we’re pretty loosey-goosey in our book club. It doesn’t matter if you can’t really remember the book because you read it months ago. It’s okay if you loved it or hated it. It’s good to gain the perspective of others, to sometimes be vulnerable with what we share, and it’s just a lovely thing to connect with other readers about a book. Really, we only have one rule . . . we do actually talk about the book!

And that’s a wrap on Sorrow and Bliss. Come back next Tuesday for the announcement of our fall selection!