Wedding People Book Club

I spent the morning mostly on the sofa, reading “The Wedding People,” a book Kendra (who owns our local independent bookstore, Four Seasons) gave me yesterday afternoon. 

 I finished straining the new batch of homemade yogurt I made yesterday and brought some over to Joanne. She’s been feeling low since she started taking antibiotics. I’m hoping these live cultures, plus the pro-biotic pills I took her yesterday, will help her recover her gut. I’m gonna have to make more homemade granola again soon, we only have a little bit left. 

I guess I must have walked the dogs, and did some yoga, and all those regular things. I know I didn’t do any journalling, because I am writing this 2 days later.

In the evening, I biked downtown for something called a “pop up book club.” It was just Kendra, three other people, and me…although Chassidy hung out with us for a little big when she finished her work shift up at the register. We met in the back room on the main floor, instead of upstairs in the used book section, like I expected. Kendra is doing some re-arranging of the store and adding a classics section. It looks like she is also moving the children’s area…or getting rid of it? 

 Because the book is about a woman who shows up alone at a fancy hotel in an emerald green gown, Kendra almost wore a dress that color tonight. Because everything but the flashbacks takes place at a wedding, I almost wore the fancy outfit I bought for the last wedding we went to. But neither of us had time to change, and no one else had such thoughts. Chassidy, however, was wearing a beautiful dress of wide red and pink stripes. I’m not sure how accurately I’m imagining it, but I believe it had a fitted top with short sleeves and a square neckline, with a full gathered skirt. I’m pretty sure it was NOT made from dupioni silk, but it would have really been amazing in a high-quality nubby fabric like that. She has shoulder length hair that curls a bit and shortish bangs that swoop a bit to one side. She wore red lipstick that matched her sequined sneakers. I feel like If I dressed like that, I would get a LOT of attention, but there is something about Chassidy that made the whole ensemble seem like just part of her personality…nice, but not especially noticeable. I think I only really paid attention because I was already thinking about clothes and scanning each of us, on the look out for a wedding party appearance. 

 The other people were: 

Aimee, who was married for 17 years before her husband died 16 years ago. She has three grown children. 

KJ (or Kim), who has been married 27 years and has 2 college-age kids. 

Dylan, who is single. I’m guessing he’s in his 30s. He appeared in a Ravens T-shirt and taught me about “pre-season.” 

 We didn’t talk as much as I would have liked to about the book. We talked more about ourselves, especially the widow. Oddly, this setting allowed us each to reveal the really challenging, grief-grappling events in our lives so far. My big question was just, “Is this literature?” I don’t know enough about it to even know if that is a question that can be answered, but we all agreed that while we really enjoyed the book and would readily recommend it to others, none of us expects to ever want to read it again. And maybe that is the definition of literature…a book you would read again…and again? 

 (Finished reading “The Wedding People”)