Room*

Tonight was book club night.

I know I keep saying this over and over, but I love my book club girls. Seriously. When I first dreamed about starting a book club, I couldn’t have even imagined a greater group of women than this. We’re all so different, but at the same time have so much in common. I look forward to book club night all month long.

This month we read Room by Emma Donoghue. It was my pick–I first saw it while browsing through a store during boxing week. The cover immediately caught my eye, and after reading the brief synopsis on the back I knew I had to read it. I brought it up as a possibility at our last “meeting”, and it was chosen as our book.

It’s told from the perspective of Jack–a curious 5 year old boy who has lived his entire life inside “Room” with his mother, who was kidnapped at age 19 and has been held captive for 7 years.

It was one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long, long time. It’s not necessarily dark, but there are definitely some disturbing aspects to the story that left me thinking long after I put the book down. It’s hard to imagine ever being in such a dire situation, let alone seeing it through the eyes of a 5 year old who has no idea that a world outside “Room” exists.

We had a long discussion about the novel which then branched off into long discussions about breast-feeding (I have a whole  post about this coming…), teaching and life at large… before moving on and sharing embarrassing and funny stories that had me laughing until my sides hurt.

I’m usually very conscious of time, but before I knew it two and a half hours had passed and no one seemed in any hurry to leave. This was the first time we met at someone’s home instead of a coffee shop / apartment, and it was such a different feeling… it was was cozy and relaxed, and if I didn’t have to work tomorrow I wouldn’t have minded staying to visit even longer than we did.

It was an absolutely lovely evening… and I hope yours was too.