Book Club Juice

I've come to rely on book club juice, pure and simple.

After three years attending multiple book club meetings each month, with only one this May, I'm feeling a little off. So much inspiration for blog posts and songwriting, so many interesting perspectives on books I likely wouldn't have chosen to read, cool quotes that nail the essence of a book being discussed. Most recent tasty morsel - "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional". The book club participant attributed this to Buddha; I didn't check - doesn't matter because it's in my bag of tricks now thanks to her and him, if she was right.

It would have been so neat to discover this juice prior to 2010. What a blast if I could have been part of a discussion about "At Play In The Fields of the Lord" by Peter Matthiessen or "The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart" by Alice Walker or "My Secret History" by Paul Theroux. Or anything by John Updike or Anne Tyler or Toni Morrison. But wait; I can still suggest any or all of the above, right?

And another thing. When I'm away a lot like this month, aside from missing my juice, I also get library withdrawal symptoms. Suggestions from cyberspace doctors?