What Can I Say That You Don't Already Know

Book Club Night!

We did not disappoint as usual. I don't mean to gloat but we have the best book club ever, and that goes without saying. Everyone finishes the books and comes ready to discuss, whether we love it or hate it everyone brings something to the table and walks away even more excited for the next book.

This month was my turn to host. I chose Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. I hadn't read this book prior my choosing, so I was in the same boat as everyone else reading it for the first time. How did I choose the book you ask; well I wanted a good discussion book and had seen this book on a book club listing somewhere and while perusing the bookstore over a lunch one day the cover caught my eye (yep judge my books by the cover, a book is a work of art and so should the cover be as well.. just like a person's first impression brings in your character so should a book cover but I digress) and read the back description and thought it would be an interesting read:

BALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION, declares the headline. Forty-year-old Delia Grinstead was last seen strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing nothing more than a bathing suit and carrying a beach tote with five-hundred dollars tucked inside. To her husband and there almost-grown children, she has vanished without a trace or reason. But for Delia, who has long felt like a tiny gnat buzzing around her family's edges, "walking away from it all" was not a premeditated act but an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and previously unimagined life.

After the jump see my thoughts on the book...


I thought the book started off a little slow, but honestly what book doesn't really. But as the story progressed I couldn't put it down and wanted to know what was going to happen.

Delia, the main character, just up and walks away from her family while they are on a vacation. She didn't really pre-plan it, it just kind of happened. Her family was ungrateful and her husband wasn't the most attentive, she ends up being gone for a year and a half living in another town, getting the first job that comes along and the first place she finds to live, then another job comes along and she takes that one, working for a single dad and helping him take care of the home and his son. This family shows more need for her to be around than her own family does. Only once does any of her family come to see her or talk to her after they have found out that where she was and that she had gone at her wanting.

She ends up going back to visit her old family only because it is her daughters wedding and then only as a guest not really as her mother. Then the obvious question in turn becomes does this trip back down memory lane make her go back to her old family and way of life OR will she say yep you guys still suck and go back to her "other" life.. read the book to find out!

Some great discussions came up during our review of the book (as always) some of the topics we discussed included:

- Why/how could someone (a mom none the less) just up and walk away from their family with no real concern as to how they might worry or what they would think?
- Does society judge mothers who leave more harshly than fathers who leave a family?
- At one point in the book Delia must learn to do things along, like eating at a restaurant and we discussed some things that we have done similarly by ourselves like seeing a movie alone.
- We also talked about relationships and weddings and if there comes a point where people just have reached that point and get married because it's the next thing to do

As I've said before our book group is very diverse and that is what makes it so awesome. We have divorced people, dating people, single people, a good spread of ages and all these different minds bring something different and new to the table with their point of views. I always leave book club feeling enlightened, enriched and thankful for such a great group of ladies to read with and learn from through my own life journey.