Old friends

I just finished spending some quality time with an old friend. I took a break from my challenge lists, to-read lists, and everything else and sunk a couple of weeks into reading Helen Hooven Santmeyer's . . .And Ladies of the Club for about the tenth time.

It had been a number of years since my last read. I still love it.

The book tells the story of an Ohio town and some of its occupants, particularly the members of the Waynesboro Women's Club, from the club's beginning in 1868 until the death of the final charter member over 60 years later. The characters are rich and real and so are their lives, but they are normal lives. That is part of the magnificence of this book. It is a tapestry woven from the threads of individual lives, with all of their happiness and sadness.

 And I cried this time, too, at all of the same places that I always have.

So now I need to return from Waynesboro. As is true with Middle Earth or the world of Harry Potter, it always takes a little while to completely leave it behind.

Still reading

I'm still here and still reading. I've just been incredibly busy, and, near the end of July I started rereading
 . . .And Ladies of the Club. I'm still reading it. I may have to break soon and read my book discussion book and a couple of library holds that just came in.