Trading Danielle for Jhumpa

My friend Marti had this great idea for a girlfriend get-together here in the middle of summer.  By mid-July, you know the moms around here would show up for a train wreck, or a root canal, ... anything to get away from the kids, stubbed toes, melted popsicles, and laundry rooms full of wet bathing suits and beach towels.  So our standards are pretty low right about now.  But what happened was great.  She had a Book Swap.

Marti dreams of having her own bookstore one day, and she's off to a great start.  I will be her first customer.  She asked her friends to drop off five to ten books at her house in advance.  By party-time she had them sorted with General Fiction in the dining room, Mystery And Thrillers on the big sofa, Romance and other Fluff on the game table, Non-fiction on the open bookshelf.  And she got Barnes & Noble to give her a bunch of their recyclable book bags for our shopping pleasure.

What a great conversation starter!  I had never met most of the women there, but it was easy to make new friends just by saying "What did you think of this book?"  "Have you read this?"  "Did you like that one?"  Everyone is a book critic.

And what a great idea for a party of single people.  If I were 25 and single, I would do this in a minute.  I imagine it could get pretty fun if someone showed up with Anais Nin or The Joy of Sex, The Encyclopedia of Persian Massage, or who knows what else!  But I digress.  It was fun for the moms to escape for a few hours, have a glass of wine or two, maybe even three, and snack on appetizers which everyone brought.

So here's what I got ...

Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell.  The movie is coming out soon, or already?  Not sure but can't wait to read it.  Love Julia Childs and Meryl Streep.

Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah.  Not sure what it's about, but the girls in the dining room raved about it and assured me I will cry.

Songbook, by Nick Hornby.  A series of essays on songs by the author of High Fidelity.  (Did you see the movie with John Cusack?)  The review in the San Francisco Chronicle, printed on the back cover, says that it's "for anyone interested in great essays, or in the delicate art of being funny, or in how to write about one's feelings in such a way that other people will actually care."  Whoa.  I'm a SkirtSetter.  I must read this.

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Pulitzer Prizewinner.  A followup to Interpreter of Maladies.  I need to find the time for this one to balance out the fluff .....

The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.  I know this was a huge bestseller, and I know it's a love story, and I'm going on vacation on Thursday, so I think this will be perfect for the beach.  Oh cabana boy ...

I'm trying to remember now what books I took to trade in.  I'm a tad embarrassed that they were mostly old book club selections:  Water for Elephants, Secret Life of Bees, Three Cups of Tea.   Plus The Devil Wears Prada and Bergdorf Blondes and maybe an old Danielle Steele thrown in.  I figured, it's summer!  Girls just wanta have fun!  And, lest you scoff at me, on my way out I noticed that all the books I brought had been snatched up by someone in need of a bit of levity.

So go throw a book swap for your girlfriends.  Just because you've read something doesn't mean everyone else has.  Vacation-time is upon us.  Reduce, re-use-recycle.  And find a new most favorite ever book for yourself.