Book Club

David and I have been organizing/hosting a book club through our church for about 3 years now (I think it's 3 years, at least). We started as an offshoot of the Alpha course held at our church (St. Paul's UMC in Idaho Falls) with the study focused on the books of CS Lewis. We started with the Great Divorce, went through the Screwtape Letters, and so forth.

We've had some interruptions and delays over the years, but have managed to cover an incredible array of books. Lucy tries to gather them all up in a pile at our house, but there really are quite a few - religious, political, conservative, liberal, even scientific. Our members have varied, although there's been a strong core group. Most participants come from our church, but various non-member spouses, friends, acquaintances, etc. have joined for books in which they are particularly interested.

Hosting the book club at our house has turned out to be the easiest for us, since it eliminates the need to hunt down a babysitter (we are having a lot of trouble this year finding babysitters). After we moved back from Pittsburgh, we arranged our most ample furniture in our front living room, adding a coffee table and extra chairs from the dining room as needed.

We are currently studying Muhammad, A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong. This is our first foray into the world of Islam. It is written from a historical, and a somewhat apologetic, perspective. Compared to the other books I have read by this author, it is quite easy to follow and straightforward (reading "A History of God" is no small feat). This book has sparked rather lively discussion, as we have been joined by some new additions, including our friends Sumat (originally from Turkey, but does not follow Islam himself) and Jonathan (who has read more widely on the subject than the rest of us).

I will pass this book on to anyone interested once we are finished, just let me know!

Perhaps the most central part of the bookclub revolves around the treats. What do you mean, treats, you say? Usually someone in the group bakes or purchases something yummy for the gathering. Last week, I tried out some homemade Fruit and Oat Granola Bars on the group, the week before we had oatmeal butterscotch cookies, and before that we had some other kind of cookie that I can't remember right now. I was going to make pumpkin chocolate chip bread tonight, but I think my dinner might end up being in the oven too long. Or maybe we'll have it finish up baking while class begins.

If you like to enter a house smelling of freshly-baked desserts to join an intelligent conversation, let us know you're interested! We're deciding on our next book as we speak.

(And for those of you reading who live elsewhere and are a member of my family, take this as another good reason to consider relocation to Idaho!)