A Little Book Swap

Hello, reader friends out there. Today was beautiful in Colorado, sunny and almost 70 degrees. Tomorrow, it looks like the clouds may roll back in and wet us. Such as it is during these in-between-spring days. I hope that your warm days are filled with sun, outside fun, and fresh air, and I hope your winterish days are filled with books.

Before the sweet weather returns and we get busy doing all the fun things, I decided to host a little book exchange to get us through the lingering dips and chills. I have noted here before that life is currently a bit busy to commit to a book club (oh how I miss you!). My friends and I have decided that even if we all could actually read one book simultaneously and finish it, surely our kids would be sick, or we would have conferences, or someone would have a soccer tournament, yada yada, when we wanted to get together to discuss it.

So, plan B: Book Swap!

Here’s the idea: Everyone brought a book or two she had enjoyed and was willing to pass on. We got together over food and wine and shared about the titles we have loved, hated, questioned, cried over, etcetera. Then, everyone chose new (to us) books to bring home to read. Last year, I donated any leftovers to the public library, but this year all of the books were scooped up.

Chatting over books is lovely enough in and of itself, but everyone likes a little surprise. So, as the host, I decided it might be fun to wrap up some of the books I was swapping and write “clues” on the outside. Then, I put the names of the guests on little pieces of paper and tossed them into a bowl. The lucky chosen ones got to unwrap a mystery book for fun.

Here are the books I wrapped:

Class Mom, Laurie Gelman

The Topeka School, Ben Lerner

The Other Woman, Sandie Jones

The Mother In Law, Sally Hepworth

Can you guess which book is which?

It was fun to read the clues aloud and talk about the book afterward. The first one chosen was, “Ha, Ha, Ha … I feel better about myself as a mom.” This, of course, was Class Mom. If you are looking for a fluff read to get some good laughs, this is perfect. It’s even more perfect if you are just a few homemade cookies shy of a PTO mom.

We opened “Must love words, don’t have to love Kansas” next. I just finished this, The Topeka School by Ben Lerner. I am always interested in what Obama publishes on his end of the year reading list. This was one of the titles. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it for its lyricism and psychological insight but, unfortunately, this one felt disjointed and did not live up to expectations. My friend Kara, however, decided to keep it and give it a go!

I used “Twisty,” as a clue for The Other Woman. I really was surprised as I read this book! Part mystery, part thriller, part “it’s always the mom …”, this was a fun read. Of course, the last wrapped book was Sally Hepworth’s The Mother In Law. Though this was not one of my favorite recent reads, it went in an unexpected direction, and I did find myself wanting to know how it would wrap up.

Besides the wrapped surprises, I thought it might also be fun to include a few little reading gifts:

I popped them into brown bags and drew names for those, too!

Mix in a little food and wine, and it was the making for a sweet literary night with friends.

Here’s a complete list of the books that were exchanged:

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman
Educated by Tara Westover
The Emperor’s Children by Clair Messud
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
March Book One by John Lewis
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Other Woman by Sandie Jones
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Wife by Alafair Burke
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Thank you to the smart, thoughtful, and fun group that shared Book Swap 2020 with me. I appreciate you.

I am off to bed early (hello, Daylight Savings!) with a new book in hand.