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Friday, February 6, 2015

Running Away to Home by Jennifer Wilson

So, uh, I think I started writing this post in 2013. It's 2015. But the content--really, the one idea I'm suggesting--is too good not to share.

{A long time ago...}

Last night, my sorority book club gathered to discuss Running Away to Home, a novel by Jennifer Wilson.



The catch? Jennifer is a Des Moines resident and attended the event.

BEST BOOK CLUB EVER. 

She wooed us all with her wit and hilarity. (Sidenote: She's pals with an undergrad professor of mine, and I can totally tell. They're both good stuff.) She told us a few fun facts that weren't in the book, name dropped some fabulous people she works with and for, and told us a bit about the reactions to her book--family, friends, and the people she met and wrote about in Croatia. She's visited a number of book clubs in Des Moines, and she's even heard from other book clubs who were planning trips to the same area of Croatia to meet the people in her story.

It was such a lively meeting, and so much fun to feel like you're getting behind the scenes, especially on a story loaded with real people and places. Oh sure, public libraries and universities and such do readings all the time, but I never thought about our rag-tag-group of sorority gals could coax an author into joining us at the local market. But really, authors are people, too. I highly suggest your book club look into it. Probably not our star, but someone near you. It certainly breathes a bit of new life into an ongoing gig.

{More recently...}

Jennifer now works two rows down in my office. She's editing a super-fresh magazine, and she's a riot in our on-the-reg meetings. I have to admit there's some disconnect for me between the writer at that table a couple years ago and the woman now working for the man, but I think she challenges a lot of what's the norm around this joint, and I like it a whole lot.

Word is she's working on another book, and I hope our club picks it up and invites her again.



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