This month marks the one year anniversary of the start of our book club.  With a commitment from a handful of friends and my mom, I decided to start this blog to have a place to host our discussions.  Since then, we've grown to include 25 members, all of us sharing a love of reading.  I've really enjoyed knowing that we're reading together and experiencing the same books at the same time.

As I looked at the list of books we read in the 2006-2007 season, a pattern emerged and I've named it the "Year of the Memoir".  A full 50% of the books we read this year were memoirs, many of them filled with dysfunction and turmoil, which explains why I feel so good about my own life (and you should, too).

So far, I think the format of our club is working pretty well.  I like the "read it if you want to and feel up to it and if your name comes up on the library wait list" approach.  We don't have a lot of comments each month, but I know many of you are reading them and participating when you feel the urge.  You will see one change, starting this month.  The section and monthly feature titled "Quiz Bowl" will undergo a name change, now legally becoming "Burning Questions".  If it doesn't stick, we'll try something else.

To celebrate our one year anniversary together, I've sent each of you a tiny gift in the mail.  The REGULAR MAIL.  Wait by your mailbox today or tomorrow for those of you living in the U.S..  For those of you living outside of the States, you may not want to actually stand by your post box as it may arrive anytime between now and never.  Here's a hint: the traditional first anniversary gift is PAPER.  Stick with me for sixty years and I'm totally sending you DIAMONDS.

No celebration is complete without a special drink with which to toast, but with a celebration so big it has to be really special.  It made me think about those newly married couples who celebrate their first anniversary by eating the top of their cake, after carefully saving it in their freezer.  Glad I planned ahead, one year after we started our online book club, I'm pulling out that original box of wine and I'm going to carefully drain the bag inside.  It will still be good, right?  I mean, at least as good as it was one year ago?