Girls Gone Wild

There was almost a brawl at book group this afternoon. We all had wine and brownies and lemon squares and admired the blooming orchids and then things got ornery and disorderly about which book we should read next. The hostess had to exercise her trump card in selecting a book. And then in the discussion of the two books we read for this time (Child of My Heart and Northanger Abbey) there was a sharply divided difference of opinion on whether any of us would recommend Child of My Heart and whether its main character was believable and whether the author intended us to think she did the wrong thing by not ratting on her cousin. Voices were raised. Nan turned to me and said, "Grab my hand, because I'm going to strike her!" while Neva was talking about why the narrator made the wrong choice. I tell you, me and the middle-aged women can get plenty rowdy on a Sunday afternoon. Things were a lot quieter at the sports bar I went to afterwards.