The story of how a book club came to be...
Babes Under the Covers aka BUCs
I have written about the book club I am a part of before; however, I thought I might share again how eight women came to be in a book club together.
Grab a cup of something warm and have a sit because this story is about to get really exciting. It was the year 2009, the month of March, and my oldest daughter had three friends with whom she was joined at the hip. These four girls were, and still are, the sweetest humans you will ever know. Well, one of the girls had a vacation home in a land far, far away, and her beautiful mother invited all the girls and their wicked stepmothers to come away with them for a long weekend adventure. Just kidding —none of us are stepmothers or wicked.
As the weekend went on, we found ourselves sneaking off to read in cozy little nooks or out by the cement pond. We were talking about the books we were each reading and books that we had read. At some point in the adventure, someone said, “We should start a book club!”. The words were said. The spell was cast, and the rest is history!
When we got home, one of us sent a group email. Ah, the days before iMessage. We emailed back and forth for a few months about how we should organize. I consulted my sister, who was already in a book club, and we set a date for the second Monday of September. Because this is the first rule, pick a day and a time that are the same every month. We chose to meet on the second Monday of every other month. We would each invite three people who we knew liked to read, so our group started as 12 women.
Our very first meeting was about setting ground rules and picking a book. Ground rules? Yes, ground rules. Because twelve women need to have a few groundrules to keep them in line, otherwise, man things can go sideways fast! Or so we heard.
Here are the rules we set, and we have stuck to them. These rules are why our group has been more or less successful at staying together and maintaining consistency. Let’s call them guidelines. Rules sound so not fun.
AGENDA: a. Pick a date that we will meet each month or bi-monthly. b. Pick out our first book. c. Set some guidelines. d. Give our book club a name!
We chose to meet on the second Monday of every other month at first because we all had young kids, and it was hard to get a book read in a month. Also, hard to get away sometimes. (Present day we have met every month for a long time now.)
Picking a name: We went around and talked about what we wanted this book club to be, who we were, and what we liked to read. I can’t remember exactly, but I know there were a few questions that we all answered. After talking for a bit, we all discovered that most of us read in bed before falling asleep. So this is how we came up with our name, Book Club Babes under Covers. Cause, duh, we are all babes (a.k.a. sexy mommas). We all read under our bed covers, and it is a fun play on words with the covers of books. And it makes us sound mysterious! Like we are solving crimes. Which we kinda of all were, because we all had children, and crime-solving was part of our everyday routine. So this is how we came up with our name.
We are all committed to reading and discussing the book. If you are going to show up to book club for the camaraderie, well, sorry, you need to find yourself a different bunch of babes.
We each host once every other year. Since we were meeting every other month, this was not a huge commitment for anyone. Present day we meet monthly, with the exception of January. We skip January, for a break after busy holiday season.
The host gets to pick the book (we have since let this rule go, and we spend about half of each meeting deciding on a book after we have discussed the current book).
So those are the basics of how our book club functions. Another BC babe, Tina, and I have been the unofficial secretaries, keeping track of which books we have read, who has hosted, who shows up, and who doesn’t. It’s all in a blue binder, kept in a safe deposit box. Not really. But yes, it’s all in a blue folder.
After some time, we decided that we needed to keep it simple. We all had busy lives and didn’t want to put undue pressure on each other by having themes or making elaborate spreads of food and drink; sometimes a host feels like going hog wild, but it is never expected. Serve a few nibbles and a drink or two, and call it good. We also decided that any book over 400 pages was not a good idea. We made this rule after we chose to read 11/22/63 by Steven King, which is over 800 pages. Also, we need to discuss any new additions to the group. It’s not just a free-for-all of invitations to people we know who like to read. Maybe this sounds harsh, but as a group, we need to mesh, so it’s important to discuss who the newbie is and if we think they would fit. We have had people come once and never come back! Which is fine —if they don’t feel like it /we’re not their cup of tea, then no hard feelings. We have been the same eight women for about eight years. Only two of the OG moms are still in it. Moi, and Lori have been here through thick and thin. And the other six have pretty much been with us since the beginning, or at least ten years. We have decided at this point never to add anyone else, and no one is allowed to leave. We have too much history; it would be hard for someone to walk into our group now.
So last weekend we went on our annual weekend away, which we do at least once a year. We read the book The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Then we all brought one of our all-time favorite books, and I made a little reel revealing which one each of us chose. You can find that on my Instagram or TikTok. It was really hard for me —or any of us —to pick a favorite. We are all pretty avid readers. We are usually listening to or reading another book alongside our book club pick. We had a few that we all agreed on.
So this is how the Babes under Covers came to be!! We are all dear friends, but for the most part, we don’t see each other outside of book club events or monthly meetings. However, we do have a group text that includes every book club meme known to man, as well as the ultimate Amazon list of must-haves.
It is not lost on me the uniqueness of our book club. I have had others say to me I wish I could have a book club like that. I always say, this didn’t form over night. It’s taken fifteen years to get to this intimate circle of women. If this is something you want to invest your time in then start a bookclub and see where it goes. Put up a flyer at your local library or bookstore. The majority of the women in babes under covers are not people who would be in my life if not for bookclub. Somehow the universe brought us together through our love of books. We sought each other out and this is how it ended up. And for this I am forever grateful.
Are you in a book club? I’d love to hear how your club was formed. Are you a reader? What’s your favorite book or books of all time? You can follow me on GoodReads if you want to see a complete list of what I’ve read and what I’mreading. We can be GoodRead friends!
Thanks for being here! I’ve been cooking up lots of goodies, so be sure to follow me on instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I am planning a big Thanksgiving roundup post here with all the recipes shared at our table every year. So stay tuned for that! Till next time,
Sheila