Bookclubs are so inspiring

I'm just back from my thirteenth bookclub - and it must rate as one of the best yet. Seventeen women, all armed with comments, questions, and tales of how The Golden Daughter reminded them of incidents from their own lives.

The numbers attending the bookclubs vary, but the questions generally don’t:

• Why did Mama never tell you about the letters? 

• What was it like living with your mother?

• Have you forgiven her for not telling you the truth?

• What did you do when you found about about your birth father?

• How do you feel about Mama now that she’s gone?

The women, and they almost always are all women, want to know the answers because many of them are comparing my relationship with Mama to theirs with their mothers. They want to make sense of what they’ve experienced. 

In this particular bookclub, one women told me she cried when she read about the night I was molested. Another one said she was grateful she didn’t marry an Eastern European man like my father and step-father, because of the way many treated women in that generation.

Of course we talked about the slave workers of Nazi Germany in World War 2, and how things haven’t changed much around the globe, especially with the rise of Fascism in the USA, and growing challenges to women’s rights and freedom.

After each bookclub, a few women will come and tell me their personal stories. I’m always eager to hear them. This sharing of experiences is so valuable. 

I'm so glad they find in The Golden Daughter something that provokes or inspires them, just as the bookclubs always inspire me.