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Someone in my book group shared this article from Forbes on how “Book Clubs Are Thriving in the Internet Era.” This does not surprise me. I think that people are craving time to speak to each other in a live setting. We type and type all day long, and there are times when we want more meaty conversation than a tautly worded text or the pithy humor of a social media post.

We have an active neighborhood Facebook page for about a dozen streets in my town. It started a few years ago when someone came up with the idea that we would all light the front of our houses with luminary on one night in early December.

During the holiday week, a woman mentioned that she was new to the area; she wanted to know if there was an existing book group, or if there was interest in starting one. I shared that if they decided to go ahead with this, if they would like, I could suggest a book. Quickly we pulled together about a dozen women who were interested, set up our first meeting for January 31st, and LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly was selected as the title to discuss from the four that I shared with them. We have lived in this neighborhood for almost 30 years, and it’s so nice to see it building a bigger community feel than it ever had before --- and a book group.