Marie’s Report: Wolfville and Area Newcomers Club Book Group

Marie’s Report: Wolfville and Area Newcomers Club Book Group
By Marie Mossman

How can you make a new friend? The first step is to meet new people, and The Wolfville and Area Newcomers Club makes that easy. Newcomers welcomes all, whether new to the area or not. Its interest groups ensure you can mix with people who enjoy an activity that you like. The Newcomers book group is a particular favourite:

A bikini hung unused by the swimming pool in June as the group of voracious readers concentrated on the hottest titles they would read during 2019 and 2020. This group has met successfully for at least ten years. Members chose no book for December 2019 because other activities demand attention near Christmas, and they reserved June 2020 for choosing future titles.

When I was a new member, I could only contribute whether I liked a book or not, but over time learned to analyze different aspects, such as the richness of characters, the writing style, and the complexity of plot. Since I believe what we put into our heads stays there, I won’t read scary, upsetting books, and that can limit my participation in some meetings. One aspect of the group that I really like is how tolerant members are of different opinions. Members often say the group has introduced them to books and authors they would not have discovered otherwise, and which have given them great pleasure or taught them valuable information. For these reasons, I would like us to attract a greater diversity of people. We’d learn even more than we have, and meet additional interesting persons.

We will meet in July this year to discuss Stranger by David Bergen and in August for Why Men Lie by Linden MacIntyre. The first book chosen for the new season beginning in September is The Legend of Gladee’s Canteen by local author David Mossman, which tells the tale of an extraordinary rural Nova Scotian enterprise which was based on traditional rural values.

Want to learn the other books members agreed to read and discuss in 2019-2020? Come as a guest to a book group meeting. For more information, contact us through wolfvillenewcomers.org.