In the summer of 2020, as New Hampshire was navigating the strange new world of COVID restrictions, Carol Healey of Antrim decided to start a book club.
“I just put it out there,” Healey said. “I put it on the Antrim-Bennington community Facebook page and just waited to see who would respond.”
One of the first people Healey heard from Ruth Halloran, another Antrim resident. Halloran and Healey had not known each other previously.
“None of us were friends before,” Healey said at the club’s fifth anniversary celebration Wednesday. “That’s kind of the cool thing about it. We all just love to read, and it brought us all together, and now we’re all friends.'”
Five years later, the group of avid readers is still going strong. While the group has had many members come and go due to moves or life changes, the core group remains steady.
“We’ve only missed a handful of meetings in the past five years, usually due to snow,” Halloran said.
Halloran and Healey are the only remaining original members, but most people have been with the group for several years.
In five years, the group has read about 40 books, including classics such as “Don Quixote”, nonfiction such as “Becoming Madame Secretary,” a memoir of Frances Perkins by Stephanie Dray; books by local authors such as “Justice Approximated” by L. Phillips Runyon III; and lighter reads like “Beach Read” by Emily Henry. They have also read acclaimed critical picks such as “Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zelvin, “The Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead and “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang.
Healey said everyone has their own likes and dislikes, with most books garnering a range of opinions. Halloran keeps a running list of books and authors to track what the group has read.
“We try to mix it up and make it a little different each month,” Halloran said. “We read some books on Kindle, because it is more affordable and some people only read on Kindle, and we try to do some classics and paperbacks so people don’t always have to be buying new books, especially hardcover books.”
The group makes a special effort to connect with authors, and has taken part in Zoom meetings with several writers, including “Ireland” author Frank Delaney, “My Sister’s Grave” author Robert Dugoni and Stephanie Dray, author of “Becoming Madame Secretary.”
The club has a special relationship with author Joyce Maynard, who has a summer home in Bennington, and has read several of Maynard’s books, including “The Bird Hotel,” “Count the Ways” and most recently, “Letting in the Light.” After doing a Zoom meeting with the group, Maynard invited them to her lake home just down the road.
“That was really wonderful. We really love Joyce, and we love her books,” Halloran said.
One member, Rebecca Munro, works in the publishing industry and is instrumental in suggesting new books.
“It’s really wonderful having Rebecca in our group, as she knows all about what’s happening in publishing, and she picks great books,” Healey said.
The book club has had an impact on family members, as well. Halloran said her husband “hadn’t read a book since high school,” but after she suggested the “Mike Bowditch” mystery series by Paul Doiron to her husband, “he burned through the whole series.”
“He read all 15 books in that series, and then he said, “What am I going to read next?'” Halloran said.
Healey said she had never picked up an Agatha Christie book before the group read “And Then There Were None,” a classic “whodunnit” published in 1939.
“Now I really want to read more of her,” she said.
Members take turns leading the discussion. Some prefer to print out formal questions about the book, while others are more informal. At each meeting, members come with suggestions for the next month.
For their five-year anniversary, the group celebrated with champagne and cupcakes at Healey’s home on Main Street in Antrim. Each member pitched in $5 for a Toadstool gift certificate, and one name will be drawn from a hat in September.
The group is committed to supporting local book stores, including Toadstool Books in Peterborough and Keene and Gibson’s Bookstore in Keene.
“We make a big effort to go see any author we’re reading if they come to New Hampshire, especially to the Toadstool or Gibson’s,” Halloran said.
Halloran and Healey could only think of a few books that none one liked.
“I don’t think anyone really liked ‘The Measure,’ (by Nikki Erlick), which was sci-fi about finding out how long your life is going to be. It was really dark,” Halloran said. ” I think everyone hated ‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories,’ (by Julia Alvarez). But with that one, we found out later we had not really understood what it was really about; it was about Latina women having dementia.”
The group has grown beyond book club meetings, taking part in community events such as the Home and Harvest Scarecrow Festival, the Antrim Festival of Trees and taking field trips to bookstores and lectures.
“We took first place in the Scarecrow Festival last year,” Healey said
Asked what the group’s secret is, the members laughed.
“We’re all different ages, and in all different stages of life. None of us were friends before,” Halloran said. “We all just really love to read.”