{"id":2570,"date":"2021-07-30T21:22:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T21:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/more-than-a-book-club\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T18:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T18:12:06","slug":"more-than-a-book-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/blog\/more-than-a-book-club\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than a Book Club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6325\" src=\"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG_7902.jpg\" alt=\"book club\" width=\"680\" height=\"837\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"artcred\">\n\tWords: <span style=\"color: #ca877f;\"><a style=\"color: #ca877f;\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\"> Christen Hammons<\/a><\/span>\n\t<br\/>\n\tPhoto credit: <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Hayley Solano<\/a><\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that I\u2019ve struggled with making friends as an adult. I know I\u2019m not alone. As an introvert, putting myself out there feels very vulnerable. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How am I even supposed to meet people? What if this person already has enough friends? What if they just don\u2019t like me? <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friendships seemed to come so much more naturally when we were little and our bonds formed nearly instantaneously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of my friends are the wives of my husbands\u2019 friends. While we always have a wonderful time doing things as couples, I\u2019ve always wanted a group of girlfriends to share drinks or brunch with, something that was all my own. I felt a pull to bring the women in my lives together in some way, and so I did the bravest thing I\u2019ve ever done and sent some text messages to some of my fellow wives and girlfriends: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you want to start a book club?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The replies came immediately, all enthusiastic yes\u2019s, even from the women who had admitted to not reading a book in years. It seemed we all needed something for ourselves but not everyone felt comfortable admitting it. Each month we meet on a Saturday afternoon, leaving our partners and children at home. We talk about the selected book for a while, sharing our opinions and thoughts that often differ from one another, making it all the more interesting. Our conversation always shifts and we begin talking about our lives \u2014 what we\u2019re up to as well as some of the things we may need advice on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not much \u2014 just a few hours\u2014 but it\u2019s all mine. I know no matter how busy life gets, I have one afternoon a month when I can relax and chat with a group of women who have become some of my closest friends. When I first started the club, books gave us something to talk about when we weren\u2019t always sure what to say. They\u2019ve since become the stepping-stones to deeper conversations and friendships, and now I have something more than a book club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Are you a part of a book club? Tell us about your literary group in the comments below!<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Exciting news! Bella Grace will be announcing exciting activities for book lovers very soon. If you&#8217;d like to be the first to know about the bookish news, complete the form below:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><!-- [if lte IE 8]>\n<script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/js.hsforms.net\/forms\/v2-legacy.js\"><\/script>\n<![endif]--><br \/>\n<script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/js.hsforms.net\/forms\/v2.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<script>\n  hbspt.forms.create({\n\tregion: \"na1\",\n\tportalId: \"3843280\",\n\tformId: \"4124ffe4-db92-4714-abf7-7258c8475729\"\n});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Christen Hammons is editor-in-chief of\u00a0Bella Grace. She lives in Orange County with her husband, two sassy cats, and one scruffy dog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that I\u2019ve struggled with making friends as an adult. I know I\u2019m not alone. As an introvert, putting myself out there feels very vulnerable. How am I even supposed to meet people? What if this person already has enough friends? What if they just don\u2019t like me? Friendships seemed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}