Sara Reyes | Tea, a Saturday Tradition Bears Fruit… with Vampires!

Today is tea day, Means gathering books, getting dressed somewhat nicely (no “work” pants, jeans okay), putting on the minimal amount of make-up (mascara, lip gloss) and heading out the door by noon to go meet the girls. Sorry, no guys allowed in this part of the book club. Then we gather at a tea room and enjoy at least two hours of conversation, book chatter, life chatter and consume a four course (sometimes five if we’re lucky) tea. We do this at least once a month, sometimes we luck out and get to do it twice in a month. I can’t remember a three-time but hey it could happen! It’s really lots of fun and since we usually ALWAYS do a book exchange, you come home loaded to the gills with new books to try. It’s the closest thing to a reader paradise I know.

Except maybe book club night, a whole different concept.

So, anyway, today is the Saturday after “Vampire Diaries” and with all the vamp talk being going on about this one, starting in the 1990s when the L.J. Smith books first came out and Gwen discovered them. Those were the books that allowed her to participate more fully in that Saturday ritual of tea book group. Before the Smith books, Gwen was bored. And there is nothing worse than a bored teenager at a forced to go because you’ve got to spend time with your mother outing. And it was a regular type thing. Once a month seemed like it went on forever. How do I know, because as a mother I was on the receiving end of this treatment. But I digress, L.J. Smith‘s books were read even back in the 90s by both teens and adults. And there were several adults in the tea group who loved all of them as much as Gwen. So began a common discussion of books. Something to even look forward to. And with a couple of booksellers in the group, it made it so much easier to get all the copies, even first edition versions of Smith’s books.

So, spin forward a dozen years or so…read the rest….