Her neighbour across the road was a bit of an enigma. To start off with, all that she really knew of Miss Hardbroom was that she worked as a government chemist. And that she had a splendid black cat, similar to hers but much better behaved. Because her house was the opposite to Ada's, catching the light in the evenings, she had the use of her back garden in the late afternoons. In the summer, she allowed the book club to meet there.
The book club was made up of all sorts of people. Dardanelle was the only man there and he was unassuming and pleasant enough. Others, like Ursula, were pompous and factitious. Every month they'd rotate between each member's choice. This month was Julie's turn. Her choice in literature tended towards the avant-garde for some people's tastes. Ada tried her best with this book, the way the paragraphs and speech had been formulated on the pages, dots and dashes, no apostrophes. Had read the book twice as she tried to do with many of them, to pick up on anything she'd missed the first time. She'd been impressed with it. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, a contemporary Asian coming of age story that none of them would have chosen. She did like that Julie thought outside of the box, even if it wasn't to her personal taste. Comments about the punctuation and frilly descriptions were duly noted but nobody had hated it. Usually Julie's choice divided opinion. Ada thought that it had resonated with everyone on a personal level in some way and had said so, some nodding while some wouldn't admit to it, Hecate included. Unusually, even she had liked it.
Julie beamed as her most popular choice yet, was given the seal of approval. She had clearly been influenced by her teenager for this one. Dardanelle had also been given an unusual flurry of attention, answering questions fired at him regarding his culture. He smiled shyly as the spotlight was on him, avid eyes on him for once. He thanked Julie for choosing such a different book. Ada sighed happily, she did love the atmosphere surrounding a well read book.
Dimity was next, proposed a thriller. Ada hoped it wasn't too gory. The last one Dimity had chosen had backfired on her. It had been so hideous that Dimity couldn't defend it. She promised to never bother with that author again. It was Ada's turn after that and she was looking forward to presenting the book of her choice. She hoped she wasn't being too forward with it but what was the point on being able to recommend books if you couldn't share what you wanted?