If you are anything like me and love reading, you have always wanted to join a book club. Having an environment to engage with fellow readers about a book that we have read collectively seems positive and fun. Unfortunately, there are some who may not have the time or resources for this kind of commitment. In my case, I couldn’t participate in some of UCF’s on-campus book clubs due to timing and transportation issues.
Now, this is where Her Campus at UCF steps up to the plate and delivers on a silver platter. In late February, Kristi Dao, HCUCF’s beloved events director, decided to organize “The Bookfast Club,” a monthly book club for our chapter of Her Campus. From providing an optional reading schedule to planning the monthly discussion, she put a lot of energy and thought into making this simple dream a reality.
The book that was selected for the month of March was Book Lovers by Emily Henry. It surrounds New York native Nora Stephens, a literary agent who has always had trouble with relationships due to her cold nature and challenging upbringing. Her younger sister decides to take her on vacation to Sunshine Falls, which was the location for one of her client’s books, under the ruse of needing to escape, a break before the birth of her next child. While there, her sister plans a must-do list while in Sunshine Falls to get Nora to loosen up and potentially find love. She then stumbles upon her rival, editor Charlie Lastra, and they can’t seem to avoid each other in this small town (spoiler alert: this is a “rivals-to-lovers” story).
At the end of March, we met up at UCF’s Student Union Starbucks to discuss our thoughts on the book. When discussing our final impressions, we agreed that it wasn’t the most interesting novel, as the obstacles and tensions in the book didn’t carry high risks. It heavily depended on Hallmark and book tropes throughout which made it feel a bit cheesy at times. Despite this, we understood that some people prefer low-stakes novels compared to ones that make you cry for three days straight.
We also went over the discussion questions at the back of the book, which surrounded the topic of reading (thanks to the main character’s career and her love of using references). We each brought up our love of reading, how we like to read, and how we would like to change the endings of certain books (we definitely brought up how we would change the ending of this book). The questions also brought up more introspective topics, and we also talked about how we feel about our future careers and our varying experiences with our childhoods. Despite our mild opinions on Book Lover, we still learned and reflected on important aspects of ourselves and each other.
For April, we will be reading Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney, so make sure to stay tuned for the Bookfast Club’s thoughts on that. We also plan to watch the show adaptation on Hulu together. Whether we love or hate the books that we read, having the space to talk about what we love is important, especially if it’s with the right group of people.