Wildflower Farm Book Club

Please note, at this time this club is NOT accepting new members. We are a club that meets in person. Our goal, is to have fun and interesting discussions about great books in an intimate setting. We are at present happy with the number of people who are attending. Therefore at this time, we will unfortunately NOT be seeking to grow further. But keep an eye on it! Life changes, people move, things happen, folks get too busy etc.... People choose to be part of this group for a time some stick around forever, some eventually get interested in something else. Inevitably we will likely find ourselves open once again to new members sometime in the future. For the now, there are many wonderful book clubs on this ap. Many are huge and meet online, others meet in person at breweries or cafes etc, I am sure most of them are wonderful. While there are none I can recommend from personal experience I would totally encourage you to give them a try. Thank you for your understanding, best of luck.

This club is here for women who love books and want to be part of something. We are the devotees of the Egyptian Goddess Seshat, lovers of literature of all kinds, libraries, book stores, and anything and everything book related. Together, we journey across the unnumbered seas of the imagination, on an endless adventure beyond all boundaries. In a space boat, shaped like a bath tub and built from the the hard covers of an old, dusty, antique, book. Our boat has no sails, it has no motor or oars. It runs on pixie dust, our inner moonlight, the magic of elves, wizards, hobbits, and Morgaine Le Fay The Lady Of The Lake. We pioneer our way through a multiverse created by an endless supply of books.

We are all very different people from varied and different backgrounds. We believe the more different kinds of people we have the more rich and interesting our discussions will be due to the many and varied view points. We welcome all life experiences. We love the enrichment you get from a book that you can understand through varied perspectives.

We gather the third Sunday of every month at noon on a small New England homestead farm on the cusp of Central MA and Metro West.

Wildflower, is a small roughly 5 acre homestead farm. You will find goats, chickens, and a dog on sight, as well as a large vegie garden. The old farmhouse is a very old fashioned colonial where an older homestead way of life is still lived in many respects. The beautiful old traditional cozy meets modern values, some things from the past are beautiful to hold onto while other things, not so much. We hold onto the good old things, and leave the old values that lead to some of the ugliest moments in human history behind. Visitors react to this place in different ways. Some want to stay forever, others look around for an escape from the farmy, old fashioned, countriness. One new book club member described the house as, "a fairy tale house." A visiting photographer, once declared it,"alive." A magazine once inquired about using it as a feature for photos and an article. Whatever the reaction, everyone seems to have one to this place, I fell in love with it at first sight. Over the last eleven years, she has become my dearest friend. Perhaps alive is a very fitting way to see her... As we have a whole small farm at our disposal and the farmhouse, we tend to meet in different places depending on the month, the book, the weather, etc.... Sometimes we gather under the wisteria on the back patio where we can watch the goats. Sometimes in doors during the cold New England winter by a warm wood stove with tea and snacks.... Wildflower, is our most common meeting place.

Occasionally we go down the cape for a weekend together. The trip usually includes a book discussion meeting, sometimes a book selection meeting, ocean views, and a walk on the flats. Sometimes we go on field trips, examples: after reading a book set in Korea, we met at a Korean restaurant to further bring our book to life. Another time, we gathered at the local botanical garden after reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. We also welcome regular attendees to host when and if they want to.

We read all kinds of material. We live by the rule no books are banned. But we do like to have a slight focus on books centered on female character/s, or written by women, women's fiction, fiction, mystery, romance, non fiction, fantasy, historical, historical fiction, books that view things from various cultural perspectives such as The Bone People. Biographies, environmental, feminist, classics, gothic fiction from Castle Otranto to the modern The Thirteenth Tale, world war 2 fiction, nothing is taboo, we love it all.

We have a simple method for selecting our shared monthly reading experiences. Members who have attended at least 3 meetings and plan to continue attending gather to select books bi yearly, or twice a year. All votes are equal weather you have attended 3 meetings or 3 years worth. If there is a tie vote, Pikku our dog member votes with our founder to break the tie. We choose 6 books at a time. We set an order for the 6 selected books. Each of the 6 books gets assigned to a month. We discuss matters of book club culture things working well, stuff we might want to tweak. We discuss and plan additional activities we might want to schedule to do as a club, in addition to our monthly book discussion meetings. Each book selection meeting attendee can offer up to 5 suggestions for consideration. We try to have something on the list for everyone as often as possible. The goal, is to learn about some new books, and to get a collection we all like while utilizing suggestions from everyone's suggestion list.

If you have not attended 3 meetings, you can still submit suggestions for consideration up to 3, we make no promises but we will consider them and add them to the vote. Unfortunately until after your third meeting you don't get a vote. The reason for this is, often people like the idea of being part of a book club. They show up for one meeting, recommend a book and then never show up again and now we are reading a book we have no interest in for a person who comes once and disappears. By only giving votes to those who have earned them, we ensure that those who have a commitment to our club are reading books they choose with other committed members. People who we know will keep showing up, people we know who will show up to discuss the books they get on the list as well as the books others put on the list. A good book club, is a cozy intimate group that develops into a sisterhood of book lovers and friends who genuinely care about each other. Rather than a group of one time randos. This method helps us ensure that a sisterhood of book lovers continues to evolve within our club. That we strengthen our bonds with each new book selection meeting and book discussion meeting, learning more about books, and each other, growing together.

The purpose of this club is to develop a sisterhood of book lovers that meet to discuss the books we share, in person rather than being one of thousands in a club that meets online. Regular attendance to everyone's best abilities is highly valued.

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."- Galadriel -Tolkien

This quote is at the foundation of this club, which will always be exactly that. The light in dark places when all other lights go out. Welcome to Wildflower Farm, book club.

Club rules:

Don't be a Karen. We don't do pearl clutching and bigotry here.We don't do chronically offended. We don't do desperate efforts to find stuff to complain about. Profanity is fine. So is a glass of wine or a little legal in Massachusetts weed. We are a laid back crowd looking for others not desperate to be uptight and complaining. If you would rather be a bigoted, offended, complaining Karen, that's fine but might I suggest you join a creepy temperance society instead? A book club may not be the right fit for you.

Don't be an asshole. While profanity is accepted there is a difference between using it to discuss something and directing it at someone in an abusive manner. Again, I bring up bigotry interesting how bigotry falls under both being an asshole and being a Karen, isn't it? Talk about other people's ideas the same way you would want yours discussed please. We won't all always agree about everything that is totally cool, but we debate the merits politely. We do not attack or abuse the person we disagree with. When we disagree, we do it peacefully with the understanding books are works of art and there are an endless supply of correct interpretations of them and views on them. We don't judge, cuz judging is being a what??? Yep, exactly you guessed it. Wear make up or don't, dress nice or show up in your jammies it's all good. No one here will ever tell you to smile or say that you would be prettier if you did. Not being an asshole, means supporting each other, and whatever expression any one of us chooses to wear. We don't judge.

Sorry, no conspiracy theories, thank you. We do NOT want to hear about who is eating the pets this week, who is or isn't from Kenya, nor do we care who is "nasty." In fact, if I have to listen to that I promise there will never be any woman you view as nastier than me ever again. If conspiracy and bigotry are your thing please go join a tiki torch bigot club instead and leave us alone. We welcome all valid political points and there is an argument to be made for all sides. But the cult propaganda and conspiracy madness is NOT welcome here.

This club was founded on Covid safety. All members provide proof of being UTD on vaccination at their first meeting. When waste water Covid levels are high we all test within 24 hours of our meeting, to protect each other. In more than 3 years of meeting, hell's own virus has never spread at one of our meetings. In addition, we keep our attendance level in the general vicinity of a loose max of 10 people. We meet outside when possible. Due to all these precautions, masking is not required but it is of course optional.

Loving dogs is mandatory, especially giant dogs. Loving cats is optional.