Scarsdale Bookclub Celebrates Centennial

A unique group of Scarsdale woman celebrated reading and friendship at the Ritz on Friday night February 4, 2011. The book club of nine local women arranged a pajama party for themselves to mark their centennial of ten years and 100 books together.

The book club initially began when a few of the members met while their children were attending nursery school at Westchester Reform Temple and the moms bonded over their love of books. Each of the original five invited a friend --and voila -- they had a loyal group of booklovers who have been meeting once a month ever since.

Each month one member hosts the meeting at her home while another researches the book selection and leads the discussion. The group takes their mission seriously and puts aside gab to carry out in depth discussions of the books. Occasionally, the refreshments reflect the themes of the book, and while discussing The Coffee Trader, the group sipped on a blended coffee drinks and when they read The Help, Cynthia Samwick, who hails from North Carolina prepared a southern spread.

On occasion the group has interviewed the author and when they read “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” they had a conference call with author Audrey Niffenegger to learn more about the book, straight from the source. For another meeting when they read a book about adoption, they invited a local mother who had adopted a baby to share her thoughts.

The club also celebrated their 50th book with an overnight at the Greenwich Hyatt. One of the members put together a Jeopardy game using titles from their booklist and they all tested their memories of plots and protagonists. This year at the Ritz, the pastry chef baked special book cookies that were placed in each room featuring the group’s 100th book, South of Broad by Pat Conroy. Each member brought nine book-related gifts to the party to share with the group. Among the clever offerings was a book group cookbook with recipes from many of the titles on their list, personalized book plates and custom tote bags and chocolates imprinted with book names.

Spokeswoman Andrea Weiss ascribes the club’s success to their adherence to a strict schedule and format. They hope to continue to read, share and celebrate many more years together and for their 101st book they will read The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.

Book club members include Lisa Goldberg, Joan Hendell, Nicole Moser, Tracy Nathanson, Cynthia Samwick, Amy Scharf, Mindy Schulman, Andrea Weiss and Carol Wolfe.

Happy reading!