After more than a year of meeting on Zoom every month, the members of Amy Ettinger's book club recently tried something radical: They got together in real life.
The move was a fundamental departure from the routine. Ettinger had established the book club at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she and five or six other women from around Santa Cruz, California, had met 13 times in virtual space.
From the beginning, the plan was to eventually transition into a face-to-face club. Finally, in late May, they achieved their goal, gathering outside in one member's yard.
Though the women were unfamiliar with how to act in person at first, the get-together quickly became effortless and fun, Ettinger said. The women shared stories about parenting during the pandemic. They smiled. They laughed. Sure, at some point, the women managed to discuss the book of the month, Bernardine Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other."