Step 1 to growing up: Join a book club.

Yes, my friends and I have put a little book club together. We had our first get together tonight and although it didn't consist of us discussing themes, motifs, and quotes like AP English (and like I secretly hoped it would be), it was still a lot of fun.

The book was The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It tells the forgotten story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob from The Old Testament. The events of the book follow the events found in the Bible, but give a new light on what the personalities and relationships of the women might have been like. It is full of themes about the importance of family relationships, memories, and motherhood.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

-"We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust. This is not your fault, or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, we had no way of knowing. That is why I became a footnote, my story a brief detour between the well-known history of my father, Jacob, and the celebrated chronicle of Joseph, my brother...It is terrible how much has been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing"


-"Why had no one told me that my body would become a battlefield, a sacrifice, a test? Why did I not know that birth is the pinnacle where women discover the courage to become mothers?"


-"I will remember you in the morning and in the evening, everyday until I close my eyes forever. I forgive your every harsh thought of me and the curses you may hurl at my name. And when at last you do forgive me, I forbid you to suffer a moment's guilt in my name. I ask that you remember only my blessing upon you, Bar-Shalem Re-mose."