Women Weaving A Tale of Their Own

Va. First Lady's Book Club Survives Births, Deaths, Elections

WINTERGREEN, Va. -- Sprawling in the high-ceilinged living room of a log cabin, Anne Holton and her eight friends admitted it had been a few months since their book club actually talked about books.

At their January meeting, they were scheduled to discuss "The Known World," a novel about slavery set in Virginia. Instead, they crowded into the kitchen and bathroom of their host's home, trying on gowns and swapping fashion tips for the coming inaugural ball for Holton's husband, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

In February, club members pledged once again that they would get to "The Known World." That time, they got distracted by a tour of Holton's new home -- the 1813 executive mansion of Virginia.

"We do read the books in this group," said Holton, 48, over a brunch of blueberry oatmeal and smoked salmon a few weeks later, at the group's annual retreat to the Wintergreen resort in western Virginia. "We usually even talk about them. Unless . . . "

"Someone's being elected governor!" jumped in Irene Carney, 54, a preschool director who is known in the group for her service as the club's scribe.

"Yes, births. Inaugurations. Those do interfere," Holton laughed back.

For 13 years, Holton's book club has met monthly to laugh, eat and talk about husbands, children, parents, jobs and, usually, books. The nine women have sustained their long friendship by building their own narrative wrapped around that of the fictional characters they gather to discuss. They have compared deeply personal experiences, argued and giggled, shared and dreamed, all while debating the meanings of the tales of others.

"The discussions are intense," said Patty Nicholas, 51, who has been friends with Holton since they were both were starting out as lawyers in their twenties. "It's formed bonds and a sort of intimacy that some of my other relationships, as honest as they have been, that they just didn't have."

Made up mostly of neighborhood friends who live on the north side of Richmond, the club was organized in the early 1990s when six of the women took part in the same babysitting co-op. Several got to chatting about books and how much they missed finding time to read.

So they came up with an idea -- a monthly Sunday evening meeting, with assigned reading. There would be no formal book reports, no publisher-distributed question guides, but instead a resolve that after a good bit of eating -- always eating -- and chatting about life as busy mothers, someone would say, "What did you think of the book?" and the conversation would turn.

Janet Geldzahler, 51, who owns the Wintergreen cabin, was working long hours as a lawyer for a New York firm and spent years commuting. Marty Gravett helps Carney run a 76-pupil preschool. Denna Joy is a social worker. Holton served as a juvenile court judge until shortly after her husband's November election.

"People knew us as mothers or workers," said Joy, 54. "We needed a way to connect outside of that."