The Hickory Reading Club met January 8th in the fellowship hall of Hickory Baptist Church, with hostesses listed as Marie Fanning and Daphne McMillian. A pizza! pizza!, salads, and desserts buffet was served in a pizza-themed setting. Joyce Johnson's devotional, based on a Genesis selection from Jesus Calling, reminded members and guests that in this new year, Jesus remains a strength and shield and plans our days.
Mary Ann Bond's program was a discussion of Chonda Pierce's memoir Life Is Funny Until It's Not: A Comic's Story of Love, Loss, and Lunacy (2024). Pierce depicts with brutal honesty her dysfunctional childhood, parental divorce, siblings' deaths, and her own widowhood--a life of trials and tragedies through which she maintained joy, hope, courage, and "unshakeable, white-knuckle faith." She is known for her clean comedy and roles as a stand-up comedian, actress, television host, and Grand Ole Opry guest, and has received numerous Emmy nominations.
Hickory Reading Club met February 12th, in the Lindley home in Hickory, and was hosted by Billie Ruth Brand, Phyllis Cain, and Bertie Lindley. A soups, sandwiches, and desserts buffet was served in a "hearts of love" setting including various cloths with pink and red hearts designs, Kiss candies, and red plant centerpieces.
Phyllis's devotional focused on possible parallels between the hospitable, loving, welcoming hearts of pets and the potential God gives people to be the same to each other.
Judy Leach's program book overview proved that there is more to "the classics" than just the novels and chose Ann Dinsdale's The Brontes at Haworth as nonfiction background for the Bronte family, authors of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and others. Readers interested in "the rest of the story" of everyday life in the English village and countryside of Haworth as Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Bronte lived there in the 1840s will also find illustrations and drawings Dinsdale includes from the Haworth archives. On a sidenote, The Brontes at Haworth: The World Within, by Juliet Gardiner, deals with the sisters as painters, for those interested in their lives and art.
