Social Work Alumni Book Club

I have not been keeping up to date on the blog, but I soon will be! I promise.

On Wednesday, September 16 I had the privilege of attending the Wright State University’s Social Work Alumni Book Club. They are a fairly new group—they’ve only met for three books, but Kindness of Strangers was their third meeting’s book.

I was a wee bit nervous attending this club because it was made up entirely of people involved in social work. I shouldn’t have been nervous, though—we met at the home of Sarah Twill (see June entry), who is one of the funniest, most laid-back people around. The reason for my butterflies was that these are people who would know if my research was “right” or not. I should still be worried about such things! After all, the book came out three years ago! But, because I care about the subject so, so much, there’s always that fear that I won’t have done the story justice, that someone somewhere will think I didn’t treat the subject with respect or responsibility.

Lighten up, right? But those are things that keep me up at night with ALL my books.

Much to my delight, the group was thrilled with my research. Libby Nicholson from CARE House was there (a wonderful, amazing organization that helped me immensely with my research) and it was great to see her again.

I can say that a gathering of all social workers concentrates on other aspects of the book than any other book club I’ve attended. It was a true pleasure to listen to them discuss Courtney’s suicide, Jordan’s recovery, Sarah’s parenting, Nate’s burden of guilt and on and on.

And if that wasn’t heaven enough, the food was amazing! I sure do love a book club with food. And bless Sarah Twill’s heart, she knows how these things work—the minute I arrived, she had me start eating since “you’ll be doing all the talking later.” I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heaped my plate with goodies at a book club...and the plate just remains heaped as the questions begin. I knew I loved this woman.

How could I not love her, when she sent me home with a bag full of her mother’s homemade cookies? And a ticket to a Social Work Alumni Society’s Wine Tasting Fundraiser at the Therapy Cafe. Many thanks!

But thanks, most of all, to all of you social workers everywhere for the important work you do every single day for people who are not fictional. I wish I could give you all much-deserved raises!