The Next Thing on My List

By Jill Smolinski

“Meet June Parker. She works for L.A. Rideshare, adores her rent-stabilized apartment in Santa Monica, and struggles with losing a few pesky pounds. But June’s life is about to change.

After a dark turn of events involving Weight Watchers, a chili recipe, and a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written, “20 Things to Do By My 25th Birthday.” Even though they barely knew eachother, June is compelled by both guilt and a desire to set things right and finish the list for Marissa.” (From Goodreads)

What happened at book club…

Happy New Year Wormies!!  Our 2019 book club season started out with a BANG! BANG! – BANG -BANG! (insert Alison’s voice and hand motions here.)

The Next Thing on My List is a light, funny and enjoyable read. Or at least we (almost) all thought so. The one dissenter was very subtle in letting us know how she felt. It went something like “Oh my god I HATED it!” The rest of us fell somewhere between really loving it to feeling it was a good post turkey feed Christmas read. That’s a pretty good endorsement for this crowd.

We all thought this would make a really fun movie and that perhaps the author had that in mind when writing the book. The main character and list fulfiller, June, was very much like Bridget Jones. It was very easy to picture all of the various characters while reading the book.

The vibe of our post book discussion discussion was set by the book -relaxed with lots of laughing. We enjoyed seeing the zen side of one member with her 2019 mantra “lets not judge’… good one,  we laughed and laughed and laughed. Then we kept the mood light talking about deathbed promises (don’t be at it!) and whether killing someone would lead to Real Housewives and 90 Day Fiancé binge watching.

It was a really great night of catching up and hanging out. Thank you to our host for the wonderful spread and for choosing this book.  Oh, and what meeting would be complete without a naked man in a towel going in an unknown direction! BANG – BANG BANG – BANG BANG