Get to Know Your Book Club Leader

Q & A Time

Happy Birthday to me! 🥳

I thought I would step into the limelight this month (my least favorite place to be, honestly) and tell you a little about myself because it’s my birth month! On May 20^th, I hit the big Four-O. I am so ready for Club 40. Maybe I am naïve—or even delusional—for thinking this, but I think this decade is going to be a positive one and bring great change, opportunities, and experiences. My 20s were better than my teens, my 30s were better than my 20s, and I look forward to the second act of my life.

Bookish Q & A 📚

What are your favorite books?

This is an impossible question. Just like when I am asked my favorite place. There are far too many to choose. But the following are some that are very close to my heart because of the philosophical journeys taken in the story and the teachings of self-discovery and resilience. I will always recommend them to anyone and everyone regardless of their favorite genres for their profound life lessons:

· The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

· The Boy, the mole, the fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

· Life of Pi by Yann Martel

· The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

For non-fiction: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

What book made you fall in love with reading?

Again, I don’t think it was just one. My parents read to me as a child and one of my favorite and earliest memories is going to the library. When I could read on my own, these were my go-to series:

· The Boxcar Children

· Little House on the Prairie

· Anne of Green Gables

· American Girl

· The Baby-Sitters Club

Who is your favorite author?

Same as the previous questions. Can’t pick just one. Though I have read (almost) every book written by Amy Tan and Lisa See and have loved them all. One that particularly stands out is Tan’s The Joy Luck Club.

Do you have any “unpopular” book opinions?

I know I’m gonna lose some of you with this one, but I like to keep my books pristine. No annotations, no dog ears. That’s what bookmarks are for.

Where do you like to read?

I am one of those lucky people who can read anywhere—car, bus, train, plane, parks, noisy cafes. But my favorite spot would be curled up in a quiet, cozy café in a comfy armchair sipping a strong flat white and eating a pastry.

What’s your literary guilty pleasure?

Rom-coms. Maybe not so much a guilty pleasure anymore as they have really been gaining traction over the last few years, but it’s a genre I never took seriously until recently. These books are a nice and welcome mental and emotional break from the heavier litfic I tend towards.

If you could have dinner with one fictional character, who would it be?

Anne Shirley. I think we’d have a lot in common and could get into some mischief together.

Kindle, audiobook, paperback, or hardcover?

Big shout out to Libby! Living abroad in non-English speaking countries for the last decade, my Kindle has become my best friend. Audiobooks are something I have only recently gotten into. I admit to being one of those brats who used to think listening to a book didn’t count as actual reading (Yes, I know, and I humbly apologize). I love to get the Kindle and audiobook versions of the same book so I can plough through my TBR faster. Physical books are my great love, though. The bibliosmia (fancy schmancy word for the smell of books), the sound of pages turning—nothing beats it. Paperbacks are more portable, hardcovers are precious. I’d love to have a home library someday.

What’s your “book ick” (something you hate in books)?

Love scenes. I have yet to read one that hasn’t made me cringe.

Do you finish every book you start?

I used to. I’d get reader’s guilt if I didn’t finish something I started and would end up “hate reading” many a book. Now, however, I live by the belief that life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy.

What are you excited to read next?

The book I have in mind for our Indonesian author is one that was made into a series that I watched and LOVED and can’t wait to read the novel for the first time with all of you! Also, I’m on a several-months-long waiting list on Libby for You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, which has been compared to When Harry Met Sally—one of my all-time favorite romcoms.

Any goals for the club this year?

More interaction (me with you and you with each other) and to grow our community. Do let me know what I can do to better facilitate that!

Travel Q & A ✈️

From all the places you’ve been, do you have a favorite?

This question came from my cousin, and I’ll share with you what I told her. The Sahara Desert was incredible. The Dead Sea—amazing. France is my first love because that’s where I learned to travel solo (I first traveled to Paris, then went to live on a farm with a family in the middle of nowhere, complete with a neurotic llama and diabolical middle child ironically named ‘Ange’—‘angel’ in French). Indonesia has been my favorite place I have lived. It’s my heart home, the place my soul feels most at peace and where I feel most connected. Having said all that, the Badlands of South Dakota are the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life! LOL

What were your biggest surprises during traveling?

There have been places I expected to love but ended up really disliking, and others that weren’t even on my radar but stole my heart. One such place was on the trip I’m taking now—Germany. It wasn’t even a part of my original itinerary, but I threw it in because of its proximity to the other countries I was visiting. And I’m so glad I did! Everyone I met or interacted with was super friendly and helpful, it was clean, diverse, and the grocery stores made me actually enjoy shopping! Two other pleasant surprises were Malaysia and Myanmar.

Mountains, cities, or beaches?

I used to be much more of a city girl, but now I crave nature—wide open spaces, fresh air, GREEN. Definitely ocean over mountains. I don’t need to actually BE in the water, even craggy coastlines will do. I feel recharged just being by large bodies of water, hearing the waves crash and smelling the salty sea air.

Any tips for solo travelers?

If you want to meet people, use the Meetup app. Most bigger cities will have a Meetup group for anything from language exchanges to game nights. For women, check out the Host a Sister Facebook group. If you’re happy with the solitude but are just scared to try traveling solo for the first time, do some research before you go and book at least the first couple nights somewhere so you can relax and get your bearings. You can also get an eSIM for your phone before you even travel so you have data and access to apps like Google Translate and Google Maps, which may help you feel a little more reassured.

Are you ever coming back??? (asked often by many friends and family)

I honestly never thought I would return to the US for good. It wasn’t until I moved to Japan that I seriously started to consider repatriating. After a decade living in various countries, and after getting burnt out in my teaching career, I have thought about how nice it would be living closer to friends and family and having more career opportunities. There’s a lot I miss about my home country. But I worry that my insatiable wanderlust would kick in and the pull to leave would start tugging again, so we shall see…

Call to action 📣

I want to know more about YOU! Answer any of the questions I included in this Q & A session, or share whatever else you feel comfortable sharing with me and your fellow book club members. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Happy Reading!

Morgan