Paige

Paige is starting over after her divorce, she's moved to California with her two little boys to be near to her ex-in-laws. She thought that adjusting to life as a single mom would be hard, but she hadn't realized just how hard. All of the questions about where her husband is, and even simple things like writing down who the parents are of her sons are hard to deal with. Paige deals with them by taking long walks after Church. On one such walk she passes an independent bookstore that catches her eye, but it's Sunday, and Mormons don't shop on Sunday, so Paige simply window shops and happens to notice a flyer for a new book club starting. Paige used to love to read, now she can't remember the last time she opened a novel just for fun. On a whim she decides to join the club and that decision changes the direction of her life. The book club gives her purpose, it gives her friends that she never would have met any other way and it helps her to realize that she needs to take some time to just be her and she'll never look at the other ladies in the book club the same way again. 

I have really been enjoying this series! I was most looking forward to reading Paige's story, mainly because she's LDS and the other women in the book club are not. I thought I would identify most with Paige, and in a way I do, in other ways I don't. What I really liked about this book was how it reinforced some things to me about other things I've been learning. I recently read and blogged about The Beginning of Better Days, and one of the things that Joseph Smith really stressed to the women was to have charity for others, not only in our actions but in our thoughts about others. That was another thing that was stressed in our General Conference just last week. And it's something that struck me from Paige, we need to be charitable in our thoughts because we really don't know what some one else is going through or what they are really thinking. Usually when we think people are thinking one thing, they are usually thinking something totally different. 

I love how Paige is always the first to help some one else in the group with any problem she can come up with. I identify with Paige because I don't always feel that I am good at very much, I have a tendency to put myself down and be harder on myself than any one else. I know that it's something I need to work on. I'm grateful to the writers of these books for the lessons that I have been able to see to help me in my own life!

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