I have mentioned before my love of my book club. I was never in a book club until I moved to Connestee Falls and I always wanted to be in one. I hit the jackpot when I found my current book club and even though the members come and go occasionally- we are a diverse and fun group of women. We met on Wednesday afternoon on a lovely summer day on the beautiful deck of one of our members, shared some yummy snacks and wine and talked about My Friends by Fredrik Bachman.
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If you are unfamiliar with the book this is a description:
My Friends is a 2025 novel by Fredrik Backman about the enduring power of friendship, art, and human connection, following a young woman named Louisa who becomes entangled in the story behind a famous painting created by a group of teenagers decades earlier. The book interweaves two timelines: Louisa’s present-day journey to uncover the painting’s origins and the past story of the four friends who created it during a transformative summer, dealing with difficult home lives and finding solace in each other. It’s a character-driven, emotional story praised for its humor, wisdom, and exploration of themes like loyalty, loss, and the way art can heal.
Okay, so fast forward to our amazing discussion of the book (which almost all of our members enjoyed reading) and so many layers were uncovered and themes discussed. One of characters Fish had a really interesting concept about a perfect moment that you could live forever.
“Fish read a book that in Heaven, you get to choose one moment from your life. Your best moment. And then you get to feel like that forever. She said it doesn’t matter if we live till we’re eighty then, because that’s just lots and lots and lots of now. And one single really good now is enough.” (My Friends by Fredrik Bachman)
We spent some time talking about that perfect moment that we have or haven’t experienced. The range of “moments” was from that perfect time when children were little and innocent, children captured in a photograph, a time when the most important people in the family were all together being carefree and happy, to my own recollection of a time when my Daddy took me to a church meeting with him and bought a box of Chicken in a Biskit for us to share in the car. While all of our experiences varied in what the actual experience was – the real memory was the FEELING that we felt. Pure unadulterated joy. How would that feel to have that feeling forever?
We all agreed that we had been blessed with multiple moments of that “feeling” over our lifetime and how lucky are we to have those experiences to draw on.
This is what I love about books. They have the ability to reach inside us to pull up memories and inspire us. This was one of those books that was filled with really great writing, characters that were believable and lovable, witty banter and an overall theme of friendship and supportiveness . These characters had found each other and formed a strong bond. Kind of like my book club.
Have you read this book? Do you have a moment in time that you would love to feel forever? I would love to hear about it in the comments. Remember that for every comment this month Chris and I will make a small donation to AAUW Brevard for their scholarship efforts as part of our Comments for a Cause this month. As always, thank you for taking the time to read. You are loved.
And for Linda and the rest of my Gola sisters — tomorrow.
