The Girls from Ames

My Northfield book club's last read was "The Girls from Ames" by Jeffrey Zaslow (author of "The Last Lecture"). Simply put, the book told the story of 11 friends from Ames, Iowa, and accounted for the power of solid female relationships. I liked it and I think most of the gals in the book club liked it too.

This past Sunday we met at Contented Cow to discuss the book and we had a special guest:  one of the characters from the book! It was absolutely amazing! The character, Kelly, lives here in Northfield and teaches in a nearby community. One of the gals in the book club used to work with her so was able to coerce her to stop by for a short bit, which turned into 2.5 hours. It was a bit surreal for me to hear Kelly talk and speak of the other characters. I had to remind myself that the book was nonfiction. Kelly is real. These gals are real. This was probably a similar experience to a 5 year old girl having breakfast with Cinderella (Cinderella is real, right?).

Anyway, Kelly talked about the arduous process of "writing" a book, brought the original manuscript, showed us contracts, and spoke of "what's to come" for all of the ladies. Minutes before she arrived I was being caddy about one of the characters of the book. All in good fun, of course. As she sat there and spoke of these ladies, I started to feel badly about saying such things. Because, again, these gals are real people.