Tonight I’m grateful for the annual Bibliofillies’ Christmas party, and a feature we all look forward to, Bob’s famous eggnog. Some of us are getting out more than others, but we all agreed to meet on Zoom for our festivities this year instead of in person. Our usual December hostess drove around the neighborhood through snow and sleet delivering her husband’s homemade eggnog, and carrying out our holiday book exchange, picking up and dropping off one wrapped book at each Filly’s house. A non-traditional tradition that I hope maybe next year we can dispense with; but we have adapted well to the ongoing pandemic, and it was delightful to gather the herd virtually and celebrate our dedication to each other and to the art of reading.

I’m grateful for these eight other women, and for those who were once fillies and moved away or chose to put their energy elsewhere. I’m grateful for the nearly two hundred books we’ve read together in almost seventeen years, and for the great recommendations we shared with each other tonight. Instead of a common book this month, we each brought our thoughts on titles we’ve read recently, which ranged from memoirs and historical fiction, to the non-fiction history of immunotherapy in The Breakthrough; from lexicographical adventures like Dictionary of Lost Words to the latest from Richard Powers, Amor Towles, and Anthony Doerr; and many more. I’m grateful for books, friends, and eggnog, and finally, for a small wet snow that has stuck to the ground.