Book Club Crashers Have Hijacked Its Meetings
Dear Abby | March 1st, 2026 | Letter 1 of 2
DEAR ABBY: My spouse and I host regular meetings of a book club. It has been very successful; lots of people attend. We serve wonderful food and wine. Two attendees rarely miss this event, although they have never actually been invited. They come by default with their spouses, whom we did invite many years ago. We are not fond of these two women because they are whiny and annoying. They go on and on about their ailments and life problems, and they rarely have anything insightful to say about the books we discuss. My spouse and I wonder if they have ever read any book, much less one of the books we cover. We're not sure if anyone else who attends feels the same way, but we do know that some of our friends have hung out with them. I often tell my spouse we need to drop them from the invitation list. She says we can't because the other attendees will notice, and we'll look like the bad guys. Is my partner right? Is there any way to stop inviting them without looking mean? I'm worried we will be stuck hosting the pair forever into our old age. -- HATES THIS PLOT IN THE WEST.
DEAR HATES THIS PLOT: You very well may wind up hosting those two pills in perpetuity, UNLESS at the next meeting, you establish some rules that should have been made clear from the beginning. In order to participate in these get-togethers, members of the group must have read the book under discussion and refrain from discussing other topics during the meetings. To do this is not unreasonable.
- powered by google cloud