BENNINGTON — Recently, the Bennington Book Club, now known as The Ladies of the Book, celebrated their 50th Anniversary with an evening of good food, good friends, and great reminiscences of the 50 years and 500 books they’ve read.
One of the oldest continuous book clubs in the area began with three friends just wanting to “talk books.” Joan de Leon, Kathy Cichanowski, and Sheila Richmond met one evening in 1976, each bringing some of their own friends, to discuss the book Marathon Man by William Goldman.
Of the three founders, only Kathy Cinchanowski remains to tell the history of the book club, but she kept careful records of all the books over the years.
During the latest book club meeting, the group discussed what brought them to their first meeting, what book they remember the most, and what character or author affected their lives or changed their perspective of things. The answers were as varied and amusing as one would expect from such a diverse group of women readers.