Book Exchange Tea Party

Do you love to read and find yourself picking up a paperback at the grocery or drugstore, or at the airport when you are going on a trip? Or maybe you frequent your local library, but there is a popular book out that you are dying to read but you are so far down on the list and you can't wait, so you go out and buy the book?

What do you do with all the books when you are done with them?

Why not have a Book Exchange Party with your friends?

That's exactly what my sister, Linda, did.

Now, you have to know a little bit about my sister. I call her "Linda-Martha-Stewart" because she loves to bake/cook and throw parties. As a matter of fact, when she had the Book Exchange Tea Party, it was the third party that week at her home.

I know. You can go ahead and groan. I'll wait.

Linda invited about 60 women to this tea party. She told them to bring all the books they wanted to exchange.

The menu consisted of:

Bagels with regular and strawberry creme cheese:

French Toast Casserole

cinnamon buns

Tomato herb frittata

cinnamon bundt cake

yogurt with berries and granola on top

Of course there were wine glasses for orange juice and nice china cups and saucers for tea/coffee.

Linda's backyard is always ready for parties: there are 8-9 tables with chairs that are set up all summer. Her yard is lush with plants, flowers, and bushes. She has bird feeders and wind chimes hanging from many tree branches. The highlight is the 18' x 30' pond in her backyard.

My twin sister, Pam, is the crafty one. She made up all these signs and hung them from the book tables.

The books were separated in genres. Pam made these signs, too.

There's many different ways you can go about picking the books; you can distribute numbers to everyone and then pick numbers out of a hat. The first go around each person should just pick one book so that everyone will have a chance to get the "good" ones. (You take as many books as you bring.)

My daughter, Jess, with the orange scarf, Lily (granddaughter) in purple, Taliah (great niece)

Twin sister, Pam, left, with cigarette

No one left empty-handed, even Lily!

Brooklyn (great niece), Lily