Tales of the Unexpected - A New On-Line Book Club Host
- Bridget Austin
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 31
🌿 Closing July’s Chapters: Reflections on Our First Reads in Bridget's Book Club in partnership with The Busy Women Club
“Sometimes the most important journeys begin when you aren’t looking for them.”
— Unknown
I never expected to be hosting an online book club. But here we are — and what a beginning it’s been.
As we head into August's featured reads, I’ve found myself looking back with real warmth and gratitude on the beginnings of our book club — and how it’s already started to grow and take root.
In just a few weeks, we’ve shared comments, quiet messages, and kind encouragement. I’ve heard from many of you that you’ve picked up one or both of our July reads — By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult, and The Walking Cure by Annabel Streets — and found yourselves enjoying both, reflecting deeply, slowly, and with real curiosity.
Even though our planned July Facebook Live didn’t go ahead (thank you, tech challenges - we will get there!), I didn’t want to leave these two powerful books behind without offering a few deeper thoughts for anyone still sitting with them.
This post is for you — whether you’re catching up, circling back, or simply wanting to take the conversation one step further.
📖 By Any Other Name — A Story of Voice, Legacy & Reinvention
This book surprised me — partly because I hadn’t planned it. My husband brought it home as a gift, not realising I was still settling on our first piece of fiction for the club. I took it as a sign — and what a layered, rich choice it turned out to be.
It transported me back to my English Literature studies — to Shakespeare, gender, authorship, identity. I was struck by the themes of erasure and legacy: how some voices are lifted up in history while others are silenced or rewritten. I found it completely believable that Emilia might have authored the plays — and deeply moving to witness her struggle for recognition, even centuries later, through the life of her modern-day descendant, Melina.
Some of the themes that stood out most for me:
💬 Communication & Miscommunication — letters vs emails, the things left unsaid
♟️ Destiny & Control — who moves the chess pieces in our lives, and when do we get to choose?
🧠 Marginalised Identities — neurodiversity, race, gender, sexuality, and the longing to be seen
🪞 Mirroring & Reflection — across generations, relationships, and creative partnerships
It also left me with a quiet question: what might be possible if we truly listened to one another — across time, across difference, across misunderstanding?
🚶♀️ The Walking Cure — Walking as a Way Back to Ourselves
This book felt like a gift for the body and the soul — especially as I’ve been travelling this month. It’s the kind of book you don’t need to read cover to cover, but can instead dip into slowly, companionably, chapter by chapter.
Annabel Streets writes with such warmth and evidence-based insight about how walking is so much more than exercise — it’s healing. It’s reflection. It’s resistance. It’s reclaiming time, space, and self.
As a coach, mindful photography practitioner, and lover of essential oils, I was particularly struck by her reflections on walking through meadows — the scents, the sensations, the slow attunement to place and pace. These are the kinds of rituals I often encourage others to find in their daily lives. The book reminded me that small, repeated choices — like a walk — are powerful acts of self-kindness.
You might enjoy re-reading:
The chapters on barefoot walking, walking in silence, or walking with intention
The parts that reference the science of mood, memory, and movement
Her celebration of nature as a space of healing, joy, and reconnection
It feels like a book I’ll return to again and again.
🐿️ Nature, Margins & the Red Squirrel
While walking in the Lake District recently, I spotted a red squirrel — rare, resilient, quietly foraging in a human nut box. Once dominant in the UK, now pushed aside by the more aggressive grey. And yet, when seen, it’s admired. It plays. It stores what it needs. It plants seeds for the future, even if it doesn’t know it.
That little squirrel became a symbol for me — of hidden wisdom, survival. It reminded me of Emilia. Of Melina. Of anyone who’s ever felt unseen but has an important story to tell.
✍️ A Final Note Before our August Reads
When we started dreaming up this book club, Read Yourself Happy reminded me that we don’t always need to analyse books — sometimes we just need to feel them. Sit beside them. Let them unfold.
And that’s what I hope the Bridget's Book Club in partnership with The Busy Women Club space continues to be. A place where books are companions, not assignments. Where reflection is welcome, but never required. Where we walk together — slowly, thoughtfully — through pages and life.
“Books are not just stories — they are a soothing balm, companions, teachers, and quiet revolutions. They meet us where we are, and gently carry us somewhere new.”— Bridget Austin
Thank you for reading along with me in July. I can’t wait to turn the next page with you.
With love,
Bridget xx
Comments