The wrong wife

I missed the April virtual get together of the Bad Girls Book Club. It wasn’t our usual night and I simply forgot. I wouldn’t have been able to contribute much in any case as I simply had not been able to complete reading that month’s book.

During the Zoom call, a member (to whom I’d loaned the book) suggested Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library for May.Well, that was easy, as I’d already read it.

I was told the plan for June was one of our “choose your own” themed months. Then another Bad Girl suggested a novel. There wasn’t a book club set available, but she knew (because she works there) that multiple copies were floating around library branches. She also had an epub version which she circulated and I downloaded.

Bear in mind it was still only April, so I just carried on reading books from the pile beside the bed.

In mid-May we had our first in person meeting in over a year on the deck of someone’s house. The general consensus on The Midnight Library was that it was a good read, albeit with a somewhat predictable ending, that had only felt a bit disappointing because it’s been badly over-hyped.

By the end of May I realised I should get cracking on the June selection, but the thing is, I hate reading ebooks. I like having dinner or going to bed with a proper book. So I decided to order one of the numerous library copies. I couldn’t remember the author’s name and didn’t bother checking, because I remembered the name of the novel.

It’s the book I was reading with my Sunday dinner last night.

Apparently the last time I had pistachio-crusted fish with asparagus was back in March with Matt Haig, although yesterday it was halibut (on sale this week at the grocery store or I would not have been able to afford it), not salmon.

Anyway, after dinner I posted my “Sunday dinner with” photo with a comment that this was the Bad Girls’ Book of the Month. When I checked Facebook later to see if anyone else had posted a Sunday dinner photo, there was a comment on my post from one of the Bad Girls: “I thought our book was Recipe for a Perfect Wife?”, followed by murmurs of agreement from other Bad Girls.

Oops. Seems I misremembered the title of the book (all I remembered was “Perfect Wife” when I went to the library’s website). Seems I’m reading the wrong book. Shit.

At least I’m enjoying The Perfect Wife. I’d never heard of J P Delaney and probably would never have otherwise stumbled across him. It would suck if I was reading the wrong book and hating it.

It will be an interesting conversation when we get together this week. I’ll get to hear what the other Bad Girls thought of Recipe for a Perfect Wife, then I can tell them all about the wrong wife.

Should be fun.