By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Celebrating their 22nd year of regularly meeting to discuss books, sisterhood, and volunteering for their community, the Women of Focus Book Club is still going strong in providing community support after having read an estimated 264 books and counting. Established in January 2003 in the beauty salon of book club co-founder Veronica Wiley, its name was adopted from Wiley’s salon Women of Focus Hair Studio and has since offered its support to both the women and charities around their community. Wiley said when Women of Focus are not reading, they are engaged in volunteer efforts such as delivering care packages, food, and services to nursing homes, collecting clothes, and donating purses to women’s shelters containing necessities.
Wiley said that Women of Focus is currently continuing their purse outreach through an affiliated member, as well as setting up a donation program for their old books. She said the club decides which charitable effort to assist based on the needs of their surrounding community and what is on the hearts of the members at the time.
“We found out people at the nursing home really weren’t getting a lot of visitors, so we tried to fill that need. We did it around Christmas time because a lot of them didn’t have families, so we wanted to give them something for Christmas.”
Wiley said Women of Focus often chooses their books mostly at random too, though still often at the suggestion of one of its own members. She continued that many times the group has decided to simply write the names down of the books many of its members would like to read and draw one of the names at random out of a hat.
“Normally when we meet, we’re supposed to have the complete book read unless something else was decided,” Wiley said.
Wiley said the main goal of the book club was to encourage people in her community to read more and hold each other accountable to the goals they set as a group. She said that as the group evolved, it became more of a sisterhood where members could go to seek general support as well as talk about their mutual interest.
“You could reach out to the people that were around you in the book club,” Wiley said. “We were just there for each other.”
Wiley said Women of Focus constantly tries to invite the authors of the books they read to come and speak with the group about their work. She said that most of the writers that have been introduced to Women of Focus have been fellow Nashvillians the group decided to support the work of. Wiley reminisced that on one occasion they welcomed author Suzetta Perkins to fly down from South Carolina after finishing their reading of her book Silver Bullets, where she then stayed at the home of a book club member.
Wiley said current membership for the club ranges between 20 and 25 active members. She said the members that make up the book club range anywhere from 25 to 70 years old. She continues that it is this wide range of ages that leads to great conversation and the older members offering up their life’s wisdom.
Wiley said the sisterhood and closeness of the group is her favorite part of the book club now. She said the book club meets most months out of the year, sometimes choosing to periodically skip the holidays out of courtesy to people’s often busy schedules with family coming in. Wiley said that Women of Focus book club updates their activities and meetings through their Facebook.
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