Entertainment
12 September, 2025
Port ladies doing it by the book
THE ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ Book Club have been perusing paperback and hard covers in Port Douglas for five years this month.
Sixty books later, the 10 strong-membership has celebrated in style, naturally with a good book and maybe a little something else, including the occasional glass of wine.
The club first started at the Port Douglas Neighbourhood Centre in one of the meeting rooms, but it was then suggested by a member at the time that they should meet for lunch, hence the reason they became the Ladies Who Lunch.
They meet once a month at a different restaurant with Julie Borbio organising the booking and Deb Wall in charge of taking the photos.
Coordinator Jayne LaGarde, who picks the books each month, said “there’s 10 of us in the club and that’s because we get the books through the library in ‘BookClub Sets’ and there’s 10 in the box”.
“There are 380 odd titles on the list of BookClub Sets and, when I choose a book, I highlight it on the list that I keep,” she said.
“I counted up last week and realised we’d read 60 books equating to the five years we have been together.”
Members of the club have occasionally been accused of being elitist, as the membership has always been limited to 10.
People, who have asked to join in the past, have been told they will need to wait for somebody to leave.
“Inevitably one of us knows someone else who wants to join, so it makes it quite difficult with limited membership,” Ms LaGarde said.
“The biggest dilemma would be if one day a guy wants to join. Men are welcome, but of course we wouldn’t just be the Ladies Who Lunch anymore.”
Many of the books read by the group have also been made into movies which gives them the opportunity to make some comparisons.
“If we get a good book, we can then see how much better it was than the screen version,” Ms LaGarde said.
“It’s all a great reason to meet up,” she said.
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