Book Club Recap 11/15/11

Attendees: Denise, Heather, Lisa I., Raven and Rhonda

There wasn't a huge turnout at book club, but it was still a lot of fun! Rhonda and I were the only ones that finished the book, but there was still plenty to talk about. We all thought that the book was a page turner and very interesting. We talked about how amazing it was that Henrietta's cells have been used for so many things and how they are everywhere! It was also really eye opening to find out that if any part of your body is taken out during surgery, it no longer belongs to you and you have no rights to it, but doctors and scientists can do whatever they want with it. We all thought that it was very sad that Henrietta's family was dirt poor and so uneducated and yet their mother's cells were doing so much for the medical field and her cells were making a lot of money, which the family did not get one penny from. We talked a lot about this book and the issues that it brings up with a lot of stuff regarding studies done to people and racial and gender issues. We all liked the book and if you haven't read it I think that you should!

After the book talk we talked about the crazy run/obstacle course that Rhonda is doing this weekend. Rhonda told us a very funny story about doing some Burpees and yelling at someone (you'll have to ask her!). We also talked about what the Valley and Los Angeles was like when Rhonda, Denise, and Lisa were younger. We talked about Denise and Rambo's backyard and all of the craziness that has gone on with the big dumpster! We are looking forward to when their yard is done so that we can all see it! Raven brought some cupcakes from the place that won the Cupcake Wars this year and they were delicious! Lastly, Rhonda already has her Christmas decorations up!

Here are the details for our next book club:
When: Tuesday 1/10/12 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Happy Reading!!!

-Heather

Book Club Tomorrow Tuesday 11/15

Hi Book club peeps!

Just a reminder that book club is tomorrow!

Hope to see you there :)

-Heather

Book Club Recap 10/18/11

Attendees: Addie, Callah, Denise, Heather, Lauren, Lisa I., Rambo, Rhonda, & Tina (I think that I got everyone, but I may have missed someone and I am sorry!)

Sorry that this recap has been so late! I have been busy, busy, busy!

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin was our first book that we discussed. There were mixed feelings about this book. Some of us really liked it and some of us just thought that the book was okay. Callah said that the book was very predictable and I agreed with her. We all did agree that the book was a fast and easy to read book. We all felt really bad for Larry and for him having to take the blame of two crimes that he did not commit and the life that he had to live because of it. I can't remember what else we talked about it :(

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman was the other book that we read. There were only a few of us that read this book and we didn't really care for it that much. The main character was really self-centered and not a great heroine. I felt like the author was kind of writing about herself in the book and I would be interested to see if she is really like that. Lauren said that they made a movie out of the book that stars Natalie Portman and the movie wasn't good either. The book was easy and fast to read, which made it easier to get through.

After discussing the books we discussed many many things and had some good laughs. A lot of the laughs were because of Rambo and Rhonda. I have to say that since book club I have been much better about flossing more often :) We also learned that Rhonda and Tina are crocheting now and Rhonda brought out a scarf that she had finished. Lisa was able to make the scarf look very nice! Book club was a lot of fun and it was so nice having Tina there, even if it was because Denise guilted her into coming!

Here are the details for the next book club (which is fast approaching!)

When: Tuesday November 15 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
I do have to mention that Christopher was on a walk and saw a brochure on the ground that said that Rebecca Skloot was at CSUN on 10/18 giving a free talk about the book :( I'm really bummed that I didn't know about it and I missed it!

We also decided to not meet in December because of everything that is going on, but we will be meeting in January and we have already picked a book because it is a long one and we need a lot of time to read it!

When: Tuesday January 10, 2012
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

See you soon!

Heather

Book Club This Week Tuesday 10/18

Hello fellow readers! I just wanted to remind everyone that we decided to have book club this week on Tuesday. I know that the reminder is a little late, but hopefully you can make it because it would be wonderful to see everyone!

Here are the details:
When: Tuesday October 18
Where: Rhonda's house at 7pm
What We Are Reading: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman


-Heather

Book Club Recap 8/23/11

Attendees: Denise, Heather, Lauren, Lisa I., Michelle, and Rhonda. With a special appearance by Cooper.

First, I would like to welcome Lauren to our book club group! Christopher and I know Lauren and her family through some old co-workers of Christopher's. I really like Lauren and she likes to read and run and I thought that she would enjoy our book club. Hopefully, she did like us and wants to continue to come :)

The book that we were discussing was The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. This was a fiction book about Ernest and Hadley Hemmingway and their time together in Paris. Although this book was a work of fiction, most of it was factual. The author did a ton of research about their relationship and looked at a lot of their correspondence and other materials about them and got a feel for how they were and then she added in her own thoughts to how they would have behaved during this time in Paris.

We all liked the book (well Rhonda and Lisa were the only two that finished the book and I was 3/4s of the way done) and thought that it was an interesting read. For me I didn't think that the book was a page turner and when I put it down I could keep it down for awhile and I never had the feeling of, "I can't put this down." The book did make all of us interested in that time period and all of the people involved. It also made us want to read some Hemingway. We thought that Hadley was a very needy person and this bothered Rhonda a bit, but I kind of understood why she was that way because she was so out of place where they were living and who they were hanging out with. One of Lisa's complaints was how she didn't like how the book was told in the first person like an autobiography, but it actually wasn't (if you know what I mean). Rhonda and Lisa also did some private talking about the end, which was very considerate of them! So far my reviewing of the book sounds negative, but we didn't think that the book was that bad!

After and in-between the book discussion we got to hear of a delivery that Cooper did. Denise seemed completely mortified by the discussion! We talked a little about running, chickens, gardening, Rhonda's vacation, and I can't remember what else. Rhonda made this delicious corn salad, which I will need the recipe to. There were these yummy banana cookies and then my favorite Argentinian cookies, yum!

Since the Aedo clan will be out of town for most of September we are going to have our next book club in October. Here are the details:

When: Tuesday October 18
Where: Rhonda's house at 7pm
What We Are Reading: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

I hope to see everyone there!

-Heather

Book Club Next Week Tuesday 8/23/11

Details:

When: Tuesday 8/23 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Book Club Recap 7/26/11

This was one of our least attended book clubs, but it was a really good one!

Attendees: Callah, Heather, Lisa I., & Rhonda with appearances by Cooper and Raven

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan was our book that we discussed this go around. We all liked the book overall, but we had a lot of gripes about it too. We thought that the book was more like reading a whole bunch of short stories that never "tidied" up the storyline. We found that when reading a chapter we would get really invested in the characters only to have the chapter end and not find out what happened to all of the characters or we would want to know more information about them that was never revealed. Since the stories did go backward and forward in time and were each told from a different person's perspective it was sometimes hard to remember characters that would appear in different stories. Since some of us read the ebook we found it difficult not to be able to go back and search as easily to see who a person was. A lot of our discussion was trying to figure out what event happened when in the storyline. We all did agree that the book was easy and fast!

The next part of our book club was the best part. First, we talked about Rhonda's dog business and she showed us her new logo that she had made. It looks awesome and we really hope that Rhonda's business succeeds! I think when we were trying to come up with our next book Callah started talking about how her ex sister-in-law is writing a book about her ex-husband's family that she would want us to read when it comes out. Callah started to tell us stories about the family and her ex-husband that were crazy! It will definitely make for a very interesting read. When Callah was talking about these stories it was discovered that Callah's ex-husband worked for Lisa's dad! What a small world! Lisa and Callah even figured that they had been to some of the same events and probably met each other previously. The conversations were really interesting and I think that we have some of the best book clubs outside on Rhonda's patio (this is where we got to hear all about Rambo's family). To top of the book club, Callah made this delicious peach crisp! I had two servings!!! I also made some cream puffs that were pretty tasty too.

For our next book club here are the details:
When: Tuesday 8/23 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I hope that everyone will be able to make it. We miss seeing those who can't come!

-Heather

Book Club Next Week Tuesday 7/26/11

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is going to be in one week! Next Tuesday 7/26 at 7pm at Rhonda's house. We are reading A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I hope to see lots of our long lost members there (and of course I look forward to seeing the regulars!).

-Heather

Book Club Recap 6/21/11

Attendees: Callah, Christopher, Denise, Heather, Lisa, Michelle, Rambo, Raven, and Rhonda with special appearances by Anderson, Cooper, and Nathan!

First, for all of those who couldn't make it I should let you know that for most of the day Nathan would keep asking us if we could go to Rhonda's house because she was going to have lots of food there and he wanted to eat it all. When we got there he did a pretty good job of eating it all :)

We talked about Bossypants by Tina Fey. We all really liked that book and thought that she was really funny. We were amazed at the detail of stories that she remembered from her life. I know that we talked about more, but I can't remember what was said because all I can think about was the delicious pizza that Rambo and Denise made and the delicious cake that Raven made :)

We also talked about Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese. I guess that the book gets really good at the end, but Lisa and I still had around 100 pages left to read so the group was very polite and didn't talk about the ending. Everyone, but Rambo liked the book. We all agreed that there were slow parts in it and that the author could have cut down some on the book. Can't remember what else.

The conversations about the books were longer than what I have listed above, but I can't remember. I also had to leave for a short while to help put the boys to bed. I remembered the food, the presents (thank you everyone!), the story of the lady that was in Rhonda's yard (you need to ask her about this!), and the fainting goats.

Our next book club info:
When: Tuesday 7/26/11 @7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan


Here is what Wikipedia said about it:
A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010) is a work of fiction by American author Jennifer Egan.[1] It won the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction,[2] and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[3] It is being adapted by HBO into a television series.[4]

Most of the stories in A Visit from the Goon Squad concern the associates and friends of a successful music executive and aging punk rocker named Bennie Salazar. It traces a large cast of mostly self-destructive characters as they grow older and fate sends them in directions they did not intend to go. The book shifts back and forth in time, moving from the late sixties to the present day and into the near future. Many of the stories take place in or around New York City, although some are set in California, Italy and Africa.

Hope to see everyone at the next one!

Heather

Book Club Next Week Tuesday 6/21

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to remind everyone that next week is book club. We will be discussing Bossypants by Tina Fey and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. We will be meeting at Rhonda's house at 7pm.

I hope to see most of you there!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 5/3/11

I think that this book club had to be the most attended book club that I have ever been too! Just kidding! It was Rhonda, Denise, Rambo, and myself. I got there late and Denise had to leave early.

We first discussed Moonwalking With Einstein by Josh Foer. Rambo and Rhonda didn't care too much for the book. We all agreed that it didn't really teach us how to remember things in an easy way. We all thought that it was too involved to actually try to remember things. Rambo gave the example of being at a party and meeting someone and him having to stare at the person for quite awhile while he tried to figure out some sort of imagery that he could put in a mental palace to remember that person's name, which isn't really doable. Christopher really liked the book, but that book was up his alley. I thought that it was pretty good. Rhonda said that it read like a textbook, which I do see, and that is why it made it harder to read. Denise and Rhonda both did not finish the book, but Rhonda told me that today she did!

The next book we discussed was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Both Rambo and I thought that the book was just okay. Rhonda really liked it and she said that the book was real easy read and that she got through it very fast. We all agreed that it was easy and fast. I thought that it was too predictable, but Denise kind of liked the predictability and she thought that there were some parts that she thought would happen, but they didn't. Rambo thought that the story couldn't have been told by any narrator and there was nothing real special about it being from the Dog's point of view. I came into the book with higher expectations since I had heard from a friend about the book. Overall, it was a good read.

The stuff that everyone missed, which is the most fun stuff was :
-Rambo's Ultra (go Rambo!)
-Denise is doing a show this Saturday in Torrance
-Osama Bin Laden and Will Ferrel's tweets that he has been doing about it
-Chickens and the lack of egg laying
-Rhonda's pet mice :)
-Nathan and his terrible three's and his weight
-The stand-off that was close to Rhonda's house and Denise's neighbors that got the cops called on them
-FOOD and all of our lack of control
-belly fat
-working out
-weight issues
-cutting out sweets

As you can see we talked about eating healthy and our weight for a good portion of book club. As I am writing this I am making scones for a party tomorrow and I have been eating a very yummy candy that our neighbor brought us from Mexico (she brought us a huge plate full of them!)

For our next book club here are the details:

When: My BIRTHDAY! If you don't know when that is it is Tuesday June 21st :) We are still meeting at 7pm and I am expecting this book club to have a huge turnout!
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese and Bossypants by Tina Fey. I went to Tina Fey's talk about this book and it was hilarious! I think that this book would actually be better listened to then read because Tina does the reading!

Can't wait to see everyone on my birthday! No gifts are needed :)

Book Club Next Week Tuesday 5/3

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is next Tuesday! We will be discussing Moonwalking with Einstein and The Art of Racing in the Rain. Hope to see everyone there!

-Heather

Emma Donoghue The Room discussion

I got the below email from Goodreads about Emma Donoghue doing an online discussion of her book. I know that Rambo and I read the book, but I wasn't sure if anyone else did and if you would be interesting in participating in this.

Emma will be on Goodreads answering questions about her past books and new novel, Room, on her Goodreads Author discussion group, Q & A with Emma Donoghue. She will be available from March 21 - 25, 2011.

Check it out!

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/4477...

Also, I saw that they cast Katniss for the Hunger Games movie. I guess that it is Jennifer Lawrence (they will be dying her hair). Hopefully, she will make a good one!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 3/15/11

Attendees: Callah, Christopher, Denise, Heather, Lisa I., Michelle, Rambo, Rhonda with appearances by Anderson, Cooper, Nathan, and Raven :)

First, I want to say a HUGE THANKS to Rhonda for always hosting book club and providing us with some yummy food and wine. I am super grateful that you do this and I am happy that you always have cheese on hand for Nathan! Denise, thank you for bringing the kale chips. They tasted awesome! If anyone is interested in reading about Denise's gardening adventures click here.

Onto to last night! We discussed the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. There was consensus that Amy went a bit too far with how she raised her daughters. Telling them she was going to burn their stuffed animals was a bit much! Lisa brought up the fact that she really didn't like how Amy generalized Western parenting and Chinese parenting. Amy made it seem like the Western way to parent was too "relaxed" (I can't think of the right word). Lisa also brought up the fact that Amy contradicted herself a few times with the way that she was parenting. Lisa brought up some good examples, yet I can't remember what they were right now, sorry! We also wondered how much of the book was true and what was exaggerated. We also wondered what the husband's take on all this was because all we read in the book was that they agreed that Amy would parent her way. We did read that he sometimes would think that Amy was going overboard, but it would have been interesting to hear his point of view. We also wondered how the girls' relationship with their mother is going to be in the future with her raising them like this.

We did talk about how some of us wished that our parents pushed us harder to do things and we didn't think that the girls were going to regret that they knew how to play piano and violin really well. I told the group that when Nathan turns three in about a month we are planning on starting him on the piano and Callah suggested that we do a minimum of three hours a day :) I don't know how Amy did it because all of her time was consumed with work or her kids. I can't imagine that she had much free time to herself. Overall, it seemed like most people didn't like the book. I actually didn't care for her parenting, but I thought that the book was interesting and a very fast read. In the words of Rambo, "She wasn't hard enough." (Well he said something along those lines!). As always, there was more discussed about the book, but again the details escape me and I am trying to get in as much as I can before the baby wakes up! Christopher and I also left early to get the boys to sleep and missed the end of book club.

For our next book club we are meeting Tuesday May 3rd at 7pm at Rhonda's.

We will be reading two books! The first book is Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Christopher just read this book and raved about it. It talks about the "art and science of remembering everything." Hopefully, after we all read this book we will all have much better memories!

The other book that we will be reading is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I have heard good things about this book and I am looking forward to it.

I hope to see everyone at the next meeting!

Heather

Book Club next week Tuesday 3/15/11

Hello bookworms!

Just a reminder that book club is next Tuesday 3/15 at Rhonda's house at the usual time of 7pm. We are reading the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. It is a short book and a fast read. I definitely think that we will have some good discussions about this book!

Hope to see everyone there!

Heather

Book Club Recap 2/15/11

Attendees: Callah, Christopher, Denise, Heather, Lisa I., Michelle, Rambo and Rhonda. With special appearances by Cooper, Anderson, and Nathan.

**If you haven't read the book you'll want to skip the below because there will be spoilers**

We discussed the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and we were all in agreement that this book was very unbelievable. We all thought that it was a great read and that the story was remarkable. Some members questioned how Louis could remember all of those details that happened so long ago, but we all thought that he documented a lot of what went on with him. I believe that Rhonda said that the raft part was the part that got her the most. It was incredible to have survived a plane crash and then to be on that raft for so long and forced to eat bird blood and rain water all while having sharks surround your raft and try to attack you to eat you. We thought that it was so crazy that he met Hitler and that he was such a mischievous youth, but found focused on running in high school and became this great runner. We all didn't want to talk much about the portrayal of the Japanese in this book until Denise got there because we were really curious to hear what she had to say.

Denise thought that the way that the Japanese were in this book was horrible but also that in a war situation most captors will be like this. She talked about how the Japanese-Americans were treated in the States during this time (not very well). Christopher brought up the fact that he didn't really see WWII as a war with Japan and saw it mostly has a war with Germany and to see how the Japanese were was really surprising to him. We did discuss all wars later on and why people would want to join the military.

Most of us there are not religious, but we all thought that it was great that it was religion that saved Louis' life. We all agreed that had he not found Billy Graham his marriage would have ended and he would have either been a drunk for the rest of his life or he would have ended up killing himself. Instead his life was turned around and he is still kicking it today. Speaking of killing himself, there were many times during the book where we thought it would have been better to just be dead than to go through what he did, especially with The Bird.

There was a ton more talk about this book and it could have been one of the most talked about books in our book club.

I was the only one that read Room by Emma Donoghue I enjoyed the book and thought that it was an interesting story. Lisa said that she was having a hard time getting into the book because it was told from the five year old's perspective. I thought that the author did a good job at writing the story.

We talked about Rambo's crazy running that he is doing. We talked about how Denise's neighbors are all dying and she wants all of us to move to her street; it would be a very fun thing to do! We talked about chickens and their lack of egg laying in the winter. We talked about backyards, the Slymar and Northridge earthquakes, and lastly the Ted Talks. This talk is about the mammography testing that I was telling you about. There are so many talks that are great to watch and listen to!

For our next book club we will be reading The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. From the reviews it looks like it will be a little bit of a controversial read and should be a good discussion! We haven't picked a day yet (Rhonda will get back to us), but the book looks like it is on the short side and I heard that it is a fast read.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next book club!

-Heather

Book Club is in one week 2/15/11

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to send out a reminder that we will be having book club next Tuesday 2/15 at Rhonda's house at 7. We are discussing the books Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Room by Emma Donoghue

Hope to see everyone there!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 1/4/11

Happy New Year everyone! First I want to say that in 2010 we read 13 books! That is pretty good for us. Here is the list of books that we read:

-Full Dark, No Stars-Stephen King
-One Day-David Nicholls
-The Girl Who Played With Fire-Steig Larsson
-Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins
-The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo-Steig Larsson
-Little Bee-Chris Cleave
-The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint-Brady Udall
-Switch-Chip and Dan Heath
-Snakes Can't Run-Ed Lin
-Where Men Win Glory-Jon Krakauer
-Moloka'i-Alan Brennert
-Push-Sapphire
-The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

I didn't go to book club on 1/4, but I talked to Rhonda about it. The attendees were: Denise, Lisa I., Rambo, Rhonda, & Valesca (I could be missing some people).

The book Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King was discussed. The stories were pretty disturbing, but Stephen King is a really good writer. I know that Rambo said that he was interested in reading more of his work. Christopher is a HUGE fan of Stephen King and if anyone wants to read a hard copy of one of his books Christopher most likely has it. I don't think that much was talked about the the book because Lisa was still reading it and they didn't want to ruin any of the stories for her.

Our next book club will be on Tuesday February 14th, 2011 at 7pm at Rhonda's house. We will be reading two books. The first is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Christopher and I read this book already and we couldn't put it down. We finished it very fast. The story is pretty unbelievable! The other book is Room by Emma Donoghue. This book was recommended by Tommy.

Good luck to Lisa K. with your labor and delivery. We can't wait to meet your little one!

Hope to see everyone on 2/15!

-Heather