December Book Club Recap

Hi all,

So I am super late at getting this out, but a lot has been going on at the end of the year!  The Perks of a Wallflower was liked by all that read it.  It was also a super fast read and short.

I can't remember what date we decided for book club in January (Rhonda, do you remember?), but we are reading In The Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

Happy Birthday Denise!

-Heather

Book Club 12/12/12

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is this coming Wednesday (12/12/12, a pretty cool date for book club!).  It is at 7pm at Rhonda's house.  The book that we are discussing is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

See you then!

Heather

Book Club Recap 11/14/12

Attendees: Tania, Rhonda, Lisa, & Heather

Denise we are sorry that you have the stomach flu and we hope that it goes away soon and doesn't lead to any panic attacks!  Lucky me, Anderson now has the stomach flu and puked all over me right after I had finished my shower and got dressed today :(  Poor kid!

Anyway, we discussed the book A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus.  Only Tania and myself read the book, but both Rhonda and Lisa were on the Camino section.  We all thought that the book was slow in the beginning, but that it picks up more with each pilgrimage.  Tania liked it more when Gideon was by himself on the Japanese pilgrimage because he got to discover more about himself then.  We both thought that the last Pilgrimage that he did with his dad and brother was the best.  I really had hoped that he would go into more with that trip because it was the most interesting and his dad seems like a really interesting character.  I didn't think that this book was as good as Wild, but I really enjoyed how the author's experience seemed like reality and how any one of us would act while doing the journey (like the times he talks about going on Facebook or the interactions with Tom). I think that Tania really liked the book and I only thought that it was so-so.

We then discussed movies and all agreed that Argo and Flight were really good.  We got on the subject of Eat, Pray, Love and talked about how much we did not like that movie and thought that the casting of Julia Roberts was really bad.  We talked about Rhonda and Raven's adventures with the Hollywood Bowl.  We talked about work and Tania showed us some cute pictures of dogs at her office.  We talked about eating and what everyone's plans were for Thanksgiving.  I hope that everyone can stay healthy for Turkey Day!  Rhonda made a delicious pear bread (Christopher says thank you!).

Lastly, Rhonda was telling us about this delicious dish that her friend Gary had made and I got the recipe!  Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything from NPR's All Things Considered.  Enjoy!

-Heather

Book Club Next Week 11/14

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is next week.  Here are the details:

When: 11/14/12 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus

We hope to see you there!

Heather

Book Club Recap 10/10/12

Attendees:  Denise, Heather, Karen (Christopher's sister), Lisa, Raven, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

Due to having so much to do this summary is going to be short, sorry!

We discussed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn first.  We all liked the book and thought that it was a page turner.  We also thought that the wife was a psycho and wished that the husband would have done something to her instead of staying with her.

Next a few of us discussed Stoner by John Williams.  It sounds like it was a very well written book, but a little depressing.  I just want to let everyone know that I just got my email today from the library saying that my e-copy is ready.  Of course it would be ready the day after book club!  I do think that it is pretty cool that you can check out a book from the library onto your Kindle or other e-reader device (I checked for our next book and it isn't available).

We discussed gardening, marriage, kids, jobs, gameshows and we hope Denise gets on the one she auditioned for, and I can't remember what else.  It was fun though!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wednesday 11/14/12 at 7pm
Where:  Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  A Sense of Direction by Gideon Lewis-Kraus

Hope to see you then!

Heather

p.s. Rhonda made some delicious lox!

Book Club Next Week Wednesday 10/10

Hello!

Just a friendly reminder that book club is next week on Wednesday 10/10 at 7pm at Rhonda's house.

We will be discussing:

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Stoner by John Williams

Hope to see everyone!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 9/5/12

Attendees: Callah, Denise, Lisa, Heather, Michelle, Raven, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina

Since Skippy Dies by Paul Murray was a bit on the long side I don't think many people wanted to read it.  Lisa read about 500 pages of it and I read the whole thing.  The overall impression of the book from both Lisa and myself was that it wasn't that great.  We thought that he really could have condensed the story a lot and focused more on just the story of why Skippy died.  We thought that the story was promising, but wasn't as engaging because he dove into a lot of different characters and what was going on with them.   We thought that he was too wordy and used a lot of words that had to be looked up in the dictionary.  We thought that the writing was really good, unlike 50 Shades!  I also didn't like how I never got the answer of why Skippy died.  I don't think that I missed that part in the book, but that is something I would have liked to know.  Lisa and I both said that we wouldn't recommend it to others to read because it was too long and not a captivating enough story to want to pick it up and read it all of the time.  Valesca, we are very interested to hear what you thought about the book!

Since there were only two of us that read the book the discussion was really short and we continued on to the more entertaining topics of the night, which were as follows:

-Denise and Rambo are like a grocery store these days!  They make delicious food items and if you are lucky enough you can pick some up at their house :)
-Public school lunches/food.  Callah said that the other day they were serving bean and cheese burritos for lunch, yikes!
-All of Rhonda's vacations
-Memory.  Rhonda is convinced that she is going to get Alzheimers, but I'm not so sure!
-Rhonda & Tina's vacation.  I think it's planned for the 28th-1st?
-Books & what we should read next
-Food and how this should be a food club instead of a book club
-SPANX

We decided for sure on one book (listed below), but because Michelle and I already read the book and since it was a fast read we decided on two books for this next month.  Since I was the only one that read the book and because we couldn't decide what to read next I was given the task of picking book #2.  Below is the information for the next book club!

When: Wednesday October 10th 7pm 
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and..........
Stoner by John Williams  First, Tania I could not remember the title of the book that you recommended.  I found some books about that "pilgrimage," but none of the titles sounded right to me.  Perhaps we can read that book next time.  The choice of our next book was between this and The Light Between Oceans.  Both sounded really good, but Stoner had a little bit higher rating (both were in the 4 star range).  Stoner is also only 288 pages and the shorter of the two.  I also looked it up at the Los Angeles Public Library and Stoner has available copies, but the other book does not, which means there will be a long wait time.

I hope to see many of you there!

-Heather

Book Club Next Week Tuesday 9/4

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to remind everyone that we are meeting this coming Tuesday 9/4 at Rhonda's house to discuss Skippy Dies by Paul Murray.  See you soon!

-Heather

Book Club Recap July

Hello everyone!

So I've been busy busy busy and haven't had time to get around to this.  I'm going to do a short recap, so I apologize if you wanted to know more (next time you should just come to book club!).

Attendees:  Addie, Denise, Heather, Lisa I., Rambo, Raven, Rhonda, and Valesca

We had book club at Denise and Rambo's house and they made a lot of yummy food!

Most of us liked the book.  Many people thought that Cheryl was a little annoying and not telling the whole truth or embellishing a bit with the book (since it did happen so long ago).  The group was in agreement that Cheryl's family was a bit dysfunctional.  Some liked the relationship of her and her mom and some didn't.  Some of us want to do the PCT, but I know that I would only be up for some day to three day trips.  I actually talked to my friend who did a portion up here in Northern CA and she really liked it.  I do plan on making it out to the trail sometime this week since I am so close to it.  I also will be having ice-cream in Sierra City (one of the places she talks about in the book).  We all agreed that she was not at all prepared for what she was getting into and it was kind of funny how much she overpacked and how heavy her bag was even after the purging.

There was talk about doing group hikes and Valesca suggested that we hike Mt. Kilimanjaro.  It sounded interesting and fun, but I'm not much of a hiker :)

We were trying to decide on a book to read for the next meeting and we were having a tough time so Valesca and Rambo went on a web search for a book to read.  The one that they found was Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. It is supposed to be one of the best books written and it was selected for many awards. Since we all seem to be super busy in August and this book is a little on the long side we decided to have book club the first Tuesday in September.

Here are the details:

When: Tuesday September 4th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

-Heather

Book Club Recap 6/5/12

Attendees: Heather, Lisa, Michelle, Raven, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

This book club had me laughing pretty hard with all of the hilarious stories that were told!  We learned all about Rhonda's baking experiences at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, MI and it sounded like it was a ton of fun.  We talked about Rhonda's occasional vision problems :)  Along with her not remembering people's names, which brought up some really funny stories from other people about being mistaken in certain situations.  Tina told us a hilarious story about Paige and flying.  I think that the funniest story to me was Rhonda's mom mistaking a water fountain for a check-in kiosk at a car rental place!

The book that we discussed this time was Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.  I think that the overall consensus was that we didn't like the book.  It didn't seem like we hated it though.  We were curious to know how the series ended and Michelle let us know a little about it.  I honestly don't remember a lot about what we talked about with this book because the other funny stuff we talked about is what I remember.  I know that we discussed who we thought should or would play the part of Christian Grey.  There was this funny skit from SNL that I mentioned.  I think that we thought that Anastasia was a bit unbelievable and I know that I didn't care for her character at all.

Only Rhonda read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and she said that it was interesting learning about Frank Lloyd Wright.  She said that the end was a shocker and I won't ruin it for anyone that wants to read it.

Here are the details for the next book club:
When: Tuesday July 10th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

We hope that some of our absent members can make it to the next book club.  The food, company, and conversations are always pleasurable.  Plus, Rhonda usually has some delicious mini cupcakes for us!  Rhonda is quite the treasure!

-Heather

p.s. Lisa Kaseff, we were thinking that maybe an August or September book club could be hosted at your place on the weekend during the day?  Let Rhonda or myself know :)

Book Club Recap 5/1/2012

Attendees:  Addie, Denise, Heather, Rhonda, and Tania (a new member!) with appearances by Raven, Cooper, and Crystal who brought us some cupcakes and will hopefully be joining the book club!

We discussed the book The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  Denise, Rhonda, and Tania read the book and they all said that they really liked the book and have me sold on reading it in the future.  The book takes place in the late 30s in New York and is about how these two women from the South try and get into High Society and their story of doing so.  Denise really liked the way that the book was written  and thought that there was a lot of alliteration in the book that she enjoyed reading.  Everyone loved the description of that time period and what was going on.  They all thought that it would make a great movie and Tania said that they are currently in works to sell the script to a studio.  What the group found really interesting was that the book was written by a man because it is told from the point of view of a woman.  They felt like the author did a really great job portraying the women in the book.  There were some spoilers that were discussed, but luckily for me I don't remember all of them :)!

Incredibly, we (the ones that read it) discussed the book a lot!  After the book discussion is where it got really interesting!  I don't even know how it came about, but somehow we got on the topic of labia plastic surgery and how Cooper just did this for a lady.  Then the talk ventured into boob jobs and what is the right amount of pubic hair for women to have these days.  We talked about vacations that are coming up, running, and crocheting.

Once again we had some delicious cupcakes from Dreamy Creations and Crystal even brought a dozen more Milky Way cupcakes for us to try out.  I'm not a chocolate fan, but I heard that they were pretty tasty!

Here are the details for the next meeting!

When: Tuesday 6/5/12 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What are we reading: 50 Shades of Grey by EL James So we hear that this book is like porno for women, so I'm sure that Rambo and Christopher will NOT want to read this.  Plus, I think that there might be some others that are on the fence (this is the 1st book in the trilogy).  If you do not want to read this book you can read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

We hope to see many of you at the next one!

Heather

Book Club Next Week 5/1/12

Hi Bookworms! 

I just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is scheduled to meet in one week! Here are the details:
When: Tuesday May 1 @7pm
Where: Rhonda's Casa
What we are reading: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

I haven't read the book and I don't think that I will manage to get to it by next week, but I'm still going to make it and I think that you should too! It is always a ton of fun!

See you then!

Heather

Book Club Recap 3/26/12

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

We discussed the book River Town by Peter Hessler. Rhonda was the only one that finished the book. The rest of us were about halfway through with the book. The overall consensus was that the book wasn't super captivating and a page turner, but it was interesting to read and not horrible. We all really liked the entries of Peter's students that he included in the book. We discussed how the Chinese are very black and white with everything. We also talked about the Yangtze and the damming of it that happened after the book took place. Addie recommended the movie Up the Yangtze. Here is a picture of one of the Stick Stick men. Lisa said that she Googled a lot of what Peter discussed so that she could see what he was talking about, which was a very brilliant idea to do! We also discussed the American names that the students chose for themselves and everyone seemed to like "Mo Money" or "Lazy" the best.

The one other thing that I can remember that stood out at this book club was that at one point everyone either had out their phones or iPads and were playing Draw Something :). I think that we have some addicts in this group!

Here are the details for the next book club:
When: Tuesday May 1, 2012 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What We Are Reading: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Oh, we also talked about the Hunger Games movie and Addie and I both liked the movie and thought that they did a good job with it.

We hope to see all of our missing members at the next one!

Heather

Book Club Recap 2/21/22

Attendees: Addie, Denise, Heather, Lisa I., Randy, Raven, and Rhonda with appearances by Cooper and the dogs.

First, we all want to send our condolences to you, Tina. We are very sorry to hear about your mom. If you need anything, please let us know.

The first book that we discussed was Blue Nights by Joan Didion. It was pretty unanimous that the book was very well written, but not our favorite book. A lot of us thought that the Joan Didion was a bit self-centered and the book was kind of like a pity book for Joan. We did think that it felt like this book and her last one were more like journal entries of how she felt during these times. We talked about how we couldn't relate to Joan because her life was so different than ours. We felt that Joan and her husband (more-so Joan) were not ready to raise children and how they got Quintana was very quick and they weren't really ready for a kid. We were trying to remember how Quintana exactly died (Joan didn't go into it much) and here is what I found:

Quintana was rushed to the hospital with the flu and a fever of 103. Over the next few days she developed pneumonia, then septic shock. She survived 50-50 odds but remained in intensive care...Quintana had to be told three times that her father had died — twice in January, as she drifted in and out of consciousness, and once more at UCLA Medical Center the following spring. The family finally held a funeral for [Quintana's father, John Gregory] Dunne, also at St. John the Divine, on March 23, 2004. Two days later, Quintana flew out to California with her husband — "to restart their life," as Didion wrote in Magical Thinking. When Didion said good-bye, Quintana seemed anxious. While leaving the airport in Los Angeles, she collapsed with a cerebral hemorrhage. Another month of touch-and-go hospitalization left her partially paralyzed. After recovering yet again, she came down with acute pancreatitis in the late spring of 2005. She died on August 26.

It seems like acute pancreatitis is linked with alcoholism.

We all said that we didn't want to read any more of her books, because it was a bit depressing, but we don't think that she will be writing any more of these memoirs.

The next book that we read was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. The group was split on this one. Lisa and myself didn't like it and Rhonda and Addie really liked it. Addie liked how they told the story about the brother through the sister, but I didn't like that about the book. I was really hoping that the author would have explored the feelings that were present in the food that the girl ate, but she mostly avoided food. The book was just not what I expected and having her dad's side of the family having superpowers didn't seem like it fit with the book. Lisa felt like the author was told to write a creative essay and this is what she came up with. Rhonda said that she felt real sympathy for the girl (I can't remember her name) and how she felt whenever she ate food. It was a quick read, which was nice!

Callah, we do hope that you will join us again one of these days even though we hear you have a new book club :) (we understand about ours being late and far from where you live!). We talked about gas and where the best prices are (Costco and Food 4 Less). Lisa brought some yummy citrus fruit for us to take. Rhonda also brought home some more cupcakes that were delicious! Rhonda even gave the bakery the idea for their new and yummy Lavender Carmel Cupcakes! Raven is now reading books and her friend Randy was there, but he was feeling a little under the weather. Addie's dog Dexter has lots and lots of energy and jumps very high!

Information for our next book club:
When: Tuesday March 27th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading: River Town by Petter Hessler

Book Club Tomorrow 2/21/12

Book club is tomorrow! Hopefully, the extra time allowed some of you (Denise & Tina) to read the books :) See everyone at Rhonda's house tomorrow at 7pm!

-Heather

Book Club Tomorrow 2/7/12

Hello everyone!

Book club is tomorrow at Rhonda's house at 7pm. We will be discussing Joan Didion's Blue Nights and Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. If you were a fast reader or didn't want to read the other two books we will discuss River Town by Peter Hessler.

See you tomorrow!

Heather

Book Club Recap 1/10/12

Attendees: Addie, Denise, Heather, Lisa, Michelle, Raven, & Rhonda. With a special appearance by the birthday boy Cooper!

We discussed 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. We all thought that that the book was very interesting. We loved that the main character, Aomame (Denise pronounced the name correctly for us), was a strong female character that killed off men that did horrible/bad stuff to women. We also thought that the Dowager was a good female character too. I don't want to write too much of what we discussed because I know that there are still some people that are reading the book (it is a long one!) and I don't want to spoil anything. We did wonder about a lot of the stuff that was left unresolved in the book and we discussed that. We talked about the parallels between Aomame and Tengo. We all really liked the book and would recommend it!

Rhonda is having her backyard done (Denise had hers done and it looks awesome!) and we got to see a little bit of what they are doing and I can't wait until that is done. Rhonda also brought out some yummy cupcakes from the bakery that she uses for her dog business.

We had a hard time trying to figure out what book to read, so I will list two books that we decided on with a third if you would prefer not to read the above two.

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: 2/7/12 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What are we reading: Blue Nights by Joan Didion. This is a short book at 188 pages :) and the second came from a referral by Cooper who heard from one of his patients. I can't remember exactly what Cooper called it, but it was something along the lines of My Mother Eats Lemon Cake...It is actually The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

If you are a super reader or if you don't want to read the two above you could read River Town by Peter Hessler

Happy Reading!