Book Club Recap 12/18/13

Attendees: Alissa, Denise, Heather, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

Before I get into the details of what transpired at book club I thought that I would do a recap of the past year.  Below are the books that we read (or not) for book club:

• 
  -The Circle-Dave Eggers (2013)
• -The House in the Sky-Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett (2013)
• -The Dog Lived and So Will I-Teresa Rhyne (2013)
• -The Infatuations-Javier Marias (2013)
• -We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves-Karen Joy Fowler (2013)
• -And the Mountains Echoed-Khaled Hosseini (2013)
• -Maya's Notebook-Isabel Allende (2013)
• -The Appointment-Herta Mueller (2013)
• -The Orchardist-Amanda Coplin (2013)
• -The Dinner-Herman Koch (2013)
• -Where'd You Go Bernadette-Maria Semple (2013)
• -End Of Your Life Book Club-Will Schwalbe (2013)
• -Some Girls: My Life In a Harem-Jillian Lauren (2013)
• -In the Shadow of the Banyan-Vaddey Ratner (2013)

We had some good books in there, but also some duds.  We even had one author come and talk to our group!  I think out of the selection we read the best books were End of Your Life Book Club, Where'd You Go Bernadette, The Orchardist (although some did not like this book], and And the Mountains Echoed.

Speaking of duds, let's get to this book!  We discussed The Circle by Dave Eggers

Now, I didn't read this book because I had talked to some members that did and they didn't have really anything good to say about it.  Overall, it sounds like no one enjoyed this book.  The concept was interesting and many in the group thought that it would have been good as a short story and not a long novel.  The dialogue was boring and someone said that there didn't seem to be much character development.  They thought that the main character was horrible with no redeeming qualities.  It actually seemed like there was only one character in the book that everyone liked.  We discussed the theme of how we don't have privacy with all of this technology and how it was affecting us.  We talked a lot about Facebook and the younger generation and how they act with technology.  We talked about "big brother" issues and what we thought about that.  Everyone agreed that the ideas presented in this book were interesting enough, but the author just didn't do a good job at writing the story.  There were a couple of us that did read some of his other books and we weren't super impressed with those.  Although, the book of his that I did read didn't sound nearly as bad as this.  We were all kind of confused how this book got such great reviews and ratings.

Michelle told us that Dave Eggers gave a great TED Talk and it sort of redeems him for this book :]

There was lots of other talk going on and we all had a lovely time.  We also got to hear a Cooper story about a crazy lady!

The book for the next book club was already chosen, so hopefully most of you have already gotten a head start on it since it is a long one!  I hear that it is really good though!

Here are the details of book club next month:

Where: Rhonda's house 
When: Wednesday January, 15th at 7pm
What we are reading:  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

If you have already read this book and are looking for a good quick read then I suggested reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.  I really enjoyed this book!

Book Club Recap 10/8

Attendees: Alissa, Heather, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, Tina and a very special appearance by Teresa Rhyne the author of The Dog Lived and So Will I.

I am going to keep this short because I have loads of packing to do before I leave.

Teresa was at book club and she talked about the book and many other things going on with her life.  Her character in the book seemed very much like how she is in real life.  She discussed how Chris' parents weren't happy with the book and how they don't want to be in the second book.  She talked about her new beagles and what the second book is going to be about.  We discussed a lot of things and she said that right now they are even shopping the rights for this book and it would be nice to see it made into a movie.  I'm glad that she could come and I honestly think we all liked the book (at least that is the impression that I got].  If you want to keep up with Teresa you can follow her on Facebook.

During our conversation with Teresa Michelle told us the story of how her cat got it's cavaties filled and she ended up spending $3,OOO on the dental!  This explains the picture that Michelle sent :]

After Teresa left we discussed Spanx, bralettes, and wizard sleeves.  Funny stuff!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wednesday November 13th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Where: Rhonda's House

I won't be at the next book club, but I hope that the rest of you can.  Maybe I'll phone it in or be on Skype :]

-Heather

Book Club Recap 9/25

Attendees:  Alissa, Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania and a special appearance by Raven.

We discussed the book The Infatuations by Javier Marias in bits and pieces because some members had to leave early and some arrived late.  For those of us that read the book I think that the consensus was that it was a very hard book to get into.  The author wrote beautifully, but was too descriptive and his sentences went on forever!  We felt like the plot of the story was very minimal and he expanded his book with lots and lots and lots of description that wasn't really necessary.  I found it very hard to get into the book.  Someone described reading the book was like giving blood.  If you have not read the book then we suggest that you don't start it.  Julie did mention how when she was reading the book it made her think of the title and how it related to the story and the characters.  There was a lot of infatuations going on.  I realized at book club that the main female character was named Maria and the main male character was named Javier, which happens to be the authors first and last name.  Interesting that he did that.  This author is supposed to be really hot in Europe & Spain right now and the book is getting good reviews.  Tania apologized for picking this book :]

Rhonda, Lisa, and I talked about our Vegas trip to see Addie.  If anyone wants to go see the Michael One show we recommend spending a little more money to get better seats.  Our seats weren't the best and we could never tell which one Addie was.  The show was a lot of fun and more danced centered than acrobatic centered.  If you need somewhere to stay in Vegas Addie has a lovely home she is renting and would probably be glad to have you there.  We also told some fun Tina stories :]

Raven came at some point during book club and I think that this was the biggest portion of our book club.  She discussed all that is going on with her at her new job and how it is really stressing her out.  Raven thanked Lisa a lot for letting her know about a way to calm herself down.

We learned that Michelle is a Bloomingdale's preferred shopper and she got a nice little placard for her birthday!  We talked about women versus men in the workforce.  Working out, breastfeeding, other books that we are reading, and I am sure other stuff that I'm not remembering now.

Since we already picked out for book for October we also picked out November's book and date.

Here is the information for October:

When: Tuesday October 9th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The Dog Lived & So Will I by Teresa Rhyne
Where: Rhonda's House.  
**Teresa is planning on being at this book club!  We hope that you can make it.  If you would like a signed copy then don't forget to bring the book.  It is a quick, easy, and enjoyable read.**

Here is the information for November:

When: Wednesday November 13th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Where: Rhonda's House

We hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 8/21

Attendees: Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Patryce, Rhonda, and Tania.

I'm late in getting this out and I know that all of you were expecting this recap to be really good, but I've had a lot going on and right now I just want to do it, so I probably won't get into as much detail as I would have liked!

First we discussed online dating and the experiences with that.  Good luck Tania, Michelle, and Kelly!  I think that we actually talked about this for awhile.

After that I am sure we discussed some other things, but I can't remember.  Then we finally started talking about the book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.  I think that most of us just thought the book was so-so.  We all found the factual parts of the book to be really good and interesting, but we didn't like the rest of the story.  We thought her jumping around in the story didn't help at all and just confused some of us.  We also thought that the main character was boring.  Some of us couldn't even remember her name.  Just as a side note, I was talking with a friend of mine who trained chimps and she said that even in animal training when chimps start to go through puberty around 6-7 years old they have to get rid of them because they can become too dangerous.  She said it is really sad because the chimps were raised as family.  When she was working she started a non-profit where she worked with studios to send chimps that were in movies/TV to be sent to sanctuaries instead of labs or to crazy people.  This friend of mine was the trainer for the monkey that was on Friends :].  She loves those animals and said that chimps are super smart.

Okay, after the book discussion we got into the good stuff!  We talked about Wizard Sleeves, Beef Curtains, vaginas, uteruses, and intestines falling outside of the body.  We even had Cooper come and be our guest speaker to tell us more about this.  He shared quite a disgusting story about an 8O year old that had stuff falling out of her and she really didn't know it.  We talked about cosmetic surgery on the labias.  We all joked about how Christopher and Rambo are probably really glad that they didn't make it to this book club!

As usual, Rhonda provided us with some yummy food!  Thank you!!!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wed September 18th 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading: The Infatuations by Javier Marias

Also, I have been in communication with an author and she will be joining our book club in October!  I really hope that you can make it for this book club.  I also hope that you like her book.  I enjoyed it.  I also am a fan of hers on FB and she seems like she is really nice and funny!  Here are the details for that:

When: Tuesday October 8th 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading:  The Dog Lived and So Will I by Teresa Rhyne

We also need to finalize the Vegas trip.  We are going on Saturday 9/21 and coming back on Sunday.  We most likely will be staying at the Mandalay Bay where the show is at.  If you would like to go please let either myself or Rhonda know ASAP as we will be buying our tickets and booking the room very soon.

Lastly, here is the link to our blog: www.rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com

Book Club Next Week 8/21

Hey bookworms!

Just a reminder that book club is next week.  Here are the details:

When: Wednesday 8/21 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Kay Joy Fowler

I hope to see you then!

Heather

Book Club Recap 7/18/13

Attendees: Addie, Alissa, Callah, Heather, Julie, Kelly, Paige, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

Addie and Callah it was so nice to see both of you since it has been so long!  Tina it was nice to finally meet your daughter and I apologize about bringing up the story that had sex in it while she was there!

We discussed the book And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  Overall we liked the book.  Some of us thought that it was a 5 out of 5 stars and a couple of people thought that the book was more of a 3.5 stars out of 5.  We all agreed that this wasn't as good as the Kite Runner, but we felt that it was better than A Thousand Splendid Suns.  The people who didn't like the book as much felt that there were many stories that didn't quite tie up nicely in the story and they would have liked to know what happened to more of the characters.  This book did make some of our members cry at certain points and we all thought that the part where the brother and sister (I can't remember their names!) were separated from each other and then the circumstances surrounding how they meet up again was heartbreaking and sad.  We really liked the character of the Uncle/chauffeur.  None of us cared for the adoptive mother who moved to Paris with her daughter.  I wish that I could remember the names of these characters!  We all did think that Khaled is a very good storyteller/writer.

After our discussion of the book we then got to talk to Addie, our very own Cirque du Soleil performer!  All of us had many questions for Addie about what it was like being a performer for Cirque.  It sounds like it is amazing, but a lot of work!  I think that Addie said that by the time she is done with this contract she will have done about 450 shows!  That is a lot!  Of course with all of that working out we asked her about her eating habits.  She likes to eat what her body wants and she does indulge in food that isn't great for you, but she doesn't overload on that stuff!  Addie talked about the costumes and the make-up and overall just the whole production.  We talked about the horrific accident that happened on KA.  Many of us were very excited that Addie had a free day and was able to come to our book club!  I think that Addie also enjoyed the coolness of the Valley compared to the hot desert of Las Vegas!

Since we have been talking about it, we should really plan a group trip (we could make it a book club) to go and see Addie perform.  She is performing MJ1 at the Mandalay Bay.  I would be up for a trip anytime!  I think it would be a lot of fun!

We then talked to Tania about her vacation to Amsterdam and Italy.  It sounded like she had a lot of fun and one of the best parts about her trip was how she got to fly first class all the way to Europe!  First class sounds amazing!

We talked about exchange students (it has been a lot of fun and any of you should do it next year!), books that we've read that we like (I can't remember names right now), our jobs (Kelly is saving the world one burrito at a time), Julie's new and very cute puppy, and I can't think of what else.  It was fun as usual!

Here are the details for our next book club:

When: Wednesday August 21st at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

We hope to see you there!

Book Club Thursday 7/18

Hi all!

Book club is this Thursday at 7pm at Rhonda's house.  We will be discussing And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  Looking forward to seeing everyone!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 6/12/13

Attendees: Alissa, Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, & Tina.  Wow, I think that this may be one of our best attended book clubs!

We discussed Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende.  For those of us who read the book and for those that were reading the book we seemed to enjoy it overall.  It definitely was not a book like the Appointment!  Our favorite parts about the book were when Maya was in Vegas because that was the most interesting.  It was brought up that the ending seemed a little rushed and like the author tied up everything real quick.  Most of us agreed with that sentiment.  We did like the author's writing and found the book very easy to read.  We thought that the author did a great job at showing a teenage girl fall in love.  I mentioned that the author has grandkids this age, so that is where the inspiration of this book came from.  Tania said that she really enjoyed the character of Popo (the grandfather) because it brought back a lot of great memories of her and her Grandpa.  We all agreed that he was a great character.  Most of the characters were likeable.  The ending was a bit predictable.  I won't say much more than that because some of you are probably still reading it.  I personally liked the book a little more because Allende is one of my favorite authors and I went to a book reading for this book, so I got to hear a little more about the backstory of it.  I know that we talked about lots more, but I can't remember!

Then on to the more interesting stuff!  We discussed Reggie and how he was "locked-up" so that he couldn't eat any of the delicious food Rhonda had!  Wow, so much food and it was all so tasty!  We talked more about The Orchardist and so far Kelly is the only one that does not seem to like that book!  We talked about some of the other books that we have been reading: The Interestings, Cooked, Beautiful Ruins, Orange is the New Black, and some book that Michelle was talking about.  I think it had to do with a German woman in WWII that ends up falling in love with a Jewish man.  Anyway, we were not going to pick any of these books because we wanted to pick a book that no one had read it.  More on that later.  We talked about hosting foreign exchange students, which I will be doing in July.  We talked about all of the vacations that everyone seems to be taking very soon!  Everyone have safe travels and trips!

Lastly, once the majority of people left the conversation took an interesting turn and I'll just say that it involved nudity and the removal of hair from body parts.

Here are the details for our next book club:
When: Wednesday July 17th at 7pm (Rhonda, if it is the 16th please correct me!)
Where: Rhonda's casa
What we are reading: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Hope to see everyone next month!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 5/22

Attendees:  Alissa, Christopher, Heather, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, & Tania.

I was told that I needed to get on this ASAP, so here it is! :]

I'll do it in reverse order this time.

Details for our next book club:

When: Wed 6/12 at 7pm.  This date may change.  I told Rhonda that Phil Jackson is being interviewed in a series by Live Talks Los Angeles and she should go.  If she does go then we will have to reschedule for sometime that week.
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading:  Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

Here's the recap:

We discussed the book The Appointment by Herta Muller first and actually more than our other book because more people finished or attempted to finish this.  From what everyone said this book was HORRIBLE!  No one liked it and they said to not waste your time reading it.  They said that the plot had a good premise, but didn't live up to that.  They said that the book was about this lady's random thoughts as she is on a train to an appointment.  They said that she would be telling a story and you would get interested in the story and then she would change thoughts and go in a new direction and you were thinking, WTF?  Then she wouldn't revisit that thought.  They said that the ending was the most disappointing because the book just ended.  The author didn't tie anything together or end the book so that you knew what would happen.  I think the train stopped and that was it.  The lady didn't even go to the appointment.  I looked on Amazon it the book has a rating of 3.7 out of 5, which seems high because no one in the group liked this book.  Anyway, don't waste your time reading this.

The other book that we were reading was The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.  Three of us read the book and really enjoyed it.  Rhonda, Lisa, and Kelly were still reading the book, so that is why we didn't discuss it more.  Perhaps at the next book club we can talk about it more.  We all liked Talmadge's character.  I thought the writing was good and it reminded me a little of Cormac McCarthy with how it was never an uplifting novel, but it was well written and I enjoyed reading it.  Kelly was having a hard time getting through it and Lisa said that it was starting to drag for her too.

Since we discussed the two books as much as we good we decided to talk about other books that we have read.  We talked about The Paris Wife, Devil In The White City & In The Garden of Beasts both by Erik Larson (highly recommend Devil In the White City!], Beautiful Ruins, Furious Love, Harry Potter, Twilight, and Fifty Shades of Grey.  The discussions about Fifty Shades was really hilarious!  Everyone of us that read the book did not like it, but we told stories about people we knew that LOVED the book.  At this point Christopher and Rambo were texting each other about how Christopher needs to escape book club now!  Rambo sent this gem to him, which Christopher played for us.

A HUGE congrats goes out to Rhonda and Michelle for medaling in their age division for a 5K that they recently did.  They also came in 9th and 1Oth overall!  We talked about Raven's 1/2 Marathon and her running.  Great job Raven!!!  We talked about Nebraska and how there is nothing to do there (Lisa's son is going to college there].  The food was delicious, as usual, but we were a little disappointed that we didn't get to have one of the cheese logs because sneaky Reggie came and snatched it from the table and then ran away and ate it all.  He was very quick!

I think that was mostly what we discussed.  The next book club is fast approaching, but we hope that it is enough time to read this book!

See you in three weeks!

Heather

Book Club Next Week Wed 5/22

Just a friendly reminder that next week is our book club.  Here are the details:

When: 5/22 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin  If you got through this book (it is really long} then we also assigned The Appointment by Herta Muller

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Heather

Book Club Recap 4/17/13

**I had written most of this out soon after book club, but then got distracted and forgot about it!  Sorry!!**

Attendees:  Alissa, Heather, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, and Rhonda

Welcome Alissa and it was great to finally meet you Michelle!  My dad is in town and I'm in the middle of planning Nathan's birthday party which is this weekend, so my brain is a little shot and I'm busy.  So you will have to excuse me for the poor recap :]

We discussed The Dinner by Herman Koch.  Almost all of us read the book, which was a first!  The overall consensus of the book was that it was disturbing.  Paul & his wife, whose name I cannot remember, were really disturbing and got worse as the book went on.  We all thought that Serge was portrayed as the unlikeable character in the beginning, but by the end he is the only redeeming character in the book.  I only thought that the book was so-so.  I had read a review that said it was the European Gone Girl, which it was not.  Because of that review I was expecting the book to be different and I think that impacted the way that I felt about the book.  The others seemed to enjoy it.  We all did think that it was an easy read.  We were all very curious to know what "illness" the father and son had.  The father seemed psychotic  but so did their whole family!  Michelle thought that maybe Paul and his wife were somehow related.

After the book we discussed TV shows.  It seems like Shameless is a good show and might be one that I should start watching.  We talked a little bit about working out and we congratulate Rhonda on reaching her 5OO milestone!  The last book club that Michelle had been to was the  EPIC book club that Rambo was at that after his mother's funeral.  Michelle, Lisa, and Rhonda were reliving some of those moments.  Rambo, it was agreed that you need to come out with a book or movie called Ruthless.

I'm sure that we talked about other stuff, but it has been almost two weeks and my brain is officially on break mode!

Here are the details for our next book:

What we reading:  The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
When: Wednesday May 22 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house, where else!

If you are a super reader and would also like to read some more we also chose The Appointment by Herta Muller

Happy Reading!

Heather

Book Club Tomorrow 4/17

Hi Peeps!

Just wanted to remind everyone that book club is tomorrow at 7 at Rhonda's house.  I got a babysitter, so I will be there!

We will be discussing the book The Dinner by Herman Koch

See you there!

Heather

Book Club Recap 3/20/13

Attendees: Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.  Reggie was also here this evening and he was a pretty good boy except for when he took Tania's cookie :)

We first discussed the book The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwable.  Everyone that read this book or was in the middle of reading the book said that they really liked the story and thought that it was well written.  We loved the relationship that Will and his mother had with one another.  We also all agreed at what a well educated family this was.  Rhonda said many times how this book made her feel like she grew-up as a hobo :).  Lisa said that this book was very comforting to her and the story was very similar to what her mom and her family was going through, minus the book club.  Tina thought that the book sounded boring, but we assured her that it was not.  The book was more about the relationship between Will and his mom during her last two years of life, which we all felt Mary Anne lived to her fullest.  We also couldn't believe all of the things that Mary Anne had accomplished in her life.  One question that did come up was about her cooking good meals for her kids or did they eat the bad stuff we all grew-up on.

I can't remember how we got onto the food subject.  I'm guessing that we were all admiring and enjoying the fresh homemade bread that Rhonda had out when she started telling us about this book called Pandora's Lunchbox.  She said that the book goes into detail about what is in our food and it isn't pretty.  It is mostly about all of the processed food and the ingredients that are in it.  We had a long discussion about food and what we should and should not be eating.  The overall conclusion is that we should not be eating processed food and we should make everything from scratch.  The book Food Rules by Michael Pollan is a good starting place to figure out what to eat and what not to eat.   Anyway, the bread that Rhonda made looked so good and tasted just as good!

We discussed the book Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple just a little bit because Tina was not finished with it and didn't want us to ruin anything.  Those of us that read the book enjoyed it and thought that it was quick and easy read.  We also really liked the way that she wrote the story.  If you have not read this book book I would recommend it.

We also talked about working out, kids, Passover, our jobs, and I can't remember the rest.

Here are the details for our next book club:

When: Wednesday April 17th at 7pm (I just saw that Christopher is out of town then, so I'll have to try and get a babysitter then)
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: The Dinner by Herman Koch

I hope to see you there!

Heather

Book Club Next Week 3/20

Here are the details:

When: Wednesday March 20th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

I hope to see you there!

Heather

Book Club Recap 2/20/13

Attendees: Denise, Heather, Julie (a new member?) Lisa, Michelle, Rambo, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

Wow, we had a pretty great turnout for book club.  We would also like to welcome Julie to our book club.  Julie, we hope you liked our book club since we are not as serious as your other book club!

The book that we were discussing was Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren.  The overall consensus was that it was a good and interesting story, but that was it.  Jillian had no redeeming qualities about herself and many of us were looking for some change to happen with her, but there never did.  Many felt that she was narcissistic.  We all wondered what caused her to go the path that she did.  We figured that more was going on with her and her dad that she did not write about.  Denise brought up the question of what would we do if we were presented with the same situation as Jillian was.  She felt that we could all be bought and most of us agreed with her.  All that money at that young of an age would be very tempting to take.  We also talked about the incredible amount of money that the Royal family had and how much of it was wasted on living this incredible lifestyle.  I believe there is a Vanity Fair or Vogue article that Denise talked about that described Prince Jaffri's (Robin) fall from grace.

I think that this was the most that we have ever talked about a book in book club!  After the book talk we talked about Julie's other book club, schooling, the DELICIOUS bread that Rambo and Denise made, and I can't remember what else.

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wednesday March 20th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Some of us already read this book, but we thought it was a good read and wanted to discuss it with the group.

See everyone in a month!

-Heather

Book Club Wednesday 2/20

Hi Bookworms!

Book club is this Wednesday 2/20 at 7pm at Rhonda's house.

We are discussing the book Some Girls by Jillian Lauren.  I found the book a super easy and fast read.  I think that there should be lots to discuss :)

See you there (that is if I can find a babysitter!)

-Heather

Book Recap of 2012

For 2012 we read 12 books!  Well, we were supposed to read 12 books, but I don't know if everyone read everything.  Maybe Rhonda did?  Below is the list of books that we read.  Don't forget to check out our blog www.rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com for the full list of the many books we read (at the end of the blog).  It's pretty impressive!

• -The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky (2012)
• -A Sense of Direction-Gideon Lewis Kraus (2012)
• -Stoner-John Williams (2012)
• -Gone Girl-Gillian Flynn (2012)
• -Wild-Cheryl Strayed (2012)
• -Loving Frank-Nancy Horan (2012)
• -50 Shades of Grey-E.L. James (2012)
• -Rules of Civility-Amor Towles (2012)
• -River Town-Peter Hessler (2012)
• -The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake-Aimee Bender (2012)
• -Blue Nights-Joan Didion (2012)
• -1Q84-Haruki Murakami (2012)

Book Club Recap 1/23/13

First of all, a big welcome to Michelle our newest member.
Michelle, please don't expect that kind of hilarity at every meeting. That was a stand out with Rambo and his story. He is usually working and his mom only dies once.
Also, thank you for the wine. I know you found it while you were in South Africa and I will wait to share it with book club next time.
Secondly, we were very sorry our anchor Heather was sick and unable to make it, although it was really nice to see our long lost member Christopher who came in Heathers absence.
The other attendees were: Denise, Lisa, Tania, Raven and me, Rhonda.
Now onto the discussion.
We spoke briefly about the book "In The Shadow Of The Banyan" by Vaddey Ratner. This was her first novel and it was a good read. We didn't talk too much about it as I was the only one who finished it. Lisa, Tania and Michelle are still reading it. The story is about a little girl during the Cambodian war. Not a real uplifter,  but a good book nonetheless. It's gonna be hard to find a book about any war that is a light and happy piece.
Anyway, on to the meat of book club.
Rest in peace Ruth Fitzgerald, but thank you for the stories that Rambo imparted to us. Ruth is Rambos recently departed mother. He and Denise made the trip back to Michigan to lay her to rest and they came back with enough stories that we all feel very strongly Rambo has the makings of a movie.
His father Don treated Rambo somewhat like a priest offering Rambo his lifelong confessional of the mom and dads 58 year marriage and it made for some of the best stories we've ever heard at book club.
The stories belong to Rambo and Denise and hopefully a big movie company down the line so I will not tell any.
Tina, I know you want a private sit down with them since you were unable to attend book club so you'll have to make those arrangements. Please count me in though.

Our next book is called "Some Girls: My Life In A Harem" by Jillian Lauren. It's supposed to be a jaw dropper so we are excited to read it.  The next meeting will be Wednesday February 20th here at my house.

I hope to see everyone there.

Book Club Wednesday 1/23

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to send a reminder out that book club is next week.  Here are the details.  We hope to see you there!

When: Wed 1/23 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
Book we are discussing: In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

-Heather