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
