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!
