Book Club Recap 6/16/14

Attendees:  Alissa, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, & Heather by skype!  Raven and Cooper also made appearances.

This month we discussed the book that Michelle picked.  The book was The Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Everyone seemed to enjoy the book and they all thought that it was a good historical fiction novel.  Many comments were made about how they learned a lot about the Japanese internment camps during WWII in the US and how Japanese Americans were really affected by this.  Rhonda said that Denise's dad was in an internment camp and it would have been interesting to hear what she had to take on it.

The characters of the cafeteria lady and the saxaphone man were well liked.  It sounded like there were some tears shed while reading the book.  I read the book in 2011 so I had forgotten a lot of what happened and had to be reminded of the end and I am sorry that I ruined it for you Tania!  Julie did think that the book was not a memorable one and she wasn't surprised that I forgot about it.  Julie, I also have a bad memory when it comes to remembering plots of books that I have read especially after a year :].  I know that more was said about this book, but I think that I was "lost" because I couldn't remember much that happened!

After discussing this book we talked about the trip that Rhonda, Raven, and Michelle are taking to Italy.  It sounds like Raven wants to go to bed early and not party, while Rhonda and Michelle do :].  It will be a fun trip and we can't wait to hear all about it once they get back!  Raven might need some therapy from Julie when she gets back :].  We talked about all of the TV shows that we are watching and I think that House of Cards, Game of Thrones, and Orange Is the New Black.

We also talked about some books that some of us our reading that were good.

I just read The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Rhonda highly recommended A Thousand Hills to Heaven by Josh Ruxin
Julie just read The Vacationers by Emma Straub
Julie also suggested All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer

If there were other books I can't remember what they were.

Tania then told us that for our next book we would be reading I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

After a lot of the crew left we talked about how awesome it is that Tina's son graduated from UCSB!  We also talked about the site Ashley Maddison (sp?] and how a friend of Michelle's went on there.  It was an interesting conversation and of course Christopher had heard about that site, hmmm!  Ha ha!

Here are the details of the next book club:

When: Wednesday July 9th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  I Shall Be Near To You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

Michelle B. it will be your turn to pick a book for the next meeting!

See you then!

Heather

Book Club Recap 5/21/14

Those in attendance were Heather (via Skype for a short time) Alissa, Lisa I, Michelle S, Tina, Julie and me, Rhonda. We missed Tania, Michelle B and the cast of characters that no longer show up. You know who you are.

The book we discussed was Tinkers by Paul Harding. 

       

The consensus was that although the writing was pretty brilliant, the book should've been a short story as no one was really enraptured by the actual tale.
It was a story about a man near death who was recounting his life which was commingled with his dads life too. There were no obvious breaks between where his character and his fathers were being described, so you really had to be on your toes and concentrate on what you were reading. To me there was some stream of conscience type writing going on which made it more challenging to follow but we did all agree that it was a pretty accurate in regards to end of life type behavior.
Heather noted and we all agreed that hallucinating definitely takes place at the end of ones life as a few of us have been there.
Hallucinating was part of what made this book a bit of a challenge to follow, which Julie pointed out could've been a conscious decision on the authors part. Good point.

This opened up a discussion of the whole idea of crossing over from life to the other side of life. There was some discussion of other books we have read about clairvoyant people and their experiences.
I, for one, do believe that there are people among us with a gift for seeing into the afterlife of others. Now before I cross the line to complete whackadoodle, I will move on.

We also spoke about the dangers of multitasking regarding forwarding of emails to inadvertent recipients. One of our members accidentally sent an email intended for a work associate to one of the owners of the gym we go to. Suffice it to say that poor Joe can never unsee the picture of the big pink dildo with some sort of g spot attachment that was on said email. This book club member produces a relationship/sex radio talk show so while the email WAS appropriate to a co worker, it was a shocker to Joe.

Alissa, thank you for bringing the tarts to book club. They were delicious. Some of us who were down on Taps Burger Bar, are going to give it another try thanks to your recommendation and those tarts.

The book we will be reading next was Michelle's choice. The title is The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

       

I've heard great things about the book and look forward to reading it.

Our next meeting is June 16th and Tania has the next pick.
I look forward to seeing everyone at my house on Monday the 16th.

Alissa we would love to see pictures of your Hawaii trip! Have a wonderful time.

Lisa, we hope Boston was fun.

Rhonda