Attendees: Callah, Christopher, Denise, Heather, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rambo, Rhonda, Tina, & Valesca. (Sandra and Nathan were also there briefly)
The book that we discussed was The Help by Kathyrn Stockett. Since the book takes place in the south we decided to have a Southern food theme for the evening. We had black-eyed pea soup, biscuits & gravy, collard greens, fried chicken, hush puppies, mac & cheese, fruit crisp, & a caramel cake. All of the food was very delicious!
The evening started with some of the members saying that they have a friend that is very similar to Hilly! Not someone I would want to be compared to :) We all LOVED the book and commended Valesca on her great choice for a book. We talked so much about the book, which is rare for us to do. I think that all of our favorite part was about two-slice pie that Minny made for Hilly. We especially loved the fact that it was Hilly's mom that was the one that got her the pie in the auction. We thought that Hilly was a horrible character, but Valesca made the point that even though she wasn't a good character she did love her children very much, which we all agreed. We thought that the stories that Aibileen told Mae Mobley were great and we loved how Mae Mobley retold those to her brother. We all loved the relationship between Celia and Minny. Some of us wondered what Celia was up to in the rooms and most of us didn't expect it was a drinking problem (which it turned out not to be). We also thought that Celia's husband was a great guy, especially when he told Minny that she had a job for life. Julie was impressed by how all of the meals were made from scratch by the maids! I decided that I want a maid (I can do the raising of Nathan, but all the other stuff I wouldn't mind a maid doing and I would even let them use the same bathroom!). There were various stories of housekeepers that we have currently and how we treat them (we all treat them well!). Lisa told us how they had one housekeeper that was like a part of the family and she wishes that she could have talked to her about her feelings towards her family. Christopher couldn't believe that our country was like this only 40 years ago and made a comparison to the Middle East and what is going on over there.
There was a lot said and I don't remember it all. It was a great book and everyone loved it. If you have not read it, you should. We thought that it will probably be made into a movie.
Oh, Rambo and Julie listened to the book and they both said that it was one of the best books to listen to. For the characters of Minny, Aibileen, & Skeeter they had three people read the parts. So each person had their on unique voice. I listened to part of the book when we were taking Julie home and what a difference that made! It was very interesting to hear how the the book is supposed to be read! The voices were great and had more of an accent then what I gave them when I was reading it. We also discussed how in our book club it is alright by all of us if you listen to a book instead of read it!
Our next book will be Last Night In Twisted River by John Irving. http://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-Twisted-River-Novel/dp/1400063841 Rhonda and I are big fans of John Irving and we already got this book. The next book club will be on Tuesday December 1, 2009 at 7pm at Rhonda's house. If you finish the John Irving book Valesca recommended Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Again, we missed everyone who could not make it and we hope that you will be able to join the next book club!
-Heather
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Book Club Tuesday October 27th
Hi all,
Just sending out a reminder that book club is in two weeks! We are reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I have heard rave reviews from Valesca, Tina, Rambo, and Rhonda and I am excited to start reading it! Valesca had suggested that we do a Southern food theme and I think that is a great idea, but what does everyone else think? If we decide to have a Southern food theme we can then organize who will make what :)
I also wanted to let you guys know of this website that I was recently introduced to. It is goodreads.com and it is a site where you log in all of the books that you have read, are reading, or want to read. You can rate the books from 1-5 stars and give your own reviews of them. You can also be friends with your friends (like Facebook) and get notified of what they are reading and if they liked it. So far I am liking the site :)
I think that is it for now. I hope to see most of you in two weeks!
-Heather
Just sending out a reminder that book club is in two weeks! We are reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I have heard rave reviews from Valesca, Tina, Rambo, and Rhonda and I am excited to start reading it! Valesca had suggested that we do a Southern food theme and I think that is a great idea, but what does everyone else think? If we decide to have a Southern food theme we can then organize who will make what :)
I also wanted to let you guys know of this website that I was recently introduced to. It is goodreads.com and it is a site where you log in all of the books that you have read, are reading, or want to read. You can rate the books from 1-5 stars and give your own reviews of them. You can also be friends with your friends (like Facebook) and get notified of what they are reading and if they liked it. So far I am liking the site :)
I think that is it for now. I hope to see most of you in two weeks!
-Heather
Monday, August 31, 2009
Book Club Tuesday Sept 8th
Hi all,
This is a reminder that a week from tomorrow (9/8) we are having our book club meeting. We will be discussing The Guersney Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and the Lost Continent. We really hope that everyone can make it and it would be good to see some members that we haven't seen in awhile :)!
-Heather
This is a reminder that a week from tomorrow (9/8) we are having our book club meeting. We will be discussing The Guersney Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and the Lost Continent. We really hope that everyone can make it and it would be good to see some members that we haven't seen in awhile :)!
-Heather
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Book Club Recap 7/21/09
Attendees: Callah, Christopher, Denise, Heather, Julie (new member) & her dog Mary, Michelle (new member), Rhonda, Tina, and Valesca.
I think that this was our biggest meeting that we have had in a long time! It was great to have a couple of new members join our group and it was a great pleasure to have Tina and Valesca there! Of course, we did miss everyone else! Since we met over a week ago and my memory doesn't seem to be as good as it once was this will probably be a short recap :)
We talked about the book The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. The author looked into what type of person survives a disaster, how they react in a disaster, and talked about ways a person could improve their chances of getting out of a disaster alive. The people that read the book really enjoyed it. Tina said that she knows that she would be a person that would not survive in a disaster. Rhonda agreed with her statement and told us a funny story about flying with Tina to San Francisco and hitting some turbulence (you will have to ask Rhonda for more details!). Christopher told us many stories about how he would confront "suspicious" people and he thinks that he will do good in a disaster. Denise thought that she would do well in a disaster and be a leader type. Julie mentioned that there was a 20/20 special on this subject and it basically covered the same topics as the book. She thinks that they probably got the idea from the book. Lastly, we learned that Valesca has almost died a lot of times (swimming, rapist, & a pedophile). We actually talked about the book for a REALLY long time and I wish that I could remember what we talked about because it was some good stuff!
The other book that we were given as "extra credit" to read was Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Only Rhonda and Christopher read it so we didn't talk about it, but they both raved about it. I just finished the book and thought that it was really really good. It is especially inspiring if you are a runner.
We have two date options for our next book club. Tuesday August 25th or Tuesday September 8th. Please let us know what date works better for you.
For our next book club we are reading two books.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
http://www.amazon.com/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society/dp/0385340990/
This book is a very quick read and I am almost done with it. I am really enjoying it. I noticed that at the back of the book they mention how there is a chance for six members of your book club to be flown to Guernsey for a 4 day/ 3 night trip that includes airfare, accommodations, a three course dinner with another winning book club from the UK, and a tour of the island. We have until 9pm PST July 31, 2009. Go to http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/sweepstakes/ It would be pretty awesome if we won! You can enter once a day.
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America - Bill Bryson
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Continent-Travels-Sm
Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
-Heather
P.S. To see the actual blog go to www.rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com
I think that this was our biggest meeting that we have had in a long time! It was great to have a couple of new members join our group and it was a great pleasure to have Tina and Valesca there! Of course, we did miss everyone else! Since we met over a week ago and my memory doesn't seem to be as good as it once was this will probably be a short recap :)
We talked about the book The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. The author looked into what type of person survives a disaster, how they react in a disaster, and talked about ways a person could improve their chances of getting out of a disaster alive. The people that read the book really enjoyed it. Tina said that she knows that she would be a person that would not survive in a disaster. Rhonda agreed with her statement and told us a funny story about flying with Tina to San Francisco and hitting some turbulence (you will have to ask Rhonda for more details!). Christopher told us many stories about how he would confront "suspicious" people and he thinks that he will do good in a disaster. Denise thought that she would do well in a disaster and be a leader type. Julie mentioned that there was a 20/20 special on this subject and it basically covered the same topics as the book. She thinks that they probably got the idea from the book. Lastly, we learned that Valesca has almost died a lot of times (swimming, rapist, & a pedophile). We actually talked about the book for a REALLY long time and I wish that I could remember what we talked about because it was some good stuff!
The other book that we were given as "extra credit" to read was Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Only Rhonda and Christopher read it so we didn't talk about it, but they both raved about it. I just finished the book and thought that it was really really good. It is especially inspiring if you are a runner.
We have two date options for our next book club. Tuesday August 25th or Tuesday September 8th. Please let us know what date works better for you.
For our next book club we are reading two books.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
http://www.amazon.com/
This book is a very quick read and I am almost done with it. I am really enjoying it. I noticed that at the back of the book they mention how there is a chance for six members of your book club to be flown to Guernsey for a 4 day/ 3 night trip that includes airfare, accommodations, a three course dinner with another winning book club from the UK, and a tour of the island. We have until 9pm PST July 31, 2009. Go to http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/sweepstakes/ It would be pretty awesome if we won! You can enter once a day.
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America - Bill Bryson
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-
Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
-Heather
P.S. To see the actual blog go to www.rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com
Monday, June 15, 2009
Movies of the books we have read
There seems to be a lot of movies coming out of books that we have read this summer. I thought that I would post the links to the trailers. I am excited to see all of them and if we wanted to do a group trip to the movie theater I would be up for that! I hope that the links work :)
My Sister's Keeper 6/26/09 /http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810003155/video
Julie & Julia 8/7/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810006886/video
The Time Traveler's Wife 8/14/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809937231/video
The Road 10/16/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810037227/video
-Heather
My Sister's Keeper 6/26/09 /http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810003155/video
Julie & Julia 8/7/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810006886/video
The Time Traveler's Wife 8/14/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809937231/video
The Road 10/16/09 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810037227/video
-Heather
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Book Club Recap 5/19/09
Attendees: Christopher, Denise, Heather, Keo, Rambo, & Rhonda (Raven was an excellent hostess!)
This is hard to believe, but we jumped right in and started talking about the book that we read. We even talked about it for awhile! We all thought that the writing was excellent. Rhonda felt like the book was a bit of a downer, which it was, but it was written really well. Christopher felt like he got a good glimpse into what life would be like for people who were poor and grew up in shitty situations like the characters of the novel. I said that I loved the story about his inability to keep from throwing up in his dad's van. Keo said that his favorite story was about him getting masturbated by another guy :) Christopher's favorite story was about the pig face boy. We all agreed that he was able to tell these stories with a bit of humor in them which didn't make them as depressing as they could have been. We found it interesting that the main character didn't seem to stay constantly high even though he was a drug dealer (his girlfriend always seemed tweaked out). A member (we won't mention names) talked about how an acquaintance of theirs was a heroin addict and this member shared a wealth of information on heroin addiction. Denise said that she got her book from the library and what made it more interesting for her was that there were comments written in the book from a previous reader who she assumed had to have been a student. If you haven't read this book you should because we all liked it. It was also a very fast read and it is all short stories.
After talking about this book it was time to pick our next book. This was HARD! We didn't know what to read so we went to the Internet to see what other sites had listed as the top reads. Rambo found some book about a lady who wasn't a Mexican or a maid, but was a detective! It sounded cheesy! Rhonda had suggested a book, but when reading the synopsis we couldn't pronounce the names of the characters and nixed that book. Rambo found a book about how to run correctly, but only half of us were interested in that. I had suggested a book about a lady who has Alzheimer's, but once we read the review that said it wasn't a good book we tossed that one out. I don't think that we have ever spent this much time trying to pick a new book. Rhonda then remembered that Gary and Ben had this book that they really enjoyed. She called them up and Ben got to make a special voice guest appearance at our book club! The book is The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. The author looks into who survives when disaster strikes and why. To read more about the book you can go to the authors website or you can buy the book here!
We decided to have book club on 6/30, but Rhonda just let me know that she will have to travel on business earlier that day. That means that Rhonda will pick a new date for us to meet.
Once again, if you want to check out the actual blog instead of just reading the emails you can go to rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com
If you read the book and want to make any comments please do!
Hope to see everyone next time!
-Heather
This is hard to believe, but we jumped right in and started talking about the book that we read. We even talked about it for awhile! We all thought that the writing was excellent. Rhonda felt like the book was a bit of a downer, which it was, but it was written really well. Christopher felt like he got a good glimpse into what life would be like for people who were poor and grew up in shitty situations like the characters of the novel. I said that I loved the story about his inability to keep from throwing up in his dad's van. Keo said that his favorite story was about him getting masturbated by another guy :) Christopher's favorite story was about the pig face boy. We all agreed that he was able to tell these stories with a bit of humor in them which didn't make them as depressing as they could have been. We found it interesting that the main character didn't seem to stay constantly high even though he was a drug dealer (his girlfriend always seemed tweaked out). A member (we won't mention names) talked about how an acquaintance of theirs was a heroin addict and this member shared a wealth of information on heroin addiction. Denise said that she got her book from the library and what made it more interesting for her was that there were comments written in the book from a previous reader who she assumed had to have been a student. If you haven't read this book you should because we all liked it. It was also a very fast read and it is all short stories.
After talking about this book it was time to pick our next book. This was HARD! We didn't know what to read so we went to the Internet to see what other sites had listed as the top reads. Rambo found some book about a lady who wasn't a Mexican or a maid, but was a detective! It sounded cheesy! Rhonda had suggested a book, but when reading the synopsis we couldn't pronounce the names of the characters and nixed that book. Rambo found a book about how to run correctly, but only half of us were interested in that. I had suggested a book about a lady who has Alzheimer's, but once we read the review that said it wasn't a good book we tossed that one out. I don't think that we have ever spent this much time trying to pick a new book. Rhonda then remembered that Gary and Ben had this book that they really enjoyed. She called them up and Ben got to make a special voice guest appearance at our book club! The book is The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. The author looks into who survives when disaster strikes and why. To read more about the book you can go to the authors website or you can buy the book here!
We decided to have book club on 6/30, but Rhonda just let me know that she will have to travel on business earlier that day. That means that Rhonda will pick a new date for us to meet.
Once again, if you want to check out the actual blog instead of just reading the emails you can go to rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com
If you read the book and want to make any comments please do!
Hope to see everyone next time!
-Heather
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Book Club Tuesday May 19th
Hi all,
I just wanted to remind everyone that book club is scheduled to meet next week on Tuesday at Rhonda's at 7pm. We will be discussing Drown by Junot Diaz. We hope that everyone can make it!
-Heather
I just wanted to remind everyone that book club is scheduled to meet next week on Tuesday at Rhonda's at 7pm. We will be discussing Drown by Junot Diaz. We hope that everyone can make it!
-Heather
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