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