Book Club Recap 12/18/13

Attendees: Alissa, Denise, Heather, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, and Tina.

Before I get into the details of what transpired at book club I thought that I would do a recap of the past year.  Below are the books that we read (or not) for book club:

• 
  -The Circle-Dave Eggers (2013)
• -The House in the Sky-Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett (2013)
• -The Dog Lived and So Will I-Teresa Rhyne (2013)
• -The Infatuations-Javier Marias (2013)
• -We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves-Karen Joy Fowler (2013)
• -And the Mountains Echoed-Khaled Hosseini (2013)
• -Maya's Notebook-Isabel Allende (2013)
• -The Appointment-Herta Mueller (2013)
• -The Orchardist-Amanda Coplin (2013)
• -The Dinner-Herman Koch (2013)
• -Where'd You Go Bernadette-Maria Semple (2013)
• -End Of Your Life Book Club-Will Schwalbe (2013)
• -Some Girls: My Life In a Harem-Jillian Lauren (2013)
• -In the Shadow of the Banyan-Vaddey Ratner (2013)

We had some good books in there, but also some duds.  We even had one author come and talk to our group!  I think out of the selection we read the best books were End of Your Life Book Club, Where'd You Go Bernadette, The Orchardist (although some did not like this book], and And the Mountains Echoed.

Speaking of duds, let's get to this book!  We discussed The Circle by Dave Eggers

Now, I didn't read this book because I had talked to some members that did and they didn't have really anything good to say about it.  Overall, it sounds like no one enjoyed this book.  The concept was interesting and many in the group thought that it would have been good as a short story and not a long novel.  The dialogue was boring and someone said that there didn't seem to be much character development.  They thought that the main character was horrible with no redeeming qualities.  It actually seemed like there was only one character in the book that everyone liked.  We discussed the theme of how we don't have privacy with all of this technology and how it was affecting us.  We talked a lot about Facebook and the younger generation and how they act with technology.  We talked about "big brother" issues and what we thought about that.  Everyone agreed that the ideas presented in this book were interesting enough, but the author just didn't do a good job at writing the story.  There were a couple of us that did read some of his other books and we weren't super impressed with those.  Although, the book of his that I did read didn't sound nearly as bad as this.  We were all kind of confused how this book got such great reviews and ratings.

Michelle told us that Dave Eggers gave a great TED Talk and it sort of redeems him for this book :]

There was lots of other talk going on and we all had a lovely time.  We also got to hear a Cooper story about a crazy lady!

The book for the next book club was already chosen, so hopefully most of you have already gotten a head start on it since it is a long one!  I hear that it is really good though!

Here are the details of book club next month:

Where: Rhonda's house 
When: Wednesday January, 15th at 7pm
What we are reading:  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

If you have already read this book and are looking for a good quick read then I suggested reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.  I really enjoyed this book!

Book Club Recap 10/8

Attendees: Alissa, Heather, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, Tina and a very special appearance by Teresa Rhyne the author of The Dog Lived and So Will I.

I am going to keep this short because I have loads of packing to do before I leave.

Teresa was at book club and she talked about the book and many other things going on with her life.  Her character in the book seemed very much like how she is in real life.  She discussed how Chris' parents weren't happy with the book and how they don't want to be in the second book.  She talked about her new beagles and what the second book is going to be about.  We discussed a lot of things and she said that right now they are even shopping the rights for this book and it would be nice to see it made into a movie.  I'm glad that she could come and I honestly think we all liked the book (at least that is the impression that I got].  If you want to keep up with Teresa you can follow her on Facebook.

During our conversation with Teresa Michelle told us the story of how her cat got it's cavaties filled and she ended up spending $3,OOO on the dental!  This explains the picture that Michelle sent :]

After Teresa left we discussed Spanx, bralettes, and wizard sleeves.  Funny stuff!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wednesday November 13th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Where: Rhonda's House

I won't be at the next book club, but I hope that the rest of you can.  Maybe I'll phone it in or be on Skype :]

-Heather

Book Club Recap 9/25

Attendees:  Alissa, Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania and a special appearance by Raven.

We discussed the book The Infatuations by Javier Marias in bits and pieces because some members had to leave early and some arrived late.  For those of us that read the book I think that the consensus was that it was a very hard book to get into.  The author wrote beautifully, but was too descriptive and his sentences went on forever!  We felt like the plot of the story was very minimal and he expanded his book with lots and lots and lots of description that wasn't really necessary.  I found it very hard to get into the book.  Someone described reading the book was like giving blood.  If you have not read the book then we suggest that you don't start it.  Julie did mention how when she was reading the book it made her think of the title and how it related to the story and the characters.  There was a lot of infatuations going on.  I realized at book club that the main female character was named Maria and the main male character was named Javier, which happens to be the authors first and last name.  Interesting that he did that.  This author is supposed to be really hot in Europe & Spain right now and the book is getting good reviews.  Tania apologized for picking this book :]

Rhonda, Lisa, and I talked about our Vegas trip to see Addie.  If anyone wants to go see the Michael One show we recommend spending a little more money to get better seats.  Our seats weren't the best and we could never tell which one Addie was.  The show was a lot of fun and more danced centered than acrobatic centered.  If you need somewhere to stay in Vegas Addie has a lovely home she is renting and would probably be glad to have you there.  We also told some fun Tina stories :]

Raven came at some point during book club and I think that this was the biggest portion of our book club.  She discussed all that is going on with her at her new job and how it is really stressing her out.  Raven thanked Lisa a lot for letting her know about a way to calm herself down.

We learned that Michelle is a Bloomingdale's preferred shopper and she got a nice little placard for her birthday!  We talked about women versus men in the workforce.  Working out, breastfeeding, other books that we are reading, and I am sure other stuff that I'm not remembering now.

Since we already picked out for book for October we also picked out November's book and date.

Here is the information for October:

When: Tuesday October 9th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The Dog Lived & So Will I by Teresa Rhyne
Where: Rhonda's House.  
**Teresa is planning on being at this book club!  We hope that you can make it.  If you would like a signed copy then don't forget to bring the book.  It is a quick, easy, and enjoyable read.**

Here is the information for November:

When: Wednesday November 13th 7pm
What We Are Reading:  The House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Where: Rhonda's House

We hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 8/21

Attendees: Heather, Julie, Kelly, Lisa, Michelle, Patryce, Rhonda, and Tania.

I'm late in getting this out and I know that all of you were expecting this recap to be really good, but I've had a lot going on and right now I just want to do it, so I probably won't get into as much detail as I would have liked!

First we discussed online dating and the experiences with that.  Good luck Tania, Michelle, and Kelly!  I think that we actually talked about this for awhile.

After that I am sure we discussed some other things, but I can't remember.  Then we finally started talking about the book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.  I think that most of us just thought the book was so-so.  We all found the factual parts of the book to be really good and interesting, but we didn't like the rest of the story.  We thought her jumping around in the story didn't help at all and just confused some of us.  We also thought that the main character was boring.  Some of us couldn't even remember her name.  Just as a side note, I was talking with a friend of mine who trained chimps and she said that even in animal training when chimps start to go through puberty around 6-7 years old they have to get rid of them because they can become too dangerous.  She said it is really sad because the chimps were raised as family.  When she was working she started a non-profit where she worked with studios to send chimps that were in movies/TV to be sent to sanctuaries instead of labs or to crazy people.  This friend of mine was the trainer for the monkey that was on Friends :].  She loves those animals and said that chimps are super smart.

Okay, after the book discussion we got into the good stuff!  We talked about Wizard Sleeves, Beef Curtains, vaginas, uteruses, and intestines falling outside of the body.  We even had Cooper come and be our guest speaker to tell us more about this.  He shared quite a disgusting story about an 8O year old that had stuff falling out of her and she really didn't know it.  We talked about cosmetic surgery on the labias.  We all joked about how Christopher and Rambo are probably really glad that they didn't make it to this book club!

As usual, Rhonda provided us with some yummy food!  Thank you!!!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Wed September 18th 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading: The Infatuations by Javier Marias

Also, I have been in communication with an author and she will be joining our book club in October!  I really hope that you can make it for this book club.  I also hope that you like her book.  I enjoyed it.  I also am a fan of hers on FB and she seems like she is really nice and funny!  Here are the details for that:

When: Tuesday October 8th 7pm
Where: Rhonda's House
What we are reading:  The Dog Lived and So Will I by Teresa Rhyne

We also need to finalize the Vegas trip.  We are going on Saturday 9/21 and coming back on Sunday.  We most likely will be staying at the Mandalay Bay where the show is at.  If you would like to go please let either myself or Rhonda know ASAP as we will be buying our tickets and booking the room very soon.

Lastly, here is the link to our blog: www.rhondasbookclub.blogspot.com

Book Club Next Week 8/21

Hey bookworms!

Just a reminder that book club is next week.  Here are the details:

When: Wednesday 8/21 at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Kay Joy Fowler

I hope to see you then!

Heather

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