Book Club Recap 2/17/14

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

We discussed the book Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner

First, Tina actually read the book and there were many others that didn't!  Way to go Tina!  We all liked the book and thought that it was a very nice and sweet book.  We liked how the book was all about their friendship and how there was no marital drama, like cheating.  We thought that all of the characters were likable and we enjoyed reading their friendship develop through the years.  It was also interesting to see how times have changed and how back in the 3Os it was okay to to get drunk while pregnant.  The book was easy to read and very enjoyable.  We also discussed how Charity wanted to die alone at the end and we discussed how many people like/want to die alone.  The book wasn't long and it wasn't a hard read at all if you want to still read it.

Onto the good stuff!  Well, I think that the thing that I remember the most is scissoring!  The best part was that Cooper knew what it was and all of us did not.  Google it to see what we are talking about.  Michelle said that this was brought up in an episode of Glee, which is crazy!  We talked about Alissa's mom and we all hope that she is doing better and that she gets moved up to the Valley.  We talked about Rhonda's Uncle, sorry to hear about him again.  We talked about me moving.  Not sure where, but I think it will happen :(.  We talked about pot and edibles that have THC.  Then at the end we all took the Dialect Quiz to see what cities our dialects are "from."  Some of the LA natives didn't get LA!

Next month we are switching it up a bit!  Lisa will be hosting next month's book club.

Here are the details:

When:  Wednesday March 19th at 7pm
Where: Lisa's house (sent in personal email to the group]
What we are reading:  Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Lastly, it is Julie's turn to pick our April book!

See you in a few weeks!

Heather

Book Club tomorrow 2/17

Just wanted to send out a reminder that book club is tomorrow at 7pm at Rhonda's house.  We will be discussing the book Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.  I hope to see you there!

-Heather

Book Club Recap 1/15/14

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

We discussed the book The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

We all thought that this book was so long and we joked around how we would read 2-6 hours of this book and barely make a dent in the book!  It was a long one and we felt that the author could have shortened it.  We thought that Donna was so descriptive, hence the long book, and if felt like we were in some of the locations that she described.  Something interesting that I thought was that even though she was so descriptive, she didn't really describe the physical features of Theo Decker.  It was hard to picture what he looked like and he was the main character.  Julie told our group that Donna takes about ten years to write a book.  We figured that she must do a ton of research and that her books are so long because she takes a long time to write them.  Most of us agreed that Vegas was the best part of the book and they liked seeing how Theo developed into the person that he was during that time.  We were all shocked **SPOILER** when Theo discovered that he had not had the painting for so long, but a history book.  We all couldn't believe that he had never looked at the painting for that long.  Some thought that the ending was kind of tidied up nice and quick, which was surprising since the book was sooooo long!  Overall, most of us enjoyed the book and there is no denying that she is a really good author.  On a side note, this painting (yes, it is a real painting] is on view in New York until the 19th.  Michelle, you should go check it out!  Also, a church deacon that died with the painter in the explosion had the last name of Decker, which was Theo's last name.  I kind of wonder what the connection there means?

We also talked about dogs, puppies, black sheep in the family, Michelle and Tania's trip to DC, my possible move to Colorado, schools, and I can't remember what else.

We decided that each month one member is going to be the one that picks the book that we read.  Here is the order.  If a new or old member comes then they would just go at the end!

Feb-Heather
Mar-Lisa
April-Julie
May-Rhonda
June-Michelle S.
July-Tania
Aug-Michelle B.
Sept-Denise
Oct-Alissa
Nov-Tina

Here are the details for the next book club!

When:  Monday February 17th at 7pm.
Where:  Rhonda's house, of course!
What We Are Reading:  Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner

From Amazon, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century. Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.

The library has many copies of the book, so it should be easy to get.  Michelle, it is also very easy to get a membership.  You get the book for 3 weeks, but as long as no one else is waiting for a book then you can renew it for longer.  They also have the book available in an e-book (there is a wait for it] and an audible book.  For $4 I got the book from Thrift Books

We hope to see you at the next book club!

-Heather

Book Club Next Week 1/15

Just a reminder: 

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

I hope to see you there!

Heather

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