Book Club Recap 4/29/15

Attendees:  Alissa, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania and me.

This meeting we discussed the book The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

I think that Julie might have been the only one that finished the whole book.  There were some of us that were about halfway through the book and then some that were still at the beginning.  I think one of the first comments that was mentioned was that the book was confusing.  It was confusing because it goes back and forth between time and then there is a lot of lying going on and I personally would get confused with what was real and what wasn't.  Julie said that towards the end of the book everything makes sense and you are able to understand the book.  She said that this is one of those books where if you read it a second time it will probably make more sense, but I don't think that any of us would read it a second time.

We talked about how crazy North Korea is and how much propaganda they have and how everyone just believes whatever Kim Jong Il says because if they don't they could be killed.  We talked about the kidnappings that North Korea does.  Here is the article that Tania mentioned about a Japanese chef that was kidnapped and then what went on living with Kim Jong Il.  We agreed that if this book was a movie we wouldn't want to watch it; lots of violence and senseless killings.

I think that is about the extent of our discussion with that book since almost all of us didn't get to the end.

After that book we talked about these things in no particular order:

Disney cruises, Michelle's trip to Ireland and her date on the plane, rats in Rhonda's attic and how she took care of them, Tania's wedding and co-living plans, bathroom remodels, Paige's New Zealand project, CA Mission projects, India, Rhonda's progressive lenses, and I can't remember what else.

Laura, everyone says thank you for the eggs!!  It sounds like they were delicious.

Here is the information for next book club:

When:  Wednesday June 10 at 7pm
Where:  Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  Missoula:  Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

Book Club Recap 3/26

Attendees:  Alyssa, Julie, Lisa, Michelle S, Rhonda, Tania, Tina, me (via Skype), and our new member Laura!  We also had a guest appearance by Raven :).

This month Julie hosted book club at her house and thank you very much for being the hostess!  The book that we discussed this meeting was The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani 

I think that the majority of everyone thought that the book was so-so.  We all agreed that the main character had no redeeming qualities and a lot of the other characters weren't that great either.  Michelle did say that Leona was a good character that she liked.  Things were a lot different during the Depression and some members understood why she would fall in love with her cousin.  I personally just found it disturbing.  We talked about the comparisons between her (the main character whose name I cannot remember) and her mother.  We talked about the affair between the headmaster and the main character and how he was technically raping her (although I don't if there were the same legal definitions of rape back then) even though she was the one that started pursuing him.  Julie thought that the writing wasn't great and someone pointed out that they felt like the author was writing as this teenage girl and that is maybe why the writing wasn't up to par?  We all felt bad for the brother and what he had to go through.  I think that there were about half of us that felt like the book wasn't one that we were excited to read every day and we didn't just want to pick it up.  Some other members enjoyed the book.

After discussing this book we started talking about more books that others have read that they recommended.  Honestly, I can't remember the names of them right now, but you can email the group them.

We learned that you don't want to ask Rhonda or Tina to pet sit for you because most likely they'll say yes, but then remember after you are gone that they too are going to be gone!  Lisa, we are glad that worked out for you!

We learned that Laura came from another book club that was really strict and I think that she saw in the first minute or two that we are not like that at all!

Raven stopped in and was talking about her trip that to India.  I look forward to hearing about that at the next meeting.

We saw pictures of Tania's cute puppy, but to me they looked all blurry and so did a lot of you during book club :).

I ended up leaving book club early because there were a bazillion conversations going on and it was hard to hear what everyone was saying.  Also, the video and audio wasn't the best for me.  I hope that I didn't miss some funny stories!

Here are the details for the next book club:

When:  Wednesday April 29th at 7pm
Where:  Rhonda's house
What we are reading:  The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Rhonda, it is your pick next!

Happy reading!

Heather

Book Club Recap 2/4/15

Attendees:  Alissa, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, and me via Skype.

At this book club we discussed my two picks:

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

and

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Almost everyone at book club read both of the books.  I credit that to some amazing book picking! ha ha.  Both of the books were really easy reads and fast to get through, plus we did have some extra time to read them.  It also seemed like everyone liked both books.  I think that more people liked Big Little Lies more than Station Eleven because post-apocalyptic novels are not a subject that is a favorite among our book club.  I think everyone agreed that they didn't have any idea about how Big Little Lies would end and they were very intrigued to find out how it ended.  Michelle did think that one of the main characters should have figured out a big part of the story, but never did.  I'm also being vague here because I know that Tania is still reading it.  We enjoyed how in Station Eleven all of the characters were in some way connected to Arthur and we liked how it flashed back to before the end of the world.  We were curious to know what happened to the prophet's mother.  I also thought that this book wasn't as depressing as The Road because at the end there is hope for things to get better.

After talking about these books we also talked about these books:

• The Girl On the Train  -- This is supposed to be similar to Gone Girl.  Also, if you have extra reading time you can read this book for next month along with our selection.
• Reconstructing Amelia 
• A Homemade Life
• Everything I Never Told You
• The Martian

I'm sure that I'm forgetting some books that were mentioned.  We talked about how Michelle is going to a casting for a reality tv show that is like Fear Factor, but without having to eat anything gross.  I think it is called Weekend Warriors?  Anyway, she is supposed to give us an update on how that went.

We discussed how Rhonda does not think that she has Alzheimers.  She wants to watch Still Alice, but I'm hoping that this doesn't cause her to start thinking that she has Alzheimers again :).  Tina, you probably shouldn't watch it :).

Lucy, Lisa's dog, got a horrible groom and her ears are basically gone.

Tania got engaged in Paris at the Eiffel Tower, congrats!!

I'm not sure how we got on the topic of 50 Shades of Grey, but we did.  Christopher and Rambo we're sure that both of you already pre-purchased your tickets and will be going opening night.  We were thinking that we would do a book club trip to the movie theaters for this book (just joking!).  The conversation always gets funny whenever this book comes up.

Ok, now on to the details for next month:

When:  Thursday March 19th at 7pm
Where:  Julie's house (she'll email everyone her address)
What we are reading (Lisa's pick):  The Yonahlossee Riding Camp Girls by Anton DiSclafani

Julie it will be your turn to pick the next book for April :)

p.s. I signed up for the Amazon affiliate program and if you click on the links I'll get a small commission out of it, which is going to help us buy homeschool stuff :)

2014 Recap

Happy New Year book clubbers!

I wanted to recap all of the books that we have read for 2014.

January -- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt  This was the longest book that we read at about 771 pages.
February -- Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner
March -- Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.  Perhaps the group's most favorite book of the year?
April -- The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein
May -- Tinkers by Paul Harding
June -- The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
July -- I Shall Be Near To You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
Aug -- The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
Oct -- The Ghost Month by Ed Lin
Nov -- Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors
Dec -- Manson by Jeff Guinn

We also decided to start over with the list of one person picking a book for the following year.  Here is that list again.

January -- Heather
February -- Lisa
March -- Julie
April -- Rhonda
May -- Michelle S.
June -- Tania
July -- Michelle B.
August -- Denise
September -- Alissa
October -- Tina
November -- (Maybe a new member or an old member will join the group and can pick?) 
December --  TBD

Book Club Recap 12/22/14

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHONDA!!!!!!!!

Attendees:  Alissa, Lisa, Michelle, Michelle, Rhonda, Tina and me via Skype.

Michelle was very kind to host book club at her new house this month!  Thank you Michelle.  I also Skyped in and was on her big TV.  I'm glad that I didn't have to see myself on that big screen :).

The book that we discussed this month was Manson by Jeff Guinn

This book is about the life of Charles Manson pre-birth to after the trial.  All of us enjoyed the book and we discussed it for most of book club, which seemed to be a record for our group.  The story is very interesting and even though most of us knew about the murders there was a lot that we didn't know about Charlie and were fascinated by his story.  We all agreed that he wasn't born into the best of family and basically grew-up in the system and it was no surprise how he ended up being how he was as an adult.  We couldn't believe that all of these people followed him and believed him and his crazy stories, but all of the people that he chose, especially the women, were really broken people and he was able to provide them with a family.

I think that we all Googled the people in this book to learn more about them.  I think that all of us were kind of surprised at how the famous people that knew the family would want to sleep with the girls because they all seemed gross (not great hygiene and lots of STDs).  It was also interesting for us because the book takes place in LA where most of us have lived and have been by some of the sites where the family was.

Michelle told us how she met Tex Watson in jail and talked to Charles on the phone.  I was relieved to find out that Michelle was not a groupie of Tex :).  You can ask her for the story of why she met him and get more details.  Alissa also told us that she was at a holiday party and randomly she was part of a conversation about one of the doctors that did an autopsy on the victims of the Tate murder and described some things that happened that were not reported in the media or this book.  What they did was pretty unbelievable and mostly all because Charles didn't want the murder of Lottsa Poppa (who he didn't even murder) to be traced back to him.

The story was very interesting and we discussed the book and him a lot.  We talked about Charles' new young wife.  Rhonda wishes that the death penalty wasn't reversed because it is a waste of money to be spending on keeping this guy alive.  An interesting side note is that the author speculated that had Charles been put to death there wouldn't be as great of an interest in the guy, but I don't know if that would be true since he did murder some well known people in LA.

I think that about 90% of what we talked about at this book club was the book.  I know that I am missing some more, but I can't remember everything :).

We talked about Michelle's new house and the back story of the couple that lived there.  Lucky for Michelle that they were going through a nasty divorce so she got the house at a steal and it looks great!

Hmmm, I can't remember what else we talked about.

In January we are going to start over with the list of who picks the book for a month.  I'm up for January!  I'll do a blog post a little bit later for the list for the whole year.

Anyway, I had wanted to read the book Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and I thought that it would be a fun and easy read for book club.  I saw that it was on sale so I sent a message to the group.  I have since finished the book and so have a few others in book club.  Since some of us finished the book and because it is a very fast read I decided that I would also pick another book (I'm reading it now and I think that it is another fast read).

Here are the details:

When: Wednesday January 28th at 7pm   **Rhonda, Christopher changed his trip so now he is gone on this date, so I won't be able to join because it is right during the time that the boys go to bed.  Do you think we can reschedule for the week before?
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Book Club Recap 11/17/14

Attendees: Alissa, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, Tina, and Christopher and myself via Google Messenger.

The book we were discussing was Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors.

The meeting started off with Indian food brought by Alissa and of course some wine, although I did see some water bottles too.  I think that some book discussion was done during this time because by the time that I got on we didn't really talk about the book.  It appears as though everyone liked the book and thought that it was a good read.  I was feeling too rushed to finish the book (I had to return it to the library before we left), so I didn't like it as much as I probably would have.

We talked about Christopher and my trip to Europe, which was great!  The boys are still jet-lagged and they actually slept in this morning until 5:30!  Hopefully, by tomorrow it will be 6 or 6:30!  I would upload some pictures we took of the Frank Gehry Louis Vuitton building, but I can't figure out how to do that right now, so here is a link Frank Gehry Louis Vuitton building to check out some pictures.  It is really impressive.  The building just opened up a week or two before we were there so there was a crazy long line that we didn't want to wait in.

The group talked about the walk to help Pancreatic cancer that they did and how Alissa pushed Kyla in a stroller with a flat wheel for the 5k.

Michelle showed us this video about what guys need to think about when dating a woman :)

Tina showed all of us the video of Paige falling down, which is hilarious.  Tina, you really should upload that video to Youtube.

Tina was also told us how Paige has been asking sex questions, that she is getting from her Catholic school friends.

Tania brought some chocolates from Peru to share with the group.

Hmmm, my brain is a little fried so I can't remember what else we talked about (I do apologize Michelle for bringing up Jasper!).

Here are the details for the next book club:

When: Monday December 22 at 7pm
Where: Michelle's new house (Michelle will need to send out her address to those attending).  I should also be making an appearance on Michelle's big TV via Skype.  I'll be like the Wizard of Oz.
What we are reading: Manson by Jeff Guin  This book was Tina's choice and it was a surprising one from her :).

Tina was the last on the list to choose a book for book club.  We can either start over or we can do a new system.  If we start over it is my turn to pick a book :).

Book Club Recap 10/2/14

Attendees: Alissa, Denise, Julie, Lisa, Michelle, Rhonda, Tania, and me via Google hangouts.

The book that we were discussing was The Ghost Month by Ed Lin

The book had some mixed reviews from the group.  We thought that the main character, Jing-nan, was a bit immature for his age and a lot of what he did didn't seem believable especially in his romance and how he reacts when his house burns down (only caring about his Joy Division collection).  We thought that there was a lot of history in the book and it was nice to learn some things about Taiwan and that culture.  Some of us thought that when the history was told in the story it didn't really relate well with the story that was going on and kind of just thrown in there.  The ones that finished the book felt like the ending was wrapped up quickly and could have been better.  Denise did explain to us a lot about Chinese and Taiwan culture and how everything is so very different there.  Someone mentioned that this book seems more like a book for men and many of us agreed.  The book was an easy read, but the subject matter was something that I wasn't particularly interested in.  I also liked his book This Is A Bust more than this book.

As a side note, Denise is good friends with the author and we read one of his other books before and he came to book club to talk about it.  Ed is a really nice guy and I think that when reading this book I found myself picturing Ed as the main character.  Denise said that Ed's Chinese name is Jing-nan, just like the main character in the book, which was an interesting fact.

After the book discussion we talked about the following in no particular order:

1-Sketcher shoes.  I guess that there are some really comfy ones that Rhonda and Julie got.
2-Wizard sleeves.  I'm not sure how we got on this topic again.
3-School and the new Common Core curriculum in math
4-Rhonda's niece and nephew
5-The Squatty Potty , pooping in holes in foreign countries, and always having wipes when traveling.
6-Dogs

Rhonda got some Chinese food for book club and made pumpkin bread.  I REALLY miss the food!  It also looked like there was a lot of wine consumption going on :).

There is a 5K/10K coming up at the end of this month and book club wants to form a group and raise money for it in support of Julie's husband.  Rhonda sent out an email last night.  If you didn't receive it please just let her know.

Here are the details for book club next month:
When: Monday November 17th at 7pm
Where: Rhonda's house
What we are reading: Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors

I miss you guys!!

Heather

p.s. Rambo, Alissa asked Denise if you were Japanese too and we all had a good laugh!