Welcome to 2015!

I am so excited to start this new year of book club.  We are excited to meet our new members and always excited to see our seasoned ones every month.  We have a tentative 2015 schedule set so check out the side bar or this post for the updates.  Most importantly is

This month we are reading 
Wonder by R.J. Pala

cios

I, Kacey Nielsen, will be hosting at my house January 14 at 7:00 p.m.  This book is pretty popular right now but it is required reading in a lot of schools.  I know Jenny has more than one copy so it can be found!  Don't miss out.

Here is the schedule we worked out at our last meeting

February - Michelle Hastings The Shoemakers Wife by Adrianna Trigiane

March - Wendy Yi - Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

April - Chaliece Bowman Little Prince

May - Anya Egbert Unbroken

June - Jeannie Brewer  TBA

July - Mikki  The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton

August

September - Laralee Nelson  Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

October - Cathy Hilton  TBA

November -

And here are some of the recommended books from the ladies in our group.

Maisie Dobbs Series by Jacqueline Winspeare

The redemption of Althalus

The Silver Chalice

The Nazi Officer's Wife

The Boys in the Boat

A girl in the Blue Dress

Elm Creek Series

Letters in the Jade Dragon Box by Gale Sears

Angela's Ashes

Airframe

The Aviator's Wife

The Last Lecture

I felt strongly that I wanted to read this book. I am so glad that everyone else enjoyed it, too. I had big plans. I am so grateful for the amazon turn out. Despite bringing in an extra couch it was a tight squeeze. What a lovely problem to have!

After I gave book background, Jai is remarried and wrote her own book we started with introductions and writing down our childhood dreams. We discussed whether we would give the lecture if we were in a similar situation. In a way, we realized that being women, our view was different. We talked about telling young children about terminal illness and about whether we would let our children paint their room like Randy's mother did. We talked about the $100,000 salt and pepper shakers, carnival stuffed animals and correcting those we love. I brought out crayons and everyone smelled them. Did it bring back childhood memories? For treat I did not want to serve soda and funny shaped pancakes. So, in keeping with the childhood dreams aspect, I brought out a treat from my childhood...Blue Bell ice cream.

Here are questions, quotes and topics I wanted to discuss but ran out of time. Many questions are straight from the book. He asks them in the text:

What wisdom would you impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?

If you had to vanish tomorrow, what would you want as your legacy?

What makes you unique? What do you alone truly have to offer?

Are you afraid to ask questions? Do you feel it is admitting you don't know something and that is weakness?

He said, "No job is beneath you." What do you think?

If you dispense your own wisdom, other often dismiss it, if you offer wisdom from a third party, it seems less arrogant and more acceptable. (Do you think this is true? Thoughts?)

When you are screwing up and no one says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you.

The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

People are more important than things.

Not everything needs to be fixed.

Don't complain. Be positive in spite of grim news.

Head fakes.

Next month:

We are going to Kacey's to discuss The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball. May 14th @ 7:00pm.

The Secret Keeper

LVLL had a nice book club hosted by Michele Hastings. She is always so creative and fun. We read The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. We talked about many spoilers and some things not. 

We discussed how unlikeable some characters were at times. We talked about generosity and personalities. We talked about whether we felt the past was disclosed to her spouse or kept in the past where it belonged. We discussed how odd it was that the mother/daughter relationships were not close. We talked about memory boxes. We had candy cigarettes and a birthday cake served complete with a knife tied in a red ribbon. What would you like to add?

Next month I will be hosting, April 9th @7:00pm. I kept feeling like this was the book I should do; The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I am hoping the discussion will go well and with our different life experiences we can bring many points of view to it. The book is readily available at the library in many formats and on both Nook and Kindle. (It is pricey, though. Well, for me, anyway.)

The Night Circus

Tonight we all dressed in black and white with a splash of red to discuss our fun book. Anya did an amazing job. We were able to watch an interview with the author and get some insight into her thought process as she wrote. The fact that she is an artist made the imagery in the book more real. We even tried to cast the movie a bit on our own. It is interesting that the only character she thought in her head was Geoffery Rush as Hector Bowen/Prospero.

Anya gave us cards with questions. That was so nice and a fun keepsake from the evening. We talked about the tents and attractions we would want to see and avoid. We talked about whether or not it was fair to bring all the circus performances into a contract they were unaware of. I wanted to know who were the favorite characters. Personally I liked the twins. Along with all this we talked about the food, too. Anya provided hot chocolate, chocolate mice, popcorn, cinnamon twists and caramel apples. A memorable book club for sure. Hopefully someone can add a picture of us from this evening.

The imagery and power of words in this book makes me want to read it over and over. Here are just a few of the many quotes I liked from within it's pages.

“The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.” 

“Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.” 

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.”

“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that... there are many kinds of magic, after all.”

“The most difficult thing to read is time. Maybe because it changes so many things.”

“You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough.” 

“The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are.”

“I think looking forward will be better than looking back.” 

“And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead.”

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?”

“We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change.” 

“Better to have a single perfect diamond than a sack of flawed stones.” 

2014 Scheduling and Book Recommendations

Once again we had a great book club. We are celebrating 5 years of literary enjoyment as a group! We came and suggested books. We also schedule who was in charge for which month. (See side bar.)

Heidi's book ideas - 
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson
Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Jenny chose to do I am Malala for August.

Mickie will be doing This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald in October. Mickie suggested ( possibly Letters in)The Jade Dragon Box by Gale Sears as a good read, too.

Lynda talked about books by Maya Angelou , and Josi Kilpack. She also thought of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Chaliece's book ideas -
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Michele's book ideas - 
Macy Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James

Jeannie's book ideas - 
A Joseph Smith biography

Wendy's book ideas - 
On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony
The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage

Kacey also suggested His Good Opinion by Nancy Kelley.

Anya chose The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which will be our book for January.

See you January 8, 2014. Happy reading!

The Great Gatsby

We had a fun evening discussing The Great Gatsby. Half of the group came dressed up, too. Jeannie gave us some great background on the author, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. We talked about our favorite character in the book (most said Nick Carraway) and social classes. We watched some of a documentary on the book and movies. I was especially excited to see Robert Redford played Jay Gatsby at one point. It was a fun night.

Next month we will be bringing book ideas and planning our 2014 schedule. It will be at Michele Hastings home on Wednesday December 11th @7pm. Bring a fun Christmas treat to share. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE attend. It will be low key and enjoyable.

Savvy

"You never can tell when  bad thing might make a good thing happen. I realized that good and bad were always there and always mixed up together in a tangle." - Mibs from Savvy

Last night I hosted book club. It was fun to have so many friends there. We discussed a Newbery Honor book called Savvy by Ingrid Law. 

I gave a brief overview of the author and her take on the book. She felt that family was a very important theme in her books. She wrote a companion book to Savvy called Scumble from Mibs' cousin's point of view and she is working on a book about Mibs' little sister Gypsy. 

What do you think your savvy would be? Ingrid Law (the author) said hers would be flying or breathing under water. Our group chose more practical savvies like understanding people, traveling anywhere, cleaning and making people see your point of view. I chose being able to create anything and control water.

How was Mibs's family more complicated because of their savvies? We figured that they have the same problems as everyone else with the added concern of the savvies. It would still make life fun and interesting with all those different abilities around.

Everyone has a special know how. Lill Kiteley's was being late and helping people feel good. Lester's was following through. Kacey made good points about Lill being able to help. Maybe not exactly when she should have, but she would eventually get there.

We discussed the many voices that we are confront with every day. From the book - "I began to realized how hard it is to separate all the voices to hear the single, strong one that came just from me." and then in the end, "I'd grown used to all the voices inside of my head and knew which ones to pay attention to and which ones to ignore. The same went for all the voices outside of my head." Our voices become our children's internal voices so we need to be careful how and what we say to them.

What do you think makes Poppa up at last? (Can he talk?) We figured that Mibs reminded him what his savvy was. Also, we feel that he can only talk through his tattoo so Mibs needs to be there to translate.

Favorite parts - Kacey mentioned that she really liked the part where Mibs told Will Jr. she was not ready for kissing. She pretty much quoted it exactly, too. :)

Thanks for coming, ladies. Hope you enjoyed the banana cream pie. (And chocolate cream and kiwi lime, too.)

I shared quotes that I enjoyed from the book. Here are a few:

"I suppose you can never tell right off who might have a piece of Prince Charming deep down inside."

"When something like that comes along, whether it's an accident or a savvy or a very first kiss, life takes a turn and you can't step back. All you can do is keep moving forward and remember what you've learned."

"I couldn't fathom it myself, but I guessed that happy endings came in all shapes and sizes."

"You can't get rid of a part that makes you you and be happy."

"For better, worse, or different, sometimes when things go back to normal, normal simply isn't normal anymore."

P.S. I can't find my paper for hosting. We decided last month at Kacey's house. If you can fix the side bar, please do.