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.

Tending Roses

Mindy hosted a great book club last night complete with hot chocolate and mini pies. We enjoyed discussing Tending Roses and families. We talked about our love of the grandma in the story. We also discussed the marriage relationship between Ben and Kate and the growth that the farm afforded them. We talked about how we could see ourselves in the book, not completely, but there was something for us all. Oh, and we learned that over the age of 40 you don't have to worry about filtering what you say.  Thanks to all those that came. (Bring your friends, our numbers are dwindling.)

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book.

"[I]s life a success when it doesn't include time for after-school talks, and curling yo to read books on winter nights, and weaving daisy chains in the summer? Is it a success when you have all the big things but none of the small ones?"

"Sometimes we cannot raise our chins and see eye to eye, so we must bow our heads and have faith in one another."

"Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. When you are old, nothing else you've done will have mattered."

"When you feel burdened, listen to the laughter of your children. Take delight in them. They will make your load seem light."

Next month Kacey is hosting and even has an extra copy of the book to pass around. Come on. We would love more people.

December

The reason we don't have December book club was evident last night. Hope everyone is doing well, we missed you. Read lots of books to share in January on the 8th. Bring a favorite treat, too.

The Host

Lynda led a discussion about The Host by Stephenie Meyer. We talked about Wanda a lot and how selfish Melanie seemed to be. We discussed the human need for survival and home among other things. For food she brought camping meals (just add water), astronaut ice cream, fruit cobbler, veggie tray, etc.

Afterwards we exchanged Christmas books to read for next month. We are going to meet the first Tuesday in December, which is the 4th. We will talk about our individual reads and bring a holiday themed treat to share.

Anything I missed or you want to add?

The Scarlet Pimpernel

No one seemed to be 100% sold on this book. Those that could get into enjoyed it, but we kept getting off topic. We all would have liked to hear more about Percy's disguises. It was interesting to find out that there are 16 books in the series. Well, it is kind of a series. Two take place before this book, some focus on specific characters, etc. Me, being me, recommended (more than once) the musical by Frank Wildhorn and the movie with Jane Seymour, Anthony Andrews and Ian McKellen. I loved the ending and how romantic it was in the book. The movie and musical do not to that justice. Any other thoughts?

We had a fabulous Red Velvet cake ball and several red candies to round out our evening. Next month on November 13th we are meeting at Kacey's to discuss The Host by Stephenie Meyer.