October Meeting: Passionate Marriage

Our book for October is: "Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy alive in committed relationships" by David Schnarch.  This is a book unlike one we've read in the past and should provide for interesting discussion about marriage and relationships in our next book club meeting.

A brief description from the authors website (www.passionatemarriage.com)

In PASSIONATE MARRIAGE: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships, he makes available to the general public his highly successful and untraditional approach to sex and marital therapy. He reveals how a passionate sex life requires each person to face the anxiety of defining himself/herself while getting closer to their partner, a process he calls differentiation.

Differentiation involves changing the way we think about marriage: Instead of seeing it as the merging of two people into one, as has often been taught, we must learn to maintain a sense of ourselves as distinct from our partner in order to become closer to him/her. Gaining more differentiation is not easy-and Dr. David warns that any "expert" who promises Eros and intimacy in ten easy steps should not be trusted. Sexual encounters provide perfect opportunities to differentiate and develop the strength to love deeply.

Mixing humor and compassion, Dr. David describes couples' explicit sexual encounters and dramatic therapy sessions to demonstrate how they found personal, marital, and sexual fulfillment far greater than they ever dreamed possible. Every sexual exchange, from kissing to daring erotic behaviors, is a graphic picture of how you and your partner feel about yourselves and each other outside the bedroom. He goes beyond simply curing sexual dysfunctions to help people achieve their sexual potential. For some that means the jolt of "wall-socket sex" and experiences of sexual transcendence.

Passionate Marriage offers explicit discussion of sexual behavior, practical tips, and details of couples' going through the "people-growing" crucibles inherent in emotionally committed relationships.

***

Click this link if you'd like to watch a video interview of Dr. Snarch and a transcript of the interview (I couldn't get it to embed!)

August, September and so on

Okay, it's been months, sorry.

The summer definitely got the better of us book clubbers and we sort of fell apart.  But, what else is summer for?

Our August meeting will be spent watching "The Help" at the local theater.  A perfect chick flick for all us chicks who read the book last year.

Our September meeting will be at Robyn's house.  It's fall, so time for us all to get back on the ball and back into literature, right?

The book for September is "Left to Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagiza, about Rwanda.  Robyn has already read it and loved it so it should be a good selection for all of us.  Watch this powerful video of Immaculee from the CBS Early Show.

June Book Preview - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

From Wikipedia:

The book chronicles both the life of Oscar de Leon, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations.

The middle sections of the novel center on the lives of Oscar's runaway sister, Lola; his mother, Hypatia Belicia Cabral; and his grandfather, Abelard. Rife with footnotes, science fiction and fantasy references, comic book analogies, and various Spanish dialects, the novel is also a meditation on story-telling, the Dominican diaspora and identity, masculinity, and oppression.

Most of the story is told by an apparently omniscient narrator who is eventually revealed to be Yunior de Las Casas, a college roommate of Oscar's who dated Lola.^[4] Yunior also appears in many of Diaz's short stories.^[5]

Book and Meeting Updates

Hey Girls -

We had a great going away party for Rika.  We will all miss her while she and her family are adventuring in Darwin, Australia.

Our April meeting will be on April 21 at Erin's house.
The book is: "A vintage affair" by Isabel Wolff

A quick synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
Every dress has a history. And so does every woman.
 
In Isabel Wolff’s captivating A Vintage Affair, a treasured child’s coat becomes a thread of hope connecting two very different women.
 
Her friends are stunned when Phoebe Swift abruptly leaves a plum job at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction house to open her own vintage clothing shop in London—but to Phoebe, it’s the fulfillment of a dream. In the sunlight-flooded interior of Village Vintage, surrounded by Yves Saint Laurent silk scarves, Vivienne Westwood bustle skirts, cupcake dresses, and satin gowns, Phoebe hopes to make her store the hot new place to shop, even as she deals with two ardent suitors, her increasingly difficult mother, and a secret from her past that casts a shadow over her new venture.

For Phoebe, each vintage garment carries its own precious history. Digging for finds in attics and wardrobes, Phoebe is rewarded whenever she finds something truly unique, for she knows that when you buy a piece of vintage clothing, you’re not just buying fabric and thread—you’re buying a piece of someone’s past. But one particular article of clothing will soon unexpectedly change her life. 
 
Thérèse Bell, an elderly Frenchwoman, has an impressive clothing collection. But among the array of smart suits and couture gowns, Phoebe finds a child’s sky-blue coat—an item with which Bell is stubbornly reluctant to part. As the two women become friends, Phoebe will learn the tale of that little blue coat. And she will discover an astonishing connection between herself and Thérèse Bell—one that will help her heal the pain of her own past and allow her to love again.


In May, we'll be meeting at Annie's house on May 26.
Our May book is, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck.


Yeah!

Back in Action..

Yes, the book club blog has been stagnant since September.  I apologize.  The lives of mothers who read, and work, and blog, and quit jobs, and have their grandmothers suddenly pass away are pretty busy.  That being said however, here's to getting things back on track.

Our January meeting was at Melinda's house.  Thanks Melinda for hosting.  The book for January was, Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor.

I thought the book was great.  It was an interesting juxtaposition of a very deep thinking, soul searching mother and her young quick witted, trying to figure life out daughter.

For our meeting on Thursday, February, 24, 2011, we'll be at Michelle's house and reading, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  It's a little bit on the long side so start reading now.



And, for our meeting on Thursday, March 24, 2011, we'll be at Rika's house and reading Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg.

A review posted on Amazon.com:
Michael Greenberg's spare, unflinching memoir begins with a bang: "On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad." Hurry Down Sunshine chronicles the summer when fifteen-year-old Sally experienced her first full-blown manic episode—an event that in a "single stroke" changed her identity and, by extension, that of her entire family. Simply told and beautifully written, Greenberg's memoir shines a stark light on mental illness, painting a vivid picture of a brain and body under siege—mania as a separate living thing squatting within the patient. As a writer who lives "so much in his head," Greenberg is particularly anguished by his daughter's fractured psyche, and his honesty about being both sickened and fascinated by his daughter's condition is breathtaking: "During the worst moments, I think of her as my disease—the disease I must bear...I am intoxicated with Sally's madness in both senses of the word: inebriated and poisoned." So desperate is he to understand her, that he relentlessly researches mental illness (the book is peppered with fascinating insights into drug therapy and anecdotes about writers who struggled with madness), and even goes so far as to sample a full dose of his daughter's medication. Startling, heart-wrenching, and yet unwaveringly unsentimental, Hurry Down Sunshine is an unforgettable story of a young girl's descent into madness, told through the eyes of a harried and helpless father trying desperately to bring her back. --Daphne Durham 

Summer Fun

Though our June club attendance was low (isn't it so hard in the summer?) we had a great meeting last week and we had a new member attend.  Thanks for coming, Carrie!  I hope we didn't scare you away.

We talked and talked and talked.  The group consensus after reading, "lost on planet china" was that though the people of China may be good, the machine of China is not.  And, who wants to live in a place where you truly cannot breath the air, drink most of the water, and might get bird flu.  SARS!

That aside, the smores were yummy using the worlds biggest marshmallows, thanks to the local grocery store and going to bed smelling like smoke is awesome.  A sure sign that summer is here.

For July, we'll be reading, "Where the Heart Is" by Billie Letts.  It's also a movie.  You can read the book and watch the movie and I bet you can get both at Wal-Mart.  Wouldn't that be a nice homage?

For July, I think we'll be at Rika's house but I'm not sure.  Or maybe it was Melinda's?  Either way, we'll work it out and look forward to seeing everyone at the end of July.

Lost on Planet China

Lost on Planet China is the hilarious and eye opening tale of traveler Maarten Troost and his journey through the land of China. 

This is our book for the month of June.  It may change the way you think, shop, and breath.

Seriously.

Watch this video of the "Number One Toilet in Heaven and Earth"



Watch this video of Maarten Troost giving a talk at Google about his book.

Updates for the next little while

Oh, I love book club.  I really, really do.  I was just telling my husband when I got home last night that I feel very lucky that we've all found each other over the last five years.  What a great group of brilliant, funny, witty, beautiful and talented women I get the chance to talk with.

And eat great treats with.

Group hug!

Here are the details for the next little while:
May 27
Makayla's House (or Heather's if they decide to switch)
"A Year of Living Biblically"

June 24
Annie's House
"Lost on Planet China"

July 22
Melinda's House (Melinda, are you okay with that?)
book TBD

Mockingjay

The third book, Mockingjay, in The Hunger Games series is on pre-sale at Amazon for $8.50. I know a lot of you loved these books.

June Meeting and August Book

Thanks to Melinda for hosting us this past week for our June book club discussion.

We all seemed to like the Laments - and found it very "relatable" (I love inventing new words). We all seem to know someone who is adopted, have all felt the sense of urgency in giving our kids quality names, and get an itchy trigger finger with husbands who like to be on the move - even if it's a bit figurative in nature.

Our July meeting will be a great one - I think that everyone has already read "the hunger games" and is excited to talk about the book - and what the sequel might be like. And, if it's really made into a movie, we'll have to have a book club night at the theater for sure.

twilight who?

For August - We'll be meeting at Annie's house, probably on the back patio (or maybe at Shavy Jones?). Our book for August is a true classic - at least in my opinion.

"Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway. A great, tragic love story for the end of the summer. This is one of my most favorite novels, and I've probably read it a dozen times. When I was in high school I cheated on a book review for my AP English Class. I didn't read a book, I just did a review of this one because I'd already read it so many times. As I was giving my oral review, I realized that my teacher wasn't paying attention to a thing I was saying.

So, as part of my review - I gave an alternate ending for the book - the ending is a bit tragic and I changed it to a "happily ever after".

I got a perfect score.

Either my teacher had never read the book

or

she really wasn't paying attention.

Either way - it's a great book.

Enjoy reading.

May meeting + July pick

Thanks Makayla for hosting a great May meeting! The general consensus about "Three Cups of Tea" was that those that read it, loved it, but most of us just weren't into it this month. We all agreed that someone that could put their life on hold to go out and make such monumental changes in others lives was someone that was pretty amazing though!

We picked a book for July and Michelle graciously offered her home to have the meeting. I recently read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins in about 4 hours because I COULD NOT put it down. I loved it. It's a Young Adult novel so the writing is easy to digest but the story is so good -- at least I thought. It's set in the future (but isn't too sci-fi for those of you that don't like that genre) and is a great mix of action with a love story - and it leaves you with a great cliffhanger at the end - enough that you're smacking the couch in frustration that the 2nd book doesn't get released until September 1st. Or maybe that was just me.

Either way - I hope you guys like it as much as I did. The library system seems to have a lot of copies - when I put myself on the list I was #98 in the queue so I thought I'd be waiting forever, but actually got it in about a week.

See you in June to discuss "The Laments"!

Book Updates for April, May, and June

We had a great meeting last night. Thanks Rika for hosting. I love your puppy (a great dane for those of you who weren't there) and was glad that she liked me, too.

Even though none of us seemed to finish actually reading, "Out of Africa", most of us watched the movie and agree - Robert Redford, particularly in his youth, was super dreamy.

Totally dreamy, actually. Or is that just me?

Anyway, here are our picks for the next few months. Enjoy!

April:
Our meeting has been changed to April 16th and we'll be meeting at Heather's house.

The book du jour is Dress Your Family in Courduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Being a new but huge fan of Sedaris - you'll love the book and might want to pick up Naked, another collection of short stories about his crazy family.

May:
For May, we'll be meeting at Makayla's house on May 28 and will be reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin> I've got no idea what this book is about - so if you do, leave a comment.

June:
The June meeting will be at Melinda's house on June 25 and we'll be reading a book called, The Laments.

It's awesome. You'll love it. The ending sucks.


Happy Reading.
Oh - one more idea for those of you who check the blog....
if you've got a book suggestion, leave it in the comments. That way, we've got a running list of what to read.

March, April, and then some...

Can you believe it's already March? Crazy, isn't it?

The book club is going great - our regular set of girls sure do host a party and put on a great discussion.

We did have a few changes at our February meeting that need to be addressed.

We changed the March book from "the book borrower" to "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen, a nom de plume used by the Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. This book should be a good read, especially if you like the movie with Robert Redford, right?

March meeting will be held on Thursday, March 26 @ 7 pm.

For the month of April, we'll be meeting at Heather Jackson's house and our book du jour is "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris. If you haven't read anything by Sedaris - you're in for a comical treat - there aren't many families out there more functionally dysfunctional than his as a kid.

April meeting will be on April 23 @ 7 pm.

Hope to see everyone there.

Oh, anyone want to do treats for March or April? Volunteers to host in May?

January & February book picks

(Thank goodness that horrible head cheese picture is not the top post anymore.)

Last Thursday night we got together to discuss the book pick for November, which was "For One More Day" by Mitch Albom. The general consensus was that everyone liked the book - with most of us agreeing that there was someone in our own lives we would love to have the chance to spend one more day with. We had a book exchange and a cookie exchange - taking platefuls of yummy cookies home to share with our families. Thanks to Robyn for hosting us in her beautiful home!



The book pick for January is "The Ladies Auxiliary" by Tova Mirvis. We
will resume our normal schedule and start meeting on the fourth
Thursday of the month. The January meeting will be held January 22nd
at 7:00 PM.



The book pick for February is "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls. The February meeting will be held February 26th.

October & November Book picks

Just a quick update to get posted the upcoming books for October and November.

This month we're reading Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish. We will be meeting to discuss this book on Thursday, November 6th.



For November the book that was picked was For One More Day by Mitch Albom. We will be meeting to discuss this book on Thursday, December 4th.



We decided not to pick a book to read for the month of December because of the busy holiday season -- we'll pick up again with a book in January.

Hope everyone can join us in the upcoming months!

September Book

The book we're reading for the month of September is "Dishwasher" by Pete Jordan. Here's a couple of reviews from the authors site:

“Dishwasher is an instant American classic. It should be required reading for every high school student in the nation, paired with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Few people are audacious enough to lead a memoir-worthy life. Even fewer people are talented enough to write said memoir. By the grace of the literary gods, Pete Jordan is both.”
— San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Jordan has an eye for devastating detail, but he wraps what he sees in humor. No matter how grim his situation, the reader senses he couldn’t wait to write it down, check the place off his map and keep going.”
— Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A good story, well told...ironic...worth reading.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

We'll be meeting on September 25th at 7pm at Rikas' house. See you then.

The Pleasure of My Company

Thank you Amazon for the info.
Readers expecting something zany, something crudely humorous from Steve Martin's second novel, The Pleasure of My Company, will discover much greater riches. While the book has a sense of humor, Martin moves everywhere with a gentler, lighter touch in this elegant little fiction that verges on the profound and poetic.

Daniel Pecan Cambridge is the narrator and central consciousness of the novel (actually a novella). Daniel, an ex-Hewlett-Packard communiqué encoder, is a savant whose closely proscribed world is bounded on every side by neuroses and obsessions. He cannot cross the street except at driveways symmetrically opposed to each, and he cannot sleep unless the wattage of the active light bulbs in his apartment sums to 1,125. Daniel's starved social life is punctuated by twice-weekly visits from a young therapist in training, Clarissa; by his prescription pick-ups from a Rite Aid pharmacist, Zandy; and by his "casual" meetings with the bleach-blond real estate agent, Elizabeth, who is struggling to sell apartments across the street. But Daniel's dysfunctional routines are shattered one day when he becomes entangled in the chaos of Clarissa's life as a single mother. Taking care of Clarissa's tiny son, Teddy, Daniel begins to emerge from the safety of logic, magic squares, and obsessive counting.

Martin's craftsmanship is remarkable. The tightly packed novella paints rich portraits with restraint and balance, including nothing extraneous to Daniel's world. The book does not try for pyrotechnics but is contented with a Zen-like simplicity in both prose and plot. Avoiding the crushing bleakness of much contemporary fiction, Martin insists through Daniel--a man haunted by horrors of his own making--that there is possibility for compassion, that broken lives can actually be healed.

We will see you August 28th.

June Book

Note: Thank you wikipedia for your wonderful information

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian satire by C. S. Lewis first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of an earthly man, known only as "the Patient."

Screwtape (along with his trusted scribe Toadpipe) holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, "Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape." In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil's viewpoint. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it. A preface included in some older publishings of the book included a short dialog on the subject of whether Lewis believed demons to be fact or fiction, exemplifying Lewis' belief that despite the fictional storyline of the book, he believed Satan and demons are not fictional; further, that he held a view that they exist for a decidedly evil purpose which must not be portrayed innocuously in art and culture at the risk of obfuscating their true nature.
Versions of the letters were originally published in The Guardian, and the standard edition contains an introduction explaining how the author chose to write his story.

While The Screwtape Letters is one of Lewis' most popular works, Lewis claimed that the book was distasteful to write, and he vowed never to write a direct sequel. However, in 1959 he wrote an addendum, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, which takes the form not of a letter but rather an after-dinner speech given by Screwtape at the Tempters' Training College for young demons. It first appeared as an article in the Saturday Evening Post. The Screwtape Letters, along with Screwtape Proposes a Toast, has also been released on both audiocassette and CD narrated by John Cleese of Monty Python and Joss Ackland.

Join us the 4th Thursday in June for a fun filled night of chatter and treats.

May Book

The May book club book is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

In this book, you can journey with Gilbert in a year of travel and healing after a tumultuous divorce in the states. She travels to Italy, India, and Bali to find herself, her God, and then happens to find the love of her life, too.

The reviews of the book are great. We hope that you enjoy the read and join us in May.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven't found him or her...Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in.” by Jennifer Egan

TIME MAGAZINE
“An engaging, intelligent and entertaining memoir…her account of her time in India is beautiful and honest and free of patchouli-scented obscurities.” by Lev Grossman

LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Gilbert’s journey is full of mystical dreams, visions and uncanny coincidences…Yet for every ounce of self-absorption her classical New-Age journey demands, Gilbert is ready with an equal measure of intelligence, humor and self-deprecation…Gilbert’s wry, unfettered account of her extraordinary journey makes even the most cynical reader dare to dream of someday finding God deep within a meditation cave in India, or perhaps over a transcendent slice of pizza.” by Erika Schickel

If you are interested in more information about Ms. Gilbert, EPL or any of her other works, visit her website at: www.elizabethgilbert.com

April Book

It's time for a bit of nostalgia for this month's book club selection. We will be reading Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

Second to the right and straight on til morning - that's the way to Neverland, an island filled with adventure and hidden danger. It's home to beautiful mermaids and fairies...as well as dastardly pirates ruled by the evil Captain Hook. It's a place for lost boys, hungry crocodiles, and, most of all, people who don't want to grow up. The Darling children don't know anything about Neverland - until a magical boy named Peter Pan shows up and leads the way.

Start thinking back to what it was like when you were a kid and never, ever wanted to grow up.

We'll be meeting on Thursday, April 24 at Annie's house. See you then.