Welcome to 2012!

Hello to all -

The blog was sorely neglected last year.  Sorry about that.  For the few of you who actually look at this blog, I promise to try and keep it updated regularly with information about the Daybreak Book Club, and other great and cool information as well.

To keep things brief, at our December cookie and book exchange we selected the books and hosts for the first three months of the year, and also determined the dates for book club.  It was a unanimous decision to start our meetings a little bit later this year (7:30 or 8:00 pm, depending on the hosts preference) and to keep our club meetings on the fourth Thursday of the month, pending major holidays.

So, here are the details:
January 26: "Life of Pi"
February 23: "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake"
March 22: "The Sweetness at the bottom of the Pie"

Yes, the books for the year have food related themes.  We thought it might be fun to keep with the theme throughout the rest of the year so to those of you who are members of book club or anyone interested in joining, be thinking of foodie themed or titled books to read for the new year.

The other meeting dates for 2012 are as follows so mark your calendars:
April 26
May 24
June 28
July 26
August 23
September 27
October 25
November 15
December 13 (Book and Cookie Exchange!)

Getting close to wrapping up the year

Yes, it's only September, but that is bringing us very close to the end of the year.

Here's the rundown for those of you playing at home.

September book:  
Thursday, September 23 at 7:00 pm

A Girl named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

Robyn's house

October book:

Thursday, October 28 at 7:00 pm

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Erin's House

Spooky Halloween Party

November book:

Thursday, November 18 at 7:00 pm

No one has claimed November.  Get it while the gettin' is good.

December book:

Thursday, December 16 at 7:00 pm

Book and cookie exchange.  

Come prepared to talk about your favorite non-book club book you read during the year.

Annie's House

Good Treats, good conversation

Tonight we talked about AJ Jacobs, "The Year of Living Biblicaly".  We liked the book.  We liked Mr. Jacobs initiative and dedication to his cause - living the rules of the Bible for a year - something that none of us felt we could truly to - commit to such a radical life change for an entire year.  I mean, it's hard enough to make sure we shower every day, let alone find someone to stone for violating Mosaic law.

I do wear skirts most days and don't shave my legs but once a week....maybe I'm closer than I thought.

As with most of our book club meetings, if Robyn doesn't bring a set of discussion questions, our conversation wanders.  Lately, it seems to wander ahead a month to our next book.  June is about China and we are all a little bit excited about that.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I joined the conversation late last night, but it was interesting.

It seems that we all enjoyed the book though a few of us found Ms. Kingsolver to be a tad bit (okay, a lot bit) self-righteous in her bold endeavor to live off the land and scold those of us who oh, drive cars to the local market and eat food.  Sorry - I'm not a farmer, I'm a consumer.

We all agree though that her idea is a good one and that there are many ways that we can take small to large steps that can translate into huge (and positive) changes in our lives and the lives of the food we consume, like:
Buy local products from local stores
Visit farmers markets regularly and buy fresh produce and products
Go herbal when possible
Have a small garden
Buy from friends and family who have connections to locally grown items (eggs, vegetables, meat)
Donate money to organizations like Heifer International (heifer.org) to provide livelihoods for peoples in remote and often sad places of the world.
Be a stay at home mom and have no life.  Then, you don't have to drive your car and kill the environment.

A few other items that were discussed last night:
herb club sjherbclub@yahoogroups.com;

holistic club/group in the neighborhood. Amy Jones is a doula and herbalist and she's the moderator. Amy Jones thebirthsource@gmail.com;

a link to the holistic conference
http://www.holisticldsliving.com/

http://www.heifer/. org/ (buy cows for poor countries)
http://www.kiva/. org/  (micro-lending)

July Meeting and September Book

We had a lovely time at Robin's discussing "The Hunger Games". It was the best discussion we've had in a long time (about the book that is) - even if the discussion was largely based on our imaginary versions of Gale and Peeta and who was better looking.

Hypothetically of course.

Peeta was so much hotter.

Moving on we've picked a book for September.
We will be reading, "Knit Two" by Kate Jacobs. Kate is the author of "The Friday Night Knitting Club" which we read last year. Or maybe two years ago.

And....
As a reminder, our August meeting will be on Thursday, August 27 at Annie's house.

We'll be discussing "Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway.

Be there or be square.

Maybe if your lucky I'll make a fabulous desert.

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.

Head Cheese

Tonight at book club we were wondering what a head cheese is. In the latest book, "Little Heathens" the author talks about making it and we all did not understand. If you are truly curious about this and are not of weak constitution, have a look. It is a little, well really a lot, disgusting.

It will make you think twice about using the term lightly.

All That Remains....

After a great book club meeting, there isn't a whole lot left.

Food, Fun, and Good Conversation

Last night's book club was a success. The book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan , led us down all kinds of paths of discussion from renewed and broken friendships, to braces and botox, to rearing children and daughters.

Thanks to Tiffany for bringing such extravagant treats and Heather for the tasty cookies.

(Yes, I know the pictures are fuzzy. I wanted to protect your identities)