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 Meeting & Schedule

We're back after a long break! Hope everyone had a good holiday season and are ready to read some good books this year.

Last week we met to talk about the January book - "The Ladies Auxiliary". I think we all agreed we all had someone in our lives that reminded us of a character in the book. Thanks to Mary for hosting and Heather for the yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

A reminder - we're meeting for February's book pick "The Glass Castle" at Erin's house on February 26th at 7pm.

March's book pick is "Out of Africa". Meeting at Rika's house on March 26th at 7pm.

April's book pick to be determined, meeting at Annie's house on April 23rd.

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.

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.

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.