Book Club Gift Exchange

During our December 8th get together we will be doing a White Elephant Gift Exchange. Bring a regifted, silly or otherwise wrapped package for our 3rd lively gift exchange!

Origin
The name "White elephant" originates from an old Burmese cultural reference to the value of an albino elephant, which is considered sacred and must be well taken care of, despite the financial burden that it may bring to its owner. Therefore, the gifts exchanged may be large, delicate and/or utterly pointless for the recipient (e.g., a huge stuffed animal for someone who lives in a small apartment).

Notes from November

We had a rich discussion trying to figure out why we were all so engaged in this depressing book about an old man in Norway who moves to a cabin on a lake. Turns out many of us had different interpretations on what happened in the book and differing levels of difficulty recalling plot facts and inferences. But, this was a very well-written book...steeped with all the mind blowing stuff that you learned about in A.P. English class...Motifs, themes... I don't think we really reached consensus on the main message or purpose of the book, but its definitely one to reread.

The food can pretty much be summarized with two words: Pizza & Desserts. It was a sweet lovers paradise - brownies, chocolate fudge pie, krumkake (Norwegian cookies)...I think I'm forgetting something.

Shelley was the hostess this time and I think we'd vote her living room furniture as the most comfy furniture owned by our group. She had quite an eclectic assortment of book nominations for us...

One from her mom, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, about the emotional world of farm animals. One from her friend who works on Mauna Kea at an observatory, called Space.

(these two didn't make it through the first voting round).

Quote of the Night:

"Those are not exactly my favorite animals."
- Melissa, in response to the introductory blurb of The Pig Who Sang to the Moon

The final nominees were:

1. Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball


2. Welcome to My Country by Lauren Slater


3. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard

And the winner was:

Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball

Next Book Club:

December 8th at 6:30

Meredith's House

Sometime in October Book Club

The blog is a little behind! Sorry everyone!

Before I move on to the most recent Book Club fun, here is a reminder about our October gathering...

Miss (almost Mrs.) Melissa hosted. The food was so so good. Melissa made polenta rounds and Rebecca made fresh cornbread with honey butter. Yummers.

There wasn't too much indepth discussion about But Enough About Me. The consensus was that it was a fun read and they we adored her father that worked at Sears.

Melissa had a stack of good nominations but then a couple of us rabble-rousers requested that The Time Traveller's Wife get put back in (Melissa has been trying to get the group to read this book since we started meeting 3 years ago!).

Guess what won - Time Traveller's Wife!!