Sisterland at Julie's

It was a small group at Julie's to discuss Sisterland. We enjoyed a healthy Italian meal (well, healthy until the gelato came out later). Sisterland stimulated some interesting discussion - abortion, moving past infidelity, twin relationships, ESP....  We agreed she accurately captures the stress of mothering two young children, and that Jeremy pretty much sounds like an ideal husband.  I enjoyed the book but I think I still prefer American Wife and Prep over Sisterland.

Julie thoughtfully provided four books for us to choose from, and we unanimously selected The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew. Amazon blurb on the Dry Grass of August

Next book club: Monday, October 21st, 7:00pm at Tamara's house - a house with quite a backstory! She will send out directions to her house in an email when the date gets closer.

August 2013 Book Club in Review

Thank you for a wonderful evening discussing Wild and saying our farewells to Rebecca. What a tasty Mexican feast too - especially those lilikoi margaritas! (I was feeling the effects of those the next day).

 

Rebecca, we sure are going to miss you!!! Please keep in touch and pass along any good reads to us. 

And the winner was - What do Women Want OR Daring Greatly

Next Meeting: Monday, September 16th at Julie's House

Here are the links to Brene Brown's Ted Talks - 

Power of Vulnerability

Listening to shame

BACK IN BLOGNESS

What a wonderful book club at Melissa's. We sure were chatty. It lingered later into the evening than most of our get togethers (guess that's what happens when we skip a month!).  Tahnee - it's great to have you back!!! We also welcomed a new member, Tamara, who impressed everyone by reading both books, making amazing cobbler and giving us some clear facts about Rat Lungworm Disease. So I guess now I'll only be buying bananas, avocados and papayas at the market - and have to let go of my visions of a veggie garden. And yes, that is a slug nestled up next to my parsley - the one herb I thought was safe from slugs!! Poor Kim, not only did she learn that Guinness is not vegetarian, but also that her lettuce washing strategy is not sufficient. I'm hoping the salted caramel gelato made up for that.

I think the food may have received more discussion than the books by Dinaw Mengestu. Not because we didn't like the book/s, but because the food was SOOOO good! It was a five star meal for sure.  (The book, maybe 3 stars?) Please send me your recipe and I'll post it on the blog.

We had some great nominations for our next book - here were the three tops:

• The Boy who Defied his Karma by Michael Koyama
• Sisterhood by Curtis Sittenfield
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Due to our love of American Wife and Prep, Sisterhood won the final vote.

Next Meeting & Book Send off for Rebecca:
Monday, August 12th @ 7pm
Emily's House
We will be discussing Wild by Cheryl Strayed
*warning - since I have restarted blog, I will be taking pictures again!

First Book Club of 2011

For February's book discussion we selected The Fiddler in the Subway by Gene Weingarten.

Next month we will be discussing Cutting for Stone at Tahne's beautiful home -

Monday, January 10th at 6:30 pm.

Have a wonderful holiday season sexy readers! See you in 2011.

Holiday Cheer - Night in Review

What a wonderful night. Plenty of food, friends, games, gifts and yes, a little bit of book talk too! This was the first time almost all of us were together (we missed you Shell and hope you come back in 2011!)

Show us your ornies!

Consensus seemed to be that the Help was a worthy read, full of hope and struggle. Despite most of us enjoying the Help, it was actually discussed very little! We had other things on our mind like earning Book Bucks, celebrating Meredith's big news and hearing about Julie's Ipad.

The best part of the night for me the year in review - but not just revisiting the books we've read, but recounting all the significant life events that have occurred in the lives of our bookie group of women. It was amazing what some people remembered!

After selecting the book for February, we all snuggled into the coaches for a new tradition of an ornament auction, and of course our long time tradition of the White Elephant Gift Exchange.

The highlight this year were the patent leather red platform boots, selected by Rebecca but swapped by Tahne!

Thank you all for such a special night. And in closing, our quote of the night:

"Vicki, what is it that you drink in those little jackets?" - Stephanie

Blog is back baby!

We had a wonderful get together at Melissa's house and discussion about Zeitoun. There were many good nominations (using some great recommendations from Melissa's mom!) but Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese won as the book to discussin January.

Our next get together is on Tuesday, December 14th at 6:30 at

Emily's. We will be discussing the book, The Help. It is also our annual holiday white elephant gift and ornament exchange. Please bring:

A wrapped ornament

A wrapped white elephant gift

A potluck item

See you soon! Directions to Emily's house will be emailed out.

August Book Club

Well, it was a small summer crowd this time but we still had some great grub and picked out some promising books. We also managed to do a little send off for Melissa as she prepares for motherhood.

The four attendees were Emily, Melissa, Shell and Meredith. We dined on mom's version of mac-n-cheese and mashed potatoes. And dessert was a total hit - Melissa made Oreo Cookie Ice Cream Bombs. I almost licked my plate.

We talked only a little bit about the book. Melissa had done a little informal research (aka probing) about Jennifer B. from her former students at Colby. Consensus was we enjoyed the book, not our favorite, but an interesting read.

Meredith won the Book Club Baby Shower Quiz of classic children's books. And everyone managed to come up with different Dr. Seuss books!

Having only a couple people tonight made the book selection a bit easier. Because three out of four of us are declining to read the Sea (I promise I attempted, I read the first 8 pages like 3 times), we decided to put in an alternate for September.

For September we will be discussing The Sea AND

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (Which is a book in Shell's top 10 all time favorites).

YOU PICK WHICH ONE (OR BOTH) that you want to read.

For October it was between Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo and The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Breakfast with Buddha won - so go ahead and track down your copy!

Meredith will be hosting at her beautiful new home in Pepeekeo for September. The date is Monday September 14 at 6:30. As the date grows closer, check your email for directions to her house.