January Book Club

Shanna's House (I am switching Leah) Wednesday January 29th @ 7:00 pm
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

Monthly Assignments for 2014

January: Leah
February: Linda
March: Ann
April: Becca
May: Krista
June: Shanna
July: Caron
August: Missy
September: Angie
October: Johanna
November: book reviews
December: Mindy

These are random assignments. Let me know if you want to change up your month. It would be really helpful if you can pick your book as soon as possible. This way people can get a hold of the books and even get ahead on the reading if they want to. Let me know what you choose and I will update the blog. Thanks!

December 2013: Christmas Party!!

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2012: In Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt has made a singular portrait of the late-‘80s AIDS epidemic’s transformation of a girl and her family. But beyond that, she tells a universal story of how love chooses us, and how flashes of our beloved live through us even after they’re gone. Before her Uncle Finn died of an illness people don’t want to talk about, 14-year-old June Elbus thought she was the center of his world. A famous and reclusive painter, Finn made her feel uniquely understood, privy to secret knowledge like how to really hear Mozart’s Requiem or see the shape of negative space. When he’s gone, she discovers he had a bigger secret: his longtime partner Toby, the only other person who misses him as much as she does. Her clandestine friendship with Toby—who her parents blame for Finn’s illness—sharpens tensions with her sister, Greta, until their bond seems to exist only in the portrait Finn painted of them. With wry compassion, Brunt portrays the bitter lengths to which we will go to hide our soft underbellies, and how summoning the courage to be vulnerable is the only way to see through to each other’s hungry, golden souls.

Book club/CHRISTMAS PARTY will be held on Thursday, Dec 19 at Mindy's house. We will start at 7:00 PM.

We will be doing the chocolate fountain. Yay! Please sign up to bring one of the following items or something of your choosing.  Feel free to bring whatever you want. The following items are just suggestions.

Chocolate: Mindy
Marshmallows: Becca
Pineapple: Krista
Strawberries:
Potato chips: Ann
Cinnamon bears: Johanna
Pretzels: Caron
Peanut butter something:
Brownie bites: Shanna
Angel food cake/pound cake: Missy
Bananas:

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm excited to see you all!

November 2013

As always, thank you for a wonderful retreat. I had such a fantastic time with each of you....and some much needed therapy. I sure do love all you ladies!

Our book for November is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. Here is a synopsis off of Amazon:
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

This is a fantastic read and should make for great discussion at book club. Our meeting will be held at Johanna's house on Thursday, November 21 at 8:00PM. Please note that this is different from our usual date. We changed this month because of conflicts with Thanksgiving and RS activities that some of us have to attend.  Also, Johanna had the great idea to make cards while we discuss the book. So bring your card-making supplies and we will get our craft on. I'll bring card blanks in case anyone needs them.
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Again, thanks for a great retreat. I look forward to seeing you all in a month!

July 2013 "Desert Flower" by Waris Dirie

By age 6, Waris Dirie was herding her family's sheep and goats, fending off hyenas and wild dogs as the family carved a path through Africa. She was just twice that age when she ran off into the vast furnace of the Somali desert to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. Traveling for days without food and water, she made her way to Mogadishu and later to London as a servant to her uncle, the Somalian ambassador. There she wrestled with culture shock and got her first taste of the modeling life that eventually brought her into the public eye. Dirie is resilient, having survived drought, hunger, and the ritual female genital mutilation that marks a step toward womanhood among some traditional Moslems but, argue critics, steals or ruins many girls' lives. "As we traveled throughout Somalia," says Dirie, "we met families and I played with their daughters. When we visited them again, the girls were missing. No one spoke the truth about their absence or even spoke of them at all." As a special ambassador to the United Nations, Dirie has spoken out loudly on this subject and championed environmental causes, too. How much of her sometimes breathless story is gospel truth and how much embellished is hard to say. Like Dirie herself, though, the combination is intriguing, powerful, and unique.

Book club will be held at Missy's house, July 31, at 8PM.  Let mw know if you have any questions. Can't wait to see you all!

May 2013: Austenland by Shannon Hale

Thirty-three-year-old Jane Hayes, who has a fairly serious addiction to the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, inherits a trip to Pembrook Park, Kent, England, the location of a resort where guests dress, talk, think, and act in ways that Jane Austen would approve. Refusing to lie about her age, even on vacation in a place right out of Austen's England, Jane finds herself quickly overcoming the obsession with Mr. Darcy that may very well have jeopardized her 13 "relationships" over the years. Left to walk in last to dinner, mildly obsessed with one of the hotel's gardeners, and annoyed by another guest's overeager attempts to bag a man, Jane is eager to return to Manhattan. Then she decides to give it all one more chance, since Great-Aunt Carolyn did see fit to pay for the entire vacation. Hale does a lovely job with the tale of a single woman who would appreciate a genuine shot at love. The book is well written, quite readable, and the myriad characters, especially those working at the resort, are quirkily funny. Given the immense popularity of Jane Austen's novels among teen girls, this book definitely has cross-over appeal.

Book club will be held on May 29th, 8PM at Leah's house. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Monthly Assignments 2013

January: Amy "Language of Flowers"
February: Becca "North and South"
March: Linda "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt"
April: Angie "Proof of Heaven"
May: Leah "Austenland"
June: Caron
July: Missy
August: Krista
September: Ann
October: Shanna
November: Johanna "The Light Between Two Oceans"
December: Mindy "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

Book Club Retreat Spring 2013!

Yay, EVERYONE is in the picture! We love you and will miss you so much Amy!