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!

October 2012

Our book this month is If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern. It was chosen by Krista. Here is a brief description of the book taken from Amazon.com:

Readers and critics alike adore Cecelia Ahern for her lighthearted yet insightful stories about modern women and their often unusual situations. In If You Could See Me Now, she takes that theme a step further, offering us a heroine who is entirely believable, and the new man in her life who is, well, slightly less so.
Elizabeth Egan's life runs on order: Both her home and her emotions are arranged just so, with little room for spontaneity. It's how she counteracts the chaos of her family -- an alcoholic mother who left when she was young, an emotionally distant father, and a free-spirited sister, who seems to be following in their mother's footsteps, leaving her own six-year-old son, Luke, in Elizabeth's care. When Ivan, Luke's mysterious new grown-up friend, enters the picture, Elizabeth doesn't know quite what to make of him. With his penchant for adventure and colorful take on things large and small, Ivan opens Elizabeth's eyes to a whole new way of living. But is it for real? Is Ivan for real?
If You Could See Me Now is a love story with heart -- and just a touch of magic.

RETREAT is this month! This book will be reviewed at retreat. Dates are October 26-27. More details coming soon.

September 2012

What would possess a gifted young man recently graduated from college to literally walk away from his life? Noted outdoor writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer tackles that question in his reporting on Chris McCandless, whose emaciated body was found in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. Described by friends and relatives as smart, literate, compassionate, and funny, did McCandless simply read too much Thoreau and Jack London and lose sight of the dangers of heading into the wilderness alone? Krakauer, whose own adventures have taken him to the perilous heights of Everest, provides some answers by exploring the pull the outdoors, seductive yet often dangerous, has had on his own life.

Book club will be Sept 28th, 7:00 PM at Leah's house. Let me know if you have any questions. Can't wait to discuss this book!