The Fall Line Up

Book for September 4th, Host Home: My place (Jen A.)
(Can't remember who picked this... maybe Oprah?)

Book for October 2nd-- Who wants to host? I will be out of town on this weekend?
(Ami's Pick)
Book for November 6th--- Who wants to host?
(Suggested in magazine)

Book for December 4th-- Who wants to host?
(Skye's Pick)

Book for January 1st-- Who wants to host? Should we change the day?
(Sarah's Pick)

Summer Review

Wow it's really hard to believe that our summer is quickly coming to an end! It really flew by!

Well, book club this summer has been a little on the small side, but I have enjoyed getting together and the discussions.

June's Book Club was at Faith's house, we discussed Blessed Child. There was a lot to discuss with this book. It was an interesting concept and contained some powerful and abstract ideas such as... what our prayers look like... colorful bursts of electricity going up to God and then shooting around the world. It also addressed suffering and healing and how God works in this broken and hurting world. Ultimately it makes you think about what it would be like if Jesus came into the modern world today as He did over 2000 years ago... how would people respond? It was pretty interesting. One of the central themes in this book was power, the use and miss use of it. It came down to a battle between good verses evil. I will leave it up to you to guess who triumphed in the end.

July's Book Club was at Ami's house. We took a field trip out of the neighborhood and got to visit Ami's neck of the woods... no pun intended. Rose, Tanya S., Ami and I had a nice time chatting and discussing Lovely Bones. The bulk of the discussion revolved around heaven and the books take on the after life. We concluded that in the book it heaven was more about earth than it was about heaven, and we wondered if by definition that would be hell rather than heaven. The books version of heaven was left up to the imagination of the person who died. It was more of a place to recover and process your own death rather than be swept into a bliss filled and oblivious after life. If you were to contrast this to the Christian version of heaven, it could be summed up as follows: In Lovely Bones heaven is a world created to revolve around each person specifically. Christians believe that heaven is a place that revolves around God, free of pain and inperfection, you want for nothing and you are occupied with singing praises to God while walking the streets of gold. We debated a little about what we thought would be better versions to go to.

August book club was at Sarah's house. It was only fitting since it is one of Sarah's favorite books. Faith, Skye, Jen and Sarah discussed the merits of Michael Hosea. Is he really that attractive of a main character? Was his response to Angel believable? Did the ending make sense? Over all we really liked it. At times the book seemed a little preachy, but in the end we were all won over to the story. It truely is a beautiful love story.

Summer Reading List

Here are the picks for the next three months

June 5th Blessed Child By Ted Dekker













July 3rd Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold













August 7th Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers

Persuasion, May Book Club

Tanya C. hosted the group and it was lovely. We had a small but lively group that consisted of Ami, Faith, Tanya, Audra and Jen (not to mention Rosemary and Naomi).

The book club, (those not in attendance included) seems to be split as to the merit of this classic novel. For almost everyone it was definitely hard to switch gears and get into the style of Jane Austen's novel. We definitely agreed that if you already knew the story or listened to the audio recording of it, it made it much easier to follow.

We enjoyed a nice chat about the book and it's characters and enjoyed a great time of visiting with each other.

Thanks for the great time ladies!

PS- Another night sans chocolate... next month we will have to make sure someone supplies the goods! So funny!

We did get to sample a wine from 1982.... this proved to be more of a science experiment as well as a lesson in Wine for those of us less savvy in the Wine department. Apparently, not all wine and not all cheese get better with age. This is good to know!

Oh and we did pick three more books. We took a Scientific approach to this too. We put all the titles of books that were suggested into a vase and drew them at random.

See the next post to find out the winners.

Beauty and the Bee

Honey Pat. This is the best way to bring a lively glow to your face and body while you moisturize and smooth. And it’s so much fun! Just bring one of those cute little honey-bears into the tub with you. Squeeze some honey anywhere on your skin and pat it with both hands. As you continue to pat your skin, the honey gets really sticky, and will pull up your skin gently with every pat. This is the BEST for circulation, and you’ll end up with a gorgeous glow. Rinse off the honey when you’ve had enough.

Honey Bath. If you don’t have time to pat-and-glow, just add 1/4 cup or so of honey to your bath. Mmmm—sweet, silky, and luscious skin.

Honey Shiny Hair. Mix 1 teaspoon honey, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and 1 quart of warm water. After shampooing, simply pour through hair. Let your hair dry as you normally would; you don’t need to rinse it out.

Moisturizing Honey Mask. Mix 2 tablespoons honey and 2 teaspoons milk or cream. Smooth on face and allow to remain for 10 minutes, then rinse.

Honey-Apple Toner. This sweet alpha-hydroxy miracle will help to firm, smooth, and moisturize your skin. In a blender or food processor, combine 1 peeled, cored apple with a tablespoon of honey and pulse until smooth. Apply pulp gently to face and allow to remain for 15 minutes, then rinse.

Good-Enough-to-Eat Facial Cleansing Scrub. Combine 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon finely-ground almonds, 2 tablespoons dry oatmeal, and enough lemon juice to moisten. Massage mixture gently onto face, then rinse with warm water.

Honey Hair Conditioning Treatment. This great formula combines the benefits of honey and olive oil for lustrous, silky, healthy hair and scalp. Simply combine 1/2 cup honey and 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup olive oil (depending on the dryness of your hair and scalp). Saturate hair and scalp with this conditioner, then put on a shower cap and allow the conditioner to remain for 30 minutes before you shampoo and rinse as usual.

Soothing Treatment for Rough Heels. Combine 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 tablespoon of almond oil. Mix well and then apply generously to the soles of the feet, the slide feet into heavy socks. Sleep with the mixture on and then wash off in the morning.

If you are unable to sleep with the mask on over night,

leave on for a minimum of 30 minutes,

then wash it off.

If you have especially cracked heels you should

do this 2-3 times a week for the ideal result.

These recipes were taken from the following link and Sage Moms Green Babies book.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/honey-kitchen-cupboard-beauty-tips.html

The Secret Life of Bees

This book club was held at my place. It is hilarious because everyone brought some kind of dip to share. I think we had three different kinds to choose from. It was funny.... no chocolate...whooops! Not to worry we still had wine, which seems to be a book club staple.

After our discussion, (which really came alive when we started to share Bee experiences) we tested out a few honey remedies like they had in the book.

My favorite part was when Ami decided to try out the honey treatment on her feet, and I got to help her wrap her feet in plastic so she could put her honey slathered feet back into her shoes. Good times!

Circle of Friends March Book Club

This book club really lived up to the name of the novel we read. It was such a fun night. We sat in a circle around Audra's table and laughed and ate and laughed some more! It was awesome.

This book club will also be remembered as the book club de chocolate! We had other treats too, but really dug the Chocolate! Marjorie brought some AMAZING brownies with Bourbon (I think) in them... yum

We started out talking about the book, and then we shared Prom dream or disaster stories, we also shared our child hood nicknames. (These questions were inspired by the book, Benny's nicknames, and her first dance experience).

Cheers, Book Club Friends, I raise a glass of Club Orange to you!

March and April

Alright ladies here are the upcoming books on our list. For March we will be reading Circle of Friends (We are skipping Odd Thomas because it is too scary for most of us.) The next meeting will take place on March 6th at Audra's house.

For April we will be reading The Secret Life of Bees. We will be meeting on April 3rd at Tanya C's house.

Both of these books have movies. There is some talk of getting together for Book Club popcorn edition to watch the movies. Ami has volunteered her house. Stay tuned for more details. (We will watch them one at a time. That would be a marathon of a night!)

Happy Reading to you!

February Club Notes

Our February Book Club met at Faith's house.
Club members included:
Audra, Tonya C., Tonya S., Kim, Skye, Faith, and Jen... as well as the two nursing babies Rosemary and Naomi.

Faith welcomed us with a beautiful spread of goodies, as well as a white and red wine (can't remember what they were). Tanya brought a bowl of m&m's with chocolate covered pretzles coming out like a fountain (nice presentation). Audra brought banana bread (very delicious and moist), Jen brought a Valentime's special (graham crackers, cream cheese, and strawberry jam). Skye brought some Pringles (can't get enough of them) and Faith spoiled us with some brownies and bean dip. (I can't remember everything... but you get the point!) Thanks for all the good eats ladies!

The majority of the group admitted to reading the Twylight Series for most of the month. So we started out talking about those books... and the city of Forks. Faith and Jen were the only ones in the group who have yet to get addicted to them. They sound dangerously good!

Then we had a great discussion of The Pact. Of those who read it 4 and a 1/2 out of five 'liked it', one person 'hated it.' We all agreed that is was a difficult book to read and that it could be attributed to Picoult's skill as a writer. We spent a lot of time discussing the parents roll or blame in the suicide and with what happened to Chris and Emily.

After the book discussion we some how got onto the topic of the dogs of Palmer Lake and which one's might attack you while trying to go for a walk.

I am really looking forward to next month's club. I think I am going to try to plan some icebreakers or something to help us continue to get to know each other. It is pretty amazing to have a group of people come together where most of us don't really know each other. I am so excited to get to know everyone better!

By the way... a few members of the club were notably absent. Ami, poor thing, was is Hawaii with her husband sans kids. (Hope you had a blast Ami). Marjorie was out swirling with her sweetheart, well at least out on a DATE without the kids. And last but not least Rose couldn't come because she was busy GETTING ENGAGED! Congrats! She and Derek expect to tie the knot in August.

Whatever is Good

Okay... so this book club thing is a learning experience. We are reading books we have never read, and because we have never read them we do not know what they contain. Unlike Movies, books don't come with a rating.

When starting the book club I said that I wanted to keep schmutztica to a minimum (see previous post). We want to read books with substance, that have a lot to discuss. But, we'd like to keep the sex content and the language content on the mild side. Since we all have differing opinions of what "mild" is... we may read a book that seems really mild to someone and very offensive to others.

So, if you find yourself getting offended or feeling at all uncomfortable... stop reading! Or feel free to skip through those parts.

As a Christian, and a Pastor's wife I feel that it's important that I don't encourage my friends to do something unwholesome or unedifying. I hope that the book club can be FUN, intellectually stimulating, and a place to build friendships and get to know each other. I want people to feel safe and free to be themselves and to be honest.

I still want to discuss this book in our next meeting. There will be a lot to talk about. With that said, I don't want to revolve the discussion around our whether or not it offended us. However, I will be thinking about how we can investigate the books a bit more before we read them.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praise worthy- think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Book of the Month for February!

Here it is... our first book.
On your mark, get set, go get your book.....
We will be discussing it at Faith's house on February 13th.
Be on the look out for an evite with the details.
Here is a link to a reading guide. See my next post for what to expect, and keep scrolling for a full update for those of you who could not make it to our first meeting.
Feel free to leave comments.

Reading Guide

By the way... I have noticed that many of the books we have picked are also movies. We may have to start planning a Pemberley Popcorn Edition where we watch the movie for the book.

There will be no tests!

There will be no tests a book club. And if you don't get the book read we won't judge you! We will understand. However, it will make it easier to talk about the book if we actually read it. On the other hand I am sure we can come up with plenty of things to keep us talking.

What to expect next book club.

I think we'll start out by going around the room and having each person rate the book... so be prepared to say if you "loved it" "liked it" or "hated it" -- this will quickly give us a clue as to where we all stand with the book and our group opinion of its merits. From there we can either elaborate on our opinions or go through some of the questions in the reading guide. I have provided the following links for the two guides I found. (I actually didn't look very closely at them, they may be the same questions.)

Reading guide #1


Reading guide #2

The inaugural meeting

The first meeting was great fun! It was attended by Faith, Marjorie, Ami, Jen C., Skye, and Rose and me (plus two nursing babes). We had fun sharing book ideas, eating snacks (thanks Faith for the delicious coffee cake and banana bread.) We enjoyed a glass or two of Sparkling Cider, Edelweiss (Oregon White Table Wine, made in Oregon Cellars) and Fleur Pinot Noir 2006.

We shared a few good laughs and enjoyed getting to know each other a bit!

I am really looking forward to next month!

The Picking of the Books

Wow! We came up with a lot of books! We have two years of readings right here! So with this list in front of us... how did we choose the books? It was very scientific...
We chose the Pact because it is supposedly a love story and we thought it would be nice to read something romantic for the month of February. We thought about reading Redeeming Love and briefly considered Persuasion, but kind of got stuck on The Pact.

Then we chose Odd Thomas completely at random. Ami gave a number and Marjorie counted up and down the list until we stopped on the book. How odd that it landed on Odd Thomas. That's the book for March.

Then Marjorie and I decided that we needed something a little lighter to follow that one so we thought Circle of Friends might fit the bill. So that will be April.

I think we might read the Secret Life of Bees in May... but... from here on out I think we should maybe throw all the books on the list into a jar and then shake it up and see what we get. Of course if we are all dying to read a certain book then we can simply choose to read that book. However, in all other cases I think the jar might be a fun way to pick. So maybe we should leave May open for now.

What do you think about that?

24 total books!

In addition to the ones I previously posted... here are the other books we have on our list. We decided to keep them all and just work our way through them. So check them out! And if you see them at Goodwill or a used book store... pick them up!

The Shack
The Hunger Games
The Prayer for Owen Meany
Twilight
The Host
Skipping Christmas
Girl with the Pearl Earring
The Life of Pi
Mistaken Identity
Odd Thomas
Home
The Bell Jar
Sarah's Keys
Marley
Redeeming Love
The Pilots Wife
Book
Jane Eyre

A few more suggestions

Atonement (there was a Kiera Knightly movie about this book)

Book Club Scoop

What: A book club that meets about once a month to discuss a book. Maybe some tasty snacks and beverages would be nice.

Who: This will be a girls night out! (Nursing babies are welcome) I am hoping we can get 6 to 8 women to join the club. I am hoping to see women from all walks of life with different perspectives in the group to promote good discussion.

Where: I was thinking we could take turns hosting. I was also thinking that we could take turns supplying refreshments.

Why: Who couldn't use some time out with the girls. Plus I am always looking for a good book to read and I love discussing things.

Suggestions so far

Check out these books that people have suggested so far. All of these titles are links so have fun clicking and previewing. Feel free to leave comments about what you think about each of them.

Martian Child

The Secret Life of Bees

The Pact

Blessed Child

Persuasion

Circle of Friends

Why Pemberley Place

Pemberley is the name of Mr. Darcy's estate in Pride and Prejudice. As you may know I am a bit of a Jane Austen fan. It made perfect sense to me to name the book club after something to do with one of my all time favorite stories.

Does this mean that we will be reading all Jane Austen? I hope not! I am hoping we can really pick a variety of books that expand us out of our usual reading ruts! However, I my pick for the group is Persuasion. I actually haven't read it! When my sister heard that I was starting a book club she had just finished reading it and thought it would be a perfect book for us to read.

Smutztica according to Jen

Well, Here is my definition of "Smutztica"

Definition #1
A lot of swearing for no apparent reason. (You know this to be true if you open up the book and in the first chapter all the words begin with "F" and it's really distracting-- I seriously picked up a book like that the other day... I was annoyed.)

Definition #2
I'd like to stay away from the horror genera for the club. I am told that these books will put hair on your chest... I have enough trouble keeping leg hair at bay... what would I do with chest hair? (OK so it really comes down to an over active imagination). Let's try not to pick anything that would scare our socks off... but I am totally up for something that would keep me on the edge of my seat!

Definition #3
And for you Friends lovers- the kind of novel Rachel kept under her pillow that Joey discovered in one episode-- I consider those novels that have hunks and heroines on the cover in grocery store lines... Smutztica.

Lets be honest most books even the classics have at least one of these elements lurking somewhere in the book. The question to ask is... is it all about steamy love scenes? Or does it employ the f-word in most sentences? These books we would like to avoid. But a love scene here and there or a well placed swear word we can deal with!

We want to pick out books that have substance and that we can discuss!

This is the beginning

Well, I've been wanting to start a book club for a long while now! I was an English Major at Western Washington University- since graduating I've missed discussing what I am reading in a group. I love hearing all the different things people discover from the same book. This is also a great way to really get to know other people. So I am starting a little group in my neighborhood. This blog is a place to discuss what we are reading and any other literary tid-bits that I feel inspired to share.

If you live far away from my neighborhood but would still like to follow along online... you are totally invited to do so.

Let me know what books you are reading and if you have any suggestions for our group!