Looking for That Diamond in the Rough

About block from my condo are a few ammenities: a watering hole, a small personal fitness centre, a drugstore where I used to buy my smokes (day 10 btw), and a cute little mom and pop coffee shop. Now, this coffee shop is unlike any Starbucks or Second Cup - it is also a used bookstore. Paperbacks. Those tiny ones that are so thick because the pages are so small, the spine cracks everytime you open the book....you know the ones. Now we all know I'm a bit of a snob, and an even bigger book snob - I would never purchase a USED book. The corners are all bent and the cover isnt nice and shiny. But... I wasn't feeling well and I couldn't get to Chapters and I had nothing to read after finishing Time Traveller's Wife..., so I figured I would have a look while waiting for my latte. There were about a thousand romance novels, those super cheesy ones with Fabio-esque gents on the cover with their blowy blouses exposing their manly chests, but I managed to resist. Then of course, the Oprah selections. Boo, read them all. So, my options were limited. I was down to some Maeve Binchy book or a Michael Connelly that looked like a mystery/cop/murder fiction. I invested $3.25 into the mystery/cop/murder paperback that has now bored me to sleep 4 nights in a row. Admittedly, it's not a great book - or even good for that matter. I think I'm so ruined by all of the great books we have been reading that it made it that much worse for me but my point is - I'm sure there are treasures to be found in used bookstores, as far and few in between as they may be and I'm excited to start looking. So needless to say, when I am done with this book (whether I finish reading it or not) I will be donating it, along with some others that are taking up precious room on my bookshelf, back to my beloved little coffee shop - maybe it will be someone elses treasure.

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

What up Book Club?

It's Book Club week! Come by Friday any time. Dinner will be 6:30 but if you want to come straight from work that's cool with me.

Bad news on our 12th and final book...it still has not been shipped as of this morning. I think we'll have to throw that book back into the rotation and start the new year in October!

I must admit I have been at a loss this month on what to read. Another BCB is always having another book to turn to. I tried and failed at reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I only made it a third of the way through and gave up. Shannon and Malia liked it, any one else?

What have you all read since the Glass Castle? Have you decided what you want to choose for the new year?

Non-book related material!

Pin-Ups will be a new feature for our blog for October..as you can plainly see on the side bar. This is inspiration for one of our member's Halloween costumes this year!!! I'm going to be a Black Jack Dealer. Not even a sexy Black Jack dealer at that. Sigh...are the days of using Halloween as any excuse to dress scampy already gone?

You'll notice I used the word "scampy" thinking it could be one of my mysterious vocabulary words of the day...however, turns out I did use that in the wrong context. The correct word would be Scampish:

1. an unscrupulous and often mischievous person; rascal; rogue; scalawag.
2. a playful, mischievous, or naughty young person; upstart.
3. a grouper, Mycteroperca phenax, of Florida: so called from its habit of stealing bait.
–verb (used with object) 4. to do or perform in a hasty or careless manner: to scamp work.

Urban Dictionary has an entirely different defintion

Scampy - A girl who does a lot of cocaine. "Yo i drank four Chuck Nores last night with some scampys. i need mad scampy tonight. "

Also, I am still blonde.

Oprah, Hockey and Chapters

Happy First Day of Autumn ladies!

Oprah and Hockey...what do they have in common? The inextricable (surprise word of the day) way they effect our Book Club. Oprah announced her new pick on Friday's show. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. First thing Saturday morning half of our book club picked it up at Costco, that is the power of Oprah! If any of you wanted to choose that one for your first choice, not to worry already chosen. Will she redeem herself from causing us to read Love in the Time of Cholera?

Hockey. It's back. BD is divvying up his year of tickets today. We're going to the game tomorrow. Some of the rest of us have season tickets or partial tickets and the odd game here or there. See the Flames schedule here. I'll put it permanently on the side bar as well so we can reference it when scheduling Book Club. There is a pre-season game on Friday, October 3 and I'm hoping that it doesn't interfere with next weeks meeting, but if it does let me know and we'll reschedule.

Chapters. As of this morning, only 2 of our 7 copies of Wild Ride up the Cupboards have been shipped. I'm pretty sure they won't be available to us by the start of next month. If this is the case we can start our new year of selections in October and swap in Wild Ride once they are all delivered. We'll have to play this one by ear.

I'm faced with the ultimate decision I come to this time every year. It's fall...do I go dark or stay blonde. Tomorrow is D-day.



Have a great week!!

Inextricable
1. from which one cannot extricate oneself: an inextricable maze.
2. incapable of being disentangled, undone, loosed, or solved: an inextricable knot.
3. hopelessly intricate, involved, or perplexing: inextricable confusion.

And soon... A New Book!

I've been done Glass Castle for a while now, actually I think we all are. Does any one want to do 24 books in 2008/2009? Kidding, but isn't it interesting how at the start I thought I'd have trouble with one a month and now it seems we're all reading an additional book in between meetings. BCB - Reading each other's recommended reading in addition to our Book Club selections just gives us that much broader a base for our already wonderful discussions!!
I did a little research on our next Mommy Tale (last one Candice!!!) This was one of my picks and it came off of my SIL's book list...keeping in mind her book club is comprised of Mommies of MANY children. Yes, probably more compatible with their book club than ours, and I may not have chosen it if I had to choose now...but nonetheless I have been looking forward to it for a while now. Especially after meeting Danny, my in-laws weekly visitor with autism.
That being said I am hoping there is more to this one than I was expecting. Two things I found interesting is that this book is almost entirely a work of fiction! For some reason I expected a memoir. I was also not expecting to find out that it is a braided narrative, telling two parallel stories in two different eras, one in the 1990's and one in "War Time" (I'm assuming that meant WWII), which I hope will give it something "more". I hope you gals won't be disappointed!!

Our next meeting is scheduled for Friday, October 3 at Christine's place! I will follow up an e-mail with directions. I think most of y'all can make it already...Jasmine!?!? Fall dinner menu is planned...and bring your appetites for APPLES! Pie, crisp, sauce...and now I'm trying my hand at turnovers and struedels.
Don't bring a thing!

Happy Birthday Book Club!

In honor of our First Book Club Birthday coming up in a few weeks I thought I'd give us a new look for the new year! I've also updated the playlist to include some of my favourite guilty pleasure music...oh hot damn! This is my jam!

Is this one better Malia!?!?!

Candice Says - Two Books in One Month...!

After spending the all last week as a bachelorette (a boring one at that) let's just say that I got some quality reading time in staring at my new fridge sitting in my living room. Let's just say that the monster new fridge is too big to fit through the doors of the kitchen. Arrrgh! Old, lime green and I are still friends for now. I guess I can reach for a beer from my couch now! I finished the Glass Castle in 5 days flat, which is unheard of for me. I can't wait to hear some of your opinions on this book. Snotlocker! I laughed my ass off.....sigh. Is everyone else speeding through?

Rather than slacking for the rest of the month, I picked up The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It, like Almost Moon is an easy read for me and I like the idea of the story being told from her "Heaven". Has anyone else read The Lovely Bones?

Let Me Introduce Myself, I'm Kristin and I'm Time Travel Retarded

Hey y'all!

After high recommendations from both Christine and Alana, I am reading Time Traveller's Wife while the rest of you read The Glass Castle. It's great, and I love the story and the characters - in fact I imagine Henry and Claire to be a little bit like Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdam, and I never play that game with books - but I am SO confused by the parameters of the actual time travel. (Spoiler Alert) Like, how do you keep a job if you keep disappearing for a few days? Or, how much money do you need to spend on clothing if you are, say, grocery shopping in present time and then blammo, you disappear and all that is left is a pile of clothes and your sneakers?? And how exactly do you visit yourself when you were 5 and yet not change the course of your life?

So, maybe I'm just not smart. I will admit that I had the same problem with "Back to the Future", especially II and III when Michael J Fox was travelling back and forth making sure that Biff got paid his dues.

It's beyond me.

Surprise Word of the Day...

Indignant

Regular dictionary – adjective: feeling, characterized by, or expressing strong displeasure at something considered unjust, offensive, insulting, or base: indignant remarks; an indignant expression on his face.

Urban dictionary - A word that is used in hopes of coming across as intelligent by uneducated peoples to describe a peer.
Frank: Shut up, mayne.
Bo: Nah playa, why you always gotta step. Stop bein indignant.

Meeting Notes...

BIG thanks to Candice for a wonderful book club night on Friday! My sides still hurt from laughing and I had so much to think about as you will see from this post.

Further to the Birth House discussions, the Boston Molasses Disaster was a true story! Complete with pictures, the story is here.

Click here for a modern day midwife's home birth list and a great account of one here from that blog I was telling you about that I read. On the list...crock pot, a medium bowl for the placenta, olive oil, gatorade, flashlight, peroxide for blood stains, car with gas (just in case!)...sounds like not much has changed since 1918. I don't know about you...but that just ain't for me! For the complete story of the blog I was telling you about as featured in Sunday's NY Times click here. It is such an amazing story. Apparently there are 19,999 other people besides me who tune in to her blog now.

I can host the next meeting! Here is the agenda!

Drink Wine
Eat food
Discuss The Glass Castle
Drink more wine
Eat sweet food
Hand out our LAST book for the First Year of Book Club!!
Draw books for our Second Year of Book Club!! Bring at least two choices!
Drink Wine

I googled and googled this morning for that darned classic book list I used to reference, but could not come up with it. I am excited for this new Classic Christmas book exchange and I think it's a great new twist for us.

My first choice for next year is Heather's Pick "The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society" and the second is "Suite Francais". They both are have story lines taking place in WWII Nazi occupied areas of Europe. Along with Anne Frank that I hope to read this year, this could be the year of WWII, as last year was the year of Afghanistan. Funny how that happens!

Be sure to check out my list of blogs and websites on the side bar, that is where I do most of my reading when I'm not working! You asked...I answered.

I'm thinking Ocotber 1, 3 or 8th for Book Club meeting...anyone already booked up? Let me know.

A Few Things for Friday

I am a Googlin' Foo this week. Productivity at all time lows.

1. Stumbled upon good website here. Canadian content. All about books and book club. Love it.

2. Appears our final book, A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards is not in Calgary Coles or Chapters so I'll be placing an order. Let me know if you want one! It'll cost ya though. $12.96 big ones.

3. New Interesting Heather's Pick...it has caught my eye on internet travels before. Check it out here

4. I love that at least one person loved each book we read this year.

5. See you later!

Book Club Benefit (BCB)

Has this ever happened to you? Casually in conversation a word pops out of your mouth so foreign you are quite sure you totally made it up. Quickly upon returning to your office you click here to find out, not only is it a word, but you used it in the right context.
This happens to me all the time. Today's word - Pilfered.

pilfer (regular dictionary) - verb "make off with belongings of others"
pilfer (urban dictionary) - verb "steal jack take filch swipe shoplift gank lift rob thieve purloin rip off embezzle borrow loot stole cheat ninja rayfield pirate shanghai nick pinch"

Co-worker... "Where did you find that?"
Christine... "I just pilfered through Aaron's office."

Next time I will definitley say "I just ninja'd through Aaron's office."

Just makes me wonder where does this expanding vocab come from?
It has to be the books!