Book Review

I finished our book on the weekend. My favourite character, if I HAD to choose one, would be Lemonade.
Love Lemonade.
Love Bright Shiny Morning.
I loved all the stories! I'm the same as Candice and admit to also skipping most of the LA Fun Facts and at one point reading ahead to find out what happened in one of the story lines I just couldn't wait for.

Thanks Amba for a superb pick. It's officially one of my favourite books.

I'm posting some info on the side bar early for our next book, The Poisionwood Bible. Another selection by Shannon, will she redeem herself from the infamous Love in the Time of Cholera?! JK.

Again...Happy Canada Day! I'll be in the USA...darn it.

Happy Canada Day Weeks

I wasn't sure how else to title this one because our Canada Day plans are pretty scattered both time and local wise...
The holidays start for those lucky Kelowna girls on Friday, there is sun sun sun in the forecast for you!
They don't start for me until Tuesday I head to Montana.
Luckiest of all Shannon starts her holiday this Saturday to LONDON and PARIS! She returns on the 6th...the day before her BIRTHDAY and book club. Let's all persuade Shannon to come have cake and wine with us, even though Ryan will probably be anxious to spoil her that day, but as always, no pressure!

I've got a time consuming project I'm creating for my new neice Elyssa Mary. They changed the spelling, it's better than Elisa, non? Anyway, this project has taken away my evening reading time so I'm slow on BSM...though thouroughly enjoying every chapter. The gang chapter was SHOCKING to me. The violence in L.A is like Calgary times 1000, literally. Not to mention the traffic! Disgusting! I feel so, so fortunate to live in this city. Ocean or no ocean. Super excited for Poisionwood Bible too! Loving the picks Ladies. Loving.

Hope wherever and whenever you take your holiday that it some time finds you in the warmth of the sun enjoying a good book!

Feature Friday!!

In spite of all my devotion, in the early days of my marriage, there were moments when, like a wolf domesticated by humans, I caught a scent of my old ways and felt hemmed in. A beautiful young man walking by on the street, the sight of teenagers high in the park, sometimes threw me off balance; I could feel myself teeter on the edge of my new existence, and imagined the thrill of kissing a man I barely knew, or the sharp kick of amphetamine between my eyes.

From The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Just a teaser for your Feature Friday...

Have a great weekend ladies!!!

Bright Shiny Morning

I love this book! Can't put it down. I find all the characters so interesting. A few discussion items.

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula is literally translated as The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river of Porziuncola

Chablis (in case you were wondering)

Take the poll on the side bar...who do you think is the real life "Amberton Parker"?

It's popular in American culture to feel safer owning firearms...would you?

Blogs, Books, Movies and a little something I love

Nothing more in this post than a few random observations I've picked up recently and would like to share.

First...HUGE disappointing news reading this blog's first review of Time Travellers Wife Movie. A book I loved so, so much. I don't know that I could watch the destruction of a book I loved so much.

Then...another Book to movie adaptation coming of a book that Kristin noted as a want-to-read on this post. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. I will Feature Friday that one soon because I'd like to know what it's about.

Also...this blog that I read often (and spoke of at last book club) will melt your heart. He announced yesterday that it is going to be published as a book. I would not be surprised if, it too, went to movie. If Marley & Me could do it...Maddy and Me can.

Lastly...

courage does not always roar.
sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"i will try again tomorrow"

(mary ann radmacher)

I love that.

Feature Friday

"Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. ever thine. ever mine. ever ours."


This book is SO going on my night stand.

July Book Meet

Ladies...

I know it might seem early, but with our busy summer schedules on the horizon, I thought that I would try to book a book club for July before that gets nixed. How about my deck (so the sisters don't get allergic) on July 3rd? Is that a portion of the long weekend? I'm confused because Canada day is in the middle of the week. However, I am not going anywhere for the long weekend, so that date still stands if you guys can make it. If not, then I am more then willing to host the following week, say on a Tuesday so as to not interfere with soccer or golf. It's too bad that not enough of us had read Edgar Sawtell cause I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to chatting a bit more about it. Maybe with the sunny weather, and the lure to get outside and read will have more peeps reading Amber's pick this month. I started the other day, and it's pretty good so far.

Don't forget about the Patio Party on the 11th!

Cheers to summer!

Malia

Book Club Friday and 100th POST!

Hello Ladies!
Hope you are enjoying your rainy Friday. How much did you all want to stay under the covers this morning? I SO did.

I'm happy to say this is our 100th POST! Bright Shiny Morning is also our 20th book together. Wow! Candice's post about the Bucket List made me think how our Book Club and how reading so many new and interesting books is helping in the completion of one Bucket item for me. So how 'bout it? Let's have those Bucket Lists. Here is a great website that can get you started. I don't think I've ever written one down and perhaps if we know each other's we may be able to help each other acheive them somehow...

Here is mine in no particular order...

1. See the Pyramids, Collesium in Rome, Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon, The Northern Lights, the Great Barrier Reef and Machu Picchu (my 7 wonders)
2. Run a half marathon under 2 hours
3. Own a cabin on a lake
4. Get pregnant and stay that way for 9 months
5. Take a surf vacation with Brian
6. Complete one lap of the 24 hours of Adrenaline race
7. Play Black Jack in Vegas
8. Teach a Force class
9. Take photography classes
10. Take a Book Club Vacation
11. Donate Blood
12. Practise yoga daily
13. Keep orchids
14. Audition for So You Think You Can Dance Canada
15. Watch the 10 Greatest Movies of all time
16. Go back to the Venus Pool at Caesars and tan topless
17. Go without watching TV for a month straight
18. Karaokee "Womanizer"
19. Learn to swim
20. Read 100 Books
.
.
.

So how about next book club at Tubby Dog??

See you tonight!!

June - Bright Shiny Morning

Aptly named book for the first day of June! I know some of us are still finishing up Edgar Sawtelle, but I thought I'd get a few postings up on the side bar for our new book for those of us that are starting soon. This Book is Amber's pick. Here is the Publisher's Synopsis...

"One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original.

Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home.

Throughout this strikingly powerful novel there is the relentless drumbeat of the millions of other stories that, taken as a whole, describe a city, a culture, and an age. A dazzling tour de force, Bright Shiny Morning illuminates the joys, horrors, and unexpected fortunes of life and death in Los Angeles."

See you on Friday!