Year 3, Month 1, 3 Choices

Hello My Favourite Ladies,

Did you know Book Club will happen one week tomorrow, at my house?

Friday,November 6.

I'm hoping you all can make it! Right now we will be missing Amber, I'm in the hopes your other plans just might change!

Since it is a Book Club Birthday I will be serving up a light meal followed by a ferocious dessert.

Now for the best part...

I am giving you a preview to my picks for November!

I'll have all 3 at Book Club to get a palpable feel for them, I know sometimes that makes a difference. I'd be equally happy with any of them, so I am excited to see what you choose. When I walked them up to the till the cashier said to me "These are really good books!"

Here is a quick summary of why I chose the ones I did.

The first book is by the same author as one of my all-time faves. (Thanks Malia for the tip on this one!) It is her second novel and came recommended by Chapters Online to those who loved Time Travellers Wife, Lovely Bones, and The Thirteenth Tale. I did love all of those! It is a hardcover, 401 pages, big typeface, roomy pages with big margins. I see myself reading this in front of the fireplace and loving it.

The second book is by another popular author who I've been drawn to for a couple years but haven't had the chance to read yet. His most popular book, The Alchemist, I thought one of us must have read by now, so I chose another one. This book also came recommended by Mary, who I think most of you know. She hasn't led me astray yet on a book recommendation. The book is subtitled "A Novel of Obsession" which got me, and also a beautiful cover which gets me too.

The third book is a classic and timeless. I have wanted to read this book since my sister had to read it in High School. I think it will be inspiring and educational.

Now, in no particular order, I present to you...

1. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

2. The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

3. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

So what do you think of my books? Can you make it on Friday? Have you read any of these selections yet?

All Work and No Play

I've been sick for 4 weeks and I finally went to my doctor on Tuesday. He gave me a stern talking to and told me that I had a pretty serious infection and put me on some fantastic drugs. He told me that I wasn't able to drive on these drugs (they are THAT good) so was to stay home from work for 3 days. (The truth is, I didn't have time to go to the doctor. Work was just too busy.)

Of course instead of just taking the time to get better, I decided to "work from home". Why did I do that!? I'm an admitted recovering workaholic who really tries to focus on life, friends and family rather than work.

These three days, when I'm not making cookies, buns or muffins, I'm reading Middlesex. I love the story and am finding that I'm breezing through it. Great pick Kristin!

One paragraph that resonated with me is this:

Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down. We've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.

Do you find that you are doing more than ever to get by? Working twice as hard for the same pay back? Doing two people's jobs and making the same money?

If you decided to skip out of work on a whim and not get caught, what would you do with your day off?

A New Year of Books

Thanks Jasmine for a great Book Club last night! I am anxiously awaiting a Wok Box to open downtown. Malia was the only one who read Three Cups of Tea and gave a good review. I think that this is one a few of us will revisit.

There was some discussion on changes to our format for the new year. I love that we are a flexible bunch. Along with changes, there are some new rules.

2009-2010 Book Club Rules
1. You don't talk about Book Club.
2. You don't talk about Book Club.
3. Everyone must read all books - no excuses
4. 100% Attendance is mandatory - no excuses
5. Maximum page length for books is 300 pages
6. No font size smaller than 11
7. Summer month books must be light and fluffy
8. If your choice of book is junk - you will be expelled from Book Club
9. Host must provide detailed presentation, discussion questions, and moderate the meeting
10. Host must provide copies at the meeting for all 8 members of their 3 potential Book Club picks.

A change this year is we drew names for months, instead of books. You will host a meeting somewhere near the beginning of your month and present 3 books that you would like to read that month. Then we will take a vote on what will be the book for the month. This will prevent us from reading ahead and we will all be on the same page this year (no pun intended).

By random draw...here is the order for the year!

November - Christine
December - Alana
January - Kristin
February - Shannon
March - Jasmine
April - Amber
May - Candice
June - Malia
July - Christine
August - Amber
September - Malia
October - Shannon

Okay, so I was just joking about the rules. But I think this new format will work really good!

If you are going on some fabulous vacation, or have some wicked cold, and can't host your meeting in that month we can always go out on the town somewhere new and exciting that time.

Also NO pressure to put on a dinner feast. Appies, take-out, or even just cheese and crackers is great. I don't get to host dinner parties ever, so I like to test out new menus on Book Club...but absolutley no expectations.

I am also excited to present 3 books and have input from the group on what they'd like to read. I think this will eliminate books that someone has already read. Extra incentive to come to the meeting to get in on the vote!

All that being said...the first meeting of the new year is at my house - Friday, November 6! I'm off to Coles at lunch to do some book shopping! We'll be discussing Middlesex at this meeting too.

How is everyone doing on Middlesex? Do you love it? What do you think of the new format? Are you happy with your month?

Happy Birthday Book Club

This month we are two!

October Meeting

So the last I heard we were meeting at Jasmine's next Thursday? Is that still a go? I think that I'm the only one who read Three of Tea (long but intriguing). I wouldn't mind chatting about Cease to Blush too, cause that was interesting, and I think that we'll have a few different takes on it. Then October's book is Middlesex! I haven't quite started, cause I haven't totally finished TCOT yet. Should we show up at Jasmine's with book choices for next year, or do we wait until we're done this years reads first?? I think that last year 12 books got picked plus the Christmas exchange. Jasmine suggested that we do 6 months at a time. So we're kind of breaking it up, but at the same time there are books there for those of us who like to read ahead at times. I like that idea. I say that we pick names for the year, but only books for the 6 months. This'll be a record month for us getting together. Alana's wedding (which was a super blast), book club next week, Candice's end of renovation party and the 8th annual pumpkin carving party! What is this, our lucky month??