Between Friends Book Club

Book club celebrated its 8th holiday party on December 17, 2011.  Thanks to everyone for their amazing dishes and for being in book club.  Peace and love to all!

A litte wine, some good food, and great company makes for yet another wonderful book club.

Our book this month was Pat Conroy’s “Beach Music.”  Everyone seemed to enjoy this book with all its family drama.  Pat Conroy is a master in this genre.  I loved his “Prince of Tides,” and I liked this book a lot.  See my review on the right.

Our family drama book unintentionally coincides with the Thanksgiving holiday.   For all of our slights, fights and fare-ups in my own family, I cherish the holidays.  I have a small family and we don’t see each other often, but I so look forward to spending the holidays with them.  We put whatever issues we have to the side, and just enjoy each other.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Looking forward to next month and our annual Holiday Party.

 

 

We had a hair-raising good time at book club this month.  Our book was “The Girl Who Fell from the Sky,” by Heidi W. Durrow.   As always, it’s the company of friends that is the most enjoyable part of the evening.

We were playing around with hair pieces trying to envision “the glamorous life:”

After some silliness we got down to the book.

Some of the ladies liked the book and how it was told by different narrators.  I wasn’t enamored with the book, it left me wanting more.

However, I am glad I read the book and that is the beauty of book club.  I would not have read this book and I truly believe we learn from everything we read even if it’s not immediately realized.

See my review under Reviews on the right.

 

 

 

 

September’s book club was held at Patty’s home. Our book was “The Kitchen House,” by Kathleen Grissom. Overall the book was received well, certainly the issue of slavery is always a hard and sad discussion. See my review under Reviews on the right side.

Our group spent a lot of time discussing their summers also. September will always be the time for coming back together and we enjoyed each others summer stories.

Karen hosted book club for our much anticipated meeting. Our book was “Every Last One,” by Anna Quindlen. It&#83 217;s a must read!

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Everyone of us loved this book  – it scared us, and it enlighten us.  It slams you with the randomness of life, and as Quindlen stated in interviews, society believes that by helicopter parenting we can protect our children from everything and it’s completely illusory.

See my review under Quindlen, Anna.  Read the book!

July’s book club was cancelled – too many conflicting schedules and we have an awesome book to discuss. If you haven’t read “Every Last One,” by Anna Quindlen go out and pick it up. Wow! If you are a parent this book will take your breath away.

I read “In the Garden of the Beasts,” by Erik Larson. (See my review under Pages.) I loved Mr. Larson’s last book, “Devil in the White City.” It is one of my favorite books. So, I read this with trepidation – worried that it just couldn’t live up to his previous book. All worry aside, the book is very interesting and I liked it a lot.

I love historical fiction – I love history. I even read military magazines – just can’t get enough of it. Germany right before the war is a fascinating place, so full of intrigue you can actuallly feel the weight of oppression bearing down on Germany (coincidently a humid heatwave descended over Germany at the same time).

If you love historical fiction and are interested in WWII, then you will really like this. It doesn’t have the same rhythm as “Devil in the White City,” but I’m still a fan of Erik Larson.

A beautiful evening dinner with friends – what could be better!  Well, the book “Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand made a beautiful evening even better – perfect in fact!

If you haven’t read “Unbroken,” read it.  It is simply unbelieveable – well written, well researched and it’s a true story of an amazing man.  Ms. Hillenbrand came across articles written about Louis Zamperini when she was writing “Seabiscuit,” and vowed to come back to Mr. Zamperini’s story when she finished.   And we are very glad she did.

We crave survival stories, they give us hope and allow us to say “Ok” I can do this.  Survival is not the neat, fearless story of the movies, but rather a messy, complicated,  and fear-ridden ordeal.   Mr. Zamperini deals with everything that he’s dealt in this astounding story of survival.  See my review under Pages.

Absolutely read this book.

We had pre-prom party, then book club, then post-prom party. What a busy night!

Our book this month was “Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt,” by Beth Hoffman and book club was at my house. Of course, we had a wonderful time, but the book was just OK. See my book club review under Pages.

We have two wonderful books coming up in June and July. June’s book is “Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand, and July’s is “Every Last One,” by Anna Quindlen. Both books are amazing and totally different.

Reading – what an amazing joy!

Fran hosted book club this month and we had a lovely time. The book was “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” by Jamie Ford.

Overall, the book was reviewed well by all members. It is not however, “Snow Falling on Cedars,” by David Guterson. Both books delve into the Japanese-American internment camps and the resulting racism and persecution, but with vastly different story lines. “Snow Falling on Cedars,” is an amazing book. “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” is a good book.

“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” tells the story of Henry Lee, from his difficult childhood as a Chinese-American during World War II to the death of his wife in 1986.

The book is a good pick for book clubs because it offers an insight into the Japanese-American internment camps, the relationship in American between the Chinese and the Japanese, and the relationship between immigrants and their first-generation children. See my book review under Pages.