Del and I met at his beautiful house for a bit and talked about his trip to Africa a couple of years ago.
I hope you can make it next month! Please don't forget to RSVP if you can.
Read away!
March
Frankly, I forgot that we were meeting on Thursday and didn't plan ahead. Joe kindly hosted; we were down two, Patrice and Del couldn't make it, but we had a new guy, Tim - yay!
Tim endeared himself to me right off the bat by reading Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, who I think is an awesome history teller. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, is about the final voyage of the ill-fated luxury liner, the people who were aboard, and the intricacies surrounding her demise. Tim also read Blake Crouch's Pines, book 1 of the Wayward Pines Trilogy, which sounds like a dramatic, spooky mystery, adventure type book?
Joe is still working on world finances and it's messy, dirty history.
And I read: Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box, about a famous retired musician who collects maudlin items - until he makes a huge, horrifying mistake. Hill is Stephen King's son and has the same talents as his dad, in that he can rope you into a story in the first paragraph and he conveys spine-tingling, keep-you-up-all-night terror without any gore or gross. At the time of the meeting I was just finishing The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright, which is a lovely, feel-good story of a Cambodian family that lives at and off of the municipal dump. Mom wants much more for her sickly son and asks another resident of the dump to teach her to read. Both were great reads, in their own way, I couldn't put either one down.
March seems to speeding by as quickly as February did, so I hope to see you soon at the next meeting which will be at Del's in BBC. If you plan on coming, RSVP on the right, so he knows how many to expect.
Happy reading!
Tim endeared himself to me right off the bat by reading Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, who I think is an awesome history teller. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, is about the final voyage of the ill-fated luxury liner, the people who were aboard, and the intricacies surrounding her demise. Tim also read Blake Crouch's Pines, book 1 of the Wayward Pines Trilogy, which sounds like a dramatic, spooky mystery, adventure type book?
Joe is still working on world finances and it's messy, dirty history.
And I read: Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box, about a famous retired musician who collects maudlin items - until he makes a huge, horrifying mistake. Hill is Stephen King's son and has the same talents as his dad, in that he can rope you into a story in the first paragraph and he conveys spine-tingling, keep-you-up-all-night terror without any gore or gross. At the time of the meeting I was just finishing The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright, which is a lovely, feel-good story of a Cambodian family that lives at and off of the municipal dump. Mom wants much more for her sickly son and asks another resident of the dump to teach her to read. Both were great reads, in their own way, I couldn't put either one down.
March seems to speeding by as quickly as February did, so I hope to see you soon at the next meeting which will be at Del's in BBC. If you plan on coming, RSVP on the right, so he knows how many to expect.
Happy reading!
February meeting
What a wonderful group! I really enjoy our monthly catching up and book talk.
Del read Black Diamond, by Martin Walker about French Chief of Police Bruno who must learn how and why sub-par truffles are making it into the market, then when an expert truffle dealer, and Bruno's friend, is murdered the plot thickens.
While mysteries are not my go-to genre, I do pick one up from time to time, and one of my favorites is Anne Perry's Detective William Monk. When we're first introduced in The Face of a Stranger, Monk has been in an accident and wakes in the hospital with amnesia. His pride won't let him tell anyone he doesn't remember his job, his friends or even his name; so he does what he does best, detects.
Joe is learning about world finances. He read both, Rouble Nationalization: The Way to Russia's Freedom by Nilolay Starikov and The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money by Brett Scott. Both books seem a bit deep to me, so I'll let Joe do the reading and tell us about it.
Of course, we wandered off track about books and talked about coincidences, occasions we've run into people we know in unlikely places and possible reasons (similar socioeconomic classes, similar hobbies, etc).
Patrice who is a Willie Nelson fan, read his book The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart, in which the master of harmonization has created a guide to finding harmony in everyday life. She then moved onto Settling: 100 Snippets of Life from a Mid-Century Woman by her friend Deborah Williams Smith, fiction which is strongly based on her life and the lives of those around her told in 100 short episodes.
I finished The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo who like most organizers knows that the secret to organizing a household is to get rid of all the stuff. As an organizer/home stager, I'm always interested in new ways of helping clients let go of stuff and live lighter. Next up is Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper about 83-year-old Etta who has never seen the ocean, so gets up one morning and starts walking East. Sounds fun, right?
We ended with a quick chat about normally serious authors who go off the known, beaten path to write something hilarious. I read Robert Ludlum's The Road to Omaha years ago, and was surprised when I came across his other books that were not even similar! Del mentioned that Patricia Cornwell made this departure with Isle of Dogs, a comic romp, similar to Carl Hiaasen's dark comedies.
Overall a fun meetup, enjoyable as ever. We hope you can join us next time! Tiffiny
January meeting
Well, there were only two of us - Del and Tiffiny. Del read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, in which the brilliant, humorous and easily-read Bryson tells of his quest to answer the questions of the universe, and ourselves. Del also enjoyed Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel which argues the geography and environment shaped the modern world. From there we talked of 'horizontal history', which I just learned about, and find fascinating (read more: here).
I read Defending Jacob by William Landay about an attorney who begins to question whether his teenage son could be a murderer. The book ends without a firm answer (which I don't like at all!) and, frankly, made me feel a bit yucky. Happily, I moved onto Monster by A Lee Martinez, a funny sci-fi read.
Hopefully you can join us next month, I know the snow can make it difficult to get around. Please RSVP if you can make it. Take care and read daily!
I read Defending Jacob by William Landay about an attorney who begins to question whether his teenage son could be a murderer. The book ends without a firm answer (which I don't like at all!) and, frankly, made me feel a bit yucky. Happily, I moved onto Monster by A Lee Martinez, a funny sci-fi read.
Hopefully you can join us next month, I know the snow can make it difficult to get around. Please RSVP if you can make it. Take care and read daily!
Our last meeting was awesome!
We met at Del's beautiful house, which overlooks most of the valley; it was so lovely we stayed for hours - Del is an excellent host.
Of course, we did talk about books! Del chose sci-fi - Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus about time travel to the past and the probability of erasing one's future in trying to change the past.
Patrice is reading Gap Creek, The Story of a Marriage - author Robert Morgan tells of young newlyweds struggling with life and marriage at the turn of the twentieth century.
Joe bravely tackled Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, the real history you were never told about the big moments in America. Joe also recommends a series of South American history books by William Prescott.
I knocked out Where'd you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (if it sounds familiar, that's because Patrice read it in August) poor Bernadette has run away from her husband and teenage daughter overwhelmed by agoraphobia, self-pity and crazy neighbors, but her absence devastates her family; and am now taking my time with The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin who wondered one day if she was happy and if it was possible to become happier.
Del pointed out that we all read books concerning history - changing it, learning it, living it and using it to improve the future. We shared experiences of travel and family history which brought to mind the book The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson's story of Allan Karlsson, a centenarian who is frustrated that the assisted living facility monitors his vodka intake so climbs through the window for some peace and quiet, but finds an adventure.
We talked about the blog Letters of Note by Shaun Usher who posts interesting letters by people known and unknown. If you haven't heard of it, it's worth checking out.
The Book Club will meet on the first Thursday of each month at 2:30pm. Please fill out the RSVP form on the right, *if you plan on coming* so whoever is hosting will have an idea of how many. We can't wait to see you next month on the 5th.
Happy reading!
Our first meeting...
...was fun! There were four, Patrice (Where'd You Go, Bernadette), Tiffiny (The Husband's Secret), Del (The Martian) and Joe (Journey to Ixtlan). Each book sounded so good, I want to read them all!
We agreed, that while we're a small group, we will meet at someone's house each week - September's meeting will be at Del's near Community Market (I'll email the address prior to our meeting). Also, we'll continue to meet the first Thursday of each month, but at 3:30 pm.
Everyone is welcome, please RSVP and let us know what you're reading. See you next month!
Our first meeting...
...Will be Thursday, August 6th at 4:00 pm at Tiffiny's house in BBC, I'll provide drinks and snacky things. Please RSVP to let me know you're coming, I will e-mail a confirmation and the address.
At our first meeting we'll talk about ourselves, the specifics of this Book Club and, of course, books! Tell us what you're reading, or a book you loved but don't think got enough attention.
See you then!
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