First Meeting Reminder

 

*** Update: I've received some feedback from a few of last year's Book Club veterans and have decided to push our first meeting back one month.  Looks like I'm not the only one who was busy this September and didn't get a chance to track down the book.  =) 

So... our first meeting will be Thursday, November 3 at 6:00.  Mark your calendars and grab the book! See the blue edits below for updated info. Sorry for the flip-flop!***

Hi, Bookies!

I wanted to remind everyone that our first Book Club meeting is next week month, Thursday, October 6 November 3, at my house.  Leave me a comment with your email address if you need address/directions. If you're like me and blinked only to find that September has vanished, you'll be scrambling to get your hands on the book this week month (ha!) (there were several available for library checkout) and spending spend some time reading this weekend month. =)  The good news is Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a short and quick read, so we do have that going for us! ...Maybe we can finish it by November! hehe

To simplify our first meeting, instead of signing up for various pieces of a full dinner, please plan on bringing an appetizer/munchie to share.  I will provide the drinks and dessert!

 Be a deer and RSVP before this Friday, October 27,  if you are planning on joining our Book Club this year by commenting here or sending me a note via Facebook or email. If you aren't sure you'll have the entire book read by November 3, but would like to be in our Book Club, you are still welcome to come!  There will be a few spoilers, but there won't be a quiz (promise). We'll be choosing our next book and picking a definite schedule for the rest of our meetings, so we would love to have you.  As we'll be planning for future meetings, please bring any recommendations you have for Book 2!

Happy Tuesday!

Autumn Book Club Kick-Off

Hi Ladies!

I hope everybody had a fabulous summer!  I can't believe September is already here, but I embraced it fully by baking a couple dozen pumpkin snickerdoodles this afternoon, and after downing a few of those, I can honestly say I'm happy to see autumn. =)

I wanted to invite you all to join us again this year for Book Club!  I debated setting it up again, but then realized I'd really missed sharing a book with other ladies over the summer, and I love having an excuse to get together for a girls' night once a month.  So....we're at it again!

We'll be meeting once a month to discuss a piece of literature over a pot luck style, book-themed dinner. Costumes are always welcome. =) We will rotate homes each month so anyone who is interested will have an opportunity to host a Book Club meeting.

Our first book will be Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman, and we will meet at my house on Thursday, October 6 at 6 o'clock in the evening.  If you need my address, contact me on Facebook or leave a comment with your email address, and I will send it your way. We can shoot for the first Thursday of every month, or we can switch up our dates after the first meeting- we'll make a definite plan for future meetings when we meet in October. We're looking to recruit members, so if you know someone who might be interested, please pass along the invite!

Momma always told CeeCee (short for Cecelia Rose) that “being in the North isn’t living—it’s absolute hell.” Of course, having to live with Momma—Camille Sugarbaker Honeycutt, that is, Vidalia Onion Queen, 1951—doesn’t make it any more heavenly, especially when Momma starts standing in the front yard blowing kisses to passersby. You know this is going to end badly, and so it does, when the erstwhile onion queen is run over by a speeding Happy Cow Ice Cream Truck. Before you can say “sweet magnolia blossoms,” 12-year-old CeeCee is sent off to Savannah to live with her elderly great aunt, Tallulah Caldwell, and her wise African American housekeeper and cook, Oletta. It being 1967, you know there will be one dark episode of racial hatred, but it’s quickly—and conveniently—resolved offstage, leaving all the characters free to continue being relentlessly eccentric, upbeat, sweet as molasses, and living, as CeeCee puts it with a straight face, “in a breezy, flower-scented fairy tale . . . a strange, perfumed world that . . . seemed to be run entirely by women.” Light as air but thoroughly pleasant reading. --Michael Cart 

I really hope you'll join us!  I'm looking forward to coming together to chat about some great books and getting the most out of all the fun dinner ideas on Pinterest. We'd love to have a slew of women to enjoy the fun! =)  If you're up for Book Club this year, leave a comment below or catch me on Facebook and let me know.  I'll be using the blog to keep everyone informed, so be sure to check back for updates and dinner sign-ups!

Happy reading!

-Brittany

Summer Plans

Hi Ladies!

Happy Spring! I'm pulling together plans for Book Club over the summer.  Plans have been MIA lately because I've spent every spare minute outside soaking up the sun...and I'm guessing you have too. =) 

Same Kind of Different As Me was lost in translation from winter to spring, so we'll just toss it in with our next meeting. Apologies! (We're waiting for "Water for Elephants" to hit the $3.50 theatre...we'll try to set a come-if-you-can date when that happens.)

Buckle up.  I'm about to make some big decisions.

Since summer is right around the corner, we're going to stretch out our meetings to once every other(ish) month. We'll meet June 22 and August 17 over the summer.  Random?  Yes. But I'm thinking if I throw a couple dates out there, we might be able to pull it off. And these two avoid summer holidays and split up the summer. It gives us lots of time to read in between vacations and trips to the beach and the ice cream shop.  In August we'll decide if we want to stick with the every other month routine or if we want to jump back on the once a month wagon.

As far as book selections go, there are lots of possibilities posted in the previous post (here) and in the comments.  Check them out and vote for your top three picks via comment or Facebook message by THIS FRIDAY, May 20. I'll take the top two picks and let you know what books we're reading this summer.  Please vote! Or, look out, I'm going to fly solo and pick, and I can't promise I won't just set up Twilight as one of the options because I love a good corny re-read for the beach.  ;)

Talk to me. =)

Future Book Selection Possibilities

In preparation for May...

Here are a few possibilities for May and June I found after looking at a few book lists and digging them up on Amazon.  Take a look and see what you think, and bring more suggestions Wednesday if you've got them!

(All summaries and reviews below, as well as images below, found at: www.amazon.com)

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira:

The Civil War offers a 20-year-old midwife who dreams of becoming a doctor the medical experience she craves, plus hard work and heartbreak, in this rich debut that takes readers from a small upstate New York doctor's office to a Union hospital overflowing with the wounded and dying. Though she's too young for the nursing corps, Mary Sutter goes to Washington, anyway, and, after a chance meeting with a presidential secretary, is led to the Union Hotel Hospital, where she assists chief surgeon William Stipp and becomes so integral to Stipp's work she ignores her mother's pleas to return home to deliver her sister's baby. From a variety of perspectives—Mary, Stipp, their families, and social, political, and military leaders—the novel offers readers a picture of a time of medical hardship, crisis, and opportunity. Oliveira depicts the amputation of a leg, the delivery of a baby, and soldierly life; these are among the fine details that set this novel above the gauzier variety of Civil War fiction. The focus on often horrific medicine and the women who practiced it against all odds makes for compelling reading.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton:

Like Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic The Secret Garden, Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden takes root in your imagination and grows into something enchanting--from a little girl with no memories left alone on a ship to Australia, to a fog-soaked London river bend where orphans comfort themselves with stories of Jack the Ripper, to a Cornish sea heaving against wind-whipped cliffs, crowned by an airless manor house where an overgrown hedge maze ends in the walled garden of a cottage left to rot. This hidden bit of earth revives barren hearts, while the mysterious Authoress's fairy tales (every bit as magical and sinister as Grimm's) whisper truths and ignite the imaginary lives of children. As Morton draws you through a thicket of secrets that spans generations, her story could cross into fairy tale territory if her characters weren't clothed in such complex flesh, their judgment blurred by the heady stench of emotions (envy, lust, pride, love) that furtively flourished in the glasshouse of Edwardian society. While most ache for a spotless mind's eternal sunshine, the Authoress meets the past as "a cruel mistress with whom we must all learn to dance," and her stories gift children with this vital muscle memory. --Mari Malcolm

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls:

For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Walls, whose megaselling memoir, The Glass Castle, recalled her own upbringing, writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another. Having been educated in fits and starts because of her parents' penury, Lily becomes a teacher at age 15 in a remote frontier town she reaches after a solo 28-day ride. Marriage to a bigamist almost saps her spirit, but later she weds a rancher with whom she shares two children and a strain of plucky resilience. (They sell bootleg liquor during Prohibition, hiding the bottles under a baby's crib.) Lily is a spirited heroine, fiercely outspoken against hypocrisy and prejudice, a rodeo rider and fearless breaker of horses, and a ruthless poker player. Assailed by flash floods, tornados and droughts, Lily never gets far from hardscrabble drudgery in several states—New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois—but hers is one of those heartwarming stories about indomitable women that will always find an audience. (Oct.)

 Saving Cee Cee Honey Cutt by Beth Hoffman:

Momma always told CeeCee (short for Cecelia Rose) that “being in the North isn’t living—it’s absolute hell.” Of course, having to live with Momma—Camille Sugarbaker Honeycutt, that is, Vidalia Onion Queen, 1951—doesn’t make it any more heavenly, especially when Momma starts standing in the front yard blowing kisses to passersby. You know this is going to end badly, and so it does, when the erstwhile onion queen is run over by a speeding Happy Cow Ice Cream Truck. Before you can say “sweet magnolia blossoms,” 12-year-old CeeCee is sent off to Savannah to live with her elderly great aunt, Tallulah Caldwell, and her wise African American housekeeper and cook, Oletta. It being 1967, you know there will be one dark episode of racial hatred, but it’s quickly—and conveniently—resolved offstage, leaving all the characters free to continue being relentlessly eccentric, upbeat, sweet as molasses, and living, as CeeCee puts it with a straight face, “in a breezy, flower-scented fairy tale . . . a strange, perfumed world that . . . seemed to be run entirely by women.” Light as air but thoroughly pleasant reading. --Michael Cart

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton:

In her cinematic debut novel, Kate Morton immerses readers in the dramas of the Ashbury family at their crumbling English country estate in the years surrounding World War I, an age when Edwardian civility, shaken by war, unravels into the roaring Twenties. Grace came to serve in the house as a girl. She left as a young woman, after the presumed suicide of a famous young poet at the property's lake. Though she has dutifully kept the family's secrets for decades, memories flood back in the twilight of her life when a young filmmaker comes calling with questions about how the poet really died--and why the Ashbury sisters never again spoke to each other afterward. With beautifully crafted prose, Morton methodically reveals how passion and fate transpired that night at the lake, with truly shocking results. Her final revelation at the story's close packs a satisfying (and not overly sentimental) emotional punch. --Mari Malcolm


Thoughts???

Book Club Combo: Dinner and a Movie Night

Paging the Book Club:

I need some input this week.  Let me know if you're coming, and what your vote is for the options below so I'm not left stranded alone at the movie theatre with nothing but highly caloric popcorn to comfort me.

I've looked up showtimes for Wednesday night, and the schedule isn't exactly working in our favor if we're sticking with our normal Book Club timing... so there's a few ways we can play this.  Give a holler and let me know what works for you.

The movie is at 6:30 and is two hours long, so we're looking at an 8:30ish end time. The only other movie time was after 8 and good night nurse, that would mean a post 11:oo bedtime and I'm just not sure I have it in me.  If you're game, let me know.  But I'm running with the 6:oo plan...

Option 1: Pull an early meeting and do dinner at T.R. at 5:oo then go see the movie.

Option 2: Slam a PB&J at home with the kids, then meet at the theatre between 6:15ish-6:30 and go out for dessert or coffee afterwards at TR or Coldstone or... [insert good post-movie restaurant here].

Option 3: Meet at Coldstone for ice cream at 5:45 (who says we can't just eat dessert for dinner?) and see the 6:30 movie.

Option 4: Meet at Jimmy Johns at 5:45 for a not-so-gourmet but still delicious and conveniently faster dinner then go see the 6:30 movie.

What I'm trying to say is...I don't think we'll have time for dinner at TR and still make the movie if we meet at our normal time around 6, and I'm tossing a bunch of ideas out there because I'm not sure when hubbies or babysitters will be available to watch the littles and we might need to fly by the seat of our pants this month and switch it up a little bit. =)  Let me know what works for you, and we'll nail down a plan in the next 24 hours.

Heads-Up: movie tickets are going to cost your first born child's college education, so plan accordingly. $9.50 unless you have an old college ID laying around or you have a grey wig and can get in as a senior. =)

Also...bring some book recommendations for May and June!  We'll pick our next two books Wednesday night!

All this willy-nilly planning for this month is going to give me a stomach ulcer.  I promise next month we'll have a solid plan long before the week of Book Club.  My sanity depends on it.

Shout out to *Pam* who will be spending next week in Florida!  Am I the only one wondering why she didn't invite the Book Club ladies to join her?!?! =)

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

April Book Club!

Hi Ladies!

I'm so sorry its taken me so long to pull together a plan for April...I've been scrambling to get my house up on the market, to throw my baby boy a birthday party, and to find a venue for our April Book Club.

I'm happy to report all have come to pass, and we have a plan for April!

 (image found at amazon.com)

We're reading Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, and we're going to combine our April Book Club with a showing of Water for Elephants!  Wahoo!  You can thank Trudy for that genius idea!

If you aren't excited about the movie, check this out....and get excited!

If you haven't started the book yet, fear not!  It is a quick read once you get started from what I remember- and the book itself isn't too long. =)

On April 27, we'll meet for an early dinner out at Twisted Rooster, where we'll eat, drink, and merrily discuss Same Kind of Different as Me,  then we'll head over to the theater to catch the show.

I'll be back with details regarding times in a week when they have the showtime schedule posted since the movie doesn't open until April 22. ...I picked Twisted Rooster because its near the theater, and I'm currently obsessed with their fish and chips- but if you've got a hankerin' for something else close to Celebration,  give a shout out in the comments and we'll hit it up instead!

[Photo Booth!]

"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.

An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent."

-Horton Hatches the Egg, Dr. Seuss

                 

We had a blast at Book Club last night! Between the pizzas, lemonade, Circus Peanut jello salad, and the fried Twinkies, I felt like I was hanging out at the Ringling Brothers' for the evening.  I may or may not still be munching on the HOMEMADE caramel corn while I post these photos....

Thanks to Trudy for the fun pictures, and thanks to yours truly for the crumby variety. I'll let you do the math. =)

Now Introducing:

 Rosie #1....

Complete with her bloody stake =)

Barbara...

Eat your heart out

Rosie #2...

[insert elephant trumpet here...]

Marlena...

Gracious hostess and walking disco ball =)

The Spec:

Thanks so much for hosting, Trudy!  It was a lot of fun!  And thanks to the ladies who made it out....we'll see you and our other chapter chicks next month! 

I'll be back with details on Book Club for April soon. =)

*Of all the conversations we had last night, the one thing I had nightmares about last night was the fact that my house might be full of lead paint.  You'd think with the bearded ladies and the red-lighting and the lions eating menagerie horses and the Jamaican Rum paralysis, that I would have been worried about something else at three in the morning, but lead poisoning is what got me! Eek!

[Circus Menu & Red-Light Warning]

Welcome to the Book Club Blog!

Hi Ladies!

I decided to put a blog together so we can communicate a little more easily and so we can have a way to look back on our meetings each month and post pictures. Plus, all cool clubs have a blog. =) The Type A in me is showing, but I had a lot of fun putting this together, and its a lot easier for me to touch base for Book Club this way.  Check back a couple times a month for updates, and I will try to keep in touch via Facebook and let you know when I've made a new post.

We'll RSVP and sign-up for menu items by commenting here.  If you have any kind of Google (gmail, blogger,etc.) account, commenting is a piece of cake, and if you've got AOL or another server, you can comment as well.  If commenting freaks you out, talk to me and I can make it less scary! =)

Now, on to business:

Book Club is this coming Wednesday!  Wahoo!!!  ...Remember to come in full costume or we'll have you red-lighted!!!!!  (And that memo comes straight from the Ringleader herself!)

Make-your-own pizzas & popcorn are on the menu for dinner, so we need volunteers to bring the items below. Stick a shout out in the comments to claim your piece, and I'll remove them from the list as we get sign-ups. I'll combine this list from Facebook for this month since we're transitioning to the blog for now.

Think "circus food/carnival"... message me or Trudy on Facebook if you need ideas =)

Munchie/appetizers-open
Munchie/appetizers- taken (Pam)
Salad- open
Dessert- taken (Brittany)
Beverage-taken (Lauren V)
Beverage- open

I think that covers it, ladies!  Hope you are all having a great weekend, and look forward to seeing you Wednesday!

*If you're interested, check out the "Discussion" tab at the top of the blog to take a peek at some discussion questions for this month.  We'll have the list at Book Club Wednesday. =)

Attention, Roustabouts!

In just a couple short weeks we will meet again for the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! That's right! Book Club is right around the corner!

For this month's Book Club, we would like everyone to arrive ready for the Spec! That is to say, we're going to attend Book Club in character of someone from the Book. =) Check out this link for a partial list of characters.

Looking at the RSVP'S, I think we've got a Straw House. For those of you who are a First of May, at our initial meeting we decided we would each sign up to bring an item on the menu using the event page. So check back for a menu list soon!

We'll see you all on Wednesday, March 30, when we'll leave all the rubes behind and hop the train for the Greatest Show on Earth!

*First of May – A rookie on the circus
*Roustabout – a laborer on the circus
*Straw House - a sold-out performance.
*Spec – a parade within the tent of all performers and animals in costume, usually at the beginning of the show

Book Club, Round 2!

Hi Ladies!

We had our first Book Club meeting last night, and now we're gearing up for March! We've switched up our Book Club night and moved it to the last Wednesday of each month in hopes of making it more feasible for those of you who couldn't do Thursdays. We had a blast at our first meeting and hope you can join us for Round Two!

We'll be reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen for our March meeting. It's a unique story and will be made into a movie soon, so we thought it would be a fun read. =)

(image found at: http://www.amazon.com)

Here's a link to the book on Amazon if you'd like to get an idea of what the book is about, and the movie trailer is posted there as well.

If you're interested in hopping onto our Book Club wagon, get a hold of Water for Elephants by March 30. On the 30th, we'll meet up at Trudy's "Big Top" for dinner and discussion!

RSVP here and then check back a couple weeks before Book Club to see the dinner menu and sign up to bring something to share.

Hope you can make it!!!

*For those of you planning ahead...our book for April will be Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent, and we will be meeting on April 27, so save the date! =)

Book Club, Round 1

For those of you in need of a little culture, fellowship, food, and fun…
Join us on the last Thursday of every month for a themed dinner and discussion based on a Book Club book!

Each month, our Book Club will choose a book to read over the course of the following four weeks. On the last Thursday of each month, we’ll come together for Book Club. At each meeting, we’ll discuss the book over drinks, dinner and dessert. We’ll ro...tate homes for Book Club each month, so anyone who is interested may host one of our meetings!

Bookies, mark your calendars!

Our first Book Club will meet Thursday, February 24 at Brittany’s house.

We're kicking off Book Club with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I've heard fantastic things about this book, and it was recommended as a great Book Club read. =)

(image found at: http://www.amazon.com)

If you're interested in joining our Book Club, get your hands on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by February 24. I'm shooting for a low-pressure Book Club, so no homework- just enjoy reading the book and meet up with us for dinner and discussion!

Please RSVP in the comments to join so we know how many Bookies we'll be feeding =)

***On February 24, be sure to bring any recommendations you have for our next Book Club book so we can start scheduling books in advance!***

Hope you can make it!!!