August Book Club

Book Club will be held this week on Thursday (8/27) at 7:30 PM at Mary Jenkins' home. We will be discussing the most popular Jane Austen books. Please come even if you weren't able to read. It is still fun to visit.

Treats are welcome!

Any volunteers for hosts for the coming months?

The 4th Thursday

Can you believe that it is already the 4th week of JULY???

Anyways, it is. So, that means that book club will be held at Liz Tillman's house at 7:30 PM on Thursday, July 23rd. We will be discussing Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

Comment if you need her address, and I'll email it to you.


Next month, Mary Jenkins will be hosting a tribute to Jane Austen. She would like to have the main 6 books covered (Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion.) Comment and let us know which one you are reading, or if you need a suggestion of what to choose...

Thanks! Hope to catch you this month, or next.

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Killer Angels

So...tomorrow is the 4th Thursday, I'm not done with the book and I haven't been good about sending out an email or a reminder blog post. With that combination, Liz (our host for the month), has agreed to discuss this book in July.

For those who haven't started...here's your chance! We will have book club on Thursday, July 23rd at 7:30 PM. This will be a great pick for July and really get you in the spirit of Patriotism!!!

Charities and "There Is No Me Without You"

There is No Me Without You #1. Opened my eyes to the extent of the AIDS problem in Africa which has lost a lot of publicity here in America since anti-retrovirals made it a chronic disease rather than one that will surely kill you and #2 made me want to help.

I don't have my book with me to list out the many organizations that are doing great things in Ethiopia, but these three stuck out to me.

http://www.ahopeforchildren.org/ is a non profit organization whose primary focus is caring for orphans infected with HIV and have no extended family to care for them in their childrens home, or through community outreach to children living with extended family who do not have to means to provide the HIV+ orphans with the care they need. I love that you can see where your money goes with this program, you can sponsor an orphan, or send supplies.

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/ is an international medical humanitarian organization whose focus is to assist people whose survival is threatened primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. Doctors without Borders is very highly rated among charitable organizations as one that is great to give your money to, about %87 percent of your donation goes to the front lines rather than being used for office work/publicity.

http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ is a public/private partnership who atrracts, manages, and dispurses resources to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Global Fund has become the main source of finance for programs to fights these three diseases. The buy (RED) movement in the United States supports The Global Fund.

Looking for hosts...

Anyone interested in hosting in July, August or September? Let me know!

Book Club on Thursday

Just wanted to give you a heads up. Again, I apologize for the short notice. We will be discussing There is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Green on Thursday, May 28th at7:30 PM at Tiffany Keck's home. Leave a comment if you need her address!
Hope to see you there!! Treats are ALWAYS welcome.

BOOK CLUB TONIGHT!!

Sorry for the lateness...Clive Cussler discussion is tonight at Rachel Tafoya's at 7:30.
Comment if you need the address.
Hope to see you there, even if you didn't read a book.

Apple Cake with Butter Sauce

At the last book club meeting, Michelle made an awesome dessert called Apple Cake with Butter Sauce. Here's the recipe for everyone who's interested:

Apple Cake

2C Sugar
1/2 C Butter (room temperature)
2 Eggs
3C Applesauce
2C Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Salt
Preheat oven to 350. Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake 50 min.

Butter Sauce

1C Butter
2C Sugar
1C Half&Half
2 tsp Vanilla
Dash nutmeg

Mix all ingredients and cook on low heat until thickened, allowing to boil 1-2 minutes.
To serve: top each piece of cake with desired amount of sauce

Book Club on Thursday

Hey, Book Club will be held on Thursday, March 26th at 7:30 at Michelle Brown's home.
We will be discussing the Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis.
Come and discuss or listen to the discussion if you didn't get a chance to read the book!
Hope to see you there!!

Book Club This Week!

Don't forget book club this week at Micki Lambert's home, Thursday, February 24th at 7:30! We will be discussing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows. Treats are always welcome!


We have information for the April and May bookclubs!


April is an author spotlight hosted by Rachel Tafoya. Choose any book that you would like written by author, Clive Cussler. Along with being an author, Clive Cussler is a Marine Archeologist and founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. He has written a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and even children's books so there are a lot of options! For a full list of Clive Cussler's books, please visit http://www.cusslermen.com/.

In May we are reading There Is No Me Without You written by Melissa Fay Greene, hosted by Tiffany Keck...

Not unlike the AIDS pandemic itself, the odyssey of Haregewoin Teferra, who took in AIDS orphans, began in small stages and grew to irrevocably transform her life from that of "a nice neighborhood lady" to a figure of fame, infamy and ultimate restoration. In telling her story, journalist Greene who had adopted two Ethiopian children before meeting Teferra, juggles political history, medical reportage and personal memoir. While succinctly interspersing a history of Ethiopia, lucidly tracing the history of AIDS from its early manifestation as "slim disease" in the late 1970s to its appearance as a bizarrely aggressive [form] of Kaposi's sarcoma in the early 1980s, and following the complex path of medication (a super highway in the West, a trail in Africa), Greene rescues Teferra from undeserved oblivion as well as rescuing her from undeserved obloquy (false accusations of child selling)... Ethiopia is home to "the second-highest concentration of AIDS orphans in the world"; even as some of the orphans find happy endings in American homes, Greene keeps the urgency of the greater crisis before us in this moving, impassioned narrative. - Publishers Weekly

Book Review by Mary Jenkins

Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets by Jon and Kate Gosselin

"I blinked hard and then stared at the bright screen positioned slightly to my right. There was no mistaking what I saw, yet I was in a state of denial. My doctor began his fateful count. One...aaah. Two...okay. Three...now I was scared. Four...I started sobbing hysterically. The chill of reality washed over me as I watched my husband, my best friend, cheerleader, and storehouse of strength, slowly drop to his knees at the count of five...but the count continued...I feel so incredibly blessed that God has chosen us for this journey. This life is absolutely not in a million years what Jon and I expected, but it is infinitely more than we ever hoped or dreamed in so many ways. While John and I can't imagine what the days ahead will hold for our family, I am often comforted by a quote by Abraham Lincoln. He said, 'The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.' I say, 'Thank God.'"

If you are a fan of the television show "Jon and Kate Plus 8" you will love this book. You may think you know it all but you have no idea. This is a personal, in depth look into the lives of the Gosselin family from their marriage all the way through to the sextuplet's third birthday. Though both parents help write the book it is written from Kate's point of view. It is quite touching to hear their story, how they did not ask to get pregnant with six babies but were absolutely against selective reduction. They felt that God had sent them these children and they were to care for them, all of them. Through her narrative you can hear the worry, stress, excitement, exhaustion, and love that all came to her as she carried and birthed her twins, and then her sextuplets. She gets quite a bit of flack in the online community for being rude to her husband and overbearing with her children. However I found that in this book she was simply stating that she is a mom, like any other mom. She has good days and bad days and she had to learn, and is still learning how to accept help from others graciously. She quotes the Bible quite a bit and really gives credit for her strength to God, concluding the book with six lessons God has taught her while on this journey. It is a wonderful and uplifting fun book that I would recommend to anyone.

Voting Results are In!

Well, you decided! And in March we'll read The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis. I have to give a big thank you to the three people who voted and broke the four way tie! I was really worried for about a week there!

Don't forget book club this week at Nicole Baldwin's house, Thursday at 2pm. Kids and treats to share are welcome! We read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.

The Goose Girl by Grimm Brothers

Our January book, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale was based on a Grimm Brothers fairy tale. I thought it might be interesting in our discussion coming up to post a link to the original story! http://www.authorama.com/grimms-fairy-tales-14.html

Best Book Lists

Here is one from Random House:
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

I am embarrassed to say there were several on this list that I hadn't ever heard of. Atleast on the "Board's List"

Another list I found that I made me feel a little better about my book reading was this:
(found at best100novels.com)

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
9. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
10. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
11. Ulysses by James Joyce
12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
14. Animal Farm by George Orwell
15. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
16. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
17. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
18. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
19. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
20. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
21. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
22. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
23. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
26. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
27. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
28. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
29. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
30. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
31. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
32. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
33. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
34. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
35. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
36. The Stranger by Albert Camus
37. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
38. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
39. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
40. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
41. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
42. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
43. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
44. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
45. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
46. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
47. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
48. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
49. Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
50. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
51. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
52. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
53. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
54. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
55. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
56. Middlemarch by George Eliot
57. Watership Down by Richard Adams
58. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
59. The Stand by Stephen King
60. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
61. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
62. Dune by Frank Herbert
63. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
64. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
65. Dracula by Bram Stoker
66. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
67. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
68. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
69. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
70. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
71. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
72. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
73. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
74. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
75. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
76. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
77. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
78. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
79. The Trial by Franz Kafka
80. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
81. Atonement by Ian McEwan
82. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
84. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
85. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
86. Persuasion by Jane Austen
87. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
88. Beloved by Toni Morrison
89. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
90. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
91. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
92. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
93. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
94. It by Stephen King
95. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
96. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
97. Emma by Jane Austen
98. Light in August by William Faulkner
99. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
100. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray

Still a lot of books I'd like to get to. I think my count was 34.