Cookout

On Sunday, I hosted a cookout for the Paige Turners, and company. We had a full menu: burgers, grilled caesar salad (sometimes with ranch), greek pasta salad, potato salad, fruit, veggies…and dessert! Key lime pie and brownies. (Thank you everyone for all the yummy goodness). No one left hungry. Well done!

We sat and chatted. We played Balderdash in special honor of Sarah. (We missed you!) And then we moved inside to talk about important things. Like lists. And M.A.S.H. (Not the show, the game. Poor Kate. She ended up with most of the yucky options. But at least she got her dream job!) We wrapped up the day with an almost-finished-game of Disney Trivial pursuit.

Of course, the cutest part of the day was Charlotte. When we were eating lunch, she and Gallaudett got to know each other. They were chasing each other around and around the desk. My dog is 15 years old. He doesn’t interact with anything. In fact, he usually runs away. But for some reason, he fell in love with Charlotte. It was so cute. Then Charlotte discovered the BIG teddy bear. Partially because Erinn attacked her with it (good job). But she loved playing with that thing. It made her ecstatically happy.

And I love when people are happy.

I hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Looking ahead: Our next meeting is on September 8th. We are discussing While the Daffodils Danced by Cathie LaMarsh. Happy Reading!

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Our book club meeting this month was a casualty of summer schedules and Harry Potter. Of our nine girls, four came to the meeting, and only two had the chance to read the book. But we still had a lovely time, even with a smaller group.

Katie and I were able to talk about our reactions to the book. We both enjoyed reading it, but also both were of the opinion that it would make a perfect “bathroom” or “leave it in the car” book. There really isn’t an overarching plot, nor does the book grip you in such a way that you can’t put it down. The book is a conglomeration of little stories and filler chapters, and each one wraps up nicely before moving on. If the rest of the series is like this first book, we can understand why it has been translated to the small screen as a TV show. But the heroine is likable, and can be quite hilarious at times with her matter-of-fact approach to life and case solving. So for those whose schedules got the better of them this past month, this one is worth reading. Keep it in your car or on your dresser for those *cough* slow *cough* moments in your day. They’re bound to happen….sometime. :-)

The overarching lesson this month was: IPhones are quite nifty, and camel spiders are big and creepy.

Looking ahead: I know July is historically our slowest month, but after our meeting a few weeks ago I’ve been brainstorming. I’m planning some different things for the fall. Keep your eyes on your mailboxes. Good things are in your future.

Upcoming meetings/events: We will have no book discussion for August. Enjoy a reading vacation! We will have a cookout on Sunday, August 23rd starting at 1:30. I’ll provide the burgers/buns/ and the porch. Bring your family and a side dish or dessert, and let’s just enjoy the afternoon. Our next book discussion will be on Tuesday, September 8th. Stay tuned for more details.

The Shack

I must admit that I was surprised by our discussion this month. Our book was “The Shack” by William Young. I put it on the list because I kept hearing about it: from various friends, from church programs, from Amazon, etc. In fact, the Amazon description is as follows:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment, he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

So I dutifully searched and found some discussion questions, and eagerly waited for our Paige Turner discussion.

And I was surprised.

"The Shack" is a polarizing book. Some readers really loved it, and others truly did not. More than not liking the writing style or the pacing or the (insert literary element here), they were genuinely bothered by the content -- The journey travelled and conclusions reached by the main character.

So our discussion that night went to some places I never would have guessed. But you know, that’s the great thing about our book club. I’m genuinely glad that we were able to talk about the different things we liked and didn’t like. I’m glad that our little group provides an atmosphere of openness and trust so that people can talk about negative responses and reactions. Kudos to us. (I hope everyone else felt the same sort of atmosphere I did.)

And in coming back to the book. There’s a lot to love. One of the things we all enjoyed: a recurring phrase used by the character portraying God. “I am especially fond of ____.” God says this about group of Californian Euro-funk musicians who have yet to be born, of Missy (the child murdered in the beginning of the book, of Mack (the main character), and of several other people along the way. In fact, God tells Mack to pass this message on to his best friend. When Mack gives the message, it’s incredibly apparent that these words touch a very deep place in his friend’s heart. And why wouldn’t they? As a group, we all agreed that this particular element is both true and encouraging. No matter who you are, or how you view yourself: God is especially fond of you.

I won’t list the things that gave us pause. Those worms can stay canned. Suffice it to say that “The Shack” reads like a parable. Therefore, there’s a lot of pictures, statements, and conversations can raise a lot of questions. So, dear reader, if you do pick up this book and you find that in reading it you have questions…please feel free to contact one of us and start a conversation. (You can find my email address on my profile page.)

For the Paige Turners – our next book is “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith. Big surprise, they’re making this one into a movie! (Who’s surprised? Anyone? *wink*)

We’ll meet to discuss it on July 14th. (A date much anticipated by Harry Potter Fans….the sixth movie releases that day at midnight. Whoo hoo! You coming?)

Much Ado About Nothing

Our group was a little smaller this month, but we were not lacking in discussion! Leave it to Shakespeare to whip our little group into a frenzy.

We opened our meeting with something a little different: a quiz! (I wish I could take credit for crafting it, but I just stumbled upon in during an internet search for good discussion starters.) But whoever *did* draft the quiz certainly had fun with making up the multiple choice answers. For example, one of the potential answers for “Why did Claudio refuse to marry Hero?” was “She smelled like a rotten orange.” Pretty funny stuff. Mandy squeaked out a victory and won the super cool prize of glow in the dark flip-flops. I found them at Michaels, and they’re pretty fun!

I don’t think it’s possible to read a Shakespeare play and *not* have something to talk about. And this particular play has lots of quippy lines and sensational characters. After laughing at chatting, we also watched the Kenneth Branaugh version of the movie. It stays very close to the text of play, although we were disappointed that only the first and last lines of this interaction were included in the movie:

Dogberry Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.
Don Pedro First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge.
Claudio Rightly reasoned, and in his own division: and, by my troth, there's one meaning well suited.
Don Pedro Who have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer? this learned constable is too cunning to be understood: what's your offence?

For me personally, watching the movie dramatically impacted my view of one of the main characters. But I’ll save my thoughts on that for a Leakey Faucet post.

For this post, I will simply say adieu.

Thanks for a great meeting everyone. Next month we will meet on June 9th to discuss The Shack by William Young.

Explanation Required

For the first time since November, we had all our Paige Turners in attendance. It was especially nice to have Sarah there, since it was her birthday…and she is not as giraffe-crazy as some of the other girls. But thanks to Erinn and Amanda, we had cupcakes and decorations. And thanks to everyone who came we had a night of smiles and laughs and chatter about our chosen giraffe books – Tall Blondes and Giraffes? Giraffes!

Tall Blondes was picked because it had several reviews like this one: “This book contains the most captivating journey through the history and lives of giraffes that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. As a giraffophile myself, I was amazed at the extent of new, fascinating information contained within each page. It has wonderful illustrations that complement and enhance the reading. "Tall Blondes" is a must-have for every giraffe lover; it's a graceful, distinctive work that is truly deserving of its unique subject matter.

As a group, we feel that the book falls very short of this review. It is very quote heavy. And the quotes aren’t necessarily all related to each other or arranged in a way that reads well. There are certainly some interesting facts about giraffes, but we wouldn’t call it “a captivating journey.” It isn’t until the last couple chapters when the author moves away from listing facts and quotes and actually creates something of a narrative. Those last chapters were ok, but it took a lot to get there.

Highlights from Tall Blondes:

• We learned a giraffe can kick in all directions. With this skill, they can decapitate a lion. Can you imagine that?


• We also learned that giraffes have amazing circulatory systems. Valves in their neck veins keep blood moving one direction so they can lower their head without all the blood rushing downhill and pooling there. Also, their leg veins have thicker walls, and their skin is stretched tight to keep blood moving back up toward their heart. Scientists are trying to use the design of giraffe’s legs to design space suits that will keep astronaut’s circulatory systems from weakening while they are in space. Pretty cool right?


• The story of Victor – a giraffe who tragically passed away after he fell and did the splits in a Great Britain zoo in 1977. I’ll have to borrow a copy of Tall Blondes (mine went back to the library) and share the tribute that was printed in the paper. It’s quite something. Many of the girls who read Tall Blondes said they teared up as they read Victor’s story.

Giraffes? Giraffes! was picked because it looked ridiculous and hilarious. It definitely lived up to our expectations. It’s kind of like “Napoleon Dynamite” – you have to be in the mood for that kind of movie, but if you are, it’s hilarious.

My personal favorite correlation between the two books: space travel. As mentioned above, science is trying to take some giraffe wisdom to improve the design of space suits. This makes complete sense, since according to Giraffes? Giraffes!, these majestic creatures migrated to Earth from Venus by way of a conveyor belt. Coincidence? Most certainly.

Overall, I think it’s totally appropriate that the books this month were both a conglomeration of nonsequitors. Why is that? Because it was Katie’s month to pick our books. And as her own blog suggests…with Katie, there’s usually some explanation required.

Looking forward: It’s the last month of our round robin season. We will be reading Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Picked by Christine.

See you in May!

The Glass Castle

This month we delved into the tale spun by Jeanette Walls describing her very interesting childhood. We decided as a group that the book synopsis/teaser on the back cover is a very inadequate portrayal of the misadventures shared in the book. With that being said, there was no shortage of conversation. We didn’t even need to be driven by a discussion guide…our own reactions directed a great conversation that covered every area suggested in a prompt. Impressive right? The Glass Castle has it all: parts that make you angry, parts that make you happy, parts that make you sad, parts that make you quite indignant, and parts that make you proud. We concluded the evening with a time of sharing stories from our own childhood. It was a lovely time. Thank you Kristin for suggesting this book for us all to read.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a book club meeting without a side sugary goodness. This month, Christine, Mandy, and I dove into the world of phillo dough, dates, and nuts. The result? Baklavah and Ma’amoul. Mmmmm…..

Next Month: We'll have a Giraffe theme with "Tall Blonds" by Lynn Sherr and "Giraffes? Giraffes!" by Doris Haggis-On-Whey.

Inkheart

This month’s meeting started with a surprise. Regina attempted to make single-serving smore brownies. And for the most part, they turned out wonderfully. But this was the first time she used the “broil” setting in the new, gas-powered oven. And as she pulled the top tray out, she discovered that the pies were on fire!

Mandy, being a supportive friend tried to comfort Regina by saying, “Oh it’s not that bad.” But then she lightly tapped one of the burnt pies, and it disintegrated. Which made everyone in the kitchen disintegrate with laughter as Mandy tried to communicate, “Ok, maybe it –is– that bad.”

Thankfully, the rest of the batch was fit for human consumption, and the smore brownies were a hit.

Moving on to Inkheart. We all thought it was a fun read. There are lots of fun characters, and it will be interesting to see how they interpret the book into a movie. (An outing is planned for tomorrow night.)

One of our discussion points for the evening was around language. Inkheart was written in German, and then translated to English. We wondered what may have been lost or gained in translation. We talked about how even with an English to English translation (ex. Harry Potter series), certain words or situations may be received differently by different readers. It was an interesting thought to toss around.

We later got distracted by superstitions. One of the main characters – Basta – is a deeply superstitious person. Christine shared that at a recent family gathering, the women in her family had fun with the pencil test. So of course, we scrambled to find a pencil, a needle, and some thread…and the night ended with more laughter.

Looking ahead, our next read is “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls (Kristin’s Pick). A few of us also plan on reading the rest of the Inkheart series. Thank you Erinn, for picking such an enjoyable book!