December Meeting

Our December meeting was on Sunday, December 9th at 2:00pm. It was our annual Christmas Party with an ornament exchange. We enjoyed many wonderful finger sandwiches and desserts along with  hot tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Karen M. did a fantastic job with the food and wonderful Christmas decorations.

After we ate we had our yearly business meeting. We discussed some changes to the dates and times of our meetings and we decided to try some Sunday meeting times at 2:00pm this year. We also discussed starting on time, with the meeting starting at 7:00 pm and discussion beginning at 7:45 and ending on time at 9:30. We selected our books for next year with each member taking a month of their choice for their meeting.

Following the business meeting we played the left right game and opened our gifts. Although we all loved our ornaments we decided to change the gift exchange for next year. Many people felt they had too many ornaments and did not have room for any more.

Following the ornament exchange  we played a game that Angie brought for us.  Karen Massey was the winner of the Name That Tune game.We had fun trying to guess the titles of the holiday songs.

We had a wonderful time at the meeting and since there wasn't a book to discuss we were free to birdwalk all we wanted!

November Meeting

Our November meeting was hosted by Stephanie. We enjoyed 2 wonderful varieties of homemade soup and a delicious dessert with a special topping.
Our discussion was about the book, American Wife. The book was fiction but loosely based on the life of Laura Bush. This made for a lively discussion about authors who write fiction but intertwine facts about a person's real life. There were strong opinions about this. Most people felt this could confuse the reader and it was not a good idea to put made up events in a book about a real person verses a fictional character.

August, September, October

I was not able to attend the meetings for August, September or October so I can't report on the news for those months. If you were the hostess for one of those months and would like to send me a short recap of the meeting I would be happy to post it for you.

July Meeting

On July 24th the club reviewed the book, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. Everyone liked the book. Angie shared how she related to the book as a young girl who came to America from Germany and how she learned English from a woman in her apartment building. We discussed the hardship Kim and her mother had to face for many years and how they had to endure Aunt Paula 's jealous feelings. We also talked about how bright Kim must have been to go to school by day and then work in the sweatshop with her mother right after school and into the night. We were treated to Vic Tellez fixing his speciality, Chinese stir fry with rice. Everyone shared there fortune cookie fortunes after dessert. We all had a nice time visiting and getting caught up with each other's summer vacations.

June Meeting

Change of Date for June Meeting

Joyce's June Meeting

Our June meeting has a change of date. The meeting will be on June 19th instead of June 26th.

That is one week earlier than usual. So don't forget to read June's book a little earlier than usual.
The book is, The World As We Know It, by Joseph Monniger.
 It is a wonderful story that I think everyone will enjoy.

Barb's Little Free Library Information

Barb's Little Free Library

Here is a picture of the Little Free Library I mentioned at the book club meeting at my house.  It is already popular with the kids on the block and I am hoping it will be come a favorite place for the adults in the neighborhood as more find out about it.  Paul put up the bench last week so we are hoping people will come sit down and browse through a book.  Here is the link for the Little Free Library program:  www.littlefreelibrary.org.  There is some interesting info there.

Happy Reading!

Barb  

Joanne Sampsel, Charter Member

A Tribute to Joanne Sampsel

As most of you know Joanne Sampsel passed away this month.  Joanne was one of the original book club members. Memories being what they are at our age....it is comforting to know that we can rely on the Written Word (Linda’s Official List) to keep track of what our brains cannot.   Joanne's first book choice was "Deceptions" by Judith Michael and the second year she picked "Pastures of Heaven" by John Steinbeck.  The third year of Book Club she hosted our first Christmas "Snack Tasting" get together.  As Karen was reminiscing, she recalled that Joanne always was working at home and/or outside the home.  She never was idle. Debbie remembered that Joanne listened to Books on Tape while she ironed. 

It has been suggested we donate a book on tape to the library in her memory.  She was very creative, and the idea of selecting a book on tape seems appropriate.  This tribute celebrates both her pleasures of quilting and cooking and her creativity of participating in Book Club in a way that she could work and enjoy the written word at the same time.

The book “Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs was mentioned. I contacted the library and they already have this book on tape.  Another one of Jacobs books is “Comfort Food” and this is one the library needs.  Open to other suggestions.   

In the meantime let me/Karen Massey know if you would be interested in donating toward this memorial.

Submitted by Karen Massey

Joanne Sampsel was in our book club at the outset, although she dropped out after about a year, as she was not a reader, but a dear friend and neighbor for those of us in the Foster Village subdivision.
She was also a charter member of St Elizabeth's. She passed away on 4-26-12 after a three year battle with cancer.  She was 59.
Submitted by Gloria Hannon