2013 Book Schedule and Information

From Karen M.
Here is a basic list of months, dates and times, and books that were decided in December. The group decided after discussion that we would use 2013 as a trial year for meeting at least some of the time on Sunday afternoons. The consensus was that we meet during the winter months on Sundays. Other months are up to the hostess to decide if she wants to meet on the fourth Sunday afternoon or the fourth Tuesday evening. The Sunday time will be 2:00 - 5:30ish and the Tuesday time 7:00 - 9:30. We will begin at 2:00 - 2:30/7:00 - 7:30 for socializing. The hostess as always is in charge of menu...dessert or snacks or a meal...with the understanding that members will know in advance to plan to eat dinner before coming or not. We recognize that "catching up" with each other is an important part of who we are as a group. We also agreed that we are doing much better at starting the discussion in a timely manner.

 Books for 2013
 

Tuesday    January 22      7:00        Angie
The Weight of Heaven    by Thrity Umrigar

Sunday      February 24    2:00       Margie and Diane (Diane’s house)
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Tuesday March  26   7:00  Stephanie
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell

Sunday      April 28        2:00         Barb
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barber

Tuesday, May 21       7:00    Sharon
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

Tuesday   June 25     7:00    Karen Tellez
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

Sunday    July 28       2:00    Corinne
Killing Kennedy, by Bill O'Reilly

August            TBA    Debbie
TBA
Tuesday    September 24  7:00       Gloria
Birds of a Feather, by Jacqueline Windspear

Sunday   October 27      2:00       Joyce
Those Who Save Us    by Jenna Blum

Sunday   November 24  2:00       Linda
The Light Between Oceans, by M. L. Stedman

Sunday   December 15  2:00
Karen J Massey       Christmas Gathering

*** It is important to remember that some of the meeetings will be held on Sunday afternoons.

New Book List for 2013

Karen M. has our new book list for 2013. She is going to email all of us the list. When she gets that done I will post the book list onto our blog.

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.