Mockingbird by Kathryn Eskine

We had a nice discussion and a great time at our January Book Club meeting. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine was a really great book and highly recommended. Thanks Rachel for hosting!

In attendance were Rachel, Cortney, Joy and a big welcome to Kanoe Aken and Jana Hazelette!

Rachel recommended an uplifting book I'm currently reading: The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews 

These is My Words - 8/20/08

Trisha Sessions Baby Shower

It was a wonderful evening.
We all had a great time wishing Trisha the best.










Thanks for the great turnout.
In Attendance:
Trisha, Bonnie, Tori, Nate, Neyliah and Kelly Sessions, Trisha's mom Terry, Cortney, Keri, Val and Crystal, Molly, Sarah, Arielle, Joy.



Cortney your talents know no bounds. This cake was delicious, delectable and delightful.

















**UPDATE** Trisha and Dan's baby boy - Brandson - arrived on September 17! Congratulations!

Our August Book was "These is My Words" by Nancy E. Turner.

**Joy's review on www.goodnessmatters.com**
Simply the best story of frontier life I have ever read. It is just so GOOD! These is My Words written by Nancy E. Turner is a compilation of diary entries of the author's great-grandmother, Sarah Agnes Prine. I just love Family History. What fun the author must of had uncovering the adventures of her own great-grandmother. This journey takes place in the late 1800's, beginning with Sarah as an uneducated girl traveling by wagon train. This quickly sheds light on the quirky title and grammar present in the first chapter. I vividly remember thinking that if These Words don't improve I'm going to put this book down - and it's likely not to get picked up again. Gratefully, it is not long that young Sarah's journaling gets profoundly better to where her words take a tightfisted hold. Soon I was so wrapped up in the indelible backdrop of harsh trailblazing conditions that finding a place to place my bookmark was a regrettable experience.

Sarah Prine's narrative made such an impression on me. It was easy to feel like I had walked up the steps of her front porch and we visited in her kitchen. While there, I witnessed her as a concerned wife, as a mother taking time to transfer bits of wisdom to her children and as a friend willing to share all she could provide. I loved reading how she would take in people passing through with kindness. There wasn't a lot of space on her humble homestead yet she would string up blankets in the front room for privacy and set out a cot if a visitor were to stay the night.

In my mind I can still see her in her ranch style kitchen fixing a pan of fresh baked biscuits while clothes are out hanging on the line and a shotgun always within reach. She was in fact a sharp shooter -- with a wit that was every bit as sharp as well.
One of my favorite quotes from Sarah's journal:

"Our children weigh hard on my heart, and thinking about them growing up honest and healthy, or just living to grow up at all, makes a load in my chest that is bigger than the safe at the bank, and more valuable to me than all the gold inside it. — entry for October 10, 1887"

Sarah Agnes Prine is truly an inspiring, forward thinking, no-nonsense gal. She valued family and education above all else.  These is My Words was rugged, inspiring, humbling, Excellence. A Highly Recommended Good Read. ~Joy  **updated 8/19/2011**

For September:

The time has come for the Twilight Saga Book Club Meeting!
We will be reviewing Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer for our September Book.

Thank you Arielle Klingler for offering your home.
We will next meet on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 7 o'clock.

The Sunflower 2/19/08

What a wonderful productive evening at Book Club! Thank you to everyone for all your great input.

Cortney may be our first published author. . .of a cook book. ;-) *hint *hint - Yum - I need the recipe for your Curry Pasta. Along with Cortney, Moana, Rhona, Jane, Codee and I talked about The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans.

Perfect love casteth out fear. 1 John 4:18

What a nice, feel-good, inspirational book. We all loved the chapter headings, the author's style, and felt it was worth visiting his work again. (*read* check out MAY's selection)

**** Joy's review on www.goodnessmatters.com****
Knowing goodness matters to so many people makes it easy to recommend The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans. It is such an uplifting, simple, good read.  Reaching the last page made me wish it could continue on - and even with the brevity of the tale it left such a lasting impression. At the heart of the story is a very real orphanage in Peru named "El Girasol" - The Sunflower. Paul Cook an American ER doctor, gave up his career and selflessly became the orphanage Director. A young woman, Christine Hollister, who's heartsick after her fiance broke off their engagement agrees to go on a humanitarian expedition with her best friend Christine. During this expedition, a beautiful story unfolds about service, children, sacrifice and love. The whole story is sumptuously written with thought provoking quotations from Paul's diary at the beginning of each chapter.  

*Paul Cook's Diary*
The surest way to minimize your own burdens is to carry someone else's. (ch. 6)

Today I overheard an American teenager comparing her deprivation to that of our children, because her parents would only buy her a used car. There are none so impoverished as those who do not acknowledge the abundance of their lives. (ch. 9)

Feelings can be like wild animals - we underrate how fierce they are until we've opened their cages. (ch. 12)

The more I study history the more I realize how little mankind has changed. There are no new scripts, just different actors. (ch.14)

I have come to believe that the only true way we can serve God is to serve His children. (ch. 20)
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Chocolate is God's apology for broccoli" (ha!)

From reading The Sunflower I understood how the value of service, sacrifice and generosity to others can have a healing affect in our own life. Oh, I want to pick up the book and start it again right from the beginning! ~Joy  updated 8/19/2011


And. . .drum roll please. . .We have the next 6 months of book picks. =D

March 25th (*note: 4th Tuesday)
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: a novel of war and survival by Loise Murphy

April: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

May: The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans

June: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

July: The Appeal by John Grisham **Update** The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

**UPDATE**:
August: These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

September: Breaking Dawn (Book 4 of the Twilight Series) by Stephenie Meyer
~release date August 2nd~

Can't wait to hear your comments. As for those of you who had to be away from us this evening - without question - Ladies, you were missed.

Next Book Club Meeting: March 25, 2008 at Cortney Nadig's home.
****Last Minute switch**** Book Club will be meeting at Rhona's home 3/25 at 7 PM.