The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 1/23/2013

January Book Club is now less than a week away.

 Our book of the month is The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

 We'll meet at my house January 23 at 7 PM.

This is such a unique book and an immediate favorite when I read it (Book Club Jan2004). I'm grateful to Cortney for the suggestion to read it this month to see if it's still holds true the 2nd time around.

Get your read on and see you next week :)

The Host by Stephenie Meyer $1.99 ebook 12/26/2012

March Book Club Pick??

available for ebook download for $1.99!

Today - 12/26/2012 - only!

(sorry international clubbers only available in the U.S.)

Kindle from Amazon.com

Nook from Barnes and Noble

Love this book! 

The Host in Theaters March 29, 2012

By the way, the ebook download is only available with the movie cover. I checked because I really like the original cover art. ... however,  $1.99!

Lost December 12/12/12

What a fun Christmas inspired Book Club Evening! Everyone enjoyed this month's choice,

Lost December by Richard Paul Evans.

I thought it was a great story in true Richard Paul Evans style. Something we've come to depend on from one of our favorite go-to authors.

As in December's past, we had a cookie exchange that was yummy!
(** totally scrumptious **).
Everyone brought 2 dozen cookies to swap. Cortney brought a variety of delicious treats.

We met at my house and in attendance:
Joy, Moana, Cortney, Ashley, Kanoe, and welcome to Krystal!

Everyone went home with a gift, the book "The Merchant from Bethlehem" by Johan Christian.

Book Brainstorming 11/14/2012

Thanks Cortney for hosting our November Book Club! And a big welcome to Ashley Mafi!
Also in attendance: Jamie, Kanoe, Joy and Moana

We didn't have a book selected for the month. So we had an evening of book brainstorming and tasty treats.
We've missed a few months meeting this year. We've also missed selecting any books for us to read.And so the quote of the night by Kanoe was very fitting:
"Our intentions are perfect"

We had all kinds of books brought up for discussion and most importantly we have a December book club choice: 
Lost December by Richard Paul Evans



A little of the discussion tonight:
Cortney: The Walk series by Richard Paul Evans, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner, Friday Night Knitting Club & Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Ashley: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Kanoe and Ashley and Moana: The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling which we loved to read for book club, too.
Ashley mentioned a book we all thought sounded really interesting but just don't know the name of it or the author. So we have a challenge. What middle grade book was about a boy that would travel to other planets?
Jamie: Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal
I made mention about one of my favorite book club book that we've read and would love for us to re-read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Our Next Meeting will be held at Joy's Home 7 PM, December 12, 2012....that's right 12/12/12!

~joy

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank 6/27/2012

It was a great evening of laughs and

Our July & August Book Club Pick:

Divergent by Veronica Roth 5/30/2012

So grateful for Rachel to have opened her home again. We had a great discussion of Divergent by Veronica Roth.

In attendance: Moana, Sarah, Jamie and Joy

The Great Gatsby & Forgotten Garden - 4/26/2012

Our April Book Club was at Rachel's home. 
In Attendance:
Rachel, Cortney, Jennifer, Sarah, Jana, Tori and Joy.
We talked about our March Book -

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

aaah, nobody cared for this book.

Then we talked about our
April Book - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

  
 Collectively it was decided that this was a good story. Just longer than was necessary.





We also decided on a couple of Highly Recommended Books for May and June.

Divergent by Veronica Roth
 In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.


Our next meeting will be on May 30th at Rachel's Home where we will talk about Divergent. Thank you again Rachel!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Book Club for March has been postponed to Wednesday, April 25. And we are going to try something unprecedented! Rather than carry over the March book to April we'll keep the original books we selected for each month and chat them both up.
It's a double feature! It's never been done before! How cool are we?! It's like Advanced Placement Book Club!

Our March Book is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's—and his country's—most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning—" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

Our April Book is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

 Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: Like Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic The Secret Garden, Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden takes root in your imagination and grows into something enchanting--from a little girl with no memories left alone on a ship to Australia, to a fog-soaked London river bend where orphans comfort themselves with stories of Jack the Ripper, to a Cornish sea heaving against wind-whipped cliffs, crowned by an airless manor house where an overgrown hedge maze ends in the walled garden of a cottage left to rot. This hidden bit of earth revives barren hearts, while the mysterious Authoress's fairy tales (every bit as magical and sinister as Grimm's) whisper truths and ignite the imaginary lives of children. As Morton draws you through a thicket of secrets that spans generations, her story could cross into fairy tale territory if her characters weren't clothed in such complex flesh, their judgment blurred by the heady stench of emotions (envy, lust, pride, love) that furtively flourished in the glasshouse of Edwardian society. While most ache for a spotless mind's eternal sunshine, the Authoress meets the past as "a cruel mistress with whom we must all learn to dance," and her stories gift children with this vital muscle memory. --Mari Malcolm
It's time to get our read on!
Mark your calendar it'll be here before ya know it.
April 25 at 7 PM at Rachel's home.
Thanks Rachel!

To the Last Man by Zane Grey

Our February Book Club pick is "To the Last Man" by Zane Grey. 
We'll be meeting at Cortney's home
Wednesday, February, 29th at 7 PM. (It's Leap Year!)
Thank you for the recommendation Cortney!

The Forward of To the Last Man by Zane Grey

If you are looking for a copy of To the Last Man it is a FREE download on to your Kindle eReader. WHOOOOOHOOOO!! :)

I have the kindle app on my phone and have been reading in line, at practices, waiting for the children to come to the van after school, etc.....

Here's the link to Amazon's Kindle edition: To The Last Man by Zane Grey

hmmm, Kobo and Nook are charging $2.99 and $1.99  for the download.

Also, you can choose to read it for FREE on your laptop at goodreads.com: click here
 
Happy Reading!!
~Joy

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 

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

Our December 2011 Book Club Pick was The Christmas Train by David Baldacci.

Our Book Club meeting was at Joy's Home, December 27, 2011.

In Attendance:
Rachel, Cortney, Jamie, Moana and Joy










Upcoming for January Mockingbird by Kathryn Erksine
We will meet at Rachel McGovern's home Jan. 25, 2012.

The Hunger Games in Theaters March 23, 2012

Our January 2011 Book Club pick was the trilogy:

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins.

The first of the three movies comes out March 23, 2012.

Let the countdown begin!