January 16 Meeting at Rosemary's

     Thursday, January 14, 2014 bookclub/dinner club at my home.   100% attendance and how nice to have everyone make it.   We would like to welcome our newest member, Carol Mason, a long time friend, fellow reader, sister of Edna and recent "RETIREE," yeah Carol, yeah Me too!

    After some snacking, chattering, and wine, we toasted Angel and Wyndham who recently got engaged.   Congrats to them and to Edna, Glen and the rest of the family.   We then adjourned to the dining room for vegetable barley soup, lasagna roll ups, Italian sausage and meatballs.

    Meal over, so now we discuss the Book.  The selection was, let me think, hmmm, yes, "Remember Me" by Mary Higgins Clark. A short bio was discussed about the author, and the many successful publications she has written over the years.  Most everyone enjoyed the mystery written by this seasoned mystery author. The book touched  upon spirits that were believed to have resided in the 18th century Cape Cod home rented by Menley and Adam Nichols.   This opened the conversation to anyone who may have had spirit- like experience at any time.   Edna shared an experience relating to her dad and a passage in a book, that  offered her comfort and peace of mind regarding her dad's passing.  A beautiful story that we were glad she shared with us.    "Remember Me" was an enjoyable mystery with a surprise twist at the end that most of us didn't expect.

    Well, the book discussion done and over and now desserts, too numerous to mention, but I will.

    A variety of brownies, various cookies, pizzelles, trifle.    But no cheesecake, oh well, omps, sorry folks, next month.   Not everyone likes cheesecake you know, frankly, I am sick of it.  Not really, It is good and I will bring it to the next book-club, "crackfree " for those who like it.

    A reminder the book next month is "The Husbands Secret" by Liane Moriarty at the home of Drika.

    Thanks all for coming and sharing your comments and making it a memorable meeting.

    You are a special bunch of ladies!

    Rosemary

November 21 Meeting at Grace's

Baker Towers, by Jennifer Haigh

After appetizers and dinner as we were all sitting around the dining room table trying to get on the subject of the book.

We had a hard time getting started to discuss the book, since we are such an interesting group and everyone has so much to say about everything.  At one point I think we were all talking at once.

The overall feeling was that the book was boring and I don’t think anyone really enjoyed it.  There were many characters and not one of them was really that interesting.  Basically, they all had some kind of issue one way or the other.  But, one thing is for sure, everyone knows a family like this, or knows of someone who does.  This is a small mining town and you have the sons who leave, you have the one daughter who is the glue of the family or at least she tries to be and is not appreciated. You have one loony sister who shacks up with one of the locals killed in the mining accident, and she goes off the deep end completely.   The youngest sister who is very spoiled but thanks to her older sister who is the responsible one in the family does get her to graduate college and become a responsible person.

We have a Polish father and an Italian mother.  She caters to her husband and to her children. The mom has low self-esteem which carries over to her daughters.  The two sons are only concerned with themselves and feel they have no family obligations.

The story jumped around quite a bit and it was hard to follow a timeline.  No one was impressed with this author or the characters.

 

After book discussion, we discussed our limo trip to DC.  We also decided that we were going to try and recruit a new member to bring the total back up to 11.

Love Ya All

Grace

October 17 Meeting at Edna's

          Thursday, October 17th, was the occasion of our latest Book/Eating Club!!!!   haahaahaa!!  We met at Edna's house beginning our evening with our ever-present wine!  Appetizers were shrimp salad, cream cheese with hot pepper jelly, crackers, and pickled onions and olives.  After a short period of imbibing and some eating we moved into the dining room. 
           After eating our meal of roast pork, scalloped potatoes, stuffing and steamed cauliflower with broccoli; we got down to the more serious business of discussing the book. 
           Everyone was enthusiastic about it.  The  book was  "The Shoemaker's Wife" by Adriana Trigiani.  I knew how much everyone had enjoyed the first book our bookclub ever read, "Queen of the Big Time" by her;  and this was definitely just as good.  We used the storyline of leaving Italy and immigrating to the USA as a catalyst to discuss our own families'  immigrations.
          Alice talked about her Irish heritage and her husband Bruce's search for his Irish heritage.  He finally was able to trace his linage back far enough to be able to qualify for an Irish passport as an Irish citizen.  Dricka was the one with the most in common with the book.  She spoke of her mainly Italian heritage and was familiar with a lot of the language and expressions used in the book.  Kathy spoke about growing up thinking she was mainly Irish only to find out that her main heritage was Chechoslavakian.  She found out that her Chech grandparents were from the same village but never met until they arrived in America!!  
          Pam said her roots went back a long time in this Country.  One of her Howard ancestors was given land by the King of England.  They were settled in Howard County but she said by the time it came to her, everything was long gone!!  
Louisa was unsure about her heritage.  She said her nephew was actually in the process of trying to check out their ancestry.
         Ellen said that her ancestry was German on both sides.  I seemed to be the only first generation American.   My mother was born in England but my Father's ancestry was German-Irish, and had been here for generations.  In fact, we found that German was the most common denominator.  Everyone seemed to have some German somewhere in the background.
        The most interesting story was about Sharon's ancestors.  She is a native West Virginian.  Her family settled in West Virginia at least a century ago.  One of her great-great-great-??  grandmothers was captured by Indians and held for two years.  All of her children were killed at that time but her husband was out in the fields so escaped death.  Two years later she was ransomed by Simon Legree and returned to her husband.  She went on to have more children with him and when he died, she remarried and had more children with her second husband.  Sharon is descended from the first marriage.
         As usual, the evening ended with dessert of apple dumplings with ice cream and pumpkin roll.  Kathy brought some cute Halloween cookies and Dricka made some of her delicious almond cookies.  What a feast!!!  Thanks to all!!
        We missed Grace's and Roe's contributions considering we would have had more Italian support for our book!!  Also we look forward to Renee making our meeting hopefully next time!!
        Our next meeting is on Thursday, November 21st, at 6:00 pm.  The meeting is at Grace's (I think) and the book is "Baker Towers" by Jennifer Haigh.  Look forward to our next sharing!!!
Love, Edna
                  

September 18 Meeting at Louisa's

It seems I wasn't the only one confused which day book club met this month.  We missed you Rosemary. (You too Renee.)
      It was a beautiful Wednesday evening.  Everyone enjoyed catching up while having drinks and snacks.  I even had a rum drink.
      My sister, Cindy, was gracious enough to make delicious baked spaghetti for us, since I was still in my shoulder immobilizer.  Cindy and my daughter, Elizabeth, took care of dinner and the clean up.
     Everyone liked the book and Nora Ephron's humor.  The best way to age seems to be able to laugh about it. Cindy discussed her book club and how it worked and shared what they were reading.
     Thanks girls for the wine and treats to add to the evening.
     Grace presented us with wine glasses to celebrate 5 years of "The Good Times Girls" Book Club.  The glasses were inscribed with " My book club can drink your book club under the table".
     Yay us!

Louisa

August 15 Meeting at Alice's

The evening of August 15, 2013, was the monthly meeting of the Good Time Girls and their books.  It is always important to read the right book(!) that was one lesson learned and the other is that Spotted Dick pudding is a pretty good dessert (British); along with layered flashy jello bites (LA) and finally Sharon’s mountaineer brownies (WV).

The book, the correct The Midwife’s Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas was fine West Virginia family story telling. I liked all the visual pictures described (the land, gardens, herbs and interiors of houses) and the beau coups of moral dilemmas!  We met Laskas last fall at Shepherd University when she was an author in residence.  Even though Laskas left WV when she was 3 years old her grandmother’s stories as she grew up pushed and motivated her to eventually write this book. And I do believe in miracles. (And finding a man at the carnival is one, I believe.  I’ll keep that in mind…)

Also while we were waiting for Kathy and Pam to arrive, we watched an episode of the PBS series Call the Midwife.  It is a loving and honest peek post WWII into center city London and yes, there was a baby boom but no worries: the young nurse midwives teaming up with the capable Sisters of St. Raymond Nanatus have it covered. Tonight,  nurse Trixie learns that she is vulnerable trying to find a male celebrity to host the baby contest, nurse Jenny Lee finds out how much a mother with 8 kids will do to get rid of her 9^th baby, and elderly Sister Monica Joan is the best judge of beautiful babies after all.  

Reflections: The 3^rd part was reading my sister’s Home Births for Meg from her own real experiences using midwives in Los Angeles, CA during the 1980’s…she was inspired to have her babies (one girl ‘80, one boy ‘85) born at home because her good friend Linda Holland trained as a midwife after nursing duties/ work in the Vietnam War. Linda worked in Texas so Meg used the nearby Venice Birth Center!  “I was so grateful for the women who guided and helped me,” Meg Davenport said at the end. So good, we had to have an encore and read it again. And her sweet kids are all grown up now.   

  

THANKS everyone for being at my house. – Alice xo

July 18 Meeting at Kathy's

It was a steamy evening with the faintest hint of summer rain, but alas it did not come.  Everyone one arrived on time with the exception of Grace who made a grand entrance complete with applause.  Louisa brought along our newest member-to-be Rene who I hadn't seen in, dare I say, 25 years.  She looks the same and fits in well ---- she's a talker.

In keeping with the premise of the book "What Alice forgot", I asked the members if their lives have changed over the last 10 years.  Compared with "Alice", I didn't think life changed dramatically for me.  Edna, Pam and Louisa said their lives had a major change.  Edna lost her dad who was her first major family lose since her brother, Pam's husband had a major stroke and has gone down hill ever since and Louisa who's husband's bucket needed filling or something like that.  Elizabeth's heartfelt infertility problems were discussed which segued into the topic of adoption.  Edna recommended "The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child" by Nancy Verrie for a incite into what is it like to be adopted.  Every one seems to like the book, even those who didn't finish it.  I especially liked the little twist at the end   Alice was going to marry Dominique but the author created the last chapter so Alice and Nick lived happily ever after.  We were all glad Alice patched things up with Nick. A nice surprise ending.

Although this is a book club we ended our meeting with dessert, of course and a discussion of trips to take this fall. We are full service.

We will meet next month at our Alice's home on August 15 and read "A Midwives Tale" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

Great seeing everyone, thanks for all the wine and food, welcome to the club Rene even if you won't be here next month and so sorry you missed it, Ellen.  We will need to get you set up with an e-reader.  Louisa will have her book available as an e-book in September.   Thank you Dana Gerken for suggesting this book.

OMG where'd the lights go.........electric is off......It's 2003 all over again,
KAthy

Note: September's meeting is WEDNESDAY Sept 18