May 16 Meeting at Louisa's

We began the evening with marinated Greek olives, hummus, and shirazi salad with pita from Alfredo's Mediterranean Grill. While sampling the food and having some wine we caught up with each other.

     Dinner was an assorted sandwich platter from Royalicious with a Greek salad from Alfredo's. Elizabeth and I selected these food items since a lot of the book was in New York City. We felt maybe it resembled a New York deli.

    The book I chose was "Bossypants" by Tina Fey. I wanted to read something funny and lighter because our last 2 books were so heart wrenching. I liked the book. I enjoyed the chapter on how the Fall lineup of shows are chosen. I could relate to her honeymoon cruise chapter. I liked how she described the cruise. The group did not like the book. We talked some about how people have different senses of humor.

     For dessert we had cannolis from Royalicious and 2 kinds of homemade brownies.

     We had some trouble getting my table back together after the leaf was removed. The problem has been solved and the table is back together.

We missed you Sharon and Pam.

Louisa

April 11 Meeting at Pat's

We missed Pam.  Ten of us had a great evening sitting at our makeshift square table.  Lasagna and Sylvia's salad brought happy plates!  Rugelach was a hit.  All enjoyed the book "The Invisible Wall" by H. Berstein.  Discussion centered around the angst of hatred and misunderstanding regarding differing beliefs.   I think about the grackles and try to remember "...where there is hatred, let me sow love."

Pat

March 21 Meeting at Carol's

Tonight we gathered together at Carol's for a pot luck Irish dinner.  Everyone brought a little something  including the mandatory Irish fare of corned beef, cabbage,  potatoes and Soda Bread.  Desserts of course were plentiful.

We read "The Crawdads Sing" by Delier Owens selected by Grace.  In Owens’s evocative debut, Kya Clark is a young woman growing up practically on her own in the wild marshes outside Barkley Cove, a small coastal community in North Carolina. In 1969, local lothario Chase Andrews is found dead, and Kya, now 23 and known as the “Marsh Girl,” is suspected of his murder. As the local sheriff and his deputy gather evidence against her, the narrative flashes back to 1952 to tell Kya’s story. Abandoned at a young age by her mother, she is left in the care of her hard-drinking father. Unable to fit in at school, Kya grows up ignorant until a shrimper’s son, Tate Walker, befriends her and teaches her how to read. After Tate goes off to college, Kya meets Chase, with whom she begins a tempestuous relationship. The novel culminates in a long trial, with Kya’s fate hanging in the balance. Kya makes for an unforgettable heroine. Owens memorably depicts the small-town drama and courtroom theatrics, but perhaps best of all is her vivid portrayal of the singular North Carolina setting.

I believe all loved the book.  I know it was one book I couldn't put down. Much discussion ensued and we were glad she lived out her life with Tate in her comfortable marsh surroundings.

Next month we meet earlier on April 11  at  Pat's and will read "The Invisible Wall" by H. Berstein.

Erin go Bragh!

KAthy G

  

February 21 Meeting at Dricka's

The book club this month was held on February 21st and we read "the Winner" by David Baldacci. We missed Edna, Carol, Roe, Pam and Pat.

The story started with the impoverished life of LuAnn Tyler who lived with her boyfriend, Duane Harvey, and her daughter, Lisa. LuAnn always dreamed of a better life. When an scam offer to win the lottery was made by mysterious Jackson; LuAnn decided after much consideration,to take the offer.  When leaving her home in a trailer, she discovered Duane assaulted and then later learned he was murdered because he was dealing drugs.  She barely escaped herself.

In New York after winning lottery, she learned she had to leave the country and never return. She traveled abroad for 10 years but decided to return and live in Charlottesville, Virginia where her mother grew up and assumed a new identity,  Catherine Savage. There she met Matt Riggs, who her friend, Charlie, hired to put up a security fence on her property.

She later met Donavan, a journalist, who suspected the lottery was fixed. Jackson whose real name was Peter Crane started to kill all those who brought to light his scheme. Jackson was from an affluent family who lost their fortune and he decided he would regain his fortune by fixing the lottery several times.  In the end he tried killing LuAnn because she disobeyed him by coming back to the US. Thru the aid of Charlie, Matt and the FBI, LuAnn killed Jackson who had kidnapped her daughter.

LuAnn later was acquitted of murdering her husband and paid back taxes and penalties to IRS.  She, Charlie, Matt and Lisa moved to Switzerland where there was an account opened with one hundred million dollars - Jackson'd return of her principal.

We enjoyed a dinner of chicken parm, manicotti, sausage and meatballs etc. Our dessert was trifle, Italian rum cake and apple cake. We enjoyed the company of our fill-in, Sylvia and guests Ruthi and Mary Louise. Till we meet again,
love, Dricka.

January 17 Meeting at Edna's

Wow!!!  To start:  I must apologize to everyone for not submitting the Bookclub blog back in January!!  I am ashamed to admit, I thought I had done it before I left for Florida.   The mind must be really going, ladies!!  Anyway, here's what I think happened from what I can remember. 

The meeting for January was held on the fourth Thursday, the 24th, because I didn't return from England until the Monday, the 21st;  just three days earlier.  I purchased a deli tray and we had sandwiches and I did a homemade chicken veg soup followed by apple pie with ice cream.  I know there were other things brought to supplement the meal by some of the other members that was much appreciated at the time.  We had an afternoon luncheon like we had decided to try for the winter months and it was well attended.  I believe the only two members unable to make it were Roe and Grace.  

The book was by a first time writer and it was called "The Secret Wisdom of the Earth".   Everyone liked it and I did too.  It was one of those reads that once started, you couldn't put down.  It combined a story of grief (the younger sibling died in a tragic accident); prejudice (the gay man was brutally beaten to death); loyalty (the main character fought to save his grandfather's life); tenacity (the townspeople triumphed over big corporation who were destroying the environment by mountain-top removal)!!  And there was a lot of other nuances going on during the story that tied it all together.  All in all, everyone thought it was a good read and I am glad because I enjoyed it very much!!  Looking forward to many more good times over reading in the future!!!

  

Love to all, Edna. 

November 14 Meeting at Grace's

With the  snow and ice forecast for Thursday, it was good we moved our meeting to Wednesday night.  Thank you to everyone who was able to make it on such short notice.  Roe we missed you.

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary and still going strong. Kathy updated our blog with some of our changes for the coming year, i.e., lunch meeting in January and February.

After reorganizing we  got down to our discussion.  Book this month was "The Silent Wife"  by Kerry Fischer.  Apparently, there were several books with this same title, different authors.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the book.   We had a very good discussion about the characters and how deceptive appearances could be in the case of Massimo and Lara's relationship.  Lara seemed to have it all but her husband was very abusive mentally and had many secrets.  Basically, in my opinion he was a creep.

When Massimo's younger brother Nico gets married and he introduces Maggie into the family so many dark secrets start to surface. Maggie tried so hard to fit in and be accepted by the family.  Everyone thought she was a gold digger but in reality she was a very hard worker and very independent. She was also a good mother and a good daughter. At the end of the book, the truth comes out about all the characters.

One of the questions we discussed was "Would you risk everything for the man you love, even if you knew he did something terrible?"  General consensus was it depended on how many other people it
could hurt.

Grace