February Book Club Meeting

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a book for children but I don't think any second or third grade teacher would read this to her students. It is a horror story written by Suzanne Collins that requires each new of the 12 districts of North America to send two children to the games where someone will be killed. It is like a Stephen King horror novel.

Host: Carol

Book: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Response of bookclub members: Several folks liked the book but most found it way to scary to read word for word so they just skimmed thru the book.

January Book Club Meeting

January Book Club Meeting

Host: Teresa

Book: The Diary of Libby Beaman by Betty John

Response of Book Club Members: This "diary" was written as a novel by Libby Beaman's granddaugher Betty John. It tells the story of Libby Beaman living in the Arctic Circle in the cold of January when it is almost total darkness all day and all night. I almost sent my husband Jack to the meeting because he did some army audits up in Fairbanks, Alaska in January and back in the 1970's he had some similar experiences as Libby. For example:

142 inches of snow that January

If the temp was below -30 degrees, you had to leave the cars running all the time

The coldest temp Jack saw was -63 degrees in Fairbanks that January

With the cars running all the time there was ice fog from the fumes of the car which meant that one person would drive and the other person would walk along beside the car giving directions like stay straight, make a turn, etc.

December Book Club Meeting

Host: Lucille

Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone had mixed feelings about this book. Some because the dog in the story is dying of old age while narrating the story of his relationship with his owner Enzo. Some thought the book didn't go into enough detail about the dog's relationship with his owner Enzo. Others thought the book was a sad selection for the merry month of December.

WallyLamb, another author describes the novel as "...a meditation on humility and hope in the face of despair."

November Book Club Meeting

November Book Club Meeting

Host: Maura

Book: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone like this book. The setting is San Francisco's China Town and tells the story of a Chinese American and a Japanese American. Their ups and downs. Thus the title of the book--Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

September Book Club Read

September Book Club Read

Host: Brenda

Book: Half Broke Horses, A True Life Novel by Jeannette Walls

Response Of Book Club Members: I understand why everyone enjoyed this book very much. It gave a great lady her due----she was an adventures woman who broke horses in the Arizona desert when she was just five years old. She later learned to drive a model T Ford and to fly a light plane.

October Book Club Meetiing-Turn Right at Machu Picchu

October Book Club Meeting

Host: Delaine at Dickie's House

Book: Turn Right at Machu Picchu, by Mark Adams

Response of the Book Club Members: Most folks found the story of the discovery of Machu Picchu rather long and boring but did enjoy the humorous adventures of Mark Adams's trips to the site with his guides. And of course the ladies enjoyed the photos of Delaine herself at Machu Picchu when she was just eight years old.

August Bookclub Read

August Bookclub Read:

Host: Haelie

Book: Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

Response of the Bookclub Members: The members didn't not discuss the book plot but discussed

the novel's static one dimensional book characters in light of the fact that this was one of the very first novels ever written and it was a new unusual genre for readers and related that fact to the way characters are created in today's novels.

July Bookclub Meeting

July Bookclub Meeting

Host: Pat

Book: Breakfast With Buddha

Response of Bookclub Members: Most members enjoyed this short and easy read about a strange but delightful roadtrip between a married Christian father and this man's sister's guru friends who claims to be a shaman. Everyone agreed that the book caused one to pause and think of the world thru a different perspective.

June Book Club Meeting

June Book Club Meeting

Host: Dickie

Book: The Weird Sisters, A Novel, by Eleanor Brown

Response of the Book Club Members: Some people liked this book and some did not but everyone agreed that it was a great book to lead to a discussion of family dynamics, birth order,

sibling rivalry and dealing with an ill elderly parent. The three main characters were the older sister described as controlling, the middle sister described as without morals and the baby sister described as the pretty and loving one. The setting for this family saga is just east of Columbus, Ohio where the father is a Shakespearean professor at a private college that all three sisters attended. The book is sprinkled with lots of Shakespeare's quotes. Some members liked the quotes and some found them distracting.

May Book Club Meeting

May Book Club Meeting

Host: Bev

Book: Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience,and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand

Response of Book Club Members: All members thought that this was one of the best books thatwe have read in 2011 though some members found the true story Louie Zamperini's survival in the South Pacific difficult because of the cruel and difficult experiences he had as a shot down bombardier who survived for over 40 days drifting in the ocean to only be taken by the Japanese to a POW camp where he was tortured almost every day.

The story has a happy ending. Louie survived, returned home, married, had children and grandchildren. Today he is a rollerskating grandpa in his eighties!

April Book Club Meeting

April Book Club Meeting

Host: Carol

Book: This I Believe, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Sediman

Response of Book Club Members: This book of essays written by remarkable people (both famous and unfamous) is an uplifting nonfiction work. Each person writes an essay on what they personally believe in from their own personal experiences of living. Every one at the meeting had a favorite essay to discuss. Below are some of my personal favorite quotes from this book. This is the second book in this series. The first book was created in the late '40 by Edward R. Murrow and three of his associates.

"I believe that freedom is contagious."

Harold Hongju Keu

"Jazz is the sound of God laughing. And I believe in it."

Colleen Shaddox

"I believe in the power of love to transform. I believe in the power of love to heal."

Jackie Lantry

March Book Club Meeting

March Book Club Meeting

Host: Joann

Book: The Last Promise

Response of Book Club Members: Everyone thought that this was a nice change of pace book. Call it a love story or a romance but call it a scenic journey thru one of the most beautiful regions of Italy. The author, Richard Paul Evans, divides his time between his home in Tuscony in Italy and his home in Park City, Utah. He wrote a love story with a happy ending that makes you want to book a trip to Italy to see the places he describes in the book.

Joann's Personal Opinion: Sometimes in February while you are waiting for spring and warm weather to arrive you need to take a break from the dark depressing books and just chill out with a light travel novel.

Joann's Cold Pasta Salad

Joann's Cold Pasta Salad

Cook in salted water half a box of pasta.

While pasta cooks to a la dente stage steam some veggies and then stop the cooking by plunging veggies in cold water.

Place veggies in bowl with some freshly grated carrots, sliced red onions, sliced cherry tomatoes and chopped basil.

Drain cooked pasta and add to bowl.

Pour a good amount of Wishbone Italian Dressing over mixture in bowl, stir, then marinate in fridge overnight.

Next day restir pasta and add a little more Wishbone Italian Dressing along with freshly grated pepper and salt and about 8 drops of Tobasco Sauce. Lastly add grated fresh mozzarella cheese to the pasta mixture.

Turn out pasta salad onto a nice platter and decorate with whole basil leaves.

Enjoy.

February Book Club Meeting

Host: Cindy

Book: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

Response of Book Club Members: Most club members liked the book at the beginning but disliked it more and more as they went along because of two plot problems: first, the brutal scenes depicted in the book and second, because some actions of the various characters seemed unbelievable. Others found that they intensely disliked some of the characters.

Joann's Personal Opinion: Don't read this book unless you have a strong stomach and can take brutality. This book should come with a warning on the cover: Not For The Faint Of Heart.

January Book Club Meeting

January Book Club Meeting

Host: Teresa

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Book: Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson

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Response of Book Club Members: Most book club members found this to be a difficult book to read. The author's writing style turned a lot of people off although the subject was interesting. This nonfiction book dealt with data collected about the worst hurricane to ever make landfall on the United State. This was the hurricane that destroyed the city of Galveston, Texas over 100 years ago.

December Book Club Meeting

December Book Club Meeting

Host: Pat

Book: The Immoveable Feast, by John Baxter

Response of the Book Club Members: This easy read memoir by John Baxter of his many years living in Paris and hosting for his wife's family the special Christmas dinner he prepared from appetizer to dessert. This easy read gave each member a chance to discuss what they like to eat for Christmas. It also gave everyone who loves Paris a chance to take a virtual trip to Paris during the Christmas holidays. A very enjoyable read.

November Book Club Meeting

November Book Club Meeting

Host: Maura

Book: Still Alice, by Lisa Genova

Response of the Book Club Members: This is a fiction book that has dealing with Alzheimer's in a family as its central theme. The book club members found the book enlightening but very depressing. No one wants to think of themselves or a family member losing their memory and their ability to function. Put this book under the category of read once but not a second time. Too depressing.

October Book Club Meeting

October Book Club Meeting

October Book Club Meeting

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Host: Dickie

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Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

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Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone agreed that this book read like science fiction. But this true story of the life and death of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman from Clover, VA and what happened to her cells at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center after she succumbed to ovarian cancer. The strangest thing for the Piedmont Readers to contemplate was how her cells known in the medical world as HeLa cells have never died and have contributed to advances in medical treatment for polio, tuberculosis, etc.

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Book discussion centered around slavery, racism, civil rights, the polio scare in the 1950's, the TB scare in the 1940's and 1950's, the AIDS scare of the 1980's and of course where we stand today in addressing these issues. Some members enjoyed both the scientific and human interest aspects of this non-fiction book while others preferred just the human interest aspects of this strange story.

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Thank you Dickie for giving us an extraordinary book to read.
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I personally found the following quote from the afterword of this book interesting: "When I tell people the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells, the first question is usually Wasn't it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta's cell without her knowledge: Don't doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research? The answer is no--not in 1951, and not in 2009, when this book went to press."

September Book Club Meeting

September Book Club Meeting

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Host: D.J.

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Book: The Last Child, by John Hart

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Response of the Book Club Members: Everyone attending the meeting said that this was the best book read so far this year. The story was intriguing and very unpredictable. The characters were well developed and either likable or very dislikable. Club members spent considerable time trying to determine what year the story took place. Most agreed that it must be sometime in the middle '90s. The main character, 13 year old Johnny, was admired by all the club members for his search for his lost twin sister. And lastly everyone agreed that this was a book that would be worth reading a second time because you could appreciate the setting, the characters and the plot even more the second time around.

August Book Club Meeting

August Book Club Meeting

Host: Carol

Book: The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y. K. Lee

Response of the Book Club Members: Every book club member was unfamiliar with the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong before and during World War II. At the time Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony with the neighboring island of Macau being a Portugeese territory. The book showed how in times of war and deprivation anyone can be reduced to doing immoral things in order to stay alive and to keep other relatives and friends alive.

I personally think that this is a book that you could read a second time to glean more wisdom. I also would enjoy reading another book by this author if she writes a second novel.