Empire Falls Reads

    Our meeting this past week was great. Not only did we not run into our hairstylists, but we also have added another member to our club, making discussion and debate that much more exciting.  We talked about The City of Thieves, which by general consensus was a very good book.  The war, the desperation, and the triumph of the humanity in the book were things that we all had questions and debates over.   We also could understand that this book was written by a screenwriter, because there was a very fast pace and easy read.

    After we talked about the book and enjoyed our chai, we went to see the movie An Education, a movie set in 1960's England depicting a young girl's new relationship.  It has a star studded cast that includes Oscar Nominee Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, and Peter Sarsgaard. 

     Our next book is another Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Empire Falls  by Richard Russo.  It tells the tale of a city in central Maine, its economic fall, and the people in the town trying to make it work.  We are meeting on April 10th (not 2 weeks from now, I know), so you should have a LOT of time to get through it.  Just as a warning though, the next meeting after that is on April 17th, just one week after, so if you can, pick up a copy of Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese. 

Cheers!

City of Reading Thieves

     Our meeting at RedEye was very successful.  We met, ordered Chai, and then talked about the book.  We also were spotted by our hairdressers ( insert embarrassment here) so that spiced up the visit.  We discussed what we thought of "The Object", of Cal's situation, and what you think you would have done in her shoes.  Also we talked about this book being a great example of an American novel, which is probably why it won the Pulitzer Prize.  

     After we discussed the book, we went and saw the movie "Alice in Wonderland", which featured Johnny Depp, and was directed by Tim Burton.  We saw it in IMAX 3D, and I thought it was great.  The cast the movie very well, and everyones characters were well developed. Overall, we would recommend this move to anyone, even not in 3D.

     Our next book club meeting will be on March 20th, at 11:00 at the RedEye Coffee shop.  We will be discussing the book The City of Thieves by David Benioff.

Cheers!

The Middlesex readings...

Our meeting at RedEye coffee was a success!  We met and discussed the book The Next Thing on my List.  The book definitely delivered on its promise to be warm, and an adventure.  Some of the members hadn't had time to finish it, so we did more discussing of plot issues rather than the discussion questions.  All of us agreed that the main character changed from the beginning of the book to the end, and that her job was unique.

After the book club, we went and saw the film "Shutter Island", which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley.  It was a psychological thriller about a mental institution about the criminally insane.  It a twist ending, so for all of you going to see it, it was good.

Our next book club meeting will be on March 6th, at the RedEye Coffee shop.  We will be discussing the book Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  This book discusses the life of a young Greek girl in America.  It should be a great read.

As always, we welcome new faces! Cheers!

Reading the Next Thing on My List

 

Our meeting for The Lace Reader was great.  At 12:00, We ordered our spiced chai latte from RedEye, and sat down at a table in the unusually crowded shop to discuss our latest novel.  We discussed the theme of the book, the meaning and definition of crazy, and what in the heck lace had to do with any of it.  It was a very interesting book, with a lot of twists and turns.

After we discussed to book for a while, we went to see our movie of the day, Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell.  It was a movie about a country singer down on his luck, and the events in his life that made him see what is worth living for.

Our next book is entitled The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski.  It heralded as "Warm and Original...An adventure." --  People Magazine.  I hope this book will make us all smile.

Like the last few meetings, we will be meeting at RedEye coffee house on the corner of 4th and Thomasville.  We will meet at 11:00 ( unless a movie forces us later), on the 20th. Till then!

Cheers!

The Lace Book Reader

I am a little late on getting this entry published. I apologize for the lateness. The meeting from our last book went well. We met at RedEye coffee, and I had my usual scrumptious chai. We discussed the twist ending from the book, and we also discussed the mental state that the narrator was in during the course of the novel.

Since for all intensive purposes, the book club is no long a happy hour one, but a Saturday morning book and a movie one, we went and saw "The Lovely Bones". It was very moving. It was not exactly in accordance with the book, but in film, it usually never is.

Our next book is called The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. If you want to know more about this book, go to the website here. This book also has an unreliable narrator which is going to keep me on my toes. The next meeting is Saturday, February 6th. See you there!

Cheers!

Fairy Tale Reading

Welcome back to book club happy hour!! I hope all of you have had a great and rejuvinating winter break. I know that the two weeks away from the hustle of home definately made me happy.

We have already had a meeting to discuss the THREE books we chose to take on during the winter break. We discussed them thouroughly while sipping our caffinated beverages from the local hotspot, REDEYE coffee. We changed the meeting place from Badass Coffee to REDEYE because it was a more central location to our after club movie theatre.

Our next book takes a departure from the serious nature of our past books, and delves into the land of Gregory Mcguire a la "Wicked". It is called Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon. It is a fun read. We will be meeting to discuss it on January 23, 2010.

Merry Book Holidays!

We had a great meeting at RedEye Coffee House about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. We discussed the values of statistics at the beginning of each section, the odd abundance of Nazi's in this family, the original title of the book, and of course, why all the men in this book don't have normal relationships. The meetings on Saturdays are a great hit, because some of the members go to movies afterward, and enjoy the cheap ticket prices of movies in the afternoon.

Sadly, this will be our last meeting of the year, because with finals and the holidays coming up, it is simply too hard to come up with a Saturday that is not swamped with engagements. Therefore, to compensate, we have chosen not one, but THREE books to read for our next meeting on January 9, 2010 at 11:00 AM. The first book is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. The next book is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the last book is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. The variety of these three books should keep everyone entertained this holiday time, as well as give us tons of things to talk about when we meet again. So enjoy the rest of the year, happy holidays, and I hope to see everyone back in 2010!

Cheers!