TUESDAY NIGHT! Aug 18th

Book Club meeting to discuss "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen and Mr. Relin

7:00 pm

Debbie Stephens' (new) house

Please call for address/directions

706-621-3775 (Emily)

Refreshments will be provided.

I know all of us have been really moved by the story in this book. It's amazing how one person willing to serve and with a little financial help, can make such important changes in the world. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "Pennies for Peace" campaigns where schoolchildren pool all their pennies together to raise money for the Central Asia Institute (Kathy, didn't you say that your class did that together?).

Anyway, I thought we should do a "Pennies (and spare change) for Peace" drive at our Book Club meeting. What if all of us empty out our couches, dressers, purses, and cars and bring it to the meeting and see what we can easily pull together to pass onto Bozeman without putting anyone out? Every little bit helps--even if we just scrape together a group check for $20. I'll put a jar by the door if you have some you want to drop in.

Not only are we going to have a larger than usual group this time from what I hear (because everyone loves this book!), but we may even have a representative or two from the opposite sex. Just passing that along in the chance that any other spouses/friends/coworkers would care to come along. We're more than happy to make exceptions. :) It'll be a fun meeting, a good one to invite someone new to.

See you there!

Our July/August book choices

Thanks to all who came last Tuesday to our book club meeting. We had a great discussion, great dessert, a lot of great people there--the usual. :) Thanks so much to Charis for having us to her lovely house and providing such a delicious treat. Thanks to Karen for digging up the info on Afghanistan and helping us understand better the background for the story.

We're continuing one more month on our Afghanistan/Taliban/Pakistan theme by reading, by popular demand...(drumroll)..."Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin.

Many of you have recently read this and loved it. Several more of us already had wanted to read it. I'm 1/3 of the way through it and love it and am trying to convince James to read it. It's an amazing story, made so much better by the fact that it's true!

That being said, we again neglected to figure out a discussant and a meeting location. If you would be interested in either, please shoot me an email.

Also, for the following month, in case you've already read "Three Cups of Tea," we're reading "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi (Jody?) Piccoult. It's been made into a movie that's recently come out and raises a lot of good topics for discussion.

Happy reading!

June book

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Several people at our last meeting suggested we read this one next. It's about two women in Afghanistan and the challenges they face. I grabbed it when I was at the library last Wednesday and I'm nearly done with it (and I usually take my time reading most books). I can't put it down. It's very good and very, very thought-provoking. I think we'll have a very good discussion from it--probably a little like after reading, "To Destroy You is No Loss," which means bring your Kleenex!

Although several recommended this book, we never actually decided on a discussant or a location (and it can be anyone--not necessarily someone who previously read it). So let me know if you're interested. Let's plan to meet around the end of June or very first part of July.

The local libraries and the library system has lots of copies--they're also cheap on Amazon. Here's a link if you want to see more about the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/159448385X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244207038&sr=8-1#

Madame Bovary

Tuesday, 26 May
7:00 pm
Amber Robbins' house

Amy Harris is leading the discussion. See you there!

Plans for Spring

Hi everyone,



Thanks to everyone who came and participated in our Wednesday Letters night! It was a lot of fun and I think we all gained a few insights on the book. Sorry about the scheduling conflicts for those who read the book but couldn't make it. Hopefully, we'll have better luck next time picking a good day.

Speaking of which, continuing on our theme of women and their wild ways, our next book, which we'll be discussing the first part of May, is Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

From Amazon: For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.

Amy Harris is leading the discussion and the meeting will be held at Charis Call's house, possibly May 7th or 14th (both Thursdays). However, it's looking more and more like Thursdays are not as good for everyone, so if you'd prefer we tried a Tuesday in May (the 5th or the 12th) please leave a comment or let me know.

Finally, sometime soon we also want to schedule a book club meeting to discuss The Hundred Dresses, our theme for our Relief Society service project, which will probably be a big meeting. We'll plan a few fun things for that in addition to discussing the book--I'll keep you posted.

Happy reading!

The Wednesday Letters

Current plans for this month's meeting are:

Thursday, Mar. 26th

7 pm

Emily Robertson's house

We'll look forward to seeing you there!

Plans for March

First, thanks a ton to all who came and participated in our last meeting about dear Martha Ballard and her many adventures as a early colonial midwife. As usual, the book sparked lots of great conversation topics (some of them more relevant to the book than others but all of them great)! Thanks to April (and Breanna) for opening their home to us and for the amazing spread of food. It was lots of fun!

Once again, we're going to make a slight deviation from our previously posted calendar and squeeze in a shorter read before we launch into Madame Bovary--New York Times bestseller The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. It's readable in an afternoon or so and is a very enjoyable book.

I think it will be a nice change of venue as we've been reading many wonderful but also intense AND LONG books the last several months. And if you haven't come for awhile because you don't have much time to read, then this is the perfect month for you to join us!

The Athens Library has two copies and most of the area libraries have at least one copy. Also, Deseret Book is clearancing it out for $1.99 and I'm sure there's plenty available for cheap at Amazon and the usual places. Also, there may be a copy or two among our members if you'd prefer to just borrow one.

I'm also looking for a location and possibly a discussant for this if anyone is interested. Otherwise, you'll be driving to the southern recesses of Oconee County to join me at my place, which I'll be more than glad to have you do! :)  If you are planning on reading this book and coming to the meeting for it, please either email me or leave a comment about which Tuesdays and Thursdays you'd be available to meet this month.  As far as I know, only Mar 19th is for sure not an option (RS Birthday Enrichment).

Happy reading!