December Recap

Dear Book Clubbers,

Hope you all had nice holidays.  This is just a quick note to remind you that we are having a “almost purely social” gathering at Polly Emhke’s house a week from today at 7 PM on Thursday, January 6^th.  Please note that this is a THURSDAY NIGHT and RSVP to Polly. 

In the interest of simplifying the food situation, I have made the following executive decision.  If your name begins with Bartholomy through Reed (first 2/3rds), please bring an appetizer to the gathering.  If you are Rinaldi through Wells, please bring a dessert.  When you call Polly to RSVP, please let her know what you are bringing, so that she can tell you if someone is already bringing that exact thing.  Also, those who can readily bring a bottle of wine can let Polly know at that time.

We will have a brief business meeting to finalize the long classic book choice for 2011 and to add a few more books to our list.  Please bring ideas that may have come up over the holiday book shopping season. 

Our meeting to discuss The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is at Joan’s on Wednesday, January 19^th.  This book is a quick and enjoyable read, so everyone should be able to get it in between now and then.  Remember this is the night we are going to split the discussion portion of the meeting into two groups.  I am not sure whether we have two moderators that have volunteered.  I am hoping that Jill remembers!

Hope to see you all next Thursday.  In the meantime, Happy New Year!

Jan

October Meeting Recap

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last week’s meeting to discuss Three Cups of Tea at Jackie’s house was…SCARY!  Just kidding.  We had a great discussion about the book and the Halloween decorations were a real treat.  The consensus was that although the story of Greg Mortenson and all he has accomplished is very inspiring, the actual writing absolutely stunk.  The overall rating ended up being a 2.7.  Those of us who are attending the lecture at UB on November 10th are anxious to see if he is as good as we have heard in person.  Anyone who gets tickets is welcome to contact Jackie regarding car-pooling.

The next meeting is on Wednesday, December 1st at my house.  We will gather at 6:30 PM for substantial appetizers (you should be able to have it be dinner).  The book is River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon.  Please show your guys the list of possible choices for next year’s co-ed meeting that we came up with at the selection night.  I feel that we could use some more prospects to vote on and hope that some suggestions will materialize by 12/1.  If you didn’t sign up to bring something at the last meeting, please contact me to find out what we could still use. 

We decided to have a purely social meeting after the holidays on Thursday, January 6th at Polly’s house.  Well OK, we are not totally serious about the “purely social” part.  We definitely need some more book ideas for the coming year.  Of the ones that made the top 3 or 4 in the selection process, there is a lot of non-fiction and not any books that make sense for a lighter summer read.  Remember, our choices are only as good as your input.  We will briefly discuss what people can bring at the co-ed night, but more book ideas are much needed.  Incidentally, we thought we’d make this a Thursday meeting just to mix things up. 

On Wednesday, January 19th, we will meet at Joan’s to discuss The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  Since we expect that to be a popular read and since Joan’s house has two levels, we thought we’d try our experiment of splitting the discussion into two smaller groups for this meeting.  Of course we will be all together for the social and business portions of the night.

In other news, Ina asked about interest in a cookie exchange this year.  Since people seemed up for it, I am assuming she will let us know when it will be.  Also stay tuned as Terry may organize some sort of wine tasting event in the future.

In a separate e-mail, you will get a list of addresses and phone numbers of the members who are reasonably active in book club.  I apologize in advance for any mistakes or omissions.  It is a very hard list to maintain since people attend sporadically and are not present to correct any misinformation I have.  If something is wrong with your listing in this document, let me know and I will correct it in the next version.

That’s all for now.  Thanks again to Jackie for opening her wonderfully decorated home to us and for doing such a great job leading our discussion.

Jan

Selection Meeting Recap

Dear Book Clubbers,

Wednesday’s book selection meeting was moderately successful.  Although attendance was good, it could have been better.  We did come up with some good clear cut choices and a couple of books to put on our proposal list for the co-ed meeting. We elected to not choose the entire year’s worth of books since we didn’t have tons of suggestions and wanted to let those not in attendance have some say in the choices.  More about that later.

We also used the opportunity to further brainstorm regarding ways to enhance the quality of our book discussions for the future.  The changes we implemented at Grace’s in August were universally thought to be beneficial.  To recap they were:

1. Begin meetings at 7 PM.  Have everyone sitting down and ready to discuss book at 7:30 PM sharp. 

2. Continue to rate books, but keep comments about rationale for rating to the very minimum, saving more involved insights and discussion points for the body of the discussion.

3. Conduct the business portion of meeting after book discussion.  Funnel all announcements and news items through Jan (or substitute leader) to keep the items organized and quick. 

From there we went on to discuss other ways to improve our efficiency and depth of discussion.  While there was initial enthusiasm for “let’s try to make a good thing even better,” there was also a sense of “why change what has been working for years” as we got down to the actual details of making changes.  Although it is a little tough for me to reconstruct the conversation, the following ideas seem to be things that the members present wanted to try in the upcoming year.

1. Consider a couple of purely social meetings each year for the sole purpose of getting together and enjoying each other’s company.

2. Try one meeting this year with the book discussion taking place in two smaller groups.  This could be accomplished by splitting into two groups in a bi-level home, by meeting at two separate homes at the same time or by trying a daytime and an evening meeting for the same book.

3. Encourage members who have not substantially gotten into the book to consider only attending the business portion of the meeting and the post discussion social mingling.  Because acoustics can be so difficult when we are at our peak numbers, those who have not read the book, but would like to hear others discuss it need to listen only and not get drawn into side conversations during the book discussion.

I hope this summary of what was discussed doesn’t sound like the Craneridge Book Club is taking itself too seriously and making more rules.  This whole thing simply arose out of an attempt to create more time and ability to get into great book discussions.  By far the overwhelming tone both times this topic was brought up was that we are first and foremost a group of friends to whom each other and the community we live in are very special.  The bonds that bring us together far exceed sharing an interest in reading.  Our mutual caring and concern for each other is paramount and nobody wanted to make any changes that would affect that dynamic! 

Onward!  The next meeting is at 7 PM on Wednesday, October 13th at Jackie’s.  The book for discussion is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.  Please let Jackie know if you will be attending by calling or emailing.  Snack volunteers for that night are Terry and Liz for appetizers; Polly, Ina and Jennifer for wine; Julie and Barb for desert.  

Remember that tickets to hear Greg Mortenson as part of the UB distinguished speakers’ series may be obtained online through Ticketmaster.  At the time of the meeting, I thought that all tickets were general admission, so Jackie agreed to organize carpooling assuming that everybody could get their own tickets and then ride and sit together.  Since then I have discovered that there are some reserved seats.  I leave it to you all to talk to each other and decide who wants to go and the level of seats.  Anyone wishing to organize a more concerted effort can communicate to the entire club by REPLYING TO ALL to this email to reach the membership.  I assume Jackie is still willing to coordinate rides when the time gets closer.

After the October meeting, the co-ed gathering will be up next on Wednesday, December 1st.  The book remains River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon.  As usual, this meeting will be at our house and will start earlier since substantial food is involved.  We will plan the food at the upcoming meeting.

Now for the books we chose for the year.

The following books received quite a few votes and have made it to our “PROBABLY WILL DO” list:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Suggestions that seemed like they would be “POSSIBLE CO-ED CHOICES” and will be proposed on 12/1 for the 2011 co-ed read are:

The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

We also encourage the guys to add any books to the co-ed choices for 2011.  Depending on what the guys pick, we may add some of the above to our list of pending choices when we go to set the schedule for the second half of the year.  Other books proposed Wednesday that will be on the “POSSIBILITIES PENDING” list are:

 The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson

It was decided to await further input to pick our “LONG, CLASSIC BOOK” list, but the following are currently on the table:

 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

 

We also agreed that we would try to contact author Catherine Gildiner to see if she would make a return visit to our book club.  For those of you who weren’t around at the time, she came to us to discuss her first book, Too Close to the Falls, about her childhood in Lewiston.  The sequel, After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties, which is about her wild high school years in Amherst, is due out in hardcover on 10/28/10.  If we can get her to come back, we will stick this selection in to coordinate with her schedule.  I think those of you who were there when she came last would all agree she was a fascinating person.  Stay tuned!  (Those of you who haven’t might want to read the first book while we wait.)

In further notes, Rob and I will be hosting our annual, minimally organized Halloween gathering.  Basically, we invite anyone interested to make our home their final stop on their children’s trick or treating route and come in to share some food and an adult beverage (kid beverages too).  Those who lack little ones and would like to simply hang out somewhere that night are encouraged to come as well.  We just ask that you bring an appetizer or dessert and anything unusual you would like to drink.  Jackie would also like to remind you that she goes “all out” for Halloween, so be sure to check out her place earlier in the evening!

Finally (I think), I will be generating an updated members list of addresses, phone numbers and e-mails in the coming weeks.  Just don’t get too charged up about it because I am in the process of switching computers and things got a little ugly.  In the meantime, please send me any changes or additional contact info you would like me to include before October 12th.  I will include home phone numbers only unless you don’t have a landline.  Anyone wanting their cell to be included should let me know by 10/12.

Whew, I hope that is everything.  Thanks for your attention.

Jan

A Busy September...

Shanghai Skyline, 2006

Lots and lots in this month's Newsletter...

Visit this link to read more

August Updates!

Dear Book Clubbers,

This week’s meeting at Linda’s to discuss our “ambitious classic”, David Copperfield was a huge success. We ranked the book 4.5 stars and all agreed that Dickens isn’t considered one of the best authors who ever put pen to paper for nothing!  The discussion was lively; we all had a lot to say about the experience of tackling such a famous work.  Sounds like members are willing to take on a similar challenge next year.  We can try to make time to vote on that at the book selection meeting or perhaps it might be better to address that another night.

Having little new business to work through made a noticeable difference in the amount of time we had to actually talk about the book.  After we all commented on how enjoyable having ample time for a more in depth discussion was, we brainstormed on how we can work to maximize discussion time for future meetings.  Some of the suggestions will require the input of the whole group, but the following simple changes seem like they could be implemented immediately and really have an impact:

1. Start the meetings at 7 PM.  First 30 minutes for social time and grabbing a drink.  Everyone in seats ready to discuss book at 7:30 sharp.

2. Begin with the book first and save business matters for when discussion winds down.

3. All new business and announcements to be given to me (or my sub) prior to the meeting to allow announcement of the items in an orderly fashion.  Details can be filled in by the responsible person if necessary.

4. Those present last week thought we should still continue to go around and rate the book so that we can track how the club felt about each selection and also to continue to give everyone a chance to make a comment about the book.  It was again emphasized that these remarks should be very succinct, saving more involved thoughts and discussion points for the main body of the discussion.

If no one has any strong objections, we might as well give these a shot at the next meeting.  At the book selection night, I will put forth the other ideas that came up which require further discussion with more members present.

The next meeting at Grace’s is just around the corner at 7 PM on Wednesday, September 1st.  Please let Grace know if you plan on attending.  The book for that night is Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  Wine volunteers are off the hook for that night since we will use the leftovers from the summer party.  Jackie and Polly signed up for appetizers and Sue P. and Loraine for desserts.  The book looks to be a pretty quick read, so if you haven’t started it yet, there is still time.  Remember, we will have to quickly pick a book for October at this meeting.

Please use these last few weeks of summer to think about reading suggestions to bring to the annual book selection event scheduled for September 29th at Shirley’s. Each member should bring a suggestion or two to present to the group.  Some sort of written synopsis/review on a piece of paper (could be the Amazon.com printout or whatever) should be provided as well.  After we go around talking about the books, the written summaries will be placed on a counter and each person will place voting chips on their top picks.  The highest vote-getters become our selections for the next year.  During the description process, we can also try to identify some books that might appeal to the guys for the co-ed meeting.  (Incidentally, the date for the co-ed meeting for 2010 is definitely Wednesday, December 1st.  The book is River-Horse by William Least Heat-Moon.) An informal used book swap will also be part of our book selection night festivities. 

Yikes, I set out to just write a quick reminder about the meeting on 9/1 and look at all I ended up having to say!  Enough!  See you on 9/1.  Don’t forget to let Grace know if you are planning on attending.

Jan

A new look & a newsletter

Hello Book Clubbers!

So, what do you think?  Do you like the new look of the blog?
Blogger has a new "design" feature that lets you add some amazing graphics to your blog.  Please feel free to comment (below) to share your feedback.

For Jan's recap of this months meeting, visit this link to the July Newsletter.

Happy Reading!
- Jill

May Newsletter

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last week’s meeting to discuss The Elegance of the Hedgehog was great.  Jennifer did a super job of ordering a gorgeous night to be out on her deck and of course led an excellent discussion.  Even though a lot of people (me included) didn’t get through the book, those who finished gave it 4.1 stars.  Grace tells me that we have only rated 6 books in the 4 star category since we began to keep track.

Jennifer expressed appreciation that some of the food/beverage volunteers for the meeting called ahead to remind her that they were bringing something.  She thought that would be a good thing for the snack people to do before each meeting to put the hostess at ease that there will actually be some stuff showing up.  Good idea!  Of course that doesn’t apply on nights we are all contributing.  We also discussed providing more info regarding the location of the meetings in the newsletter, but leaving addresses and phone numbers out of the blog version of the newsletter for Internet privacy’s sake.

We made a bunch of plans for the big summer picnic meeting.  We will gather at 6:30 PM (note earlier time) on Wednesday, July 14th at Barb’s.  The book for discussion is The Help by Katherine Stockett.  In keeping with the southern setting of the story, will be having pulled pork sandwiches for our main course.  Barb will be providing the pork, rolls, lemonade, iced tea and paper goods.  We will each pitch in a few dollars toward that.  Those of you who were at the meeting already signed up for something to bring.  So far the sides people have signed up for include green salad, spinach salad, potato salad, bean salad, baked beans, a veggie platter, an appetizer, and several desserts.  At the moment it looks as though we could use more appetizers and desserts.  If you weren’t there, you may call Barb to let her know what you will bring.  In an effort to keep from running low on wine (heaven forbid!), we are asking people to consider bringing a dish and a beverage you would like.  We don’t need a bottle of wine for each person, though.  Perhaps if someone likes Diet Pepsi or something, they could bring that to share.  We will let you know by e-mail if it Barb needs people to bring chairs.

We still plan on having our David Copperfield discussion (men permitted) for those who wish to tackle that in August.  We also are going to try to cram in another regular meeting, probably Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, in August or on September 1st.  We tentatively looked at the dates of 8/18 and 9/1, but I will check with Linda regarding her availability since she volunteered for the Dickens discussion.  We will finalize plans at the summer meeting.

I think that is all for now.  Hope everyone had a great long weekend and that you managed to find time to do some reading and not just yard work!

Jan

April Meeting

Dear Book Clubbers,
This week’s meeting at Elizabeth’s to discuss Olive Kitteridge was really fun.  Our group was a little smaller than usual (the hostess was probably thankful), but we had a great time.  Liz did a terrific job of hosting and Jennifer helped out by facilitating the excellent discussion.  Attendees were somewhat divided in how they felt about the book.  Overall we gave it 3.5 stars, and all agreed that the author was very good at the craft of writing.  We are thrilled to welcome new member, Miriam Lopes to the group.  Miriam and her husband have lived on Crane Road for about 18 months.  Look for her strolling with her son around the neighborhood and park.

In other news, Emily Tunstall-Frack and fellow dancers and musicians at Buffalo State will be performing “Miles and Mythology”, a tribute to the music of Miles Davis from April 28- May 1.  Go to the university’s theater department web site for more details.

We had a brief discussion regarding how the Craneridge Book Club Caring Tree can see more action.  We resolved that those of us who are close to someone in the community (not just book club members) who could benefit from some assistance should alert Jennifer to ways we can best help.  Remember that we can do more than just cook in times of need; we can run errands, babysit, care for pets, provide help with household chores…the list is endless.  Jennifer will remind the board of our existence and our willingness to help in the community.

The next meeting will be at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, May 26th at Jennifer’s house.  If the weather is nice, we may be outside, so dress in layers.  The book for that night is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by M. Barbery.  Food volunteers are Elizabeth and Terry for appetizers, Kathryn and Julie/Emily for desserts and Joan, Natalie and Beth for wine.

The big summer picnic meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14th.  This will once again be at Barb Reed’s (thank you, Barb!) and we will be having a full meal and earlier start time.  We will be reading The Help by K. Stockett for that meeting.  The paperback release of that book has been pushed back, so it will not be out in paperback before we meet.  This is a pretty popular read right now, so I am hoping that everyone will be able to scam a copy.  The hardcover price is not too bad either on Amazon or if you have a coupon for Borders or Barnes and Noble.  Everyone who has read it has raved about it.  We will be planning the logistics of the food at our next meeting.

Linda Hoffman is still planning on hosting the David Copperfield BIG READ for those of you who are participating in that.  It will likely be sometime in mid to late August.  Remember, this meeting is open to any guys who want to tackle this Dickens’ classic as well.

I think that does it.  GO SABRES!
Jan

March Meeting

Dear Book Clubbers,
Wednesday night’s meeting at Terry’s to discuss The Falls was super!  Terry was a fantastic host; you’d never know that she only moved in months ago.  Jackie did a great job leading the discussion by providing personal insights on author/cousin, Joyce Carol Oates’s family and early life, interesting biographical facts and thought provoking questions.  In general, the book was enjoyed, resulting in a 3.9 star overall rating.  We were pleased to welcome new members Julie (mom) and Emily (daughter) Tunstall to the group.  Incidentally, for those of you who didn’t get to read Oates’s article in the Smithsonian magazine which circulated at the meeting, it was reprinted in today’s Buffalo News.  Go here to read the article.
Announcements included the sad news that long-time resident, Dan Ostrander passed away last week from cancer.  Ina sent flowers to his wife on behalf of the community.
On a happier note, Natalie, Rory and big brother, Zander, welcomed a baby boy, Torin (sp?) on March 8th.  Everyone is reportedly doing fine.  Congratulations to the Rinaldi family!
I made a brief pitch that we should all be cognizant of the fact that there are several members in the group who have medical issues which make them more prone to catching bugs.  The common sense things that we are all familiar with are especially important to those in the group who might have subpar immune systems.
The next meeting is at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, April 14th at Liz’s.  The book for that night is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.  Katie will give an assist with the discussion.  Snack volunteers are Jennifer and Katie for appetizers, Marion and Loraine for desserts and Julie, Jen and Jackie for wine.
Jennifer brought some books to circulate for everyone to enjoy before they land back home on her shelf, and all are welcome to do the same at future meetings.  One was Shanghai Girls which is on our list for the year; Grace won the drawing to be the first to get her hands on that.  Jill scored some books at the Orchard Park library book sale, and Sharon was lucky enough to snag David Copperfield, which those who feel up to it will be meeting to discuss sometime in August.
Lastly, I have been signed on www.shelfari.com for about a month now.  As recommended by Sue K., it really is a nice way to keep track of the books you have read and what you thought about them as well as a great mechanism for reading about what your friends (and the general public) think about books you are interested in.  You can certainly sign up on your own, but also look for an invitation from me in your mailbox when I get a little more caught up.
I think that is all for now.  Spring and our next meeting will be here before you know it.  Get reading!
Jan

Dear Book Clubbers,
Last night’s meeting to discuss Fahrenheit 451 was a great success.  The book received an overall rating of 3.3 with some people loving it, some hating it and a lot in the middle.  As usual, the disparate opinions fueled a super discussion.  We all agreed that the fact that the book was written in 1950 and the author foresaw so many social and techno trends is amazing.  Ina did a great job of hosting and the munchies were delicious as always.

The next meeting will be at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, March 10th at Terry Twitchell’s house at 33 Ridge Trail.  The book will be The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates, and Jackie will lead the discussion.  RSVP to Terry.  Snack volunteers for the night are Katherine and Sue K. for appetizers, Jill and Barb for desserts and Ina, Sharon and Jill for wine.

In other news, we decided that anyone who wanted to share books that they had read and liked could not only mention them on our book club’s online forum, but could also bring them to meetings to pass to others to be returned later…sort of a Craneridge Book Club lending library.  Just be sure to put your name in the books.  That brought up the topic of a reportedly cool website (www.shelfari.com) that allows you to easily track the books you’ve read as well as to share your reading list with friends.  As long as it doesn’t become too time consuming we can also have a brief moment during the business part of the meeting for anyone looking for a specific book to ask around.

Also, stay tuned for more info about author, Margaret Atwood’s upcoming appearance at UB.
We tentatively decided to shoot for late August, just before the September book selection meeting, for those who are tackling David Copperfield to meet to discuss it.  Linda Hoffman will host that gathering.  Some thought was given to breaking the book down into smaller stages, but the upshot was that some people will read it a little at a time, while others will wait until it is closer and really sink their teeth into it as a steady diet.  I’m sure it will help maintain our motivation if we informally discuss it with each other now and then.

No doubt there is more that I am forgetting, but I’ll just shoot out another e-mail if and when I remember.
Jan