Craneridge Book Club

Happy New Year!

2012-01-15T18:03:00.000-05:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

This week’s meeting to discuss Cutting for Stone was a major success. The book received a relatively high average rating of 4.35! Elizabeth and Karla did an amazing job of keeping the discussion lively, and Terry was a superb hostess. On top of the great chat and food, we also had a lot of laughs, reflecting how comfortable with one another we’ve become. Thanks to everyone who brought goodies, but especially to Terry, Karla and Elizabeth.

In keeping with our plan to do a book a month (with the understanding that everyone may not be able to read all the selections), our next meeting will be at 7 PM on Wednesday, February 15th at my house. The book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Kathryn will lead the discussion. Appetizer volunteers are Elizabeth, Karla and Jill. Desserts are Kathryn and Jen. Marty, Linda, Pam and Jen will bring wine. This book is a quick and engaging read. Please do not get turned off by the fiendish sounding plot summary. It really is quite good. Let me know if you are attending.

Following that we will meet on March 14th to discuss A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer at Grace’s. Marty will lead the discussion.

We voted on our long classic read and ended up with Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Linda will once again lead this meeting, but the date is still to be determined.

In other news, we all cheered for Jackie’s great showing in the recently concluded Buffalo News short story contest. When she is in attendance next month, Jackie will read us her story, and we will briefly discuss it and congratulate her in person.

Unfortunately neighbor and former club member, Ann Britain, was recently in a very serious car accident just after concluding rehab for extensive back surgery.

We seem to be in a bit of a spin regarding getting volunteers to host. Many have said that it is easier to do this if they don’t have to also lead the discussion. If you feel your home is too small to hold our group, please consider partnering up with someone else by offering to moderate. A few members have also asked me to clarify that it is all of our responsibilities to call the hostess a couple days prior to the meeting to let her know that we will be attending so that she can prepare accordingly. The rare exception to this is when we are having a more involved gathering and we pass around a food sign up sheet ahead of time.

Hope the long overdue arrival of the snow has you enjoying our winter paradise, perhaps doing a winter sport or curled up by the fire with a good book.

Jan

Year-End 2011

2011-12-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Whew, I would say that our co-ed meeting was a great one. Although Catch 22 only scored between a 2.5 and 3, the variation in how people felt about the book and Chris’s well-prepared questions made for a fantastic discussion. Apparently, if everyone in the group loves a book, there is less to disagree on…therefore less discussion. I think we have discovered a reading group paradox. Shall we name it the CRBC Catch 22? Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped with food, drinks and clean up. A special shout out to Chris for his thorough job in leading the discussion and to Paul B who showed up to help me Wednesday afternoon.

In a close vote for next year’s co-ed book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand was selected. This book has been high on the bestseller lists for a year now. Yes, it is another WWII book, but completely different in every way.

First up in 2012 is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, which is supposed to be an excellent read. The meeting is now scheduled for Terry’s home at 7 PM on Wednesday, January 11^th. Appetizer volunteers are Kathryn, Jen and Grace. Sue, Ina, Linda and Pam will bring wine. While scribbling notes, I wrote Marion under desserts and then the word “dessert” where I was supposed to fill in the second volunteer. Hopefully, this mystery person remembers who they are. See? We are lost without Jill there to check my work!

The February (2/15) book is The Hunger Games. Please don’t get turned off by reading a synopsis of this very popular young adult/adult book. It is really, really good and should be a nice quick read for everyone. We need a volunteer to host that night as well as for the March meeting.

In one final note, it has been brought to my attention by several people that we always seem to run out of white wine and have leftover red at the meetings. Since we seem to mostly drink white (and I can bring some reds that didn’t get consumed last Wednesday), let’s concentrate on bringing whites to Terri’s. We’ll have to work on our ratio for the future. Incidentally, something like 17 or 18 bottles of wine went out in the recycling bin on Thursday AM. Good for us!

Have great holidays! I hope the gift of time with friends and family, good health and some excellent reads come your way this season.

Jan

October's Meeting

2011-10-25T09:00:00.003-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Wednesday’s meeting at Jill’s to discuss Frankenstein was a tremendous success. We rated the book a 3.65 overall, with those attending somewhat falling mainly into two groups: those who enjoyed Mary Shelley’s writing style and those who found it verbose and bombastic. As usual, this disparity of opinion gave rise to some great discussion, as did Jill’s thorough research and preparation. Karla proposed a totally different interpretation of the book which had us all really thinking and some even contemplating a second read with her hypothesis in mind. Fascinating stuff. Many thanks to Jill and all who brought stuff to the evening.

Our next meeting is at 6:30 on Wednesday, November 30th at our house. This is the co-ed meeting so we will shoot for everyone bringing something in the way of a substantial appetizer or dessert since we try to make this a decent finger food dinner for those attending. Wine is always good too. The book is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and Chris Strong will be leading the discussion. A sheet was passed around Wednesday night. If you signed up for something, that serves as your RSVP. If not, please e-mail me or call to let me know what you want to bring. I am having rotator cuff surgery on November 8th, so Rob may be reaching out for some set up and tear down help once we know how I am doing. Please refer to the newsletter from September 8th or to the blog to view the books being considered for the 2012 co-ed selection. Of course, the guys are always welcome to add their own suggestions to the mix.

Other upcoming events include the Craneridge Family Halloween Party on Saturday, October 29th. The plan is to meet at the mail center at 5 PM for a parade around the neighborhood followed by pizza, games and crafts at the pool shelter. All are welcome…those with kids, those without, grandparents, etc. Just please try to sign the sheet at the mail center so that the organizers have a rough head count.

On Halloween night (10/31), Rob and I will again open our home for anyone to stop in. Make it the last stop with your kids and come in for warming beverages and snacks. If you don’t get any trick or treaters at your house and just want to come to our house to see kids there or simply hang out, come with a snack or beverage to share anytime after 6 PM. Please pass the word on to other neighbors who aren’t in book club. All are welcome.

Katherine Orrange requested that those of us on Facebook “friend” the Craneridge Association. The board is hoping this can become a viable way to get communications out to people in a pinch.

The Daffodil Bulb Planting event that was scheduled for 10/15 got a little washed out. Contact Shirley Skinner ASAP if you can help out planting bulbs in common areas around the neighborhood and around your own home.

Beth Roy has a bread maker that is free to a good home. The appliance is in great condition. Beth has just gotten into doing all her bread dough prep with her own hands and would love to see someone take advantage of this modern convenience…and get it out of her way.

The Craneridge Holiday party is pretty definitely set for December 3rd at the Hearth Restaurant in Chaffee. Save the date and stay tuned for further details.

We chose the next two books and the next three dates for 2012. Remember we are going to try scheduling meetings monthly to get more books read with the caveat that many of us will sometimes skip a book because it either didn’t grab us or we didn’t have time for it. This is something we decided at the selection night to try. Let’s see how it works for the beginning of the year. We will attempt to vary our book selections so that any lengthier reads are followed by short books whenever possible. The upcoming dates include:

January 11th – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – Elizabeth Strong’s house
February 15th – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – hostess to be determined
March 14th – book to be determined – Terri’s house

I think that is all the news and business. Seems there was a lot to say this month. Don’t forget that if you have general announcements, you can send them out directly to our members and eliminate me as the middleman who isn’t always timely in getting to things :)!

Read on,
Jan

September's meeting

2011-09-26T20:32:00.001-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last week’s meeting at Marilyn’s to discuss The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was a small, but spirited gathering. Although there were only eight of us, Jen led a great discussion of this interesting book depicting a historical period and region that we had not experienced through previous club selections. I think the overall rating was somewhere around a 3.5, with most of us glad that we had read it. One thing we all seemed to agree on was that David Mitchell was a tremendously skilled writer, weaving a well-crafted story. Thanks go out to Marilyn and Jen for doing such a great job.

The next meeting is at 7 PM on Wednesday, October 19th at Jill’s. The selection is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Jill has promised to do some side reading to enlighten us on the author herself, so it promises to be a very intriguing meeting. Please let Jill know if you will be attending. Because everyone who was at Marilyn’s brought something, we did not pick snack and wine volunteers for the October meeting. Please consider offering to bring something when you call Jill. It would be great if she could hear from people willing to bring food and wine ASAP so that she doesn’t have to figure those logistics out at the last minute.

Because of the small group and the close proximity to the book selection night, there wasn’t really any new business. One interesting suggestion did arise out of our discussion of Jacob, however. As we chatted about the book, most of us seemed to have a specific question that we wanted to ask the group. In some cases it was a part we didn’t quite understand or something that we just wanted to hear the others’ opinions about. The observation was made that one way we could ease the burden on the moderator and also make the discussions more meaningful to all of us, would be to have each of us consider, while reading, what they might like to ask the group. The intent wouldn’t be to go around the room and systematically address those questions, but rather just to have additional input beyond the moderator’s perspective to broaden the range of our discussion. Worth a try, right?

That’s all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying these great fall days!

Jan

Planning Meeting: A Recap

2011-09-09T07:01:00.001-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,
Last night’s book selection meeting was a huge success. Barb did a fantastic job of accommodating all of us even though it was too cold for the deck. Thanks, Barb. Appreciation also goes out to all who pitched in and brought yummies to the meeting and to those unable to attend who still took the time to send ideas along.

In new business, I pointed out that there is a drop box for paper recycling (every thing but cardboard) that is accessible 24/7 at the Colden Elementary School. The volume of paper collected there somehow benefits the school a bit. Grace added that there is a similar green and yellow box at Bertrand Chaffee Hospital. Jill mentioned that there is a drop site for returnables at the Colden Fire Hall with those proceeds going to a local Boy Scout troop. Please consider making your green efforts also help a local cause.

Stay tuned for a direct e-mail from Ina detailing some upcoming quilt shows and the liquidation sale of a fellow crafter’s inventory of fabric and beads. Marion’s sewing machine is still available. Jennifer advised us to stay alert next Thursday, September 15th, as there will be local painters setting up their easels to capture some Craneridge scenery on canvas. How cool is that?

Lots of wonderful books were proposed last night. We also included the two selections we didn’t get to last year, Sense and Sensibility and Left to Tell, in the voting process.

Click here to see the full list of 2012 suggestions.

Last night we decided to try to shoot for one meeting a month after finishing out the fall on our usual schedule. The suggestion was made and welcomed that we at least try for one book a month. Obviously, not everybody can always read every selection, but the thinking was that this would allow us to get more books in. If something doesn’t appeal to you or you don’t have time, you can skip one knowing another discussion is just around the corner. In the next few weeks, I would appreciate hearing from those of you who have conflicts on a particular week of the month (i.e. the first Wednesday of the month), so that we can evaluate if having a consistent meeting week is worth attempting.

Speaking just of around the corner, we will meet at Marilyn’s at 7 PM on Wednesday, September 21st to discuss The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Volunteers are: Jill and Kathryn for apps; Barb and me for desserts; and Carol, Terri, Jackie, Ina, Grace and Jen for wine. If you are able to attend, please call Marilyn.

After that, we will meet at Jill’s on Wednesday, October 19th to discuss Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Should be a great read to do around Halloween, and Jill has promised to educate us on the life of a woman writer during a time when there weren’t a lot of them!

The co-ed meeting will likely be November 30th, but your hosts (Rob and I) reserve the right to change that depending on what our Thanksgiving plans become. We will let you know as soon as the date is firm. The book is Catch-22 and hopefully, Chris Strong remembers that he is leading the discussion.

I hope those of you who weren’t able to make it last night will be as excited about our choices for the coming year as the rest of us are! See you in two weeks.
Jan

Planning for 2012

2011-09-01T14:41:00.000-04:00

Hello Book Clubbers,

I am sure we are all trying to fully enjoy these last few weeks of summer. As the days become shorter and the mornings become crisper, it is time to plan our year of reading choices. The selection meeting for 2011-2012 is at 7 PM on Wednesday, September 7th at Barb Reed’s. Please call her if you are able to attend. I don’t recall (and neither does Jill) that we picked snack and wine volunteers for that night, so please let Barb know if you can bring something.

I am super hopeful that we will have an excellent turnout with lots of great book ideas that night. Remember that our club’s success is a reflection of all of our input. We need everybody to pitch in with suggestions for books (or ideas for improvements for that matter) so that we can have a great year ahead.

In case this is your first selection night or you forgot how it goes…members bring suggestions for one or two books that they think the club would enjoy reading and discussing. (If you have a question regarding whether the club has already read a particular book, you can view our entire past on the blog) We will go around the room and give a brief description of our proposals. Please also bring something physical representing your suggestion. This can be the book itself, a printed review (from Amazon for example) or even just a sheet of paper with the title, author and brief synopsis. These items will then be laid out at Barb’s, and we will vote by putting chips on the ones we would each like to read. The top vote getters will become our choice list for the coming year. As we go around the room, we will also try to identify possible picks that might make good suggestions for the 2012 co-ed meeting that we will then propose for the guys to choose from at this year’s gathering.

You may also bring any books that you have finished and are willing to part with for our used book swap.

Even if you have been thinking about it all summer and still don’t feel that you have a good book to propose, we still would like you there to help make our selections. I can’t stress enough that the involvement of as many members as possible best assures good choices that we are all excited to read. This meeting is also an excellent time to put forth any other ideas you have regarding our club.

That’s it for now. Feel free to call or e-mail me with any questions or confusions.

Jan

July's Meeting

2011-07-26T09:36:00.000-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

We had a spectacular summer night for our gathering last week on Jen’s deck to discuss The Forgotten Garden. Jen did her usual super job of hostessing, making room for all of us as well as for the goodies everyone brought. Jill led a lively discussion of what most agreed was a perfect choice for a summer read. Overall we rated the book 3.7 and the evening 5.0! Thanks again to Jen and Jill and a round of applause for the feast and fellowship we all put together.

Our next meeting, for the brave and ambitious tackling War and Peace, will be at 7 PM at Linda’s on August 17th. Please contact Linda to let her know that you are coming. We also need some snack and wine volunteers for that evening.

After that we will have our yearly selection meeting on Wednesday, September 7th at Barb’s. Start time is 7 PM, and we are hoping it will still be warm enough to be out on her deck that night. Remember our choices for the year depend on your valued input at this meeting. Bring one or two suggestions and please be prepared to give a brief summary to the group. In addition, please bring the book itself, a review or summary from the Internet, or at least a piece of paper with the title and author that we can lay out for the voting. This will also be our book exchange night, so plan on bringing any books that you wish to trade away. We will need snack and wine volunteers for that night. Sorry that we forgot to do that last week. I am thinking that if we expect a healthy turn out, we should aim for 5 appetizers, 3 desserts and wine. Please call Barb to let her know that you will be attending and to volunteer if possible. We are really hoping for a bumper crop of good choices for the upcoming year, so please be a contributing part of this process.

Two weeks later, on September 21st, we will gather at Marilyn’s to discuss The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. This book has been on our list for a long time and I think we are all eager to finally see what it is about. We are told that it looks hefty, but reads quickly. We have 2 months at this point…assuming you have finished War and Peace (ha, ha!). The current Amazon price for this book in paperback is $9.28 if anyone wants me to order a copy for her.

I think that is all for now. In the process of discussing our first book for the fall, I heard some other intriguing suggestions during the meeting and after. I look forward to hearing more about those at the selection meeting and enthusiastically anticipate that we can come up with a blockbuster reading list for 2011-2012.

Stay cool by reading…
Jan

Mark your calendars

2011-07-25T15:15:00.001-04:00

Hello all!
In case you're filling your calendars the rest of your summer (and into fall) - here are some important Wednesday nights to keep in mind:

August 17th - Discussion of Tolstoy's War & Peace at Linda's

September 7th - 2012 Selection Meeting at Barb's - Bring your reading wish list with you (the more books the better)!!

September 21st - Book Club meeting to discuss 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet at Marilyn's

May's Meeting

2011-06-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last week’s discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks proved very interesting. Ina did a super job of hostessing and leading what ended up being a lively discussion. Ratings were all over the board, with an average of 3.7ish, but as usual, the wide disparity of opinions kept things hopping. Thanks Ina!

In an effort to lighten things up for the summer meeting (July 20th), we chose The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Follow this Amazon link to read more about it. It is described as a little Secret Garden like, part mystery, a little love story, with a fairy tale tone about it. Sounds very readable, but it is a little longish, so get cracking. We will meet on Jennifer’s deck at our usual 6:30 PM summer meeting time. We will all bring a substantial appetizer, wine or dessert to share so that we can make a meal out of this gathering. If you signed up on the food sheet last week, you need contact Jen only if you cannot make it after all. Those who weren’t there should RSVP to her to find out what you should bring. I can order the paperback on Amazon for $8.55 for anyone who needs a copy.

For those who are tackling War and Peace, don’t forget that August 17th is going to come up fast now that summer is here.

In other announcements, Barb is organizing a water aerobics class at the pool this summer. Anyone interested should meet at the pool on Tuesday, June 7th at 10:00 AM. Call Barb if you have questions.

Ina handed out the schedule for the “4th Fridays at the Tri-Main” featuring open galleries and artists studios. Upcoming Friday dates are June 24, July 22 and August 26. Refer to the link in last month’s newsletter or talk to Ina for details. Ina is also involved in Whisker Fest 2011, a two-day event on July 30-31 at the Hayloft in the Grove in East Aurora to benefit the Buffalo Paws and Claws Animal Shelter. Go to www.bpcanimalrescue.com for info about the organization and this event.

Most importantly, don’t forget to attend the Craneridge budget vote meeting on Saturday, June 18th at 10 AM at the pool shelter. If you cannot be there in person, be sure to hand in an absentee ballot.

We decided that in addition to getting announcements for the business meeting to me ahead of time, it would make things easier if I also got a little e-mail blurb with details so that I didn’t have to remember all the facts when I compose this newsletter. We will try to limit these coming events blurbs to items directly involving our members or the Craneridge community.

We have been missing some of you the last couple of months and hope to see a bunch of people back at the summer meeting.

Jan

2011-04-22T06:38:00.001-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Wednesday’s meeting to discuss Sarah’s Key was a great time. Although the book obviously dealt with a very difficult subject, we rated it 4 stars across the board. All in attendance got a tremendous amount out of reading it. I think it missed getting 4.5 or 5 stars only because we seem to have become more discerning in our rating system! Sue K. did a terrific job leading the discussion and being our hostess. Thanks Sue!

Our next book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. We will meet at 7 PM at Ina’s on Wednesday, May 25^th. Snack volunteers for that night are Sue K, Sue P and Shirley for appetizers, Beth for dessert, Linda for red wine and Marilyn and Jen for white wine. If anyone wants me to order a book for them, the paperback is currently $8.24 on Amazon.

At that meeting, we will discuss what to read for our summer meeting in July. We are looking for a somewhat lighter or unusual selection. There are a few Buffalo area memoirs under consideration, which may be interesting, especially if we can snag one of the authors. Keep your thinking caps on for something to fit the bill for the summer.

The long classic effort of War and Peace is all set for Linda’s house on August 17^th. For those of you who want advice on which translation to read, many of us are tackling the one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The paperback edition is available for $12.24 at Amazon and the Kindle edition recently dropped to $8.99.

For new business, we have upcoming event announcements for two of the artistic members of our group. Look for a separate e-mail forwarded by me regarding Emily’s long awaited return to a dancing performance after her broken foot. Ina’s unique creations are on exhibit as part of the Fiber Arts Incentive at the Impact Artists Gallery through April 30^th. In addition, beginning this Friday, April 22 and on the 4th Friday of every month until Dec. 23,.2011 there will be open galleries and studios throughout the building so you can meet working artists, sign up for workshops, and attend special events. The hours for this are 4 to 8 pm. Admission and parking are free. Go to http://impactartist.wordpress.com/category/fiber-art/ or contact Ina for more information on the gallery’s location and the exhibit hours.

In addition Terry reminded us that the Craneridge Caring Tree is not just about lending tangible support by cooking meals, running errands, etc. for community members who are in need of help. We should remember that emotional support and companionship are also helpful for people who are confined to their homes or facing a difficult time. Please consider a gift of your time and company when you hear of someone who might enjoy it. If you would like further details about this thread of our discussion, contact Terry.

Guess that’s the scoop for the moment except to say that I was thrilled to be back after having had to miss a couple meetings in a row.

Jan

March 2011

2011-03-05T22:09:00.002-05:00

Hi Book Clubbers,

Terry made us all feel welcome at our meeting Wednesday night and Jackie did a great job of leading the discussion. "A Reliable Wife" got a rating of 2.9. Ratings ranged from 2 to 5 so you can imaging it was a very good discussion. Those giving it higher ratings convinced us it was well written and carried a message. Those giving it lower points, felt it was "supersexed" (Liz's word) and dark.

"Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay was chosen for the April 13th meeting at Sue Kellner's. Please call her if you are coming. Liz, Jackie, and Terry will bring appetizers. Carla, Grace, and Kathryn are signed up for wine and Marion will bring a dessert. We agreed that with our crowd, appetizers are more popular.

Tolstoy's "War and Peace" was chosen for our long read. This meeting is set for August 17th at Linda Hoffman's. We felt that "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Laks" by Rebecca Skoot should be the choice for our next meeting. (May/June?)

News from our members:

Jennifer Parsons had foot surgery this week and seems to be covered for most needs but might enjoy some company during her long healing process.

John Reed is coming along well after his foot surgery and may be driving soon but we all know that the caregiver suffers as much as the patient so Barb may need a few kinds words or calls.

Terry and Eric will host a St. Patrick's Day Party on March 19th at 7:00. We are all invited. Please bring a substantial appetizaer or a dessert and a beverage of your choice. Sounds like fun!

Loraine sent posters annoucing that the Silver Foxes Program at the Orchard Park Presbyterian Church will beging again in March. Poster is at the Mail Center telling of the programs. Some of us have attended and really enjoyed both the food and the program.

Jan, thanks for all you did to prepare for these meetings. We hope you can attend the next meeting and get us all straightened. out. We miss you. Also looking forward to all who have not made our winter meetings joining us in April.

Grace

January 2011

2011-01-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

Hello Book Clubbers,
It's currently 6-degrees outside (with a windchill of -10), so it seems like a good time to send a recap about the meeting from Wednesday night. Despite the wintry weather, we had a very nice turn-out last week.

The original plan for the evening was to split the group into two, but when it came to a vote, unanimously, everyone wanted to stick together. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet had us thinking about child-rearing practices/philosophies, race relations, comparing wars of the past with those of today, and much more. From my perspective, it seemed like everyone had a chance to participate as much as they wanted - I hope I correct. Overall, the group gave it a 4.2 rating. Many thanks to Joan for hosting as well as facilitating the discussion along with Jennifer.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 2nd, 7pm at Terri Twichell's house when we will be reading A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. Volunteers for the night (and I hope I got these right, please correct me if I'm wrong) are:
Appetizers: Jennifer Parsons & Sue Payne
Desserts: Kathryn Orrange & Sue Kellner
Wine: Barb Reed & Lorraine Sherman
Please remember to RSVP to Terry if you will attend.

Finally, some announcements from the evening -
* Zumba is happening at the Colden Senior Center on Mondays & Wednesdays at 5pm with Deni Chambers. Cost is approximately $7-8 per session. All are welcome.

* The movie adaptation of Water for Elephants is coming out in April 2011, staring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.

That's all for now. Hope you're enjoying a nice warm day, maybe snuggled up with a good book.

Happy reading!
Jill

December Recap

2010-12-30T13:19:00.001-05:00

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

2010-10-23T06:50:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-03T18:36:00.002-04:00

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...

2010-09-06T17:39:00.001-04:00

Shanghai Skyline, 2006

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

Visit this link to read more

August Updates!

2010-08-22T09:20:00.000-04:00

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

2010-07-17T09:27:00.003-04:00

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

2010-06-01T21:31:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-25T12:29:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-17T08:22:00.001-04:00

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

2010-01-16T08:22:00.001-05:00

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

Happy Holidays! Happy Reading!

2009-12-21T20:32:00.004-05:00

We've celebrated with the guys at our annual Co-Ed Meeting, the first major snow-fall has past (KB is Open!), and the year is drawing to a close... OH, and it's HOLIDAY TIME!

Now that winter is upon us, grab yourself a good book and snuggle up next to a cozy fire with a good book! There are a number on the list of 2010 reads, including Fahrenheit 451, the selection for our first meeting of 2010, January 13th. The meeting will be at Ina's house. (Kathryn & Beth have school copies to loan those who need/want them).

To see more on "the list" - check out the link to the right, or click here for the 2010 CRBC Book Selections.

Maybe you want to start reading the "Big Book" the group selected... David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Depending on the edition you choose, this book is upwards near 1000 pages, so be prepared. (A date for this discussion has not yet been determined.)

If you're looking to "do good" this holiday... you have some choices:

Contact Jennifer Parsons regarding the Caring Tree - some folks are in need of food stuffs.
Contact Sharon Kuczyk if you wish to be involved in supporting our troops by corresponding with wounded soldiers in a military hospital in Germany.

That's all for now. Best wishes for a healthy, safe, and fun-filled holiday season & may that extend into the new year.

Cheers!

October 2009

2009-10-16T17:44:00.005-04:00

This month's book...

Next month's book...

The BIG book...

The 2010 Co-Ed selections...
The calendar...

Find all you need to know in the Newsletter - click here to read it

Things I forgot to say!!!

2009-10-12T14:21:00.001-04:00

Wednesday is our meeting at Beth’s to discuss The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I did forget a few things in the last newsletter.

Most notably, I forgot to mention Jennifer’s marvelous idea that we form a group of volunteers who are willing to help out with meals, transportation, child care, etc. in the event someone is not up to full speed due to a new baby, injury, illness…

Jennifer has done a great job organizing this assistance group. If anyone can think of a catchy name for this arm of the book club or wants to sign up and wasn’t there last week, please let Jennifer know.

Also, we discussed at our book selection night the possibility of some of us (totally optional) tackling a major heavy long book for discussion a year from now. We were going to select that choice at the next meeting…which would be Wednesday. Please bring any ideas you may have for that to the meeting. Some titles that have been batted around are War and Peace, Gone with the Wind and something by Dickens. Certainly would welcome additional ideas though.

See you all on Wednesday. I better go finish the book!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan

Autumn Updates

2009-10-05T20:51:00.004-04:00

OH, I'm SO sorry this posting is so late. It's been almost a month since the September Meeting. For the latest-and-greatest from Jan, visit this link to this month's Newsletter.

In other news, we have LOTS to celebrate this month...
* Congratulations to Elisabeth & Chris Strong - Ethan's little sister, Julia arrived in early September.
* Happy Birthday to our September "babies" - Joan Bartholomy & Jan Freeman
* Congratulations to Jan on completing her Triathlon!
Cheers to all!

One reminder, also noted in the Newsletter, is that the 2010 Co-Ed Book-for-Discussion will be chosen at the December 2nd (2009) Co-Ed Meeting. To see which books were nominated, visit this link.

One final thing... I've almost completed the template for the 2010 Meeting Calendar. As soon as it's ready, I'll post it to the site for possible-meeting-date reference.

Happy Autumn, all! Enjoy the chilly weather with some tea and a good book.
- Jill

10:00pm UPDATE: The calendar is ready! Visit this link to see the tentative dates for 2010.

What? No book assignment?

2009-08-22T17:22:00.002-04:00

No assignments yet!

But, mark your calendars for these upcoming meetings:
September 16: We have our annual selection meeting when we'll decide which book to read for the the rest of 2009 as well as throughout 2010.

October 14: Next "regular" book club meeting. Title TBD on 9/16.

Additional details on last week's meeting and upcoming meetings listed in this month's Newsletter.

Enjoy the dog days of summer with a book of your choice!

Summer 2009

2009-07-19T11:07:00.002-04:00

The temperatures may not suggest it, but summer is here in Western New York! The kids are out of school, life slows down during family vacations, and the sights and sounds of nature abound!

The July newsletters contains a TON of information. Be sure to visit this link to read it in its entirety.

May Newsletter & More

2009-05-31T08:01:00.008-04:00

As Jan says in the May Newsletter (click here) "Put down your garden tools, get out the lounge chair and get reading." We have a dual selection for the July meeting, which should be quite interesting for reading and discussing!

Here's some more information about the possible summer book, Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt.

Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize--the U.K.'s highest literary award--Possession is a gripping and compulsively readable novel. A.S. Byatt exquisitely renders a setting rich in detail and texture. Her lush imagery weaves together the dual worlds that appear throughout the novel--the worlds of the mind and the senses, of male and female, of darkness and light, of truth and imagination--into an enchanted and unforgettable tale of love and intrigue. --Lisa Whipple
It's available in paperback at Amazon for $10.85. (click here). It's also available in audio format through Audible (click here).
It's the October selection for the Just Buffalo Literary Center's '08-'09 Season (click here) as part of it's If All of Buffalo Read the Same Book project.

Reminder: Call Marion if you're interested in joining the group at Graycliff (more info in the newsletter) on Saturday, June 13th at 11am. Space still available for Craneridge residents, friends & guests.

Summer's almost here! Happy Reading!

May...

2009-05-10T09:26:00.003-04:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all our Book Club Moms! Hope your day is wonderful!

Jan sent an e-mail last week with some reminders for the May meeting as well as directions to Sarah's. If you didn't get the e-mail or need help finding your way e-mail Jan or I - we'll resend.

Here's a copy of the reminders:
- Snacks for the evening: Marion, Pam, and Jackie
- Bring your calendars: We're going to decide on the date our day trip to Graycliff!
- Bring book suggestions: We need to pick a summer read, bring your thoughts and suggestions (remember - books need to be in-print and readily available in softcover.)

A sunset is worth a thousand words...

2009-04-16T18:05:00.005-04:00

What a splendid sunset of the eve of A Thousand Splendid Suns book discussion. Click HERE to read this month's newsletter and learn of all the new and exciting happenings with the Craneridge Book Club!

News... news... and more news!

2009-03-16T08:20:00.007-04:00

We're continuing the trend of having lots of goings-on in 2009. This month's newsletter (click here) is chock full of news and events, so be sure to check it out.

For those wishing to trade books (not necessarily book club books), discuss books beyond the regular meeting, make reading suggestions, or just "chat" I have set up a place to have discussions on0line. The site is part of Google Groups and can be found in the window on the right side of the main blog page or click HERE to go directly to the page. I'll review the how-tos at an upcoming meeting.

A busy start to the new year!

2009-01-19T20:34:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year!

We're not wasting any time getting going this year... we've got the first four (almost 5) months planned already! Follow the link to the CRBC Newsletter to see the details.

For those interested in a night out - mark your calendar for February 5th! Geraldine Brooks will be at Buffalo State College for a lecture and book signing. Click here for more details.

Stay warm during these chilly times... curl up with a good book!

Cheers,
Jill

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-21T07:16:00.003-05:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

I guess I’ll just send out a quick reminder post co-ed meeting…since it is sort of a hectic time of year. Thanks to everyone for such a cooperative effort in pulling together a nice evening earlier this month. Hope it got everyone’s holiday season off to a good start.

The January meeting is at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, January 14^th at Katie’s house. Please call Katie if you plan on attending. Remember the book now is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

One thing that I meant to mention at the co-ed meeting was that we will once again be hosting our hayride for charity on the day after Christmas. I have attached the text of the invitation to this newsletter. You are all welcome to join in the fun if you have a free evening on December 26^th.

I can’t think of anything else that needs to be mentioned before the next meeting. Enjoy your holidays…and hopefully enjoy the quiet winter January days by the fireside with a good book.

Jan

Co-Ed Meeting Reminders

2008-11-16T15:56:00.003-05:00

Hello all!
Thought I'd add a couple of helpful bits of information here, at the top of our Blog to remind everyone about the upcoming Co-Ed meeting.

Meeting date is Wednesday, December 3rd - our selection is 'Out Stealing Horses' by Per Petterson
It's at Jan & Rob's and starts early... 6:45pm ...so we can partake in yummy appetizers before our discussion (to RSVP or to tell Jan what you're bringing, please call her ASAP).
The 2009 Co-Ed Book will be chosen this night. Go HERE to see the list of choices with summaries.

See you soon,
Jill

A Meeting at 'The Shack'

2008-11-14T07:11:00.016-05:00

I can only imagine the discussion that went on last night.

I expect there were many perspectives, thoughts, feelings, and ideas exchanged about our most recent read. AND, we have such a great group - I hate missing you all, even if it's only for one meeting!

Click here for Jan's November CRBC Newsletter, which includes information on an important book change decision.

Enjoy,
Jill

October Meeting

2008-10-25T09:32:00.009-04:00

What a great night for Book Club! The cool nights of autumn are upon us and the conversation of the evening warmed us! For a full account of the nights discussion and to see what's up-coming, see Jan's October Newsletter HERE.

For a quick link to the Co-Ed Book options for 2009, click here. We'll be making our selection December 3rd.

Selection Meeting 2008

2008-09-13T08:36:00.006-04:00

September 11, 2008
Dear Book Clubbers,
Last night’s meeting may not have been the most fun we ever had, but we sure did a great job in getting our year’s worth of reading lined up. I am really optimistic that the process we went through last night will allow us to spend more time discussing the books (and socializing) than in previous years. I think everyone walked away from the evening not only with a few “previously loved” books in hand, but also with some ideas of things they might like to read even if the club didn’t choose them. Thank you ALL for your efforts to come up with great suggestions to share. A special thanks to Shirley for so graciously stepping in to provide a warm, cozy place to meet. We certainly were more comfortable in her lovely home than we would have been at the pool shelter. A special welcome goes out to new member Kathryn Orrange!

So…let me try to summarize the results of all our decision making as best I can. If I get something wrong, please someone correct me.

The next meeting will still be to discuss The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. We will be meeting at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, October 15th at Nancy’s house. Please let Nancy know at 885-5857 if you plan to attend. Snack volunteers for that night are Pam, Carol and Marilyn.

After that we agreed that at least some of us would meet on Wednesday, November 12th. For this we chose a short book since we are sort of squeezing this in before the co-ed meeting in December. We will be discussing The Shack by William P. Young, et al. which is reputedly one of the season’s hot reads. We will meet at Donna Deyermond’s.

From there we move on to the co-ed meeting which is planned for Wednesday, December 3rd at my house. The book we chose (with the guys input) last year was Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. Details of this holiday-ish gathering will be finalized this fall, but please remember that it includes a light meal and socializing.

Very significantly, from a planning standpoint, we set 4 books aside for the guys to pick the 2009 choice from. They are The People of the Book (paperback release date 12/30/08) by Geraldine Brooks, Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert, The Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Tolle. Since we seemed to have several excellent choices lined up for the guys, we agreed to use one of the ones they don’t pick as one of our selections in the upcoming year. To the pile of co-ed “rejects” we will also add The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which narrowly missed making the main selection list in a close tie breaker vote.

Now, the moment you have all patiently been waiting for. The five books we did choose for the ’08-’09 book club season are (in order of votes received):

The Double Bind by Chris Bojalian
The Great Gatsby by F. S. Fitzgerald
Read together in one meeting

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

This should take us up through early next fall. We left a blank slot for the summer book meeting in July, since we usually come up with an author night or something a little different for that meeting.

Several of you asked for a complete list of all the books that were presented last night. Here it is as best as Linda and I could recreate. I didn’t know there was going to be a test!

The Whistling Season – Ivan Doig
Big Russ & Me – Tim Russert
1000 Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseine
Northern Borders – Howard Frank Mosher
The House the Rockefellers Built – Robert Danzell, et al
Bridge of Sighs – Richard Russo
The Scandal of the Season – Sophie Gee
Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
Marjorie Morningstar – Herman Wouk
Goodbye, Mr. Chips – James Hilton
The Shack – James Hilton
Plain & Simple – Sue & Richard Bender
The Luncheon of the Boating Party – Susan Vreeland
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Chasing the Bard –Philippa Ballantine
The 13th Tale – Diane Setterfield
Harvest Home – Thomas Tryon
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – David Wroblewski
The People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Tolle
The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
Dreams of My Father – Barack Obama
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson
Peace Like a River – Leif Enger
A Good House – Bonnie Burnard
Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Oranges – John McPhee
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Double Bind – Chris Bojalian
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Eight – Katherine Neville (Wasn’t formally discussed, summary was on table, I remember as great read)

That should keep you all busy for a while. Thanks again for coming up with such awesome ideas. There, I’m finished.

Jan

September 10th - UPDATE

2008-09-08T19:48:00.006-04:00

Last-minute change for Wednesday's Book Selection meeting...

The weather is not really cooperating, so Shirley Skinner has graciously offered to host the evenings festivities are her home. Time remains the same, 6:45.

Don't forget to bring:
- Your book suggestions for 2009 (printout including summary, length, paperback availability)
- Your food/beverage/etc assignment (If you weren’t at the last meeting, please call Shirley to get one)
- Books to trade (optional)
- Wine glass/coffee mug

THANKS SHIRLEY!! SEE YOU ALL SOON!!

Busy, busy, busy!

2008-08-30T09:13:00.011-04:00

The lazy days of summer (rainy, tho they might be) are coming to an end, which means the Craneridge Book Club has a LOT of activities over the next few weeks.

But first, here's the newsletter from our August meeting. Click here. Now, mark your calendars for these upcoming events...

Book Selection & Exchange
September 10 @ 6:45pm at the Pool Shelter - see August newsletter for details
We'll be choosing the books for the 2009 season

Club Meeting - 'The Book Thief"
October 15 @ 7:15, location Nancy MacDonald's
If you'd like to volunteer to bring a snack/dessert, leave your comment below or send Jan a message

See you there!
- Jill

10 Years of CRBC!!

2008-07-26T09:56:00.011-04:00

1998 - 2008

What a milestone for our community book club! CONGRATULATIONS!

To celebrate, here's something new for the CRBC Blog... visit the What We've Read section and click on the link "10 Years of CRBC" to see what the Club has read over the last decade. If you'd like, you can download an Adobe PDF file the 1998 - 2008 book list.

Hope you like this new addition - best wishes to the group for another 10 great years... and beyond!

Visiting Author Night '08

2008-07-26T08:30:00.006-04:00

July 16th's meeting couldn't have been more perfect... great discussion, great attendance, great food & drink! Well, unless you consider our poor author who accidentally got locked out of her car when making a quick stop in Springville before the meeting. Oh well, as we joked - it was just ONE of the things that made this night memorable!

Many thanks to all who made it to Author night, it really was a wonderful evening. Ann thanks us, too, here's an excerpt from the note she sent me this week:
Hi Jill,
It was so nice to finally meet you and I have to say your club was amazing - what a wonderful group of reading women! Thank you for choosing Runaway Grandma and inviting me to visit your club. It was a very enjoyable evening despite the fact I locked my keys in the car when I changed!!
Thank you so much for the lovely memories.
Ann

Check out this month's newsletter by following this link. See you in August!! Enjoy the summer!!

June Meeting

2008-06-11T18:04:00.003-04:00

Jan calls this month's newsletter "Lots of Important Stuff" - find out all there is to know about the most recent meeting and future goings-on at the Craneridge Book Club here!

Also, for more info on our visiting author, Ann McCauley, visit her website at http://annmccauley.com/ - Ann has a blog of her own where she shares much information about her personal life and writing career. Check it out, if you have a moment or two!

Runaway Grandma - Visiting Author

2008-04-28T21:45:00.004-04:00

ATTENTION BOOK CLUBBERS!

Jill has spoken to the author for our July 16th summer author’s night. The author will obtain books for us for $15 and will pre-sign them with personalization for each of us wishing to purchase one. Jill has graciously offered to collect the money, compile a list of names for the author and to pick up the books in Bradford, PA for distribution to members at the June 4th meeting (or around there if you aren’t attending the meeting).

The deadline for ordering personalized books through Jill is absolutely May 13th. I would appreciate you all spreading this info by word of mouth as well since not everyone opens their e-mail or checks the blog in a timely fashion.

Call me if you have any questions. Again, our thanks to Jill for all she is doing to facilitate this special “author night”. We should probably do an earlier start time and substantial food for this as we have for past summer meetings. I guess we can discuss that at the June meeting.

Jan

April meeting

2008-04-25T07:13:00.005-04:00

Ahhhh.... the snow has melted, temperatures are going up, the crocuses have popped, and the days are getting longer. Spring has sprung in Craneridge!

Here's the link to this month's Newsletter. Enjoy!

Blog Statistics

2008-04-03T19:55:00.007-04:00

Hi Everyone!
This month (April), I celebrate 6-months as the Crane Ridge Book Club Blog-Master (WOW, that sounds SO official!). I have had a wonderful time thus far!

When I began maintaining the blog, I was curious as to the traffic our site gets. This was partly due to Jan's comments about her Google search - for those who don't know the story, Jan Googled "co-ed book club" and OUR site was #4 on the list of results - so, I installed a statistics tracker on the site.

The tracker has been able to capture statistics starting November 8, 2007. Since then, we have had over 200 visits to the site with 91 "unique visitors" (individual computers who have visited the site). Here's a quick snapshot of the reports I receive.
It's been so exciting to see how the site's traffic ebbs and flows (especially around meeting dates). Also, the detail of the statistics received is amazing... it calculates everything from how someone got to the site, to number of minutes spent viewing, to where the visitor is from. For a "geek" like me, this is pretty cool stuff. If you'd like to see more stats, just ask - in the mean time, I won't bore our members who are pure readers with my numbers mumbo-jumbo.

Looking forward to sharing future site milestones with you!

Cheers,
Jill

Comments welcome!

2008-03-16T08:59:00.005-04:00

Hello again, everyone,
At this month's meeting I had a couple of people mention about the 'Comments' section of the blog (found at the bottom of each post).

Then I was asked the question of how to post a comment... Well, I found out the answer and thought it might be helpful to share with the group.

Here's a link that will outline the how-to's of leaving comments on our blog. CLICK HERE (click BACK in your web browser when finished).

I'd LOVE your assistance on making the CRBC Blog YOUR blog, so comments are most welcome.

Thank you, in advance, for your feedback!
- Jill

March 2008 Meeting

2008-03-16T08:19:00.005-04:00

We have been experiencing record turn-out (so I'm told) at recent Book Club meetings. This month's was no exception, I think I counted about a dozen of us! Click HERE to read more from Jan in the March newsletter.

Speaking of turn-out... you'll see in the newsletter that next meeting is a my place. (I'm SO excited to host such a wonderful group!) I'm also a little nervous, tho... You see, if you haven't already met Mackie & TaterBug, you will on April 23rd.
They are my "kids"... A mastiff-mix and bullmastiff... and as lovable as they are, they are also quite big and sometimes bring with them the gift of drool. What we usually suggest to our visitors is to wear your "play clothes" or at least not your Sunday best to our home. SO, please feel free to be casual on April 23.

One note... if anyone prefers the pups not attend our meeting, please let me know, I will find alternate arrangements for them on Book Club night. I would hate for anyone to miss our meeting because of the pups being around.

Can't wait!
- Jill

"The Other Boleyn Girl" - Now a Movie!

2008-02-28T17:18:00.005-05:00

Hello all!
In case you haven't heard... tomorrow (Friday, February 29, 2008) the film version of our September pick, The Other Boleyn Girl, opens in theaters. To learn more, visit the movie's official website HERE.

I'm hoping some of us will have seen the movie by the time our meeting arrives on March 12... with the hopes you'll share your reviews!

Cheers,
Jill

Meeting countdown

2008-02-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

Hello Book Clubbers,
How are you progressing with The Pillars of the Earth?

The calendar says we are exactly one month away from our next meeting... so hopefully you've got the foundation and walls built on that Cathedral *wink*.

Happy reading!
- Jill

1st Meeting of 2008

2008-01-21T08:09:00.000-05:00

The year has begun!

At this month's meeting we shared some wonderful conversation about The Lovely Bones, our community and future events for 2008. Here is the link to the newsletter - thanks to Jan for writing it up, who did so even though she was unable to attend.

A new addition to the Blog is a calender listing (proposed) meeting dates. General consensus was to meet every 6-weeks, with our next meeting set for March 12 (Wednesday). To view the full 2008 schedule, click HERE OR see the link in the "Future Ideas" section of our Blog.
* Note: schedule is subject to change based on the needs of the group.

Best wishes for a happy & healthy 2008!

November Co-Ed Meeting

2007-12-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

Here is the link to the Newsletter for our final meeting of 2007... Click here.

Enjoy the holiday season (and all the snow that comes with it) and we'll see you all in January.

Cheers!

Call for recipes

2007-12-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

What WONDERFUL food at this month's meeting (and very nice to meet you all, too!)!

I heard multiple exclamations of "I'd love to have this recipe" throughout the evening (to name a few: Swedish meatballs, pumpkin-fruit tart, Ina's extreme brownies).

So, to all who brought a dish to pass - if you are so inclined to post your secret recipe on our Website, please forward it to me. Click Here.

I'll be sure to get all recipes up ASAP for all to see.
THANKS!
- Jill

Amazon's BEST of 2007

2007-11-14T06:32:00.000-05:00

Amazon just announced their "Best of" lists for 2007.... #1 of the Editor's Picks is already on our suggested reading list, but what about the others? Check them out here.

Decisions, Decisions

2007-11-12T18:59:00.000-05:00

Okay guys and gals, you have only ~400 days till the 2008 Co-Ed meeting... so we need to decide what we're reading NOW.

Follow this link to see the list of suggestions.

Up and running!

2007-11-10T15:59:00.000-05:00

I told Beth this morning, I feel like a kid at Christmas who was given SO many new toys... I'm experiencing overload! I never knew I'd enjoy blogging as much as I am today.

Let's see, there have been a couple additions to the site:
- The 2007 Reading List (Click here or use the link in the right column under "What we've read")
- Newsletters from the past few months (to read, click on each month for a link):

Next steps are updates to the Links, Recipes, and Future Ideas sections. Your feedback as well as suggestions on additions, changes, and edits are welcome. THANKS!

This is a test... Jill's first post

2007-11-10T07:18:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!
It's November 10, 2007, a chilly Saturday morning... a great time to do a bit of blogging. We have some catching up to do here and I'll do my best to be up-to-speed by our next meeting on November 28th. As they say in the construction industry "please excuse our dust" while we make improvements to our site.

Many thanks to Beth for getting me set up as a Blog contributor and allowing me to continue the great work she started! I look forward to this new responsibility.
- Jill

February Meeting

2007-03-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

Well I've been completely neglecting the blog of late. Rather than back track I've decided to just carry on from the most recent meeting. Because she had suggested the book, poor Anne was mortified by the rather, "edgy" shall we say, content of The Feast of Love. But fear not, we're all adults here - we had an excellent discussion about the book. While the story was enjoyed to varying degrees, we all did agree that the author's literary device using the narrator's interviews with his neighbors, was pretty cool. Thank you to Nancy for a lovely evening at your home.

Happy Birthday to Jan

2006-10-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

By all accounts the September meeting was great - especially because we had the opportunity to pay tribute to our founder and tireless club organizer, facilitator, newsletter writer, book orderer and friend extraordinaire!! Here's to you Jan - Happy Birthday!

Our next meeting is at Polly’s at 7:15 PM on Tuesday, October 17th. The current Newsletter is available here.

Word by Word

2006-07-27T15:05:00.000-04:00

Jan's newsletter says it all about the August meeting, so I won't be redundant. You can view a copy of it here. This should be a really interesting meeting, Jan has scored some great local talent to spend some time with us. So if you have any interest in writing or at least learning about the process join us on the 8th, and bring along some good questions for our guests.

Ahhh Summer Reading...

2006-04-14T20:07:00.000-04:00

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain."

-- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Dear Book Clubbers,

Sorry for the delay in getting this out. As many of you know, my daughter got married Saturday…so things were a little rushed between Tuesday’s meeting and our departure for the nuptials. We had an excellent time by the way. Now onto business.

Last Tuesday’s discussion of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was excellent. Everyone who was there enjoyed the book, and the discussion was aided by the personal experiences with autism that members shared. Thanks again to Marion for stepping in and hosting.

Our next meeting will be at Donna’s (592-9380) on Tuesday, June 27th at 7:15 PM. The book for that night is Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas and Micah Sparks. On the hook for snacks that night are Marion, Nancy and Sue. I had previously written that I could order the hardcover for people on Amazon for $8. That offer has is no longer available. For those of you who ordered the book the other night, you should have received the paperback for $10.74. If anyone else would like me to order them the book, please call or e-mail me.

We tentatively set the date of our summer meeting as August 8th. That may be a conflict for the school board people, so we will revisit that at our next meeting. In the meantime, perhaps people could let me know when in August they will be around. For example is the 3rd Tuesday better? This is the meeting that we will be inviting some writer types to, so we need to firm up the date and start contacting them. Remember the plan is to read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and those who wish can read Tricked (a light mystery set in Glenwood) if they would like to read something by one of the possible authors who will be invited.

Although Loraine was unable to attend last week’s meeting, she passed on two things. One is a suggestion for a possible co-ed book, The Ezekiel Option by Joel C. Rosenberg. Perhaps people could keep their ear to the ground and check out the plot via the link on our web site to help make a good choice for the guys’ night. She also mentioned that she has a bunch of books by Sara Donati who writes in a similar fashion to Diane Gabaldon that people can borrow if they are interested.

Seems like it is finally summer.

Jan

April Meeting

2006-04-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last night’s meeting at Grace’s to discuss Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises was a bit different, but very enjoyable. We may have set a world’s record for the relative time spent discussing the book vs. planning our upcoming choices and just plain gabbing. Although the book didn’t really excite a lot of people, many were intrigued to follow up on other works and to find out more about why Ernie is considered such an important literary figure.

We are pleased to welcome new member, Dorothy Scull. She and her husband have retired here from California and recently moved into Dorothy and Morgan’s old house. They chose WNY because they have family in the area. Dorothy looks forward to dragging her husband to the Men’s Book Club Night, but hopefully we will have a chance to meet him out and about before that.

We talked a lot about the web site Beth has created. Once again the address is www.crbc.blogspot.com. The idea is that this is a way we can share ideas, recipes, etc. If you have the Internet and haven’t checked this out, SHAME ON YOU! Beth has done an awesome job on this creation. I think the links to possible book choices are especially helpful. If as many members as possible check out the suggestions list ahead of time, we will be able to make more informed choices regarding what books appeal to our group. (Translation – fewer losers!)

We also agreed upon 2 organizational “policies” First, in order to limit the overabundance of food and to help the hostess to know what to plan on ahead of time, we are now getting a few people to commit well in advance to bringing a treat to upcoming meetings. This should take some of the last minute aspect out of things and reduce the number of desserts to a reasonable amount. Of course, it is still mandatory that at least one thing contain chocolate!

Second, Beth raised the concern that some members shy away from hosting a meeting because they are not comfortable in the role of discussion leader. While leading the discussion usually takes no more than getting things rolling with one or two questions, not wanting to do that should not prevent you from taking a turn as hostess. If this reservation applies to you, you can arrange for someone else to fill the role of “discussion starter”. Beth and I are both OK doing that, but please remember that this doesn’t mean we want to do this every single meeting.

The next meeting is at 7:15 PM on Tuesday, May 30th at Linda’s house (592-4511, Ldaberry@aol.com). The book selection is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Grace, Shirley and Barb have committed to bringing dessert to that get together. I can order the book for anyone who would like me to from Amazon for $10 and it will arrive at your house 2 days after I order it. This book is a mystery told in the voice of a young autistic man and, from all reviews, is a realistic accounting of what autism “feels” like.

Following that we will meet at Donna’s on June 27th to discuss the non-fiction Nicholas and Micah Sparks book, Three Weeks with My Brother. I can order the paperback edition of this book on Amazon for $10.75, but the hardcover is available on Amazon for $8 at this moment. So far we have Marion and Nancy hooked up for treats on that night.

The summer meeting is still being researched. One thought under consideration is to read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott which is a book dealing with the art of writing. At that time we would consider having local author, Diane Bridenbaker, come to discuss the act of writing a book. Diane is the former owner of The Whistling Thistle gift shop. Her book, Tricked, is a mystery set in Glenwood and dealing with the dog show world. Her book is a fun, light read that has appeal to us due to recognition of local color and characters. Those who have read it (and Diane) agree that the simple plot doesn’t lend itself to discussion. The idea would be to have this be our food night, encouraging attendance, and try to have a great turnout for a night of discussing what it is like to try to write a book. People could read Tricked or not as they choose. Invitation of other currently undisclosed writer types is also in the works.

We even got as far as choosing Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See as our fall read. This is a book that I read recently. It deals with the women’s perspective on rural China during the days of foot binding and secret women’s language. I found it to be an incredible book. Since we recently experienced the men’s view via The Good Earth and since Grace and Shirley just returned from China, we thought this would be a great choice. We are delaying it until the fall to ensure that they can both attend and also because we always seem to want to kick off the fall meeting with a strong choice.

And…we discussed the possibility of reading The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson for the men’s night. This book deals with the 1966 class of West Point and has lots of info on the Vietnam War as well. I was so relieved to have something in hand for that meeting, but sometime in the night I remembered that past choice, Pat Conroy’s Losing Season, dealt with life at a military school as well. Perhaps those of you who have read The Long Gray Line, could reassure us that it is not too similar. We don’t want the men to think we are one dimensional in the books we chose for them.

Egads, this got long! I guess we did hash out a lot of stuff last night. Hope you have time to read this and the book assignments. Don’t forget to check the web site for shared thoughts, links to upcoming books and recipes.

Just,
Jan

Mud Season

2006-03-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

"Kneeling in the keeping room where she usually went to talk-think it was clear why Baby Suggs was so starved for color. There was't any except for two orange squares in a quilt that made the absence shout. The walls of the room were slate-colored, the floor earth-brown, the wooden dresser the color of itself, curtains white, and the dominating feature, the quilt over an iron cot, was made up of scraps of blue serge, black, brown and gray wool--the full range of the dark and the muted that thrift and modesty allowed. In that sober field, two patches of orange looked wild--like life in the raw."

--Toni Morrison, Beloved

Intriguing

2006-03-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

OK...here's my blatant attempt to get some of you ladies to read our web page. Somewhere on this page is a bit of X-rated material, can anyone find it?...hmm, where could it be?

FYI - Buffalo News Book Club

2006-03-09T08:12:00.000-05:00

Could the Mockingbird be in our future? Here's a classic for us to consider: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is the March selection for the Buffalo News Book Club. We could combine this with a viewing of the DVD starring the fabulous Gregory Peck. Here's the link to the article as it appeared in the paper.

April Pick

2006-02-28T19:51:00.001-05:00

Thank you Nancy for such a lovely evening at your home. The soups, the bread, the desserts...everything was wonderful. We had an excellent discussion of Night. This was a very powerful and emotionally difficult book to read, one of those that stays with you long after you've finished it. Thank you Linda for sharing your insights and your pictures with us.

Getting on to business - I've just realized that it's kind of funny that we're reading The Sun Also Rises just after completing Night. Anyhoo... The next meeting is Thursday, April 13th at Marion's at 7:15 pm. Please call ahead and let Marion know if you'll be coming.

Our May book is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. We'll be meeting at Linda Hoffman's on Tuesday, May 30th.

There were several suggestions for future books. I've added links to the sidebar - if you get a chance check out some of these titles so we can discuss them at the next meeting. If I've missed anything or if anyone has additional suggestions please let me know. Keep the ideas coming - so many books...so little time.

Finally, several of us are interested in starting a knitting night. If you are interested let me know. You don't need to know how to knit, we can show you.

Get reading ladies!

February pick

2006-02-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

The new book is Night by Elie Wiesel. This is also Oprah's latest pick. If you are interested you can check out the Oprah Web site for more info. Unfortunately you are forced to "join" the bookclub in order to view the pages. It's not too big a deal, just a little extra work. A reading group guide for Night is also available at www.fsgbooks.com. See you all February 21st. Then on to Hemingway in April!

FYI - Buffalo News Book Club

2006-02-28T17:19:00.000-05:00

The Buffalo News Book Club selection for February is The Known World by Edward P. Jones. This book "deals with the world of slavery in the pre-Civil War American South - but it turns many assumptions about slavery squarely on their heads." Here is the link to the story as it appears in the paper.

January Pick

2006-02-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

Outlander was quite a steamy novel - just the thing for a long cold winter month. In addition to all the heat - it had action, adventure, intrigue and history. I certainly learned a thing or two. Now we really know what those Scots men wear under their kilts! (Click here if you dare - but be forewarned, not for the faint of heart, or for children) The time travel element was very interesting too - why did Claire see Jamie out her window in 1945? This is the first in a series of six novels, for more info visit Diana Gabaldon's Web site.