August Updates!

Dear Book Clubbers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan