October Meeting Recap

Dear Book Clubbers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan

Selection Meeting Recap

Dear Book Clubbers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now for the books we chose for the year.

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

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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

The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

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

 The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson

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

 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

 

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

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

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

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

Jan