Book Chosen

Looks like A Girl Named Disaster won!  Hope to see you all there (1/14, 7:00, Lisa's house)

Book Club for January- You Vote

We had a really nice book club last week and missed everyone who couldn't come.  Anyway, Lisa has 2 books to choose from in January.  I am putting a poll up on the side bar for you to vote.  I think I will keep it up for a week and then announce which book we're reading.  The books are: Dune by Frank Herbert or A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer.  Dune is a longer book, but a classic that is a shame for you to have never read (I have never read it and have recently added it to my to-read list anyway) and A Girl Named Disaster is a young adult fiction about a girl's journey across Africa.  We will have book club at Lisa's house on Thursday Jan. 14th.  Hope to see you there!

Book Club Postponed

Due to illness at my house (so far 4/6 kids have come down with it), book club has been postponed till next Wednesday.  We are going to hold it at Emily's house.  Hope to see everyone there!

Information on Novemember Book Club

This month we are reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  We are meeting Wednesday, Novemeber 11th at my house.  Hope to see everyone there!

Here are some discussion questions about the book. 

If you like his writing style, here is a list of other books he has written.
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This book has won a pulitzer prize.  Here is a link for more information on that prize.

Some information about the book

Cannery Row was a pretty quick read, but there is lots to talk about. Here is a list of discussion questions:

http://www.steinbeck.sjsu.edu/works/Cannery%20Row-Q.jsp

Cannery row still exists today. Doc was based on a real person and so the grocery really existed. Here is a link to a slide show of pictures of the real Cannery Row

http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/toppicturegallery/ig/Cannery-Row/Monterey-Bay-Aquarium.-1RM.htm

Book club canceled.

Since close to everyone can't make it to book club this month, we have postponed Cannery Row till next month and are pushing back the list for a month. Hope to see you all in October!

Book Club this Week

Am I the only one who had bookclub sneak up on them? I have the book, but am suspending the other 2 books I'm reading right now to get this one done before Wednesday!! Anyway, Channing has decided that bookclub isn't a good fit for her right now, so I guess that we'll be moving the discussion to my house (unless someone else wants to volunteer?).

Anyone who has read the book and wants to look up discussion questions, feel free to post them (that is why I added you all as blog authors- no idea why the idea didn't occur to me earlier). Hope to see you Wednesday!

Book Club for September

The book for September is going to be Cannery Row by John Steinbeck We will be meeting at Channing's house and the date will be 9/9/09 (how cool is that?). Here is a link to the library if you want to put the book on hold. Looks like there are lots of copies.

Also, in case you want a head start, October's book club will be The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Here is the link to the library for this book (I see some as book on tape if you're so inclined).

Diana has the book in November. She should have one ready to pick in Sept. See the list on right if you're wondering when your turn is.

Also, there are a lot of new people in the ward. Feel free to let anyone interested know about book club!!

Some Discussion questions about the Host

Here is a link to some discussion questions about the Host:

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookclubquestions/a/host_q.htm

It assumes you've read the book, so don't click on it till you've read it!
See you in a couple weeks.

August Book- the Host

I'm sorry I am so late to post the information on book club this month. The book we are reading was Heather's choice this month, it is the Host by Stephanie Meyers. We are meeting the 2nd Wednesday (which is August 12th) at 7:00 at Emily's house. Hope to see you all there!

September is Channing's turn and October is me.

CS Lewis wrote what he meant by Till We have Faces:

An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story
better than anyone else, so I give my account of Till we have Faces simply for
what it is worth. The 'levels' I am conscious of are these:

A work of (supposed) historical imagination. A guess of what it might
have been like in a little barbarous state on the borders of the Hellenistic
world of Greek culture, just beginning to affect it. Hence the change from the
old priest (of a very normal fertility mother-goddess) to Arnom; Stoic
allegorizations of the myths standing to the original cult rather as Modernism
to Christianity (but this is a parallel, not an allegory). Much that you take as
allegory was intended solely as realisitic detail. The wagon men are nomads from
the steppes. The children made mud pies not for symbolic purposes but because
children do. The Pillar Room is simply a room. The Fox is such an educated Greek
slave as you might find at a barbarous courst--and so on.

Psyche is an instance of the anima naturaliter Christiana making the best
of the Pagan religion she is brought up in and thus being guided (but always
'under the cloud', always in terms of her own imaginations or that of her
people) towards the true God. She is in some ways like Christ because every good
man or woman is like Christ. What else could they be like? But of course my
interest is primarily Orual.

Orual is (not a symbol) but an instance, a 'case' of human affection in
its natural condition, true, tender, suffering, but in the long run tyrannically
possessive and ready to turn to hatred when the beloved ceases to be its
possession. What such love particularly cannot stand is to see the beloved
passing into a sphere where it cannot follow. All this I hoped would stand as a
mere story in its own right. But--

Of course I had always in mind its close parallel to what is probably
happening at this moment in at least five families in your home town. Someone
becomes a Christian, or in a family nominally Christian already, does something
like becoming a missionary or entering a religious order. The others suffer a
sense of outrage. What they love is being taken from them. The boy must be mad.
And the conceit of him! Or: is there something in it after all? Let's hope it is
only a phase! If only he had listened to his natural advisers. Oh come back,
come back, be sensible, be the dear son we used to know! Now I, as a Christian,
have a good deal of sympathy with those jealous, suffering, puzzled people (for
they do suffer, and out of their suffering much of the bitterness against
religion arises). I believe the thing is common. There is very nearly a touch of
it in Luke II. 38, 'Son, why hast thou so dealt with us?' And is the reply easy
for a loving heart to bear?

(letter to Clyde Kilby, February 10, 1957; in LL, 273-74).

from http://www.montreat.edu/dking/lewis/TILWEHAV.htm

New Rotation Schedule

We have adjusted our schedule. I spoke with Gwen and since her new work schedule is so hectic, she would rather come when she can but not be obligated to pick something for a certain month. I've adjusted the rotation accordingly. Also, I switched Lisa and Diana since Lisa can't do it in November due to something else being due around that time. If anyone else decide to join our group, I will add them into the rotation.

Don't forget that we meet at your house (unless told otherwise) on the month you choose and we would like your book chosen two months before your date. (So this month we need Emily's and Heather's book and by next book club Channing should have one chosen.)

July: Emily
August: Heather
Sept: Channing
Oct: Charlotte
Nov: Diana
Dec: Lisa

July Book

In July we will be reading Till We have Faces by CS Lewis. Book club will meet the 2nd Wednesday in July at Emily's house. You can request a hold at the library here or order the book here.

Some people requested the names of the other books she suggested. Here is the list:

Mysterious Benedict Society by by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Giver by Louis Lowry

Anything by Shannon Hale (particularly the Goose Girl or its sequels, Princess Academy, or Book of a Thousand Days)- I own a couple of these if you want to borrow.

Information about book

Here is some information I have found about the book we are reading this month.

Here are some discusion questions.

Here is a wikipedia version of Botswana history

Here is a (rather postive) brief wikipedia article on witch doctors (apparently witch doctor is considered a very deragative term, they prefer Sangoma)

Here is an article in the Times online about Sangoma murdering for medicinal healing of others (as mentioned in the book)

Happy Reading!

We had a great book club last Thursday. Due to a Relief Society activity on the 2nd Thursday in June, we moved it up to the 1st Thursday. That means we all need to get reading quickly. We are having book club at Diana's house. The book is The No. 1 Lady Detective's Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Reserve the book at the library here or you can always buy it here. Happy reading!

Book Club is this Thursday!! Hope to see you all there. Here are some interesting sites pertaining to the Good Earth for this month's book reading:

• Here is a story on NPR about foot binding with pictures and real accounts of the practice: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

• I couldn't find a lot of information on the revolution talked about. Wasn't sure which revolution was talked about. Here are a list of possibilites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Revolution

• Here is short biography of Pearl S. Buck (Did you know she spent most of her life living in China?):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_S._Buck

• And here are some discussion questions:

1. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Good-Earth-Study-Help-Essay-Topics-and-Review-Questions.id-184,pageNum-24.html
2. http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/good_earth1.asp

May Book Club info

Our next book club will be a Lisa's house. We will be reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Please note that we are meeting the 2nd Thursday instead of the 1st. Hope to see you all there!

Some information on Guernsey

Is everyone getting ready for next week? Here are some interesting links:

Some discussion Questions (I will bring them with me):

http://www.bloomsbury.com/readinggroups/details.aspx?isbn=9781408800485

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385340991&view=rg

history of the occupation of the british isles by Germany (I had no idea this ever happened!!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands

A short article on epistolary novels (novels told from letter, journals, etc.):

http://literaryculture.suite101.com/article.cfm/all_about_epistolary_novels

history of guernsey cows:
http://www.guernsey.net/~wgcf/history.html

The Books Homepage:
http://www.guernseyliterary.com/bkBook.html

April Book Club Book

Sorry this hasn't been updated since last month. I missed last month's book club, and was sad to miss the discussion on 1000 Splendid Suns.

We are still planning having book club this month. The book is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. This is a relatively quick read and very highly rated. I finished it on 1 day (and it was Thanksgiving so I had other things going on, too).

Book club will be at my house and I'm hoping it is OK to move it from the 1st Thursday to the 2nd. If anyone has a problem with this, please let me know! Hope to see everyone there and don't forget to bring a treat to share!

Date Change

We have moved book club back a week. It is now the 2nd week in February. Hope to see everyone there!!

Some Discussion Questions

Here is a site with some discussion questions about Mere Christianity that I will be bringing with me on Thursday:

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_M/mere_christianity1.asp

Here is a short biography of CS Lewis:

http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/cslewis/index.htm

And if you like what you read, here is a list of books by CS Lewis:

http://www.biblio.com/author_biographies/2000714/C_S_Lewis.html

I tried to find a good article about C.S. Lewis and mormonism, but when I googled it the results were a little, um, antimormon, so if anyone has better luck, let me know!!

Book Club first Thursday

Don't forget book club next week!! We are meeting at Diana's and reading Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. This is a nonfiction collection of essays. Here is a snipet of the Foreword:

"As a young man, C.S. Lewis had served in the awful trenches of World War I, and in 1940 . . .he took up duties as an air raid warden and gave talks to men in the Royal Air Force...Their situation prompted Lewis to speak about the problems of suffering, pain, and evil, work that resulted in his being invited to give a series of wartime broadcasts on Christian faith. Delivered over the air from 1942 to 1944, these speeches eventually were gathered into the book we know to day as Mere Christianity."

I guess I'm trying to say, even if you read a few chapters, you wil have plenty to contribute to the discussion!! Hope to see you there!