Greetings! 
As we near the holiday season, Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Our next book club meeting will be January 27, 2014 at Elaine Neil's  home. Her address is 1702 Brookhaven in Canyon.

The book she has chosen for our next read is....

Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers.



Start the new year off right with your reading by making sure to mark the date on your calendar! Look forward to seeing everyone at our first 2015 meeting!!

P.S. Yes, the public library has a copy but it is checked out right now....so keep checking or call and they can place a hold on the book for you.  That way when it is checked in they will call you to pick it up.

Here is a link to Book Description and Author Home Page

Francis Rivers, author for the January read, Her Daughter's Dream. 

Book Discussion:

Only two of us made it last week to discuss the book for October, Some Wildflower in My Heart.
But, Nancy and Earleen had a great time. They sure missed the rest of you.

Both decided they did not like the main character when the book started. They both warmed up to her as the story progressed, but felt Margaret still had a lot of undoing to be the person she should be. Both felt the end of the book [last chapter] was a surprise and neither saw it coming although the author says she gave many hints throughout the story. I will go no further as some of you may not have finished reading this book.

Both agreed they felt sorry for Thomas who was a wonderful man and displayed such patience. We see hopeful changes in store for him as Margaret changes!
They both loved Birdie and identified with people in their lives that were like her.....loving no matter what. Thanks heavens for these "angels" who can love even the worst of ourselves and move us to become better!

Again....we missed you who could not come.

Now, for NOvember and December...we are not meeting. The holidays get too busy and the dates fall too near Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The next meeting will be lead by Elaine Neil. The book selection will be posted once she decided what we will be reading. A flyer and posting on this site will be sent once that decision is made and should be by December.

Have a great Holiday season!!!!  We may have a couple more ladies joining us in December!!

OCTOBER MEETING

Date - October 28, 2014
Time - 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Place - Nancy Biffle's Home at 1713 Brookhaven, Canyon, TX

Book:  Some Wild Flower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner

Nancy encourages everyone to be sure and finish The Goldfinch as there may be some comparisons to explore!

Book club discussion over The Goldfinch went well. Even though there were only three of us, we had much to say and found an hour was not enough time. Attending was Nancy Biffle, Elaine Neal, and Earleen Huff

So....the three of us have decided to allow for 1 1/2 hour time from now on.
We reviewed some guidelines found on the internet.

Here are some basic rules to guide our club. You may have to cut and paste them in your browser.
www.bookbundlz.com/BBArticle.aspx?articleId=7

My favorite suggestions come from the Book Queen - Oprah. Check this article in her magazine. www.oprah.com/omagazine/How-to-Have-a-Succesful-Book-Club

Here is the link to the questions we also used as a guide. For fun, we drew numbers and answered the questions that matched our number. We did not make it all the way through the 14 questions, but we had a great discussion and interesting views on the story line, characters and message of the book.

www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9396-goldfinch-tartt?start=3

We took the questions from Lit Lovers and this website www.litlovers.com has loads of information to assist book clubs.  If you are worried about any aspect when hosting or coming to book club, check out this site to assist you. 

As for the book, The Goldfinch:

Overall, it is safe to say we all felt this was a difficult read at times as Theo's situation and lifestyle in Vegas was painful. We all greed that the Goldfinch picture was what held Theo to his past and ruled his decisions for 14 years. We all felt the book was off to a great start and then....a sudden turn with many more that followed. We all felt Theo needed to snap out of it and wanted to tell him to "grow up" and get over it so he could get on with his life. We also all agreed we wanted him to get rid of the painting so he could move on. Elaine was the only one that suspected Borus took the painting way before the book revealed this. We did not always agree on some aspects, but that is the salty part of the club....hearing the different viewpoints and growing in understanding of the story. Finally, we all found parts of her writing beautifully done and at other times overdone.

Oh....by the way, we all loved the cupcakes!!!

Google - " Author of The Goldfinch" and you will be able to connect to interviews of the author by the New York Times, Huffington Post and more.

I could not get the link/copy to work. Seems there are now protections again these types of links. OH, dear. Are they afraid we might read something?

Anyway....

Interesting lady who wrote our book of the  month!Donna Tartt

The first meeting is September 23, 2014 at 7:00 pm at 2400 6th Ave.

Light refreshments and drinks served.

We will go over a few rules to guide our meetings and then jump into the discussion for our first read.



Can't wait to get started!!!