Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Prodigal Son

October Book Club will be at the Pegg House Tea Room on October 26th at 6:30.  The book for this month is the first of a four part series by Dean Koontz called Frankenstein: Prodigal Son.

Thanks to Lori R. for managing the e-vite!

Water for Elephants Reviews..

We had a great time at the Pegg House Tea Room (and not just because of the three wine bottles!).  In attendance were: Jennifer, Rachel, Tracy, Lori R., Lori C., Marilyn, and Erin.  Overall, everyone enjoyed the book selection for this month.  We are all looking forward to Robert Pattinson the movie being released in the Spring of 2011.  Perhaps a book club field trip is in order.

Reviews:

Lori C.: 8- Lori felt it was hard to read about the animal cruelty.  She was shocked by the ending.  She felt overall it was hard to read, but she enjoyed the Walter-Jacob Relationship.

Rachel:  8-Rachel liked the Marlena-Jacob relationship, but thought they would tie in the circus man at the end more than the author did.

Jen:  7-Jen liked the book but thought it was a little depressing.  When she read it, she felt sad. She found the Hooch tent scenes disturbing.  Her favorite part was the relationship Walter had with his dog, Queenie.

Tracy: 8- Tracy liked the book, even though she found it to be a slow read.  She felt an emotional connection with the last chapter, looking back over Jacob's life.

Marilyn: 8- Marilyn really liked it.  She hasn't quite finished but plans to.  She was bothered by the brevity of the story (only 3 months for bulk of what happened).  Her favorite part so far is Rosie!

Lori R.: 8- Lori loved the relationship Marlena had with the horses.  She was infuriated by the scene with the cigarette being put in an animal's mouth.

Erin: 8 - Erin really enjoyed this book.  Very happy that Jacob and Marlena ended up together.  Felt that the author should have made the book a little longer and tied in more of the rest of Jacob/Marlena/their family's story.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Water for Elephants

I can't believe we're about ready to meet again! I hope everyone has been enjoying Water for Elephants and I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's comments. I know we didn't get our customary 4 weeks of reading time, but I hope you were able to squeeze it in.

Remember that we will be meeting at Pegg's Tea House in Kernersville again on Tuesday evening, September 21. I will be supplying a bottle of Merlot and a bottle of Chardonnay. I'm calling in all orders tomorrow so that our hostess will be prepared.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Eat Pray Love Reviews

We had a fabulous time at Pegg House Tea Room last night. Those in attendance were: Rachel, Lori R, Lori C, Tracy, Marilyn, Erin, and Jennifer. We dined on apple brie turkey wraps, corn chowder soup, chicken salad on croissants, strawberry and grilled chicken salad, turkey croissants and the yummiest cheesecake and peanut butter pie. Next meeting we are bringing in wine or champagne to liven things up even more.

Most people agreed that this book wouldn't be a book that we would return to and read again. In fact, some members had not finished the book yet because it seemed like a chore to read and it was hard to make yourself return to the book and finish.

The reviews and ratings are
on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the lowest possible score

Erin: 5 Erin enjoyed the first section on Italy. She thought that Italy would be a fabulous play to visit and enjoy some authentic Italian food. She was glad Elizabeth found love in the end but felt the section on India was boring and she could not relate to the life of the yogis.


Jennifer: 3.5 Jennifer liked Elizabeth's adventurous spirit and her ability to make friends easily. She dislike the anti-Christian worldview and Elizabeth's search did not lead her to a true Biblically based faith in God. She did like the quote, "It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection."
Rachel: 3

Rachel appreciated the fact that the book made her look inward at her own life and appreciate her husband and family more. In the book, Elizabeth was very unhappy in her marriage and reading about her struggles made Rachel do some reevaluating of her situation and appreciate what she has more fully. Rachel agreed the book was a difficult read and plans to finish it soon.


Marilyn: 5 Marilyn related to Elizabeth's struggle on her path to connect with God. She understood her battle but was also frustrated that all her talk about this difficult journey seemed to take her no where.


Lori C: 3 Lori felt that Elizabeth was self-absorbed and superficial. She felt as if Elizabeth was lost but never truly gained anything from her experiences or lessons. Lori was also disappointed that she kept reading thinking that something big was going to happen and all of it was going to come together, but it never really did.


Tracy: 4 Tracy felt as if the book was very anti-Christian and felt as though it could lead people astray from the real TRUTH. She did like Elizabeth's personality and said the book made you want to be her friend.


Lori R: (Lori I forgot to take notes on your critique!) Can you add them here?? Sorry! Next month Marilyn is hosting. She will posting/e-mailing the info soon.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Eat,Pray,Love

Well it is almost time for our next meeting. Tuesday @ 6:30 Peggs House Tea Room. I called in our order and if there is anyone who still wants to join please do.
Hope you are enjoying the book. Is there anyone interested in seeing the movie that night? Palladium is showing it at 10:00. If you are interested please post so we can all see who is going and can either get tickets before hand or there. I am sure it will not be sold out that night.

See you all soon.

Rachel

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

"Eat, Pray,Love"

August 31 @6:30
Pegg House Tea Room
237 North Cherry Street
Kville, NC 27284
993-4100


Please RSVP by August 29 by e-mail rwinters@triad.rr.com on whether you are coming and what you would like from the menu. Menu at www.pegghousetearoom.com
Also plan on seeing the movie after our meeting. Can't wait to get together, see you all soon!!!!

Rachel

Monday, August 2, 2010

Coming in August...

Rachel is hosting in August and she has selected Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 31st at 6:30 (or 7:00 if that works better with school schedules). She would like people to RSVP by August 23rd so she can choose the place (if we have everyone come, a restaurant might be too noisy and we'd need to go somewhere we could get a private room). Also, Rachel would like feedback as to what people want to eat: appetizers, dinner, coffee, dessert, wine & cheese place (does anyone know of a place?).

Attending:
Rachel
Erin
Jennifer
(please click "edit post"/pencil icon and add your name here if you are planning to come, then press publish post.)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Lori C is hosting us at the Kernersville Panera Bread at 6:30 on Thursday, July 29th. The book she has selected is: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline.

(Lori, if you want to edit this post and insert the review here..)

The Last Time I Was Me by Cathy Lamb

The first book club meeting
hosted by Lori R. at The Pegg House Tea Room on June 30th.

OVERVIEW:
Mourning the death of her mother, Jeanne Stewart is outraged to find out her boyfriend has been cheating on her. Irate, Jeanne obtains revenge on her live-in lover when she mixes peanut oil that he is allergic to with his condoms. His reaction is to sue her. With her personal life in tatters, her professional life melts also when she suffers a nervous breakdown.


The Last Time I Was Me is a charming character study of a grieving woman using a betrayal to find herself. The story line overall is fun to follow, but at times Jeanne turns chick lit chic responses that feel out of place for her. Still fans will cheer Jeanne on as she seeks to find her misplaced groove.

MEETING NOTES:
We had 5 girls at our first meeting on June 30th: Rachel, Jennifer, Tracy, Amber and Lori R.
We ate really good (though a little pricey) food and talked about the basics of our meetings going forward. I've shared all of the info via email but I'll repost it here so we have a record of what we're doing.

As Erin said on the right side of the blog, we'll meet one time every month during the last week from 7:00-9:ish. Date/book/location TBD by hostess. We will rotate/sign up for the month we want to host book club and post info on our blog asap after each meeting to give everybody time to check out/purchase/read the books.

We thought we could share our basic info (either in a private file to be emailed to each member or on the blog?) including: Name, Phone #, Email, Home Address, Bday, Kid's Names/Ages. Also thought it would be interesting to know favorite books/authors and whether or not we have them to share.

We will talk about ratings of each book at our meetings and then post them on our blog so we'll have a record of what we're reading and what we each liked/didn't like about them. This will also give everybody an opportunity to share since lots of us are big talkers (including me) and some of us aren't. I love that Erin posted her review even though she wasn't able to come to the meeting. She still got to read the book, YAY!

And most importantly, we talked about the purpose of our book club. We are a group of women with a lot in common who want to have a monthly "event" to look forward to that's just for us. If you read the book, great! If you don't, great! Please don't ever that that stop you from coming out once a month to talk/eat/laugh and just RELAX with everybody. The goal is to have fun and enjoy a short break that I'm sure we can all use.

OUR RATINGS:
Erin- 7.5 I thought this was a fun book with clever "asides"...but some parts of the character/plot were unrealistic.

Lori R.- 7.5 Liked that the people in the anger management group were so broken but they supported/really loved each other. Got a little tired of the constant references to "Slick Dick". Completely agree that the "chick lit chic" was out of place for this author. Her other 2 books, Julia's Chocolates and Henry's Sisters are much better.

Rachel- 7.5 Liked picturing the house. Jeanne (rhymes with Beanie) had faith in the house she was rebuilding, but not in herself. Also enjoyed the relationship with Rosveta (spelling? I don't have the book to refer to any more for names). Thought the trial was too long, dragged out.

Jennifer- 6.5 Thought the author was very funny. Didn't like that Jeanne would be an accessory to murder.

Tracy- 7 Liked Jeanne's confidence. She stood up for herself and she was so "bold". Thought all of the characters evolved too much and too quickly.

Thanks Erin and Tracy

Thanks girls for getting us started. I love the title and our "mission statement" hee hee! I'm not sure how this works exactly but is there a specific section where we list books we like and whether or not we have them to share? Or do we just type it here as a posting? Same for the ratings we do of the books? Sorry I'm not techie at all. Help! Lori R