Dear Bookclubbers,
Hello from this month's guest writer. Jan is traveling, so I offered to fill in. We had LOTS to talk about this month; I hope I remember to include everything from the meeting.
To start off - I think everyone had a great time reviewing Shanghai Girls at Grace's home last week. She did an excellent job leading the group and sharing the story of her experience in China a few years ago. Such a lively discussion we had, too; from life during war-time, to prejudice between races, to the relationships of sisters. Overall, the group rated the book 3.875, the majority of the group giving it a 4.
September's meeting was also our first meeting using the new format. Everyone was in their seats at 7:30 sharp, ready to talk 'Shanghai Girls' - we even held off on rating the book till the end! Feedback so far is that this arrangement works quite well and we'll continue it moving forward.
Before I forget... Welcome to our newest member, Karla (I'm sorry, I didn't get your last name) - Liz Strong's mom.
As for the business end of the meeting...
* Our next meeting is the Selection Meeting on Sept. 29th at Shirley's at 7pm. Please RSVP to Shirley if you will attend. Volunteers for the meeting are - Desserts: Barb & Grace, Appetizers: Joan & Jennifer, Wine: Polly, Karla, Marilyn, & Jan
* In October, regular Book Club will meet at Jackie's house. The meeting will be on the 13th, doors open at 7pm for chit-chat, drinks and appetizers. Book discussion starts at 7:30 SHARP. That night's book is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. So far, we have the following volunteers - Desserts: Julie, Appetizers: Terry & Liz, Wine: Polly, Ina, Jennifer (We need another dessert person and maybe another wine person - if you want to help, please mention it at the selection meeting or contact Jackie.)
* For those of interested in hearing Greg Mortenson speak, he will be lecturing as part of UB's Distinguished Speaker Series on Wednesday, November 10th.
* In addition to the CRBC Blog, the Book Club also has a page on Facebook! If you are a FB-user, join the group.
In community goings-on...
* The Silverfox luncheons will be starting up again on Thursdays. The next date is September 9th. Contact Lorraine Sherman for more information.
* The Sunkist Hills Festival is next weekend (September 11-12) in Colden. There's everything you can ask for - live music, art show, car show, food & drinks, and more!
* Visit Ina Randall & the Morningstar Quilt Guild at their Quilt Show on October 1-2 at St. Matthias Church in East Aurora.
* Finally, you won't want to wait to get your tickets to the Bread of Life Players (Colden, NY) performance on December 4th. For more information, talk to mother/daughter team of Julie & Emily.
... Whew! We were just full of business this night, though it didn't feel like it took up as much time as in previous meetings. Hooray for the new format!
I think that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who attended for your participation last week. Hope to see those of you who couldn't make it at up-coming meetings or events.
Happy reading,
Jill
Monday, September 06, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
July 2010
Dear Book Clubbers,
Our summer picnic meeting was once again a huge success. Barb did a fantastic job of pulling all the food and beverages together…not to mention the weather! We were thrilled to have Marty Kemsley, Kit Howard and Kathy Lell present and hope they can make a habit of joining us. No one present gave the book less than 4 stars and the overall rating was 4.8. That may be the highest since we started grading the books, with the possible exception of To Kill a Mockingbird. Thanks to Jennifer for leading the discussion. We probably could have talked about The Help long into the night, but the chocolate cravings became too much to handle!
In other matters, Marilyn led us in a tribute to Nancy MacDonald who passed away a week ago. Nancy fought her battle with cancer with an unbelievable amount of strength and courage. I know that the Craneridge community and our book club meant a ton to her. We raised our glasses in a toast to the first member the book club has lost remembering that Nancy epitomized our motto. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!” If you did not get a chance to sign the group card, contact Marilyn if you would like Nancy’s son’s address to send your own card to the family.
Updates were given on the good progress of Linda and Marion after their joint replacement surgeries. Kathy Lell gave us the particulars of another neighbor recovering from hospitalization. If you weren’t at the meeting, talk to Jennifer (Caring Tree coordinator) if you would like to help with a Meals on Wheels assignment in Craneridge or are able to offer other forms of help for that neighbor. Although Peggy Stearns hasn’t made it back to Craneridge for the summer yet, please congratulate her when you see her on the recent release of a huge 3-D fabricator software package which will be widely used in educational settings nationally. Marilyn announced that Kissing Bridge is having a 50th anniversary party on 7/24. Many of our local artistic and crafty sorts will be in attendance. Details may be found on the KB web site. Finally, Katie told us that she is going to need some strong backs when the new playground equipment hits the scene for the pool area. The anticipated dirt party is in early to mid August. Please watch the mail center for details as that gets closer.
Jill had to miss the meeting due to the flu. Too bad…we owe her a round of applause for completing her first triathlon on July 3rd. Way to go on your accomplishment, Jill! Now that she is taking a little break from training, Jill has given the book club web site a facelift. Please check out the changes at www.crbc.blogspot.com and let Jill know what you think.
For those of you who are feeling ambitious, we are still planning on meeting at Linda Hoffman’s at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, August 18th to discuss Dickens’ David Copperfield. Because no one is really sure if they are going to get through the book, we did not assign snack and wine volunteers. Please let Linda know if you are able to attend and if you can bring something. I would encourage anyone who even got somewhat into the book to come. I actually just started it this week and am REALLY enjoying it. Don’t forget, any guys who want to discuss a little Dickens are welcome as well.
After that, we will meet on Wednesday, September 1st at Grace’s to discuss Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Jackie and Polly signed up for appetizers and Sue P. and Loraine for desserts. The wine volunteers for that night are given a reprieve since there were some unopened bottles left from the picnic.
The September meeting will wrap up our selections for the year. The only thing left on our list was Revolutionary Road and we decided to skip that since several members who started it found it very depressing and difficult to get into. The plan is to select one book at the 9/1 meeting for October and then to have our big selection meeting on September 29th at Shirley’s house. So as you are lolling around in the heat, please think of some ideas of books you would like to propose for October and for the coming year.
If there is more to say, I can’t remember it. Please forgive any errors or omissions.
Jan
Our summer picnic meeting was once again a huge success. Barb did a fantastic job of pulling all the food and beverages together…not to mention the weather! We were thrilled to have Marty Kemsley, Kit Howard and Kathy Lell present and hope they can make a habit of joining us. No one present gave the book less than 4 stars and the overall rating was 4.8. That may be the highest since we started grading the books, with the possible exception of To Kill a Mockingbird. Thanks to Jennifer for leading the discussion. We probably could have talked about The Help long into the night, but the chocolate cravings became too much to handle!
In other matters, Marilyn led us in a tribute to Nancy MacDonald who passed away a week ago. Nancy fought her battle with cancer with an unbelievable amount of strength and courage. I know that the Craneridge community and our book club meant a ton to her. We raised our glasses in a toast to the first member the book club has lost remembering that Nancy epitomized our motto. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!” If you did not get a chance to sign the group card, contact Marilyn if you would like Nancy’s son’s address to send your own card to the family.
Updates were given on the good progress of Linda and Marion after their joint replacement surgeries. Kathy Lell gave us the particulars of another neighbor recovering from hospitalization. If you weren’t at the meeting, talk to Jennifer (Caring Tree coordinator) if you would like to help with a Meals on Wheels assignment in Craneridge or are able to offer other forms of help for that neighbor. Although Peggy Stearns hasn’t made it back to Craneridge for the summer yet, please congratulate her when you see her on the recent release of a huge 3-D fabricator software package which will be widely used in educational settings nationally. Marilyn announced that Kissing Bridge is having a 50th anniversary party on 7/24. Many of our local artistic and crafty sorts will be in attendance. Details may be found on the KB web site. Finally, Katie told us that she is going to need some strong backs when the new playground equipment hits the scene for the pool area. The anticipated dirt party is in early to mid August. Please watch the mail center for details as that gets closer.
Jill had to miss the meeting due to the flu. Too bad…we owe her a round of applause for completing her first triathlon on July 3rd. Way to go on your accomplishment, Jill! Now that she is taking a little break from training, Jill has given the book club web site a facelift. Please check out the changes at www.crbc.blogspot.com and let Jill know what you think.
For those of you who are feeling ambitious, we are still planning on meeting at Linda Hoffman’s at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, August 18th to discuss Dickens’ David Copperfield. Because no one is really sure if they are going to get through the book, we did not assign snack and wine volunteers. Please let Linda know if you are able to attend and if you can bring something. I would encourage anyone who even got somewhat into the book to come. I actually just started it this week and am REALLY enjoying it. Don’t forget, any guys who want to discuss a little Dickens are welcome as well.
After that, we will meet on Wednesday, September 1st at Grace’s to discuss Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Jackie and Polly signed up for appetizers and Sue P. and Loraine for desserts. The wine volunteers for that night are given a reprieve since there were some unopened bottles left from the picnic.
The September meeting will wrap up our selections for the year. The only thing left on our list was Revolutionary Road and we decided to skip that since several members who started it found it very depressing and difficult to get into. The plan is to select one book at the 9/1 meeting for October and then to have our big selection meeting on September 29th at Shirley’s house. So as you are lolling around in the heat, please think of some ideas of books you would like to propose for October and for the coming year.
If there is more to say, I can’t remember it. Please forgive any errors or omissions.
Jan
Saturday, January 16, 2010
January 2010
Dear Book Clubbers,
Last night’s meeting to discuss Fahrenheit 451 was a great success. The book received an overall rating of 3.3 with some people loving it, some hating it and a lot in the middle. As usual the disparate opinions fueled a super discussion. We all agreed that the fact that the book was written in 1950 and the author foresaw so many social and techno trends is amazing. Ina did a great job of hosting and the munchies were delicious as always.
The next meeting will be at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, March 10th at Terry Twitchell’s house. The book will be The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates, and Jackie will lead the discussion. Snack volunteers for the night are Katherine and Sue K. for appetizers, Jill and Barb for desserts and Ina, Sharon and Jill for wine.
In other news, we decided that anyone who wanted to share books that they had read and liked could not only mention them on our book club’s online forum, but could also bring them to meetings to pass to others to be returned later…sort of a Craneridge Book Club lending library. Just be sure to put your name in the books. That brought up the topic of a reportedly cool website (www.shelfari.com) that allows you to easily track the books you’ve read as well as to share your reading list with friends. As long as it doesn’t become too time consuming we can also have a brief moment during the business part of the meeting for anyone looking for a specific book to ask around.
Also, stay tuned for more info about author, Margaret Atwood’s upcoming appearance at UB.
We tentatively decided to shoot for late August, just before the September book selection meeting, for those who are tackling David Copperfield to meet to discuss it. Linda Hoffman will host that gathering. Some thought was given to breaking the book down into smaller stages, but the upshot was that some people will read it a little at a time, while others will wait until it is closer and really sink their teeth into it as a steady diet. I’m sure it will help maintain our motivation if we informally discuss it with each other now and then.
No doubt there is more that I am forgetting, but I’ll just shoot out another e-mail if and when I remember.
Jan
Last night’s meeting to discuss Fahrenheit 451 was a great success. The book received an overall rating of 3.3 with some people loving it, some hating it and a lot in the middle. As usual the disparate opinions fueled a super discussion. We all agreed that the fact that the book was written in 1950 and the author foresaw so many social and techno trends is amazing. Ina did a great job of hosting and the munchies were delicious as always.
The next meeting will be at 7:15 PM on Wednesday, March 10th at Terry Twitchell’s house. The book will be The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates, and Jackie will lead the discussion. Snack volunteers for the night are Katherine and Sue K. for appetizers, Jill and Barb for desserts and Ina, Sharon and Jill for wine.
In other news, we decided that anyone who wanted to share books that they had read and liked could not only mention them on our book club’s online forum, but could also bring them to meetings to pass to others to be returned later…sort of a Craneridge Book Club lending library. Just be sure to put your name in the books. That brought up the topic of a reportedly cool website (www.shelfari.com) that allows you to easily track the books you’ve read as well as to share your reading list with friends. As long as it doesn’t become too time consuming we can also have a brief moment during the business part of the meeting for anyone looking for a specific book to ask around.
Also, stay tuned for more info about author, Margaret Atwood’s upcoming appearance at UB.
We tentatively decided to shoot for late August, just before the September book selection meeting, for those who are tackling David Copperfield to meet to discuss it. Linda Hoffman will host that gathering. Some thought was given to breaking the book down into smaller stages, but the upshot was that some people will read it a little at a time, while others will wait until it is closer and really sink their teeth into it as a steady diet. I’m sure it will help maintain our motivation if we informally discuss it with each other now and then.
No doubt there is more that I am forgetting, but I’ll just shoot out another e-mail if and when I remember.
Jan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)