You learn something new everyday

In the past I have always considered authors works either short stories (more than one story per book) or books.  Today I was informed of the term novella.  I had heard the term before in theory but, had never actually thought to apply it in reality. 

So of course whenever I learn something "new" I have to do some research (wikipedia is always a good place to start) and figure out how I should use it in the future.  Definitions seem to vary greatly across genres for the word count associated with each of these terms.

I decided to use the SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) Awards site as my guide for the word count of each of the stories that I review from this point on.

Literary terms:

• Short Short < 1000 words
• Short Story between  1,000 and   7,500 words
• Novelette    between  7,500 and 17,499 words
• Novella       between 17,500 and 39,999 words 
• Novel          > 40,000 words

So how do you figure word count?  Turns out that your word program doesn't necessarily count right. What-is-a-word by Chuck Rothman explains it fairly well.

So if we figure 10.5 words per line and 28 lines per page we get 294 words per page.

So for my purposes:

• short short  <  3.5  pages
• short story  <   25  pages
• novellette    < 59.5 pages
• novella        < 136 pages
• novel           > 136 pages 

I learned even more than that though. 

A short story is often in narrative format.  It contains a limited number of characters, covers a short time duration, usually has a single setting and a single plot.

A novella is more complicated than a short story but usually contains no chapters, a single viewpoint, and does not usually contain subplots.

Both a novella and a short story are designed to be read in a single sitting.

Since I always want to learn more this was a great lesson learned.


Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.

Book Review - Alison's Wonderland - Edited by Alison Tyler

If well written Erotica is not your thing you may want to skip this review.  Alison's Wonderland is very much an adults only playground.

I have mentioned previously that I am addicted to well written stories.  Erotica is no exception  to that.  To me the mind is a person's main erogenous zone.

Every one has their own tastes in erotica and while some may prefer straight male-female interaction, others may like three-somes or more-somes.  From vanilla to BDSM each person has their own particular flavor or kink that touches that erotic hot spot in their mind.

A lot of times as a reader I will buy a compilation of erotica and after reading through twenty to fifty stories realize that only about fifteen percent of them push my buttons just the right way, twenty-five percent are enjoyable, and the other sixty percent are a one time read if that. (Not a scientific study just personal experience)

Since this is not an adults only area of blogspot I will not be going into detail on any of the stories.  However, I will say this.  I made a chart of the stories and marked which ones I loved, which ones I liked and which ones just didn't do anything for me.  Now, even that last group was well written they just weren't related to any of my particular kinks.  Out of these twenty seven stories, seventeen are ones that I would enjoy reading many more times, seven are ones that I will probably read again, and only three were ones that I would chose to skip over.

Alison's Wonderland edited by Alison Tyler will be hitting bookshelves this July.

If you have ever wondered what would happen if Little Red Riding Hood ran into the Big Bad Wolf after a bout of car trouble give Wolff's Tavern by Bella Dean a read.

Want to know what really happens to Cinderella after marriage? - After the Happily Ever After by Heidi Champa

How about if one of the three Billy goats taught the troll a lesson? - The Three Billys by Sommer Marsden

What if a Cupid who is into bondage and likes being called Sir meets his Psyche online? - Cupid Has Signed Off  by Thomas S. Roche

I couldn't decide whether this story was about Sisyphus or the little girl who cried wolf one too many times.  Either way they both reached their happy ending.  Check out Benjamin Elliot's story An Uphill Battle and let me know which you think it was based upon.

In addition to the stories I mentioned there are twenty-two more.  Cinderella needs a shave in one and there are a couple different stories based off of Rumpelstiltskin. Who knew a grumpy dwarf could inspire such lusty thoughts, to reach paper, for others to enjoy?

Whether you keep your collection of erotica out openly on your bookshelf, or hide it in a box in the dark corners of your closet Alison's Wonderland is a must have for your personal library.


Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.

Story Review - Kept by Zoe Winters

It is amazing how life can throw things at you.  Somehow last week, I know it was through twitter but can't for the life of me remember how, I found another paranormal author that was enjoyable to read.

Zoe Winters has created a world in which other paranormal creatures buy Therian (shifter) blood.  She was nice enough to post one of her short stories novellas to the web.

Isn't that something like a drug dealer...Give a free sample to hook your customer and you have an addict for life.  The theory works well with her writing.  I had my sample (an approximately 80 page short story novella) and I am ready for my next fix.

I will admit it.  I have a problem. I am addicted to the written word, as long as it is well written.

Kept is well written.  Ms. Winter's book is due out soon.  Spring/Summer 2010 entitled Blood Lust (The Preternaturals Book One). The book consists of three short stories novellas linked to each other.   At this time the first of those stories is located on Ms. Winter's site as a free download.

KEPT:
As a cat therian (shifter), Greta's blood is already sought after to enhance  spells and potions, but due to a quirk of her birth, her blood is potent enough to kill for.  When her tribe plans to sacrifice her, Greta must ally herself with Dayne, the dangerous local sorcerer, and the only person strong enough to protect her.

Kept was an interesting story. Enjoyable and yet another take on the paranormal/preternatural. Greta (therian), Dayne (sorcerer), and even Minx made an interesting set of characters to read about.  Ms. Winters is even working  on establishing some background and legends into her story."She’d read legends about therians born in their fur and having extra powers, but she’d always thought they were just stories."

Kept is definitely written for the Adult reader and not the YA market.  I look forward to reading the other two stories; Claimed and Mated; in her book, Blood Lust, when it hits the market.





Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.

Book Review - Moon Dance by J.R. Rain

Lately, I had been thinking that vampire stories were overdone.  I have my favorite authors in the genre and honestly wasn't looking for anymore.  It seems that authors don't want to write about normal people anymore.  The stories all seem to have vampires, witches, wizards, and zombies in them. I was looking for an author that wrote normal stories not paranormal.  Spies, police officers, detectives, these were the heroes that I was looking for.

I first ran across J.R. Rain's work on myspace.  I had a friend request waiting in my inbox.  I accepted and went to look up his work.  Wow, what an impressive list of reviewers, what could my thoughts possibly mean after so many great authors have said such positive things about his work.

While I was debating which book to start with for our book club I got the opportunity to read Moon Dance.  I have never been overly impressed with first person fiction, with a few notable exceptions. Maybe, because I never felt like I could become the character.

Right there Mr.Rain's story had two strikes against it.  Strike One - Main character is a vampire (paranormal).  Ball One - Detective.  Strike Two - First Person narration.  The count was 2-1 and I was waiting for that third strike to fly directly over the plate and pound into the catchers mitt, instead Mr. Rain's story connected directly with the ball (my mind) and knocked it out of the park.  

Mr. Rain managed to make me fall so far into the character that I couldn't put the story down once I started reading. I laughed at the reference to The Greatest American Hero and remembered sitting in front of the TV to watch it as a child.  I even cried during some of the scenes where Samantha Moon was upset.

Samantha Moon is a fairly new vampire. She is just an everyday woman trying to juggle a husband, her children, and working out of her home as a detective.  This story shows us how she copes with these normal challenges while coming to terms with the fact that she is indeed a vampire.

With a teaser like this how can a book fail to pull a reader in.

Blood....
I ripped open his flannel shirt, buttons pinging
everywhere. His chest was awash in a sea of caked red.
The hole in his chest was a dark moon in a vermilion sky.
His blood would contain alcohol, as he had been
drinking. I didn’t care. The blood would be pure enough.
Straight from the source. The ideal way to feed. Then
again, ideal was relative. Ideally I would be feasting on
turkey lasagna.
I dipped my head down, placed my lips over the massive
wound in his chest, and drank....


The visually compelling way that Rain writes was pure enjoyment to read.  As shown above the sky wasn't just plain every day red it was a vermilion (brilliant scarlet red) sky.

After finishing this I wanted to know more.  More about Mr Kingsley Fulcrum, more about Randolph ,more about Detective Sherbert, and more about Fang.  I just wanted to know so much more about this fictional world that had managed to pull me so completely in.

I bought Teeth as an ebook. This short story is a little bit more information about one of the characters that inhabit Samantha's world.  The story is very well written and I wont say any more than that because I am still a little bit confuzzled and bemused by it.

I am eagerly awaiting Vampire Moon the next book in Samantha Moon's life that J.R. Rain has coming out soon.   

While I await that book I will be adding some of Mr. Rain's other stories to my library.  Check out his site at jrrain.com.

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends What Could be Better.

Semi-Rant: Self Publishing

Please oh please for the sake of my sanity;  If you are going to self publish have someone else proof (beta) your work before you do so.

I have read several stories lately and just because it is free doesn't mean that it is good.  It doesn't mean that it is bad either.  However, one would think that if an author was going to go to the trouble of publishing and promoting their work that they would take the time to make sure that the glaringly obvious errors are removed first.  Remember that you only get one chance to make a first impression.  As an author you want it to be a good one or at least not one where the reader is asking the following question:

Can this author even read or spell?

Simply changing  the spelling of a word from two (to) too or even to, changes the entire meaning of the sentence.  While spell check may be your friend it tends to miss correctly spelled words used incorrectly. 

The vile viol player drank poison from a vial.  (Correct usage)

I actually haven't noticed any stories that have mixed up these words but then how often do we use any of the three anymore.

He bore down on her bare naked body on the bear skin rug.  (Correct usage)

Her bear naked body is a phrase I am tired of seeing in any story.  A bear is a four legged omnivorous mammal.  If she is naked than she is bare naked.

She tried to emulate the movie Wickerman by immolating her ex-boyfriend. (Correct usage)

I am tired of reading stories where Sue is trying to immolate her best friend.  I keep expecting Sue to reach for the torches and instead she is trying to copy (emulate) her best friend.

I have been checking out some of the free stories that OmniLit has to offer trying to find more new authors to follow.  There will always be authors that I will go out and buy their books at full retail just to get my hands on them.  Laurel K Hamilton (Gentry series), Karen Marie Moning (Fever series), Jim Butcher (anything he writes) being just a couple of them.  I buy anthologies that include some of my favorite authors so that I can get exposed to some new authors.  I am not willing to put out eight dollars or so for a paperback of an unknown author unless it has been highly recommended by someone I trust.

When I found OmniLits freeebies I was excited that here were some excerpts and short stories from some authors that I hadn't heard of.  I read several that were passable (each of the stories was between 20-40 pages) and several that just outright sucked ass.  There were one or two gems in the mix and I will be reading more from those authors.  In fact I already went and bought another ebook by one of the authors.  Though I wish I had realized it was only another 35 page story before spending six dollars on it the story and plot were well thought out and written.

But you know what I find worse than self published authors with these mistakes?  I absolutely get pissy when I have bought a real book (real book vs ebook vs fanfiction...discussion for later maybe) at an actual brick and mortar store (or online) and I get to reading it and find the same sort of idiotic errors in it.  If a publisher wants to continue selling me books they had better take the time to have someone proof reading them for stupid errors.  Heck, send me a copy (efile or whatever) and I'll proof it for you.

Even the best authors have issues.  One of Ms. Hamilton's books went out with the phrase "insert here" as the inscription on a ring.  If I remember right she was trying to think of the right phrase to inscribe and somehow it didn't get inserted into the book before it went out.  In the end this is a funny slip up but if I had been reading her work for the first time I might not have been willing to read her stories again.  Which would have been a shame because she writes very well.  I just wish that one of her book tours would make it to Boise, Idaho so that I could personally thank her for the many hours of enjoyment her books have given me.

I have a couple of my own stories in the works.  I figured I had better start writing since I keep changing the plot lines of the books as I read them.  Sometimes I have been finding a secondary character much more interesting than the authors main character.

I know my weaknesses when it comes to writing.  My mind gets ahead of my typing (or writing) and sometimes details that are in my head don't end up on the computer screen (or paper) like they should.  This causes "magic moments" where the reader is left wondering how my character managed to get from point A to point B.  (No tele-portation didn't happen, doesn't exist in this story).

My grammar usage isn't always spot on either.  I can never remember whether the comma (period) goes inside the quotation marks or outside of it.  If I ever get to the point that anyone other than my critique group sees my work I will have someone else read it before I even think of sending it off to an agent, publisher, or try self-publishing.

I will continue looking for my next batch of favorite authors.  Just please, don't make me claw my eyes out from obvious mistakes in the mean time.  If so I will be listening exclusively to audio books since I don't think I would find learning braille at this time in my life the easiest thing.

Audio books are great but some books are just meant to be read.



Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Book Club - We Double Dog Dare you to enjoy a good book

Our wine this evening was a Double Dog Dare White Zinfandel.  We have two more meetings scheduled to continue PP&Z.


Tonight the discussion started with some of our favorite quotes that we have read so far.  We each put three quotes in the pile and everyone had to guess which character said those words.


Char kicked some serious ass here. See if you can figure out who said which quote:

• "on the contrary, I find that balls are much more enjoyable when they cease to remain private."
• "If only words were capable of beheading a zombie," she thought, "I would presently find myself in the company of the worlds two greatest warriors."
• "Oh, I heard you before but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply"
• "Miss Bingley, the groans of a hundred unmentionables would be more pleasing to my ears than one more word from your mouth.  Were you not otherwise agreeable, I should be forced to remove your tongue with my saber."
• "Spoken like one who has never known the ecstasy of holding a still beating heart in her hand."

We discussed Mr Darcy's character further and introduced discussion on both Mr. Collins and Mr. Wickham's character as seen so far.

We wanted to know whether the private that was flogged performed his "base" acts with a fresh headless zombie or one that had been rotting away for awhile.  Either way it was very much a WTF? moment in reading by more than one of us.

We are all greatly enjoying this book and several of us are having a hard time pacing our reading so that we don't finish it all at once.  Restraint is good.

Comments on our evenings wine.

Double Dog Dare

White Zinfandel

Michelle - Very enjoyable, smooth, nice level sweet tart were equally balanced.
Char - Enjoyable to the palate.  (She was just trying to sound snooty there.  It didn't quite work when we all laughed but those are her words.)
Liz - It tastes the same as other white/blush wines.  (I told you we weren't connoisseurs.)
Ann - A touch of sweet.  Nice and mellow.

Our next meeting will be May 2nd.  Read through page 207.  Also in keeping with audible.com's tweet.  If you were to write a book who would you want to narrate it we have set up our next activity.

**Write a micro-plot of a book with the genre and title, then tell us who you would pick to narrate this story.


Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Supposed to be:

I am supposed to be reading Sheri S. Tepper's book The Visitor.
I am supposed to be reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombie's for the book club.
I am supposed to be reading and critiquing two papers for English class and two papers for my daughter.
I am supposed to be cleaning house.

What I really want to do right now is write and play with pictures.  I guess I need to prioritize. 
I will load the dishwasher and washing machine.  While those are running I will read my daughter's papers.  Then I will read PP&Z followed by preparing the thought provoking questions (ok some are probably lame) for our meeting Sunday.  Afterwards, I will start reading The Visitor and the two papers for class.

Now that I have them written down I must do them.  So for the next 30 minutes I will be away from my computer.  Though I will have it playing Pandora for me.

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

To Kindle or not to Kindle?

I have been thinking about this off and on since these electronic book readers were first introduced.  I don't mind reading stories off of my laptop. But, would I really want to read a majority of my books as electronic text?

I love the feel of the paper as I flip through the pages. I enjoy the different fonts that publishers choose to use.  I like glancing at my bookshelves and seeing a physical manifestation of all the books I  have read or the books that are still waiting for me to get to them.  Each book has a personality based on such simple things as color, size, cover design, and even the author's name.  Do I want to lose all those sensory feelings to a single device?

As much as I love the convenience of my mp3 player it just isn't the same as pulling the CD from it's case and reading the liner notes.  Or the memories of each different format that I owned the music in originally.  The record, the 8-track, the cassette, the cd, and then finally the mp3 version of that same music.

Of course an advantage of mp3s is that I no longer have to worry about an 8-track or cassette flying out my car window to shatter on the pavement.  I know that I shouldn't place things on the dash it only took about four or five times of replacing Bonnie Tyler's Faster than the Speed of Night before I quit doing that.

In the long run will one of these devices save me money, or will I continue to buy a tactile copy of the book.  What happens if I go camping?  How long is the battery life?  Sure I can store a couple hundred (?) books on this device, and it weighs about the same as a single book, but what good would that do if I was camping for a week if my battery died?

The main three devices seem to be the  Kindle from Amazon, B&N's Nook device, and Border's has the Sony Reader.


What I would like to know from my
readers that have used each of the devices are what pros and cons have you discovered with your choice?

In the meantime I will continue to ponder on how important is it to be able to flip to the next page and see the progress I have made with the book.


Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends.
What Could be Better?

Book Review - Every Night I'm Yours

Good Read

Christie Kelley has published a couple of books since this one first came out.


A WOMAN YEARNING FOR A TASTE OF THE FORBIDDEN…
Buffalo Soldiers rip At twenty-six, aspiring novelist Avis Copley intends to wear spinsterhood as a badge of honor. But when she discovers a volume of erotica that ignites a searing fire within her, Avis realizes just how much she doesn’t know about the actual pleasures of the flesh. Determined to learn more, she devises a daring plan…

A MAN READY TO TEACH HER MUCH, MUCH MORE…

The Battle of Midway download

Avis chooses Emory Billingsworth, a fellow novelist-not to mention a beautiful specimen of manhood-to instruct her in carnal pleasure. But when the brash earl of Selby, Banning Talbot, a man she has known for years, unearths Avis’ true intentions, he claims she’s made a dangerously bad choice. Volunteering his services for one wicked night of reckless, abandoned passion, Banning promises he will satisfy all of her deepest longings. Yet Banning cannot begin to imagine the effect his willful, voluptuous, and very eager student will have on him-or how far an innocent lesson in desire can go...

I found the idea of an innocent Victorian lady finding a book of erotica to be intriguing.  The book is a basic formulistic Regency romance.  This is not a bad thing and is not meant to be a criticism.  There are rules in the world of romance.  The author must have a heroine who is just interesting enough to make the reader care about what happens to her.  However, the author can't make her to much of a Mary-Sue.  She needs to have some flaws.  Something in her background that is doled out a little at a time.  This again helps keep the reader intrigued.  The same sort of rules apply to the hero.  He has to be just distant enough to make him intriguing with a slight hint of something in his background to make him possibly dangerous.  However once again he must have a flaw or some secret in his past that the heroine helps him overcome.  The villain has to be written so that he has no redeeming qualities. 

For the most part Ms Kelley followed these rules.  The only issue that I truly had with Avis was how contrived her shooting skills seemed to be.  There was a  little bit of information about her knowledge of fire arms that seemed to come out of nowhere and was never utilized or explained better. I found Talbot's character to be well written and intriguing.  Emory's character was interesting.

While the book may not qualify as the best book I have ever read it is definitely far from the worst. I enjoyed reading it  The sexual scenes are not so graphic or frequent as to make the book unreadable for those that would rather skim over those parts. 

I look forward to reading more of Ms Kelley's books particularly Every Time We Kiss in which we get a chance to know more about Lady Jennette Selby who was introduced in Every Night I'm Yours.

Every Night I'm Yours is a 348 page paperback. Overall it took me about three hours to read.

Ms. Kelley's website is Christiekelley.com

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Book Club - Prizes

Ladies,

Due to my wonderful planning and brilliance, ok I'll admit that it was more like sheer dumb luck, I have won us a prize from Penguin Books through their twitter feed.

Now since I won it through our book clubs twitter feed I figured that I should come up with some way to give each of our book club members a chance at owning this autographed copy of The Girls From Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow.  Penguin books even has a book discussion ready for us to start from
 if we chose this as one of our featured reads.

The author and some of the Girls from Ames themselves will be part of a live chat at Penguin Books Water Cooler this coming Wednesday, April 14th @ 3:00 pm MT.

I have another autographed book that will be part of a future contest as well.  Annie Proulx was here in Boise several weeks ago and I attended one of her readings. If you don't know who she is here is a hint:

• She wrote a little book that was made into a major motion picture starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

Ms. Proulx had one complaint about the movie.  The actors were much to handsome for how she imagined her characters to be. 

So while I try to come up with a good way to figure out who gets to keep this book on their bookshelves keep reading.

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Book Club - Oh Ladies

I've texted you all to come look at another "assignment" for next weeks meeting.

• Have a list of your favorite books, authors, quotes ready.
• If possible have your worst read ever written down and why you felt that way.
• Write down your favorite wines, include a general description of what you like in wines
  
  • Reds, Blushes, Whites, Dessert, Champagne, Sparkling, etc
  • Are there any particular words that you have noticed in a wines description that tend to cause you to try it.
• If you don't like (or can't drink) wine let us know what you prefer to drink when snuggling up with your favorite book. 

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Movie - Babies

I know I said this would be a book review site and it really will be in the long run.  However since this is my blog if I find something else that might be interesting (no politics, religion, or celebrities I promise) I will be posting it here.
I have a movie trailer for you all to check out.  No it isn't my normal type of movie.  Not scifi or even action/adventure, however it looks like a really nice feel good movie coming out for Mother's Day.  I might even tell my brat (I do love her but it has been quite a while -17 years- since she has been this cute) that this is what I want to do for Mother's Day. A nice relaxing breakfast followed by this movie.



After you watch the trailer please take the time to enter a picture of your sweetie pie in the Babies contest below.



I mentioned in a previous post that one of the companies that I do WOM (Word of Mouth) advertising for is BzzAgent.  BzzAgent has given me the opportunity to have an advance peek at some of the promotional materials for this movie.  In exchange for me sharing with all of you, each time one of those links is clicked I earn points towards a drawing of some really great prizes.

While I may not have a little one anymore and don't need a years supply of diapers I do know a very special young lady that would be able to use any of the baby related prizes out there.

So help me count down to both the movies release and Mother's Day.


Don't forget to call your mom and grandmothers and tell them you love them.

Book Club - April 4th 2010

Our goal for this evening was to read the first 8 chapters of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for tonight's meeting. Luckily that is only 36 pages. We all have lives and a couple of us are college students with a lot of other books on our to read list. 

We had a lively discussion based on some questions put together before hand.

• How did the ladies describe Mr Bingley when they spied him from the window the first time?

• How did Lady Lucas describe him?

• From what you have seen of him so far what is your opinion of Mr. Darcy? (Forget the original book) How has he been described by the other characters?

• What do the characters call the zombies? Do we know why this is?

• How many variations of Elizabeth's name have we seen so far? How else is she referred to?

• How many characters have we been introduced to so far? What are their names?

                (Hint: We came up with 23)

• What fighting styles have been mentioned so far?

               (Hint: We came up with 5)

We also did an activity where we each re-wrote the notes on page 25 and 26 using more modern language.

Here are the original notes:

The first note is to Miss Jane Bennett from Miss Caroline Bingley

MY DEAR FRIEND,
If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and me,
we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives,
for a whole day's tete-a-tete between two women can never end without
a quarrel. Come as soon as you can on receipt of this, provided the
road is free of the unmentionable menace. My brother and the gentlemen
are to dine with the officers.
Yours ever,
CAROLINE BINGLEY

This second note is from Miss Jane Bennett to her sister Miss Elizabeth Bennett

MY DEAREST LIZZY,
I find myself very unwell this morning, which, I suppose, is to be
imputed to my being set upon by several freshly unearthed
unmentionables during my ride to Netherfield. My kind friends will
not hear of my returning till I am better. They insist also on my
seeing Mr. Jones-therefore do not be alarmed if you should hear of
his having been to me-and, excepting a few bruises and a minor
stab wound, there is not . much the matter with me.
YOURS, ETC.

How would you write either/both of those messages today? Feel free to add yours into the comment thread where ours will be going.

I chose Jargon 2006 Pinot Noir for tonights meeting because what better wine could I have picked to start this book club with. Jargon noun - any talk or writing that one does not understand. Our goal with this book club is to gain a better understanding of some of the books that we read.

It gets even better. When I went to Jargon Wines home page they had this lovely little question. "Have you ever found yourself in the wine aisle, paralyzed, practically zombified by all of the choices, fancy packaging, critics’ ratings and pretentious wine-speak?"

Personally I am not a huge fan of red wines. This one had me pouring a second glass. I will be re-stocking it in my wine rack the next chance I get.

None of us ladies claim to be experts on either wine or literature we're just going to tell you what we like or don't like as the case may be. This is our twice a month meeting where it is okay to show up in sweats and no makeup and just be ourselves.

Two weeks ago when we discussed setting up a book club we had Pure Evil Chardonnay (link not available at this time) and Vampire  Cabernet Sauvignon wines. I don't remember the years but if I find out I will update this. (Sorry Michelle the Chardonnay really is out of stock if I find it somewhere I will let you know.)

My two favorite places to get wine in Boise are CostPlus World Market  and the Boise Co-Op.  Both of these locations have an excellent selection and CostPlus seems to get the Vampire and Evil wines in for Halloween.  Tip: Start asking early when they will be getting the shipments in.  The Vampire wine disappears from their shelves quickly.

The ladies that drank the wine this evening promised to put their thoughts in the comment section below.

For our next meeting we are reading through chapter 22. We will also be writing  2-3 quotes on 3x5 cards. (quote on the front, speaker and page number on the backside)

Good Books, Good Wine, Good Friends
What Could be Better.

Book Club - update

While searching for more information on our current read I found this interesting site. It actually offers lessons on how to read a book critically along with discussion questions for different books that we might choose from in the future.

Critical Reading Lessons

Two more days. I am going to bring some ideas for discussion topics that I am borrowing from the above site. One of the suggestions is to do a compare/contrast with the original Pride and Prejudice. It has been quite a while since I read that and I am sure at least one of us hasn't ever read it but I could be wrong.