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.

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

Some really cool ladies and I decided to form a book club. We are meeting twice a month to discuss our current read. If any of you are in the Boise area and interested in reading and discussing with us let me know.

I thought we had picked out our first book and was just getting ready to place the order when I ran into a small dilemma. Which one? It seems that the sequel/prequel?? comes out tomorrow. Should we start with the first or the second book? Was the first book good? Any comments?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith



I think we should start with this first one and since the publisher was nice enough to post the first three chapters online I figured I would give you ladies the link so that we can start reading while certain people who actually have a life go somewhere for spring break (I'll allow you to remain nameless I guess) and I'll place the order with Amazon Thursday. Let me know if you ladies want the book by Hockensmith first instead.

The first three chapters are posted here at Irreference's website

The book hitting the shelves tomorrow is:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of The Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith





Another book by the same publisher that might be a fun read.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H Winters