13....lucky or unlucky.

Friday the 13th wasn't a bad day for me.  Saturday the 14th so far not so good.  I have 13 reviews to finish writing up.  Reading the books isn't hard however writing coherent book reviews that don't just say something lame... I Like...Good book...This book sucks a**...etc. is taking just a little bit more of my brain than I was planning on.

I would never say that this book sucks because reading material is entirely subjective.  There are always books out there that will tend to appeal to only certain niche groups.

So after I attend a wedding this afternoon I will head on home and finish typing my 13 late reviews.  Tomorrow while I am at Bob Dylan's concert I will read book 15 and get that review in on time.  I will say that I am glad that the Ides of August have no truly bad connotations because I could really use some positive news in my life about now.

Book Club Update:

While we kind of enjoyed Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka, It's me Chelsea? some of us felt that the humor was a little more negative than we preferred.  We each discussed our two favorite episodes from the book while we were enjoying our pedicures outside.  At least we were enjoying them until the wind kick up big time and we put everything away.  Our lone male Aaron was there as well (though he passed on the pedicure).

We decided to forgo a book for our next meeting we are actually going to a matinee.  Vampires Suck.  We are justifying it slightly because it is a parody (in part) of the Twilight series (which are books) and it looks like it will be fun.

Our next book is Over Her Dead Body by Kate White.  When we went to Hastings six weeks ago and found Baggage Claim we also found two copies of this hardback in the clearance bin for 99 cents.  We decided that it would be our budget find and those of us that hadn't picked it up at the first Hastings located it for the same price at a Hastings near where each of us lives.  The cheapest place that I found it online right now is Barnes and Noble.   It is the fourth book in the Bailey Wiggins series but we are hoping that it is one that will also stand on its own.




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

Sneak A Peak

While we finish up Baggage Claim this evening I thought I would give everyone a heads up on the next book that we will be reading Are you there, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler.  Looking at the reviews people either really love it or really hate it. 
However since the book is for a theme evening...Pedis & 'tinis (Peditinis?) I figured a light hearted romp might be the way to go with the book.
I have even done your online comparison shopping for you.  Amazon is the cheapest of the main three.  If you are in Boise (or near a Hastings) though you should be able to pick it up at your local store for nearly the same price.  Double check that they will match their web price (gohastings.com) before you go in.

I will be bringing Crater Lake Vodka with me.  I think it is as good, if not better than Sky or Grey Goose at a more reasonable price.  You have to go to the web page through their main site and state that you are of legal drinking age.  Once you do watch their video and click on their drink recipes.  If you see one you like grab the ingredients (except vodka) and bring it with you. 

If you have another vodka that you absolutely must have bring it with you.  We can always do a blind taste test and see which one wins...That might be fun in itself.

As well as the Martinis we will be doing pedicures.  Bring your favorite nail polish with you for that part.  The book is only 264 pages so I think we will only need the one meeting for this book.

Anyway off to walk Kada.

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

If it's chicken it's beer....

First welcome to Laura, who is one of our new local regulars, and to Marti who was in town this evening and liked our book discussion so much that I lent her my copy for her flight home.  Yes I admit it.  I was bad I couldn't stop at page 120 like I was supposed to and finished the whole book.  Welcome also to Aaron (our only male so far) we hope to see more of you at these meetings.  Just remember Aaron don't trust Char when she tells you to say something about the book.

Just to give you an idea on how some of our book club meetings go.  First we talked about different odds and ends while we poured wine and decided to hold our discussion outside.  Then once we were sitting out there I explained my 31 books in 31 days contest.  

Aaron showed up with take-and-bake pizza, which he somehow managed to turn upside down so it had to be re-assembled.  It still tasted good though.  Along with this he brought a couple bottles of wine and some Twilight beer.Thank you.

 We decided one of our upcoming books is going to need to be something that goes well with Smores Martini's and pedicures.  Decision made Chelsea Handler's "Are you there, Vodka? It's me Chelsea"

While Char was in the house re-assembling the pizza with Aaron we were discussing how we wanted to handle the wine in the future.  With four of us two bottles was just a little more than we usually needed.  With 6+ we would be needing another bottle.

So the questioning began...Do we want to continue with a bottle each of a red and white? should we have a red or white theme for each evening?

"If it's chicken it's white...If it's a beefier read it's red.."  At this point Char comes back outside and  Michelle states " No, if it's chicken it's beer."  We all looked up at her (must have had dumbfounded expressions on our faces). Char asks, "Wait, what are we discussing here."

I think we will probably stick with the red and white combination with the third bottle being red for the first meeting of the month and white for the second.

I drank the AutoMoto Cab for the evening and really enjoyed it. Other comments should be coming sooooon.

As to the Baggage Claim by Tanya Michna there is a bet (from those that hadn't finished reading it) on whether either of the couples will work things out.  I just told them that at least one of them was right on their choices...But I wouldn't tell them which one.  I will post more thoughts on the book after all of us have finished reading it.


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.

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.

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.

Book Club - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Ladies guess what I have in my hot little hands....
Come on one quick guess.
Amazon delivered quickly. When I placed the order Amazon offered me a one month trial on the Prime membership. Two day shipping included on any order I place for the next thirty days. Perfect. Ordered the books Monday (late after 10pm) and had the books in my hands by 12:30 Wednesday.
So we are on for Sunday.
Good friends.
Good food.
Good wine
and A Good Book
Hopefully it will be a good book since it made the New York Times Best Seller List.
What more could a lady ask for? (Sorry no 6 foot tall Greek gods to join us)

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