Christmas Party Recap

On Sunday we had our annual Christmas Party complete with good food, good friends, and lots of books!

For this meeting everyone got to read a book of her choice. Most of our discussion took the form of Book Reports. Here's a list of who read what and what they rated the books.

• Beth: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - 9


• Nancy: Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham - 8


• Melissa: Official Guide to Christmas in the South (or If You Can't Fry It, Spray Paint It Gold), by David. C. Barnette - 8


• Cyndi: The Christmas Promise, by Donna Vanliere - 5, but a good 5


• Jessica: The Paper Bag Christmas, by Kevin Alan Milne - 8


• Carrie Ann: Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris - 8


• Cynthia: Run, by Ann Patchett - 9
  (Cynthia is Jessica's mom - she was visiting with us for this meeting)


• Amy: The Dog Who Saved Christmas, by Alan Sullo - 5, but a cute book


• Heather: The Cole Family Christmas, by Jennifer Bryan & Hazel Kendle - 8
  (I reviewed this on my blog)


• Nicole: The Red Tent, by Anita Diamante - 8

After the book reports, we did our Book Exchange. It was lots of fun! There wasn't all that much stealing going on but ONE book did get stolen several times: The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao.

A big thank you to Jessica for hosting our Christmas Party!

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Here's a list of upcoming meeting dates:

Monday, Jan. 26th - location TBD

"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Saturday, Feb. 28th @ 1pm - Beth's house

"Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult

Monday, Feb. 23rd - Cyndi's house

"The Bean Trees" by Barbara Kingsolver

Ideas for Christmas Books

For our Christmas party we are reading any Christmas book of our choice.* Here's a list of suggested titles for those who need some extra inspiration:

• In keeping with the Jackie O theme from a few months ago, here's a Christmas book by her daughter Caroline.
• Try this list of Christmas books on Amazon.com to give you some ideas.
• This article lists more Christmas themed books including some mysteries.
• Want some light reading? Try these Christmas books for children.
• Read the Christmas story in the Bible (in Luke).
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever looks like a fun book.
• Truman Capote wrote a short story called A Christmas Memory that you can read online.
• This Christmas book is small - only 75 pages and 5x7".
• Here are some classic Christmas stories that you can read online.
• Southern Christmas fiction, anyone?
• And another online Christmas book - this one includes three short stories.
• Carrie suggested The Christmas Sweater, a new book.
• Here are several heartwarming Christmas books.
• How about a Christmas take on Pilgrim's Progress?

I can't wait to see what everyone chooses to read. At the meeting we'll do our Book Report format which means that everyone gets a chance to talk about their book for a few minutes. It should be fun!

*If you feel strongly about reading something else then go for it!

It's Book Report Time!

As the 2006 holiday season approached, our members were feeling a little overwhelmed. Reading time was getting scarce but no one wanted to skip a monthly meeting. So we came up with a new plan - Book Reports!

For our November selection, each person chose the book she wanted to read then presented the basic plot and her opinions on it at the meeting. We had a lot of fun with this! Here's a list of who read what and the rating she gave it:

Nancy: Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold (8)
Bev: Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold (7)
(no, they didn't know they read the same book!)
Steph: A Child Called It, by David Pelzer (8) & The Wedding, by Nicholas Sparks (10)
Kara: Me & Emma, by Elizabeth Flock (9)
Nicole: Songbird, by Walter Zaccharias (7)
Lenore: The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards (7)
Annette: Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt (9) - audio version
Heather: The Red Tent, by Anna Diamant (8) & A Venetian Affair, by Andrea de Robilant (4) - audio version