Book Club Buddies

Last Saturday night, I had the rare chance to get together with all of my girls from book club (minus Jessica J.) and their spouses outside of book club. We were celebrating Claire's (in the center) 30th birthday. I think she is the baby of the group and the last big 3-0 hooray for us. From left to right we have Kelly, Marianne, Holly, Claire, Me, Suzanne and Colleen. These girls have really been a core group of friends to me and I can always count on them if I need anything. I am very thankful for their friendship.

My book club group started in August 2003 and Marianne, Holly and I were in the charter group. Holly is one of our founders. We have lost of few good people along the way to new towns, other committments, etc. We do not typically have very academic discussions about the books we read, but it is nice to read a book and get together for a little "girl time" each month.

For those of you who are readers, here are some books I liked and disliked that we have read over the past 5+ years. (I cheated and peeked at Melissa's list on her blog because she was in our book club for a long time before she migrated to another book club.)

Likes:

"The Time Travelers Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

"Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arther Golden

"The Bonesetter's Daughter" by Amy Tan

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See

"The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khalid Hosseini

"Lucia, Lucia" and the Big Stone Gap series by Adriana Trigiani (I've read all of her books and they are wonderful)

"The Other Bolelyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory

"The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant

"Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons" by Lorna Landvik (another favorite writer that I have read everything she has written)

"Cane River" by Lalita Tademy

"The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

"The Double Bind" by Chris Bohjalian (this book puts an interesting spin one of my favorite classics-The Great Gatsby)

"Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers (this book is a tear jerker. I read it in one day-I could not put it down)

"My Sister’s Keeper" by Jodi Piccoult (I am NOT a fan of Piccoult, although she typically writes about current controversial issues that are big sellers, this book I liked)

Dislikes

"Wicked" by Gregory Maguire

"The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd (her first book, the Secret Life of Bees, was great)

"The Ten Year Nap" by Meg Wolizer (I did not finish this book after reading 100 pages and that is rare for me. I always finish books, even if I don't like them.)

"Paradise" by Toni Morrison (This is probably a modern-day classic, but I just thought it was weird)

"Goodnight Nobody" by Jennifer Weiner (All of her other books are classic chick lit books, which I loved -think "In Her Shoes" - but this one was just not good)

UPDATE: I am currently reading the following:

"Creative Correction" by Lisa Welchel

"The Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian

"Mary" by Janis Cooke Newman (our book club book for October/November)

"The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck (a classic I was inspired to re-read by my high school English teacher. Check out her book blog.)