Here’s our meeting schedule for 2012

1. Date:  March 11, 2012, Books:  Room and The Hunger Games, Location:  Shilla Bakery, 7039 Little River Tpke., Annandale, VA 22003-5908, Time:  2:00 pm
2. Date:  May 13, 2012, Book:  To Be Determined, Location:  To Be Determined, Time:  7:00 pm
3. Date:  July 15, 2012, Book:  To Be Determined, Location:  To Be Determined, Time:  2:00 pm
4. Date:  September 16, 2012, Book:  To Be Determined, Location:  To Be Determined, Time:  7:00 pm
5. Date:  November 11, 2012, Book:  To Be Determined, Location:  To Be Determined, Time:  2:00 pm

I sent this schedule around in an email, but let me know if you didn’t get one.

Can’t wait to see you all at our first meeting!

We’re finally going to get to our discussion of Room: A Novel by Emma Donaghue.  The meeting will be Saturday, June 21st at noon.  The location was sent around in email, so contact JoAnna if you have any question.

Here are a couple of links to discussions about Room:

One Minute Book Reviews: Room

Lit Lovers: Room

Can’t wait to discuss this really interesting book with you all!

Also please bring any recommendations for books for the club to read in 2012 – we’re wide open for ideas.  

And if you’re interested in exchanging books – please bring any books you’re looking to get rid of and we can do a trade with other group members.  

See you Saturday!

Our next book club selection is Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue. We’re going to try and set a Christmas party meeting this year similar to last year and I’ll post more details as they come.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!

Just wanted to get some planning done for 2012. I thought I’d get everyone’s preferences on number of meetings and days and times and then work out a calendar for 2012, so we have all our dates planned out in advance. Thanks for your input, gals!

Click here to take survey

Our Fall Book Club Selection is The Help.  Perfect timing as the movie is out in theaters right now.  I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on the book!

Our Fall meeting will be Sunday, October 9th, 2011.  Time and location to come!

Our next book selection is Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Here’s a review from the Amazon page:

An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people’s lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and “shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color.” Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of “morality guards,” the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became “essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity,” she writes.

Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: “There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom,” she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive.

It looks like a great book.  Melissa Holder has offered to host our next party and the meeting will probably be in late April or May.  More info will be on the way soon!

Our March Meeting to discuss “Never Let Me Go” was great.  It was a small group but the discussion was stimulating.

Lisa, Denise and Melissa (Lisa and Denise apparently coordinated their outfits!)

Eunnie looking cute!

Melissa with London – he had lots of thoughts about the book.

Yes I did steal the baby!  And quickly put him to sleep with my fascinating book insights!

We had a great time.  Hope to see you all at the next meeting!

Just wanted to pass on some fun sites related to book and book clubs. Hope you guys enjoy them and send me anything you all think the rest of the group would enjoy. I’ll post it here.

http://www.litlovers.com/index.html

http://www.bookclubgirl.com/

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php

http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/

http://janitesonthejames.blogspot.com/

Also – I’m on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/) If anyone else is on or would like to join, it’s a fun way to share books you’re reading. I’ve found a bunch of great books from recommendations of friends on this site.

We will be talking about our latest book Never Let Me Go.  If anyone is interested here is a Readers Guide/discussion questions for the book: http://www.litlovers.com/guide_neverletme.html

Although, from what I’ve heard already, we’ve all got PLENTY to say about this book!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

A few of us had discussed getting together and trying some knitting and crocheting.  I thought I’d throw it out there and see whose interested.  Please leave a comment and let me know if you might like to meet up occasionally for knitting, crocheting or any kind of crafting really!