Tonight we celebrated our 3rd anniversary of The Book Club. We held the meeting in The Starry Night Room at Watermark Books. At the beginning of the meeting, we had the opportunity to listen to a presentation on popular book club selections and New York Times Best Seller list. There were a bunch of interesting titles on the list, and I no doubt we will be seeing some in future club recommendations!
After the presentation, we began our anniversary celebration! The few members who attended played a game where they needed to match the title of one book to a picture that described the book. It was a big hit!! We also took a vote on Biggest Tear Jerker of the year, Best Discussion of the Year, and Best Book of the Year.
Best Tear Jerker: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - (chosen by Rene)
Best Discussion: TIE - The Gift (chosen by Karen) and People of the Book (chosen by Wendy)
Best Book of the Year: People of the Book (chosen by Wendy)
The lady who suggested the winning book of each category won a gift card!!
Since very few people were able to read last month's pick, The Reluctant Tuscan, we had an extremely brief discussion. Mostly that we liked it, and wished more would have had the opportunity to read it! To kick off the 2012-2013 season of The Book Club, Sharon nominated our first round of books.
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
and our winner....
Blessings by Anna Quindlen
Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard home on the Blessing estate and leaves a box. In that instant, the lives of those who live and work there are changed forever. Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, finds a baby girl asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep the child . . . while Lydia Blessing, the matriarch of the estate, for her own reasons, agrees to help him. Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate and who decides; and the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about whom The Washington Post Book Worldsaid, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”
There are currently 8 copies of the book at the Wichita Public Library (and a book on CD for Wendy!!!). Our next meeting is being held on October 24th at 6 pm. Please be sure to make a note, as this is NOT the final Wednesday of the month. I will be sure to send out another reminder email in the week preceding. Also, please let me know if you'd like to sign up to host a month.
Thanks again to everyone who attended our meeting. Can't wait to see you all next month.
Happy Reading!!
