Water For Elephants

August Book of the Month

Water For Elephants

By Sara Gruen

It seemed unanimous that we loved Water For Elephants!  This was a great story about Jacob Jancowski, a man who suddenly loses both parents in a car accident and leaves his life to join the Benzini Brothers circus.  I, personally, learned a lot about the traveling train circuses from the 20's and 30's.  We liked Jacob as a character, both as a young man and an old man.  This is also a love story, in more ways than one.  It is a great piece of historical fiction.  

My camera was really low on battery so we barely had time to turn it on and snap a picture...but we do have a picture!  We were a small group this time...what did everyone who couldn't make it think?  Please post!  

The Other Boleyn Girl

July Book of the Month

The Other Boleyn Girl

By Philippa Gregory

This month we chose The Other Boleyn Girl which was recommended by Alba.  Those of us that read the book seemed to have really enjoyed the book.  The Other Boleyn Girl is the story of Mary Boleyn, younger sister to Anne Boleyn who married King Henry VIII.  Through Mary Boleyn, the author tells the story of all the Boleyn siblings.  We thought that the author made a wise choice by picking Mary Boleyn as the main character because she was a like-able and relate-able character who also was in all the right places to tell the story.  Overall, we felt bad for the young people of that time because it seemed like their parents/family just played them as pawns to improve the status of their family.  We were missing quite a few book club members this month so please comment on what you thought of the book!  

We ate at an Irish restaurant called Peggy Kinnane's.  The food was great and pretty much everyone who worked there was hot.  No complaints!  Here is our group of lovely ladies!

Loving Frank

June 2008 Book of the Month

Loving Frank

By Nancy Horan

This month we chose to read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.  Loving Frank is a historical fiction piece written about a woman who had an affair with Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect.  The author wrote the story based on research she did about their lives together.  We met at Maggiano's for yummy Italian food because during part of the book Mamah, the main character lives in Italy.  

We all seemed to agree that Frank Lloyd Wright was not such a great guy (that's kind of an understatement).  We had mixed feelings about Mamah and her decision to leave her marriage that she was not happy in.  We were proud of her for leaving and for not staying in a situation she was not happy in, but really disappointed in how she dealt with it.  Her selfishness was evident, and it led to her greatly impacting the lives of so many people: her ex-husband, her sister, but, most of all, her kids.  

Escape

The May 2008 Book of the Month

Escape

By Carolyn Jessop

The May book of the month was recommended by Veronica.  The other books it beat out were Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  We met at Ram to discuss the book over a tall glass of Merrill "Buttface" Jessop beer and a plate of shrimp.  

Escape is the "dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman's courageous flight to freedom with her eight children."  We were all appalled to read about the suffering and abuse women and children had to face within the FLDS cult.  Even more outrageous is to think that this was happening recently and is still going on even today.

We didn't really have focused discussion questions but the discussion kind of just led itself.  Here are some of the topics we discussed:

1. Which part of the story appalled and outraged us the most?

2. How were the men in the FLDS able to totally and completely control the women and children?

3. What do we learn from Carolyn's relationship with her children in regards to mothers?

We all agreed that Carolyn has an amazingly strong will and that she is definitely smart to have been able to carefully plan her escape so she would be successful.  We also discussed our opinions of long underwear.  To end the night, we all shared a mile high mudpie.  Yum!  

  

The Time Traveler's Wife

The April 2008 Book of the Month

The Time Traveler's Wife

By Audrey Niffenegger

For the inaugural The Chicks With Books book club meeting, we read The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.  We met at a Thai restaurant because Clare and Henry go out for Thai on their first date.  This book was chosen by me, Jen, because it is one of my absolute favorite books.  

The Time Traveler's Wife is the story of Clare and Henry.  Henry is a time traveler and Clare is his life-long lover thanks to Henry's ability time travel into her childhood.  This book is the story of their lives and their love story.

Here are some questions we discussed last night:

1. What qualities do you see in Clare as "the time traveler's wife"?  Is the label a positive or negative one and why?

2. What role does fate play in the book, if any?

3. How do you imagine Clare and Henry's final "visit" together?  What do they do?  What do they talk about?  How long does he get to stay?

Besides discussing these and other questions, we discovered who are the hopeless romantics in the group-who actually cried at various times in the book, which time in our lives we would time travel to to relive, and that it's best to request separate checks rather than trying to separate it ourselves! 

Welcome to The Chicks With Books blog!

Welcome to The Chicks With Books blog!

I am very excited to be hosting the blog for our newly founded book club, The Chicks With Books! We will be meeting to discuss the book on the 3rd Thursday of the every month.  Every month one of the book club members recommends 2 or 3 books for the group to read and we will vote which book to read for the month.  Yesterday, April 17th, 2008, was our first ever The Chicks With Books book club meeting.  We met to discuss The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.