This Month's Read

Hey all -
Well, the get together on Wednesday was a success. Much love to everyone that made it and hope all the folks caught with assorted sniffles are feeling better.
We even managed to get a Noah sighting in the mix :)

We did select a new book for the next meeting.
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. Check out other reviews here.

Annie has graciously agreed to host the next meeting. We are planning on October 17, 7PM - ish.
Details will of course follow.
Hope everyone is doing well.

August Announcement

Ok everyone -
We did decide on Widow of the South
I have sent an email with a date of August 23, at my house.
I would love to get back together this month -- it will be our 2 year anniversary!!
Who would have thought we would make it this far?
Hope to see you all there.
Meghan

Next Month's Book

Hey there book club fans. If you haven't checked out Martine's blog recently, she got the date! Read about it here.

We need to choose the next book. Here are three choices. I'll let you read about each of them and then you can send me an email (bethmensing@hotmail.com). Vote for one and hopefully we'll get a simple winner. I'll take votes until Thursday the 5th and announce on Friday the 6th.

Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

Widow of the South, Robert Hicks

I hope everyone is happy and healthy and we can all get together in early August to discuss our next book.

Discussion of June's Book - Kite Runner

I hope everyone is good with this. I've only gotten three positive responses, but if we don't have a critical mass to discuss the book and/or choose a new book, we'll just enjoy each other's company and the work of the brewmaster at Rock Bottom.

I will be at Rock Bottom next Tuesday, June 26th, by 6:45 for a 7:00 dinner with you all. I'll make a reservation for 8-10 depending on what I hear from the rest of you ladies. We'll have drinks, food and I'll bring a couple of choices for next month.

If we don't have at least 6 for bookclub, I can't see us picking the new book. Yea? Feedback?

Thank Yous All Around!

I am writing thank you cards to give you all at the next meeting, but because we have not scheduled it yet and I am not sure when we will....:) I wanted to say a big

Thank You!!

on behalf of Nate and I (and of course, Noah!) for the wonderful book club shower gifts. For those of you who went in on the group gift, the onsies are super! The Exersaucer rocks!! (For those of you that do not have kids, you may be thinking what the heck did we get them?...I have never heard of an "ExerSaucer"! ... I, myself, have only just been exposed to the concept in the last couple of months...click here to see a picture.) We also love the Whoozit, which I have been told is a must have! (Okay, again I am providing a link for those of you that may be asking yourselves whatever happened to the baby items with recognizable names...like diaper, bottle...I assure you this is way cooler!) :)

I cannot wait to bring Noah home to meet you great people and to use all his fun stuff!

Thanks Again!

Oprah's Book Club

So in the land of Book Club Goodness I think we have attempted to avoid Oprah's Book Club choices. A few of us were discussing the fact that Oprah was announcing her latest choice this week. We were placing bets on which book she would choose. I can't even remember what we thought it was going to be. I think I had too much "punch" at the baby shower. There it is was on the v-cart, with the orange seal of Oprah's approval, a lifeless stack of trade paper books. Anyhoo, the book was placed on the tables at Barnes & Noble on Monday night after close ready for the lemmings to come pick it up on Tuesday morning.

Yea, we picked it as a choice a few months back. I think we have good taste. I think it's kind of a strange choice for Oprah. But maybe it's kind of safe because it won the Pulitzer. Who knows? She probably didn't pick it anyway. I can see the faces of the women coming in to pick it up, the twinge on their faces when they read the back cover. What's her motivation with this one?

Maybe I'm just way off base.

Next Book & Next Hostess

Our next book will be Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Here's the description for those of you who aren't familiar with the book.

The hostess next month is Jess. She will let us know when and where we will be meeting.

Thanks to those that joined us at Tara Zager Hall's. We had a fantastic time.

Here's NOAH! There will be a baby shower in our near future. Stay tuned for more details.

Books that were not chosen:
The Birth House by Ami McKay
Light On Snow by Anita Shreve
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Yeah for me for adding a new post, with links. WOW!

-beth

Olson-Daniel Baby!!!

We got our referral!!!! It is a boy, borm 2/26/07!!!
Email me if you would like to see pics!

Martine

Wicked Coming to Des Moines

WICKED IS COMING TO DES MOINES
So much happened before Dorothy dropped in. The Civic Center announced Broadway's biggest blockbuster and winner of three Tony Awards®, WICKED, is coming to Des Moines and will be presented as part of the 2008-2009 Betts Broadway Series. WICKED is a new musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book By Winnie Holzman based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire. It tells the story of the remarkable odyssey of how two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.WICKED sells out very quickly but Central Iowans can guarantee their seats for WICKED by becoming a Betts Broadway Series Season Ticket holder for the upcoming season. Exact dates and times for WICKED will be announced at a later date.

If anyone is interested in attending, let me know. I am a season ticket holder and plan to purchase tickets for Wicked!

New time and host

Hey All -
Tara has agreed to host this month. We decided on Wednesday, May 23rd as the next date.
7 PM.
More details to follow.
Hope you all are enjoying the book. I am.
That, and I sure could use a "crisis" these days :)

New Editors

Update for all of you. You should be getting an email that invites you to post to this blog. Simply follow the directions, and you should be all set for updating here. We will keep playing with this format, so please make changes and suggestions!
Have a great week.

Next Month's Read

Hello Ladies -
Pleased to announce that we have chosen our next book:
Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence.
See all the controversy here regarding our newest selection.
Time, date and hostess were not finalized for next month, so stay tuned on that one.

Big thanks to all those who braved the gross April weather to come have a few glasses of wine and not really discuss last month's selection: The Emperor of Ocean Park -- minus the stirring summary from Amy & Meghan. Which, for the record, I do still think came in under 500 words.

We are going to try this format for a little bit and see how we do. I will be adding all of you to the list so that you can make posts.