PiedmontReaders

PiedmontReaders

I would like for you to look over to the right and see my other blog PiedmontReaders. Click on it and you will find out what books the group read from November thru January.

October Book Club Read

October Book Club Read

Jack downloaded this photo of the book cover of the book Turn Right At Machu Picchu because this was the very first book I read on my new Kindle. Delaine hosted the group at Dickie's house and served Peruvian foods. She chose this book because when she was just ten years old she toured Machu Picchu with her mother. She had old photos to show the group of her tour. Most members thought the story of the original "discoverer" of Machu Picchu was long and boring but they enjoyed the more recent trips to Machu Picchu by the author Mark Adams because they were humorous.

September Book Club Book

September Book Club Book

This was the second book my book club has read that was written by Jeannette Walls. Several years earlier we read The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. Jack also read both of these books this year and liked both though like me I think he liked Half Broke Horses the most. This is a true story in the since that the characters actually lived in the Arizona desert but Jeannette Walls wrote it as a novel because she was alive when her adventures grandmother was having these adventures. She calls it a "true life novel" complete with lots of black and white photos.

August Bookclub Read

August Bookclub Read

Last Friday night we met at Haelie's house for our August bookclub and to discuss this historic Charles Dicken's novel Oliver Twist. Haelie chose the book because her daughter was in the play Oliver based on the book at her school. Most of you will recall that the movie Oliver that was based on this book. The movie was dark and depressing because the book was dark and depressing. We did not concentrate on the darkness but based our discussion on the fact that Charles Dickens was one of the first writers to write in the new genre known as a novel so consequently he approached in a different fashion from today's novelists. The book characters are static and one dimensional in comparison to the highly developed personalities of today's novel characters. Sometimes you learn a lot by discussing and old classic book.

Learn more about this book selection by going to my other blog listed at the left: Piedmont Readers.

Sidenote: this was the smallest group that ever met for a bookclub meeting. A lot of the members were on August vacations or had other commitments that prevented them from attending the meeting. Poor Haelie. She prepared food for an army of people but only had three of us show up for the meeting. Sorry Haelie.

July Bookclub Read

July Bookclub Read

Our July bookclub read was a delightful romp across the U.S. in a car with a middle age married father and his sister's middle age Eastern religion guru who practiced a combination of Buddhism and other Eastern religious practices. Funny scenes and enlightening religious thoughts between the two leads the reader to view the world in a different light. This was an easy read that I enjoyed. I must have read the book in less then two days.

You can learn some more about this book by going to my other blog on the left: PiedmontReaders.

June Book Club Read

June Book Club Read

Eleanore Brown wrote this novel about three sisters meeting up again under the parents' roof now that they are in their 30's and about their learning to live with each other without killing each other! Their mother's breast cancer complicates the already tense situation. The oldest sister is a control freak, the middle sister is facing the fact that she stole from her employer to buy designer clothes and the baby sister is the loveable hippie who has to learn not to run away but face her problems in the home town.

The setting for this weird story of the weird sisters is just east of Columbus, Ohio where the father is a Shakespearen professor at a small private college. What can I say----Ohio never looked so disfunctional as in this novel. LOL!

Learn more about this book by clicking on the left on my other blog: Piedmont Readers.

May Book Club Read

May Book Club Read

I read this over 400 page true story of Louie Zamperini's adventures in World War II in under three days. I couldn't put it down even though parts of it were extremely difficult to read because the detailed adventures were so horrific.

Louie Zamperini today is still alive and going strong skateboarding into his 80's. But during World War II Louie had many near death experiences as a twenty-six year old shot down bombardier in the U.S. army air force. He managed to survive the plane crash, being lost at sea for over 40 days and being held as a pow in a very cruel Japanese prison camp.

This New York Times bestselling book was written by famed writer Laura Hillenbrand who also wrote the true story of Seabiscuit. I highly recommend this book which also includes many photos of Louie's life before and after World War II. This is a five star book read.

Learn more by clicking on the left on my other blog: Piedmont Readers.

Three Quotes For You

Three Quotes For You

#1

Jazz is the sound of God laughing.

Collen Shaddox

#2

I Believe In America, And I Believe in our people.

Gen. Colin Powell

#3

I Believe That Freedom Is Contagious.

Harold Hongiu Koh

These three quotes were from our April book club selection, This I Believe, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman in association with NPR. Go to my other blog PiedmontReaders over on the right to learn more about this book.

March Book Club Read

March Book Club Read

I chose The Last Promise, by Richard Paul Evans.

Below is a photo of Richard Paul Evans who each year spends six months in the Tuscany area of Italy and six months in (of all places!) the state of Utah.

To learn more about this novel that is a love story go to my other blog, PiedmontReaders.

You will find it listed under my blogroll on the right.

I Hosted The March Book Club Meeting

I Hosted The March Book Club Meeting

The setting for my book was Italy so I served Italian red and white wines.

And since Lent is here I served fish, eggs and vegetarian appetizers for our

Friday evening gathering.

Hubby Jack made the deviled eggs.

Look below. No chocolate desserts because of Lent.

I served pound cake with strawberries.

February Book Club Meeting

February Book Club Meeting

Little Bee, by Chris Cleve

This was our book club read for February and it was a hard book to read because of two things: the brutal events in the book and the suspicion that some of the plot didn't ring true. Like it really could not have happened. If you want an unusual story about an illegal African girl detained in England and of the English couple who first met up with this girl on a lonely beach in Nigeria this is the book for you. But if you prefer plots that are realistic and not as brutal, please stay away from this book. To learn more about this book please go to my other blog: PiedmontReaders that you will see listed under my blog roll on the right.

January Book Club Meeting

Above is the book the PiedmontReaders group read for our January book club meeting that was held at Teresa's house on January 14. Go to my other blogsite to learn more about this book read:

PiedmontReaders. You can find it under my blog roll on the right.

Another Great Read

Another Good Read

The Mistress of Abha, by William Newton

I picked up this book since everything that has happened since 9/11 has put the Middle East and the muslim world constantly in the news media. Would you like to learn more about the Middle East back in the 1930's when England was still in power there----the time of Lawrence of Arabia?

How did Saudi Arabia's rulers and Yemen's rulers come into power against the British colonists?

Well, pick up this book that will hold your attention as you wonder all around the Red Sea hunting for clues of what happened to the Britishman, Ivor Willoughby. You will find yourself visiting places you hear constantly in the news today: Arabia, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Yemen. You will discover interesting facts about arabian culture, the deserts, the fortifications along the Red Sea, the camel caravans and the practice of importing slaves from Africa.

Another Great Book Read

Another Great Book Read

Need some good books to read on these long winter nights?

Try this one.

Too Much Tuscan Sun, Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide

by

Dario Castagno with Robert Rodi

This lady at our December NARFE meeting told me that she went for the very first time with family to Venice, Italy this past October and just fell in love with Venice and all its canals, old buildings, and the people. So I told her about this wonderful book I had just read, Too Much Tuscan Sun.

She then said guess what it cost for the three of us to have three cappuccinos on the main square in Venice. I said it must have been very expensive. She replied that it surely was. $68 dollars for three small cappuccinos! Wow!

By the way Miami of Ohio fans, this lady's grandson is in the Miami University pep band that will be heading down to Alabama for the football game that Miami has been chosen to play later this week. It will take the pep band 18 hours by bus to get to the stadium.

A Paris Christmas The Immoveable Feast

A Paris Christmas

The Immoveable Feast

John Baxter, an Australian living in Paris, relates how he was chosen to be the head chef for his French wife's Christmas Day feast. Each chapter relates something being served for the meal and each chapter begins with a quote. This was my favorite quote in the book:

There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment,a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call if dating.

Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.

--- Judith Martin

November Book Club Read

November Book Club Meeting

Book: Still Alice, by Lisa Genova

To learn more about this book go to my other blog:

http://piedmontreaders.blogspot.com/

October Book Club Read

October Book Club Read

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

To learn more about this book go to my book club blog: http://piedmontreaders.blogspot.com/

Fall of My Blog

Fall of My Blog

I haven't posted anything since late Thursday of last week. Why? Because I got hijacked by Ken Follett's latest book which is a hefty read. Like his previous bestsellers The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, this book has almost a thousand pages so I had to prop the book up on a pillow in my lap to read it because of its weight. But in spite of the length and weight I managed to read it in five days.
***
I love history so I love historical novels that give you new insights into a time period. The Fall of Giants is the first of a series of three books that Ken Follett plans to write about the world history of the twentieth century. The Fall of Giants covers the build up to World War I, the war and the aftermath of the war. It gave me a good picture of the supreme world powers of that period: England, France, Germany and Russia and of the up and coming world power, the United States.
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My thoughts after reading this novel: The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems. Whatever countries are the current world powers feel they have the right to step in and micro manage other countries around the world in whatever way they think fits best for their interests and their concept of the world's best interests. In this case, it was how England and France divided up the middle east for their own benefit including creating the new nation of Iraq and how additional new European countries were created by these world powers to replace the old Austro-Hungarian Empire--countries like Yugoslavia and Czeckosl0vakia. Reading this first part of the three part Follett trilogy gave me a better understanding of how the Treaty of Peace in Paris after World War I and the creation of Wilson's League of Nations which was done with the very best of intentions ultimately led to the Second World War.
****
And with that you could state that thru out civilization countries are like people: they are born, they live and then they die or are killed in some fashion. For example,Czechoslovakia is now two countries: the Czech Republic and Serbia. Yugoslavia is now seven various nations. Final thought of the day: I wonder what will happen in the future to Iraq? Will it split into three countries following ethnic and/or religious differences in the land? Something to ponder on this lovely autumn day while I anxiously await Ken Follett's second book in his trilogy of the twentieth century.

This Is A Great, Great Read

This Is A Great, Great Read

Go to my other blog, PiedmontReaders, to learn more about this book and why the book club members loved it so much. http://piedmontreaders.blogspot.com/

My Other Blog = PiedmontReaders

My Other Blog = PiedmontReaders

Go there to learn about these two books that the club read for July and August.

PiedmontReaders: http://piedmontreaders.blogspot.com/

Just click on address to learn more.

Have a good weekend. I'm watching my livefeed of Big Brother this afternoon.