Book Club is starting up again..

We have a book club at work that we took a break from over the summer - everyone was too busy - and tonight was the kick off to start it back up for fall & winter. Basically someone picks a book and then plans a get together at a bar/restaurant about a month later and we socialize and talk about the book - maybe. It's a pretty casual club. You don't HAVE to have read the book to come to the montly get together. It helps if you've read some but it's not required. It's not even required that we talk about the book. Depending on how the night goes...we may talk about it for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes and then gossip. Our only rule is if you don't come to the get together then we are free to gossip about you. HA - just kidding - but that's what we tell people when they can't come.

So, in the past we have read:


Before Women Had Wings by Connie Fowler which a tale of the unconditional love children have for their parents even when raised in an abusive environment.


Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst which follows fictional "Amazing Race" type reality show contestants around the world on their quest and examines the interminglings of the relationships of the 2-man teams and how they came to enter this contest at all. Who they were coming in and who they were leaving.


Then we read a couple Sandra Brown books who is totally awesome. Both books were who-dunnit thrillers with a good amount of romance thrown in. Those were Chill Factor and Riccochet.

Then we tried Naked by David Sedaris. This was supposed to be a "...hilariously funny memior..." but none of us got it. I personally only read about 4 chapters.

Next came The Tin Roof Blow Down by James Lee Burke. This was set around Katrina and how there also was a serial killer loose during the aftermath. This is where we stalled out on book club interest. I think only one person finished this one. Everyone's schedules got so busy over the summer plus our city was inundated with flood stories having had our own flood, compared to Katrina, the likes of which hadn't been seen here in 500 years and ironically has it's own book now called Epic Surge.

So, now that we are picking back up a book set around the holiday season was chosen...

Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices - A Holiday Novel of Hope and Healing by John Allen. It follows a man whose wife and children are killed in a car accident on Christmas Eve, he gives the gifts he had for them that year to others then it flashes forward several years and he finds out how those gifts changed the lives of those he gave them too. I am looking foward to this one although I suspect it will be especially sad for a few of us. Four of us in book club have lost a close family member (parents and a grandchild) in the last 3 months. One just a couple weeks ago. But I am looking foward to the "hope and healing aspect" of this book. It promises to help be more at peace with those losses.