And the Winners Are...

Thanks to everyone who brought book suggestions last night and came to vote! Everyone recommended really great books and we had a lot of fun discussing them and voting on what to read.

We decided to change the date to the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm. All meetings will be held at Lisa Wadsworth's home. Whoever is leading the discussion will also be in charge of bringing a refreshment. Here is our new reading schedule!

October 8, 2009: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer; Discussion by Jodi Tolman

November 12, 2009: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez; Discussion by Melissa Brandvold

December 10, 2009: Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright; Discussion by Cami Boyle

January 14, 2010: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Discussion by Nadine Noker

February 11, 2010: The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis; Discussion by Lisa Wadsworth

March 11, 2010: These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner; Discussion by Heather Ford

April 8, 2010: Letters For Emily by Camron Wright; Discussion by Kim Marx

May 13, 2010: Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks; Discussion by Jodi Tolman

June 10, 2010: Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh; Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach; Discussion by Katrina Schmidt

July 8, 2010: Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky; Discussion by Pam Thompson




Here is a list of the other suggested books:

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn
Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic
Rachel and Leah by Orson Scott Card
Sarah by Orson Scott Card
Rebekah by Orson Scott Card
The Christ Commission by Og Mandino

Books I like

Well I'm doing laminate wood flooring and have a mother-in-law in town, so I'll probably not come tomorrow. I'd really like to have something other than novels in the bunch, because I need more motivation to read educational books. Plus, my favorite group got together and discussed various aspects of periods of history and we just had fun learning together. I'd like to be a part of some group like that again.

Anyway, that said. These are my suggestions:

"Gift from the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh would probably be loved by everyone. Great for the overwhelmed mom and spiritual in nature.

"Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A'S, Praise, and Other Bribes" by Alfie Kohn. Not read this one all the way, but BYU professors recommend it and it has got to be appropriate. Great for moms. It's concepts have changed my way of thinking. Basically rewards sometimes take away the pure joy of doing.

The next suggestion is to read these two books together (they are shorts): "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach and "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. They are both FUN, EASY HR type reads. They both read like novels and are super cute, but they have a really clear and impacting message. They both ask you to live to your fullest potential in some way. Good ones to discuss and everyone should read both in their lifetime, especially since they are both so popular in American culture. I suspect most people will have read at least one, but maybe some people will read something new with one or the other.

If You Can't Attend But Want to Recommend...

If you can't attend next week's book group on August 27th but would still like to recommend 2 books for us to vote on, please email me or leave a comment to this post with your 2 book suggestions. I will take your book suggestions to book group with a short summary of each and we will vote to choose which one to read in the coming year.

Book Group on August 27th

Don't forget that August's book group meeting is on Thursday, Aug. 27th at 7:30 at Lisa Wadsworth's house. Due to some questionable material in some of the recent books we've read from the Bellevue book kits, it's been decided that we will make new book selections for the next several months. Please bring two book suggestions to our August book group meeting that you would like to recommend for the group to read. Please only suggest books that you have previously read. We'll see you then!

GoodReads

Just a quick FYI: Our book group has a group page on GoodReads! You can join GoodReads to keep up-to-date with book group selections and post your comments about the books we're reading. Our GoodReads group is called the Cottonwood Bookclub.

Talk with Pam Thompson

Hey, I just wanted to let all the book clubers know that I've given admin rights to all the contributors, if they want to do anything with this blog. Also, Pam let me know that the club is going to select new books for the year and instead of using kits order cheap books on-line or have members find books themselves from their local library.

If you want to be a part of selecting books for the year, please attend the next meeting (which has been re-scheduled for two days later I believe) and bring two books that you would suggest reading. One of those books will be selected for the next years reading list!