INVITE

Book Club Wednesday night (August 31st) At Shauna's
I'm pretty sure you girls know where I live? (I think you've all been here?)
same time 7:00 pm same place (I never move)
See you then (I hope)

Book Club at Shauna's

It turns out I have a Tuesday and Thursday class this semester that will be right during book club. Bummer! I was hoping we might be able to make our meeting that will be at my house this month on Wednesday or Friday this week instead of Thursday? Does anyone have a suggestion? Sorry about the late notice but perhaps we can work this whole thing out! Let me know then I'll let you know. Thanks. Shauna

Quick, yet thought-provoking read

I grabbed Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo to read while we were traveling. I have to admit that the writing isn't anything to rave about, but what Todd's 4-year-old son, Colton has to share is. I found it very interesting. It's also helping me keep that bigger picture perspective and appreciate my kids more.

Has anyone else read it? What did you think?

Book Club at Stephanie's

Book club was as wonderful as ever!  Stephanie made the most delicious dinner!  The recipes are in the post below as I am sure most of you have seen.  I made all of it for my family and it tasted great.  All except the cake which for some reason didn't work for me but I will be trying it again!!

Enjoy the photos and relive the good food! mmmmmm

We had a pretty good discussion about the book.  There was some division about the love for this month's book selection, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley. But there were no punches thrown by Shauna this month and Stephanie didn't have to call the police.

Here are the lovely ladies...

And then because were were in front of a fireplace again we had to mix it up a little! 

Because after all eeeevery one loves Robyn! (and her new tattoo)

And just for fun check this out!

Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes

photo via Favorite Family Recipes

Before I forget, here are the links to the recipes I used for dinner on Thursday:

Pork Barbacoa Salad (including rice, beans, dressing, & guacamole) -click HERE-

1-minute salsa -click HERE-

Coconut Tres Leches Cake -click HERE-


Thanks for coming!!

Some Fun with Covers!

Book Club this thursday: be there or be square!!

Stephanie's house @ 7:00

We'll have good food.

There'll be good conversation.

I'll even bring out my kids' hand puppets in case anyone feels like putting on an impromptu show.

I'm pretty sure there won't be any dead bodies.

Will you be there? 

Book Club At Christie's

Ah just look at these women!  They are all beautiful!

Christie hosted book club one last time before she's off to Germany.  Christie we are going to miss you!  You are our founder -- and the one who always has great lines to share from the books we read.  We all wish you and your family safe travels!

We had a super discussion about Cutting For Stone.  We all really enjoyed the book and found that there were so many things to discuss. From family, medical procedures,and ethics to how immigration and geography shape our destiny.  I know I always love hearing everyone's perspective.

We had a pot luck for book club this month and everything was perfect.  Here is a sampling of the tasty treats we enjoyed:

And of course --  as always -- I failed to get shots of the desserts. We had a lemon cream pie and strawberry shortcake.

Once again here we are -- our shot from above!

Bethany, Kara, Robyn, Heidi, Shannon (w/ baby Bjorn)

Shauna, Christie, Britney

See you next month @Stephanie's for our review of The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Book Club is Thursday!!

Book Club is Thursday night

At Christie's Home

7:30 PM

Bring a dish to share

See you there!!

April Book Club @ Kara's

Better late than never right?

Kara hosted in April and made the most delicious pasta with asparagus! i mean REALLY!  It was sooo good. Kara I really hope you post the recipe because I want to make this - especially since the weather is finally feeling a bit like spring salad weather instead of hot soup weather.

The salad was wonderful too! What I don't have a picture of is the deadly bread.  There is a shot of a slice of the killer bread in the next shot however.  

The reason teh bread was so deadly is that when Bethany went to cut the loaf the crispy crust was a little slippery and the knife slid off the bread and sliced open Bethany's finger.  While Bethany was getting first aid help from Kara I picked up the knife to slice the bread and what should happen!?  Yep, the knife slid and sliced through my finger as well.  So I too had to go see nurse Kara for some help.

Finally Kara pushed us all aside and said "let me do it you wimps!"

 And then we all had nicely sliced bread. 

Whew!

 We also had super tasty peanut butter brownies and lemon bars.

We had a great discussion about The Boy in Striped Pajamas.  I  would say that the general consensus was that the book could have been much better. We thought it was weak on driving home the horror of the holocaust and the main character was too immature and unrealistic.

Finally here we are fashionable and having a great time!

We'll see you Thursday at Christie's @ 7:30!!

May 5th's Book Club

I am hoping that one of you lovely ladies would be willing to host book club for me on May 5th.  I am not able to do it. I know that several of you aren't able to, but I am hoping one of you can. So sorry it is such short notice.  Thank so much.
Mariana

And you thought YOU had a wait a long time for these pics?

Well, we had to wait even longer in line to get them!

Let's just say all of those pictured above weren't quite strong enough to stand for that long without food. Because Mr. Zusak was so nice and personable and took such a long time with each of his die-hard fans, we concluded that the library could have funded his visit by simply selling some refreshments.

He was offered a couple A& Ws, as you can see,

along with Brick Oven pizza (which smelled SO good) that he didn't even touch. Maybe he was too nice to eat in front of us. Or maybe in his time zone, it was the middle of the night, and he wasn't starving like us.

Dear Kara,

Here's to love,

colours

and

BOOKS. . .

Marcus Zusak

Dear Christie,

Thank you! (smiley face balloon)

Here's to accordions and books...

Markus Zusak

If I hadn't been so hungry and tired, I could've thought to have said something clever like, "If you were serious about moving here, I know of a cute, little place for sale with a nice view of the mountains." I could've also mentioned that I was moving to GERMANY! Oh, well.

We decided that Shauna got the best entry of all.

I think hers says:

Dear Shauna,

Thanks for leaving. The rest of us had pizza. No--seriously, thanks for coming.

Marcus Zusak