Contest

This is late notice, but I just came across this contest:

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYX6NiWp3OA&feature=channel_page

After watching the video (or skipping if you prefer) send an email to promotions@kayhooper.com OR orders@firesidebooksandgifts.com.

In the email, include

your name and email

AND

my name and email (cindykbeck@yahoo.com)

We'll both entered in this exciting drawing.
It's that easy!

What you could win:
Spread the word and increase your chances to win not only this book but an ARC of the exciting conclusion to Kay's Blood trilogy, Blood Ties (due to be released Winter 2009) and a $50 gift certificate from Fireside Books and Gifts! Two names will be drawn personally by Kay the evening of December 31st, 2008.

Video

This may be the video Paula showed at her house. I thought I would add it anyway in case someone (like me) didn't get up to watch it.

I have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I really enjoyed it. What a great destination the Channel Islands would be for one of our summer trips! The description makes them seem quite beautiful. I had only a vague knowledge of those islands (Guernsey cows) and I had no idea that they were occupied during the big II war. I am still shocked and surprised with the depth of cruelity people were subject to under the Nazi machine. I had never hear of the slaves she wrote about. I'm going to 'google' that. Thanks for a great pick, Paula.

Christmas Wishes!

Merry Christmas to all by book loving friends! Thanks for making the past year more fun!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The books are here. They came a day late; I guess because of the ice. However, other than Debbie and Kim, I'm not really sure who wanted a copy. I just took a count, so if you ordered one, let me know. I will plan on bringing them to church on Sunday if that is okay with everyone. They were $13.20.

CKB

Books?

Did we read To Dance with the White Dog? I don't remember that, and I have been pretty good about reading the selections. I also don't remember the Jane Austen mystery. Let me know if I just missed those.

CKB

Thanks for posting the list. What a good idea. I quit keeping a list and I sure can't remember all the books we've read. Sorry about your little memory interruption from surgery. I have that problem but I have no excuses but age. An old, old version of Hamlet was on the tube the other night and I tried to watch it to see the connection to E. Sawtelle. I couldn't stay awake for all of it, but I definitely see what you mean.

Book Lists

I started a couple of lists of our books over to the side of our blog. It would be neat to go back and make a list for each year. How many years has it been? 5? I just listed the ones I could think of for the last few months. I'm still a little fuzzy in the brain, which I am blaming on the after-effects of the anesthesia. This past week, I ordered 2 of the same DVD sets in the same order. I also ordered a game for Hunter that I had already bought at Sam's! I'm hoping it's the anesthesia! I have a lot of the books written down somewhere, but to be honest, I don't feel like getting up to look for it right now - another thing I will attribute to surgery! Feel free to add to it as you remember.

The books I ordered should be in Tuesday. I doubt I will be out Wednesday night unless a lot of soreness goes away before then. It took a couple of days to get over getting out Thursday. However, I'm hoping by next Sunday to be back at least for worship. If you want your book before then let me know.

Black-Bottom Pecan Cheesecake Pie

Most of you didn't hang around for dessert, but this is a wonderful, rich pie. It is from a Southern Living magazine.

1/2 (15oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
3 T. whipping cream
1(8oz.) package cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar, divided
2 tsp.. vanilla, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup light corn syrup
3 T. butter, melted
1 1/2 cups pecan halves

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Unroll one piecrust, fit into a deep dish pie plate, fold under edges, and crimp.
3. Microwave chocolate morsels and whipping cream in a small glass bowl at medium power 1-1 1/2 minutes or until morsels begin to melt. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
4. Beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and salt at medium speed until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture into piecrust, spreading evenly. Pour cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer.
5. Whisk together corn syrup, melted butter, remaining 3 eggs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and remaining 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir in pecans; pour over cream cheese layer.
6. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until set, shielding pie after about 45 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Monogram blocks

Connie asked for instructions to make the monogram blocks that I gave at the party. They are so easy, it's embarrassing! Go here: http://www.briarpress.org/cuts/browse?t=19 to get the letters. Just copy and paste into word - you don't have to follow the directions to download or anything fancy for the size I used. Size the letters however large or small you want. They get a little fuzzy if you try to make them very much bigger. If you want them extra large, you would have do the download. Print them on whatever paper you want. I used old manilla file folders cut to fit my printer. Then I had Larry cut 2X4's into squares and sand them for me (he did the hard parts). Then I spray painted them black and decoupaged them. Ta Da! The tags are also old file folders cut to shape.
Do you like the playlist? I only chose a few songs so far. I'm loving Josh Groban's Believe now and I play it over and over!!! If you tell me songs you want added, I'll be glad to put them on there. Or I can take the playlist off if you don't like it. Let me know. I have a huge playlist on a pretend blog I set up for me.

Recipes!!!! Please post your recipes from the party!

Here's mine:

Crockpot Italian Chicken
4-6 chopped chicken breats
1/4 cup butter melted
cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. cream cheese
3 green onions
1 envelope Good Season's Italian Dressing

Mix soup, cheese, and melted butter and pour over chicken in crockpot. Top with onions and dry dressing. Cook 6-8 hours on low in crockpot. Can serve as is or over rice or noodles.

I served the leftovers mixed with cooked spaghetti the next night and it was delicious!

Possible Service Project

As Karen previously stated, last night was wonderful. I'm so glad I was able to get out for it. I was worn out when I got home, but I would have hated missing it. There are a couple of recipes I want after last night. Maybe each person could just post her recipe from last night here on the blog. That would seem like an easy way to do it.

I hate that I didn't mention this last night. I had meant to and forgot. We have talked a few times in the past about doing some type of service project, and, in my opinion, a perfect one found its way to my email.

PTC is having a book drive. They are asking for new, or at least like-new, children's books for a family literacy day that the PTC library has hosted the last couple of years. What they do is encourage students to bring their children to the library that day for readings, games, snacks, etc. They would like to have enough books for each child to be able to take one home. In the past, there have not been enough books.

My hope is that if the group is agreed, each of us could bring a children's book to the January - April meetings. At that time, we could either continue collecting for the 2010 Family Literacy Day or move on to another project.

So, what does everyone think?

The Christmas party hosted by Paula was wonderful! The food was delicious, the game was fun and the dirty Santa was fun too. I think we all got some great reads. Please bring your book to share when you are finished. I'm excited about reading my dirty Santa book, March and the selection for January, The Gernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . So from now on we will meet on the first Monday of each month. Merry Christmas everyone!

Dropping in

I haven't checked this for a while since no one seemed to be posting. It was nice to come by and see some activity. I'm really hoping I can make the Christmas party tomorrow night! I will probably have to bum a ride home. Paula was over Monday night and said she is expecting 12 people! Kim Hackett is planning on coming. Paula mentioned we would probably be losing at least 1 member after Christmas. I hope I can remember to mention a possible service project for the beginning of the year.

Again, I hope to see everyone tomorrow night and catch up.

So worth watching!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The great paradox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYURIZWxHGQ

Hi all! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Maybe you were out at 5 am this morning getting all the deals, but I was snug in bed enjoying a day off with absolutely nothing I HAVE to do today! Larry and I had a great day yesterday in Memphis with my cousin, Sheila, and her husband and son and some of their friends, plus my Daddy and my Aunt Deane. We came home late last night. Sheila's house was gooooorgeous as always. She had already finished her inside Christmas decorations (to die for) - and yet she still managed to pull off making it seem Thanksgivingy too. A&J are at a lodge with her family and C&K are in Pennsylvania. We had already celebrated Thanksgiving with them - we had the big T-Day dinner at our house a couple of weeks ago and last weekend we all went to Branson together. It was a great trip!!!!
I just found this picture on line and want to share it with all of you to inspire your Christmas decorating. I think Cindy in particular will enjoy it! Go here: http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2008/11/purdiest-christmas-tree-ever.html
Sheila has lots of Christmas trees in her house, but not one of them looks like this!

Can't handle the pressure....

Okay, I have not read Twilight..there I said it outloud. It has been on my nightstand for several months and I keep looking at it and think it will be my next book. I have not lead anyone to believe that I have read it..I feel likeI have since all my book club friends have and talk about it all the time. Now the teachers at school are all reading it and talking about it....so I feel it is time. I can not handle the pressure anymore. After this post I am headed up to bed with a warm cup of cider, my flashlight and Twilight. All of you that are going to see the movie this week-end, enjoy yourselves and know I will be curled up trying to catch up so I will no longer be left out of the vampire world.

Book for December

The book for December is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Hopefully, people will read this one!

Wednesday books

I'm reading The Wednesday Sisters, Julie read The Wednesday Letters and is about to read The Wednesday War and I have them on hold at the library. Didn't Cindy read The Wednesday War? Anyone else? What is it with Wednesday books all of a sudden? What other books have days of the week in the titles? Tuesdays with Morrie. Black Sunday. What can you think of?

I just finished Wednesdays Letter...pretty sappy if you ask me. I have started a Karen Kingsbury --yes Everyone finds the Lord in this one. Someone gave it to me on loan because they thought I would love it...I feel obligated to read it. I also started The Wednesday Wars. My copy of Flood Summer should arrive in the mail tomorrow. The Boys and I are reading Hatchet.

Happy Reading from our house

What we're reading

Hey, I just remembered that when Karen started this blog we were going to post what we are reading, so I'm posting my current book. I'm reading The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. I don't know if I like it that much yet. I'm only on page 52 and I keep falling asleep reading it, but that may have more to do with my being tired from the wedding than my interest in the book. In the car I am listening to Forever Odd by Dean Koontz. I just finished Hoot by Carl Hiassen. I haven't started Flood Summer yet. What are you reading?

Happy Cooler Weather!! Happy Reading with a cup of Hot Coco!!
Happy Fall!! Happy almost Holiday Season!! Happy Book Club Friends!!
Happy updated Blog Post!!!
Have a great day!!!!

In Response to Kaye's Request

Those of us who went to PTC were very impressed with the authors. Each author spoke briefly, then read from some of his or her work. After that, there was a question and answer session. Following the formal portion of the program, each author was available to sign his or her books.

I think the "wow" moment for us was the reading by Kevin Brockmeier. He read a short story, “A Fable with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets” from his book The View from the Seventh Layer. You could tell the entire audience was engaged by the story.

I ended up leaving with 5 books!

If you haven't read your email, the selection for November is Flood Summer by local author Trenton Lee Stewart, one of the authors who spoke at PTC. Check your email for all the details.

PTC last night?

Who went to PTC last night? How was it? I went to "Chicks and Chocolate" last night with my darling dils. It was a party hosted by the girlfriend of one of Adam's groomsmen. Adam, Cullen, and two of Adam's groomsmen are in Costa Rica for Adam's batchelor party this week. We had a lot of fun, but I was sorry to have missed the book talks! I've read A Brief History of the Dead and The Mysterious Benedict Society. I would have loved to have heard the authors speak. Somebody please blog about it!

Lunch anyone???

Just thought I would let ya'll know my mom is coming to town tonight and will be here all next week. She and I are going to shopping and lunching most days. anyone free for lunch? what day? we would be happy to meet anywhere. I was going to try to take her to MIMI"S one day.

Julie

Just Wondering..

Sounds like a good idea. Have those authors' books been banned or were they asked to speak because they are locals? Kevin has a slight connection to some of us. He attended CAC with my son. I wonder if his talent for writing was apparent when he was a student there.

Banned Book Week at PTC

Kaye and I were talking about meeting at PTC on the evening of Tuesday, September 30. They are hosting 3 Arkansas authors for Banned Book Week: Trenton Lee Stewart, Kevin Brockmier, and Hope Coulter. It is a free event and will begin at 6:30 and be over at 8:00. Let me know what you think.

Reading with the Rep

I got in touch with Kelly at the Rep. They are not doing Reading with the Rep this season because of the planned renovations. Only the first 2 productions will actually be at the rep this year; the others will be held at other locations. She did offer to meet with us if we wanted to have our own discussion before any of the Les Mis performances.

I'll try to touch base with those I see tonight and over the weekend.

Sorry I Missed it!

Looks like I missed a very special Book Club meeting! Where is the next one? Are we going to see Le Mis. ? I had a great trip to Yellowstone. There weren't televisions in some of the lodges we stayed in so with that and waiting time at the airport and travel time in the plane, I read two and a half books. John ended up reading The Shack and I read Wednesday Wars and really did enjoy it. I felt like I was in Jr. High again as I read it. Such a bum deal to be a Protestant at that school. I also started Kite Runners, but I had to stop because it was so intense for me. It grabbed by interest from the start, but it was frightening and horrifying as well. I had trouble sleeping because of it and other fears going on with me right now. I'm so sheltered that I don't like to be informed that humans actually treat other humans in such terrible ways. Let us know what you are reading these days. Was a book chosen for this month?
Karen

A Good Time Was Had by All

A special thanks to Kaye for hosting our meeting/dinner last night and for arranging for such charming special guests. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Susan and Julie and hope they can return in the future. Although they aren't the greatest, I have posted a few pictures.

I have sent an email to Kelly Ford at the rep to verify Reading with the Rep dates for Les Miserables. I think we were all in agreement that RwtR would be too close in date and to just meet before the performance and discuss the book on our own, but I wanted to make sure they had not changed the standard meeting time from last year. Tickets are $60 & $40.

Banned Book Reading

I'm trying to decide what to read on campus for Banned Book Week. The library committee encourages faculty to read excerpts aloud from banned or challenged books. I'm thinking of reading from The Giver. I thought about reading something from Twain, but I just don't think I can do justice to the dialect differences. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Request....

I have a request of those you who do not work (the others can help too if it is available)

At Pike View Elementary our Book Fair is the week of October 13 - 17. we run it in the morning 8:00 - noonish. the children come and shop. There will be one or two days we may invite parents and grandparents to come and have lunch and shop as well.

we are looking for loving helpers that could help guide children and parents to age appropriate books. There may be a job of helping with the cash register as well.

Many of children do not get to buy books at all. they are more impressed with trinkets that come with the book fair. they do not appreciate a room full of books like you and I would.

anyway, just thought if anyone wanted to have a few volunteer hours I could use you!!! You can bring friends, hubbys or anyone else!!!

THANK YOU.

Julie

My family blog is julieann64@blogspot.com
just a little bit life from my little corner of the world...feel free to check it out.

Yes, I am a picture blogger...just thought I would put my cute baby on. I am in the middle of Dairy Queen and I am hoping for d-hall duty tomorrow so maybe I can finish it. She may not find the Lord but at least there is some soul saving going on. Do they sing Great is Thy Faithfullness at the end???

Happy Reading

Fries with That?

I thought the book was okay, just not my normal reading material. It was kind of like getting onion rings when you wanted fries - okay every now and then but not all the time. I've never been a fan of the "G.R.I.T." lit: Fried Green Tomatoes, Whistle Stop Cafe, etc.

The book I'm currently reading is also set in the South, but this time the locale is Arkansas. I'm reading On Tall Pine Lake. I picked it up at BAM for $4 thinking it looked like a book my mom would like. Since it was set in Arkansas, I thought I'd read it before I passed it on to her. It hasn't been that good so far, but I'm only about 70 pages into it.

Better head to church...

Satisfaction at the DQ

I read LFSatDQ in one day. (John was out of town and I had hours to myself.) I enjoyed it even though there wasn't a murder. At least there was some coming to the Lord, Julie! I laughed out loud a few times and had some tears as well. It was a satisfying book for me. I guess I missed something though. How did the whole town get fooled about Catherine Grace's mom's death? I thought they had found her in the river or did they just assume it?
I'm sorry that I won't be at the BC meeting to meet Susan. John and I are going to Yellowstone that week. We are leaving Sunday.

Welcome, Julie!

Well, we are up to 4!

Julie, what a good idea to post the pictures. I think I have pictures from every trip we have taken --somewhere! I should look for them and post a few too.

Okay, I started LFSatDQ, but I got sidetracked. I came across a book when doing some cleaning this weekend that I had started reading a couple of years ago but for some reason had never finished. I hate having unfinished books! I didn't make the connection when we read the Janet Evanovich book, but the book I had never finished was written by her in collaboration with another writer. Since there was no murder or mystery in LFSatDQ and I wasn't too involved in it yet, I went ahead and read Full Bloom (because there was a murder in there), so I can get rid of it. I finished it up tonight, so maybe I'll get back to our book of the month tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great week!

i'm on!!!!

I finally got on. Just a couple of pics from our trip in June. The first pic is Becky Thatcher's home and the second is Mark Twain's. FUN TRIP. Anne Frank and I are off to karate class.(Jacob's class...I read!)

Thanks, Kaye!

Now I'll be racking by brain to think of my own clever six word bio. I looked at the trailer of the DQ book. I love that scene from Waiting for Guffman with the career DQ girl. I love that movie.
My teenage friends hung out at the local dairy freeze (I've forgotten it's real name. It wasn't Dairy Queen.) Of course, there wasn't much else to do in our small Texas town of 4,000. Sometimes we would go to the big city of Tyler, Tx. and see who was hanging out at the Derrick Drive-In eatery. Where do kids hang out and visit nowdays? I'm so sorry that I'll miss meeting Susan and your party. I haven't started the book yet, but I hope I get the chance to get my copy to you so that Susan can sign it for me.

I can't stop blogging!

Sorry, I can't seem to stop blogging today, and I do have other things to do!!! But I wanted to post this book trailer for Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv4KR2nz1DA
There! I'm done for today! I promise. Unless I think of something else.

oops!

The name of the book is Not Quite What I Was Planning, not Expecting as I wrote in my last entry.

Also, here is a link to Susan Gregg Gilmore's website:http://susangregggilmore.com/books/ if you'd like to see her picture and read a bit about her before you meet her.

Julie Schoerke also has a website:http://www.jkscommunications.com/blog/ Julie is Susan's publicist and will be coming also. If you look far enough back in Julie's blog, you'll see a picture of me and Susan at That Bookstore in Blytheville back in March.

It's a Challenge!

I just read Not Quite What I Was Expecting: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. It's a quick read inspired by Hemingway's six-word story "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." Smith magazine invited its readers to submit their own six-word memoirs, and the results were published in this book. You can read some at: http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/ or you can get the book. The challenge is for each of us to write our own six-word memoir. I have been trying to think of one since yesterday and still don't have mine, so I may lose this challenge myself!
Some of my favorites are:

Put whole self in, shook about
Without me, it's just aweso
The psychic said I'd be richer
I always suffered fools fairly well
Should have learned to count
Found great happiness in insignificant details

......and so many others! Try writing one yourself. It's hard! So far I've come up with, "I read books while drying hair." Okay, so I'm no Hemingway! I'll keep trying!

Recently Finished and Currently Reading

I finished Ana's Story; I cannot recommend it.

However, I am having a blast reading Something Rotten by Alan Gratz. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Denmark, Tennessee. I got it from the library, but I will be ordering a copy for myself as soon as payday rolls around. The author has another adaptation coming out in October, Something Wicked, based on Macbeth. I'm also going to preorder that one!

Welcome, Kaye

I'm glad Kaye is now on board. Karen, did you email everyone? I mentioned the blog to Julie, but she said she had not received an email.

My classes started today (Tuesday), so the end of last week and the weekend were spent getting ready for those. Between course prep and the Olympics, I have not done much reading either. My current book is Ana's Story written by Jenna Bush. I'm not impressed with the writing, and although I feel for the main character, I'm not really engaged in the book. I'm just trying to get through it, so I can move on to the next one.

I'm off to email the ladies for whom I ordered copies of Looking for Savlation at the Dairy Queen. They are in, and I hope to deliver them tomorrow night.

Until later...

Kaye, I'm so glad that your party went so well! I've been looking at books on Goodreads and I've only got 9,ooo left to look at! I have found quite a few of the books we've read and many to add to my list of 'to read'. I have so many books yet to read here at home that I don't need to be tempting myself with more books, but right now I'm reading Christ The Lord by Anne Rice. It's interesting but not outstanding to me. It seems to be redundant, but maybe it will improve. I'm also reading a book about Moses by Chuck Swindoll. He presents some good life application ideas. I plan to take The Shack with me on vacation. John and I are going to Yellowstone Park.

Now that the engagement party is over...

Now that the engagement party is over, I finally have time to look at our new blog. Way cool, Karen!!! Thank you for setting it up! The engagement party for Adam and Jamie was last night and it was wonderful! The weather could not have possibly been better for an outdoor party! We got to meet Jamie's brother and his wife and two little boys - so cute - the boys, I mean, but actually the whole family is very nice looking! And we got to spend a little more time getting to know her Dad and step-mother - really nice people. We had a great time and I think everyone else did too, but Larry and I are simply exhausted today and have barely ventured out of the house. I'm even too tired to read! Now that's some tired!!!!

Who wants to suggest a book for next time, since I chose Looking for Salvation? I'm open to all ideas.

Our Very Own Blog

Thanks for setting this up, Karen. Isn't technology wonderful?

About House, I do hope those who started will finish and give us some input on thier reactions.

I ordered copies of Looking for Savation at the Dairy Queen for myself, Ruth, Paula, Bridget, and Connie. If you wanted a copy and didn't get with me, let me know, and I can place another order. I already have a request to order another book for Kaye.

I love the idea of the blog, but I hope some more of you will still sign up at www.goodreads.com. If nothing else, it is a good way to keep track of the books you read.

I hope you all have a great "rest of the week."

Excuse me, it's 'Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen'. I hope that the m.c. of the book does find salvation there or at least somewhere! Julie, maybe she finds the Lord in the end!

Our very own book club blog

Well here it is, girls. Now let's use it to keep each other updated about coming events and to share reading suggestions and reviews of the books you are reading.
We met at BAM last evening. Sorry that some of you couldn't join us. Our next meeting will be a very special one at Kaye's. I'll let Kaye provide the info.
I didn't read 'House' but after our discussion last night, I feel challenged to read it. I confess I am a little frightened. I've gotta read 'The Shack' and of course our book for the month, 'Finding Salvation at the Dairy Queen'. I'm looking forward to meeting the author. Thanks, Kaye.