Book Club is Back!!!

We've been on a break far too long! I need to feed my brain and read something other than People magazines. Plus, a few of you have been bugging me to start it up again (you know who you are...)

As soon as I can find my email list I'll be sending something out. We've already decided the first book we'll be reading is going to be "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert
Now we just need someone to host and pick a day - sometime in March. Any takers?


From The New Yorker "At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'"

Reading guide

Do you recognize this person?

Yes, it's none other than Martha! This billboard was posted around Seattle and this one was in Woodinville near Patti & Jen last year. Let's hope she chose the Antibiotics :)

The Birth of Venus - Read by 5/1/07

Our current book is “The Birth of Venus” by Sarah Dunant. The next get-together will be hosted by Martha, 1st or 2nd week of May. This has been out for a few years now so you should have no problem finding a copy in the library or 2nd hand book store. Thanks to Kristin for suggesting and hosting the last gathering!

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola's reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.

-from ReadingGroupGuides.com

For discussion questions and more info on the book go to:
http://readinggroupguides.com/guides3/birth_of_venus1.asp

A Secret History by Donna Tartt

Our current read is "A Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Kristen will be hosting the next bookclub in early March 07- Look for an Evite to come!

The Secret History takes place at the fictional Hampden College, which like Bennington is a small liberal arts college in Vermont. Its story centers on a small group of overly refined and elite students of ancient Greek taught by an eccentric professor who accepts few students. When the narrator, Richard Papen, a penniless transfer student from suburban California, successfully hatches a scheme to join the group, he gradually becomes privy to the group's secret history: they had accidentally murdered a farmer in their successful attempt to recreate an ancient Greek bacchanal. However, Bunny Corcorran, the one member of the group who had not participated in the bacchanal, learns of the murder and begins to blackmail the others. As Bunny's sanity becomes questionable and he threatens to reveal their secret, Richard must choose whether to side with the group in their decision to murder Bunny in order to silence him.
Critical opinion of the novel has been mostly favorable. Some critics have faulted The Secret History for vapid characterization and artificial stylization, but most have praised the work as an outstanding achievement for a first novel. Variously interpreted as suspenseful mystery, an exploration of the nature of evil, and a comparison of classical and modern values and philosophy, The Secret History is a noteworthy debut from a talented contemporary author.
With the publication of The Little Friend in 2002, Tartt proves she is no one-hit wonder. Already critics have praised the novel for its prose style, sharp characterizations, and tense narrative.
(Article updated November 2002)
—John B. Padgett

Baby Finley has arrived!

Finley Marin Ross

Born 3:17pm, Sunday, November 26th, as the snow was falling (yup - we have some snow in Seattle) 21 inches - 53.5 cm (Finley's length, broken down for those both south and north of the border - take one or the other, she is not 21 inches plus 53.5 cm long!) 8 lbs, 1 oz brown hair (for now... Jenn promises it will turn red, one way or another!)

Congratulations Jenn & Neil!

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Read by 11/3/06

Welcome back to Bookclub! Our Pick for this period is Mountains Beyond Mountains - a nonfiction book which happens to be the UW Freshman class "Common Book" for this year.

We're also changing our monthly meets to every 2 months which will hopefully give everyone the opportunity and time to finish a book. The next get get together is scheduled for Friday November 10th, 7pm. Hosted by Martha. Please send me an email if you haven't received the Evite.


Adult/High School-Thought-provoking and profoundly satisfying, this book will inspire feelings of humility, admiration, and disquietude; in some readers, it may sow the seeds of humanitarian activism. As a specialist in infectious diseases, Farmer's goal is nothing less than redressing the "steep gradient of inequality" in medical service to the desperately poor. His work establishing a complex of public health facilities on the central plateau of Haiti forms the keystone to efforts that now encompass initiatives on three continents. Farmer and a trio of friends began in the 1980s by creating a charitable foundation called Partners in Health (PIH, or Zanmi Lasante in Creole), armed with passionate conviction and $1 million in seed money from a Boston philanthropist. Kidder provides anecdotal evidence that their early approach to acquiring resources for the Haitian project at times involved a Robin Hood type of "redistributive justice" by liberating medical equipment from the "rich" (Harvard) and giving to the "poor" (the PIH clinic). Yet even as PIH has grown in size and sophistication, gaining the ability to influence and collaborate with major international organizations because of the founders' energy, professional credentials, and successful outcomes, their dedicated vision of doctoring to the poor remains unaltered. Farmer's conduct is offered as a "road map to decency," albeit an uncompromising model that nearly defies replication. This story is remarkable, and Kidder's skill in sequencing both dramatic and understated elements into a reflective commentary is unsurpassed.Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

My virtual thank-you note!

Hello everyone!

A belated "thank you" to NOBC for the baby gift to our account at Baby Diaper Service. The book club's gift will take care of about five weeks of diaper service for us - no small thing considering that we still use about 140 diapers each week! The diaper service has been great because we don't have to worry about running out of diapers, late night trips to buy more diapers or how to dispose of or wash diapers. Thanks so much for contributing to our account!

Though I haven't really been reading books or making it to bookclub recently, I'm still dreaming about doing those things and reading about reading books. A good-looking list of recommended books for women appeared in today' Seattle Times. The list is in the Gender F supplement and includes a review for one book which ends with the sentence, "This is a women's book-club offering if there ever was one: Read her, get mad, be thoughtful." Hmmm.... It looks like all the books are non-fiction so maybe not what NOBC is looking for but some of you may be interested in checking it out. The article should be available online or on my refrigerator door for the next several weeks.

Thanks again for the baby gift! I hope to read a book and see you all soon.

Becky