Book Club Love (and other ramblings)

In the past week, I've had 2 book club gatherings---the Lit Wits and Totally Lit--and since they are my favorite things ever, I thought I would share with you.

Saturday and the Lit Wits!

                                         Our book: Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb.

Our Thoughts:  This book was enjoyed by all in the group, except for one.  She was not a fan of the writing style--fair enough--but for most of the group, it was a good choice.

We thought that exploring relationships was the theme running throughout the story, and relationship  and family dynamic always leads to good discussion.
We all laughed and got mad and sad, and well, we all cried at some point in the book---even the one member who didn't care for the writing style. The story trumped the writing style for  her  at that part in the book.  

We did not do any 'bra burining' as they did in Sheila's book club.  But I thought about it.  As that is where I got the idea for this book.  Good choice Sheila!!
The funny thing is,  I was telling my Lit Wits friends how I came to choose this book--from my friend Sheila in Minnesota, whom I've never met.  They always think that is so...interesting.  Then Theresa and I like to remind them that her friend Alison of Alison's Book Marks (from a totally unrealted parenting board), whom she has never met either, is friends with Sheila.   They had lunch with Adriana Trigiani last year at BEA!
We really freak them out with that one.   One gal made the comment, how do you become friends with someone on the internet?
See here.  (grins)

Saturday was supposed to be my turn to host the Lit Wits!!  But I didn't have a kitchen. Since this is the book club where we cook/eat,  I could not host, so thankfully Theresa stepped up and offered her home.  I said I would bring the food.

HOW you ask, since I just said that I don't have a kitchen  yet?  Okay, I have everything but the new counter top  (we stuck the old one on just to have a place to put stuff) and a kitchen sink.   So I can cook, but I have to do the dishes in the bathroom sink.

Anyway---I managed.  (even tho Theresa said I could cook at her house).
It was a brunch meeting, so we had ham, eggs for a gang, Swedish Visiting Cake and a fruit salad.  And of course a  white wine sangria, which you can find here. 

I so love my book club friends!   We had the best time---we began with an ice-breaker, even tho we know each other very well, it's just fun to do.

I asked the question--what is the first book you remember?  It was so much fun to reminisce and so funny to see  the age difference in what books we remembered.  It ranged from "Dick and Jane" to  "The Babysitters Club" to "Goosebumps."

It was fun, fun, fun to discuss books of our childhood.  (as well as Henry's Sisters)

The Lit Wits.

Then last night....Totally Lit!  (where I did not bring my camera) We, too had a great time discussing:

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender’s place as “a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language”

San Francisco Chronicle

An Aimee Bender novel or short story may begin with simple prose, but then a boyfriend devolves into an amoeba or a girl turns out to have one hand made of fire. Her contemporary fairy tales abound with surreal elements but always adhere closely to the language of emotion.

from Goodreads.

Totally Lit(erature) thoughts:

We discovered we don't like surrealism.

Having said that.....

most of us liked the writing style

and the language

and the setting

a couple of the characters

There are numerous reviews which are quite good, so don't take our word for it, check it out for yourself. 

But it wasn't our cup of tea.

We found the story really depressing and pretty strange.

To be fair, none of us knew what kind of book we were reading.

And as I said, we really loved the language and her writing style.

In keeping with the theme,  Shelly's daughter made Lemon Cake for dessert.

She was very happy to do so, and it was a happy dessert.  (which you will understand if you've read the book)

As always, we have a great time getting together and talking books.

Last night our  other question was,   "What is your favorite book turned to movie?"

That is always a good topic for discussion.

And I could just kick myself for not remembering my camera!

I love my book clubs!!