Recommended Reading

 Here are some book recommendations:

Recommended by Chris Peek:

Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear - NOTE: The American Agent is available as a book club kit

Farmacology by Daphne Miller

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

The Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca - NOTE: this is available as a book club kit

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery - NOTE: this is available as a book club kit

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah - NOTE: this is available as a book club kit

Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar - NOTE: this is available as a book club kit

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Recommended by Chris Mallon:

Driving Miss Norma by Tim Bauerschmidt

Recommended by Judy Schmidt:

What They Found by Rod Molsan

Walking Home by Rick Rogers

Recommended by Judy Bell: 

Remembering the Osage Kid by Mardi Oakley Medawar

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

The Stranger in the Life Boat by Mitch Albom

Cloud Cuckooland by Anthony Doerr

Searching for the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Recommended by Esther:

The Professor and the Madman: a Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

A Merry Christmas!

 We met again at Judy Schmidt's this month and enjoyed a tasty chicken vegetable soup with bread.  Thank you Judy for making us warm and welcome!  As we discussed our book, "Cave of Bones", we wrapped gift books for local children.  We also made final contributions to our Christmas Jar and found we had collected $300.00 for one local Entiat family to brighten their holiday!  A Merry Christmas to all and a save, healthy and happy New Year!

September 17, 2021:  We were able to resume meeting after Covid with an outdoor-deck gathering at Judy Schmidt's; briefly discuss our last read over a year ago "Me Before You", and resume our list. A meeting was set up for Esther's garden patio November 4 to discuss "The Library Book". The Christmas Jar is resumed!

We gain so much by reading

We met at Maureen's to enjoy a recipe of Ethiopian cooking and discuss this epic novel, Cutting for Stone. A novel, as Claudia said, of love and betrayal, compassion and redemption...resilience, fortitude and the fragility of life. Add to that learning about a country and political events with a heavy dose of medical intertwined. It was a complex tale with many quotables by this eloquent writer:


"Life is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backwards."



"Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?"

The Slipper Story, whose moral is that you own who you are, "not only our actions but also our omissions become our destiny."

"we are all fixing what is broken, it is the task of a lifetime. We'll leave much unfinished for the next generation."

The rankings were high; between 5 and 6, for 5.4 average.

Hopefully our absent members can make the next meeting April 23 at Chris's; and Nika rejoining us.
We need to remind Ann at Book Club NCRL of our schedule for upcoming books.

Our Jar

Don't forget our upcoming meeting March 5, 2020 at Maureen's.  We'll make our jar grow!

An Evening at the Pub n Grub

Nice to see everyone who made it to the Entiat Pub-n-Grub for our January meeting.  With two books to review and a new meeting schedule to decide, we certainly had a lot to discuss.

The Christmas Jars by Jason F Wright was our holiday read.  We found this book sad but also uplifting as it illustrates the goodness in people's hearts goes around.  It is a reminder that every day we should write a note of what you are grateful for.  Maureen came up with the wonderful idea of starting our own book club Christmas jar.  We all contributed our change and dollars and will do the same each time we meet.  At our December meeting we will decide what to do with what we have collected.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was our other book to review.  Some of us found the "nearly impossible reality of the main character being able to self-teach herself with a little reading help from her friend" (Judy B) a disappointing aspect of the story, but we enjoyed the author's beautiful descriptions of the marsh and the creatures that lived there and found the story compelling with an unexpected ending.  "We are shaped by the children we once were."

Here is the meeting schedule we have set up for 2020:
March 5th at Maureen's home review "Cutting for Stone"
April 23rd at Chris M's home review "I'll Push You"
June 4th at Chris P's home review "The Library Book"
NO MEETINGS in July and August
September 10th at Debbie G's home review "Educated"
November 19th at Judy S's home review "Me Before You"
December 10th at Claudia's home review Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory"

An Evening Along the Columbia

Reminiscent of the holiday meal book character Susan prepared for Ada, Jamie and the pilots, Judy prepared a delicious ham dinner!  And she had a lovely centerpiece: a ceramic horse and actual rationing coupon books from WWII!  It was nice to have Joe join us as we were a small group.  Plenty of time to chat and share before our book discussion. 

(sorry for positioning of the pictures, but I could not rotate these images!)

Although a shorter young readers book, 'The War That Saved My Life' was a good history lesson describing life and hardships people endured during the war.  It also spoke to the resilience of people, especially Ada, the main character, who was born with a physical handicap and whose mother left her with many emotional handicaps.  I found it interesting to try to put myself in Ada's shoes as she learned so much when she was relocated, an effort to protect the children in the event of a bombing on London.  Not only could she not read or write, but she had never seen indoor plumbing, sheets and blankets, tablecloths and so many other common things we all take for granted.  Imagine her amazement when she first saw grass and a sky that went on forever.  Her determination to learn and overcome her set-backs was remarkable.  The book also spoke to what really makes a family.  It is a great book for youngsters to read and learn from.

The events described in the book directly impacted Judy S as she relayed information about her mother's family during WWII.  The story was very moving to her and she says "For me, it was a walk into my mother's shortened childhood."

Our next meeting will be Thursday, December 5th at Maureen's home.