Wow! It has been a long time since we have come together for the book club. I've been busy and RonnaLee has been busy.....we have both failed in keeping the book club going. Should we keep it going or should we just have a break for awhile? If we have some interest I will keep it going. Please let me know. I had a plan for April to read The Forgetten Garden by Kate Morton, then I have asked a couple of book clubbers to choose the books for May and June. We can also start over by reading My Sister's Keeper by Jill Picoult, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, those books we were going to read during the past months. Again, RonnaLee and I are so sorry that we have both the book club. :( I know she is taking care of her Mother and she has asked for me to continue without her. Also, I have been busy due to my job, entertaining nephews and a niece and quilting with my Mother-in-law. Anyway, please let me know if anyone of what to keep the book club going. I will keep it going if anyone wants to. I also accepting new members for the book club.
I had to title this post under a Brenda Lee song. As I was writting this I had that song in my head. Now, It's now going to be in yours..... you're welcome. :)
For February's book we'll be reading My Sister's Keeper by Jill Picoult.
About the book: The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island in 2004. Anna Fitzgerald's older sister, Kate, suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Anna was conceived as a savior sibling, in order to harvest blood from her umbilical cord to use in treatments to help save Kate's life. Although the treatment was initially successful, Kate relapsed; ever since, Anna, the only compatible family member, has been used as a donor for any other bodily substance needed to treat Kate, who continues to swing between remission and relapse as she grows up.
Anna is usually willing to donate whatever Kate needs, but when she is 13, she is told that she will have to donate one of her kidneys. The surgery required for both Kate and Anna would be major; it is not guaranteed to work, as the stress of the operation may well kill Kate anyway; and the loss of a kidney could have a serious impact on Anna's life. Anna petitions for medical emancipation with the help of lawyer Campbell Alexander, so that she will be able to make her own decisions regarding her medical treatment and the donation of her kidney.
Anna's mother, Sara, is an ex-lawyer and decides to represent herself and her husband in the lawsuit. Over the course of the novel, she tries on several occasions to make Anna drop the lawsuit. Anna refuses to do so, but the resulting tension between her and her mother result in her moving out of the house to live with her father Brian in the fire station where he works. This is done on the advice of Julia Romano, the court-appointed guardian ad litem whose job it is to decide what would be best for Anna. Julia was once romantically involved with Campbell when they went to school together, but Campbell broke her heart when he left her. Unbeknown to Julia, Campbell left her because he discovered he had epilepsy and thought she deserved better.
Meanwhile, Anna's brother Jesse, who has spent most of his life being ignored in favor of ill Kate or donor Anna, spends most of his time setting fire to abandoned buildings with home-made explosives and doing drugs. He is a self-confessed juvenile delinquent. One moment when his parents pay him any attention is when Brian discovers that it is Jesse who has been setting the fires. Brian forgives him, and by the end of the book, he has reformed and graduated from the police academy.
During the trial, it is revealed that Kate asked Anna to sue for emancipation because she did not want Anna to have to transplant, and because she believes that she will die anyway. The judge rules in Anna's favor, and grants Campbell medical power of attorney. However, as Campbell drives her home after the trial, their car is hit by an oncoming truck. Brian, the on-call firefighter who arrives at the scene, retrieves an unconscious and injured Anna from the wreckage of the crushed car and rushes her and Campbell to hospital. At the hospital, the doctor informs Sara and Brian that Anna is brain-dead, that the machines keeping her alive may as well be switched off, and asks them if they have considered organ donation. Campbell steps in, and declares that he has the power of attorney, and "there is a girl upstairs who needs that kidney." Kate is prepared for surgery, and Anna's kidney is successfully transplanted. Kate survives the surgery and remains in remission for at least six years.
Kate believes that she survived because someone had to go, and Anna took her place. Six years later, she works as a dance instructor.
For March's book will be reading Water for Elephants by Sue Gruen.
About the book: The story is told as a series of memories by Jacob Jankowski, a ninety-three year-old man who lives in a nursing home. Jacob is told what to eat and what to do.
As the memories begin, Jacob Jankowski is a twenty-three year old Polish American preparing for his final exams as a Cornell University veterinary student when he receives the devastating news that his parents were killed in a car accident. Jacob’s father was a veterinarian and Jacob had planned to join his practice. When Jacob learns that his father was deeply in debt because he had been treating animals for just beans and eggs and had mortgaged the family home to provide Jacob an Ivy League education, he has a breakdown and leaves school just short of graduation. In the dark of night, he jumps on a train only to learn it is a circus train belonging to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. When the owner of the circus, Uncle Al, learns of his training as a vet, he is hired to care for the circus animals. This consequently leads Jacob to share quarters with a dwarf named Walter (who is known as Kinko to the circus) and his dog Queenie. A few weeks later Jacob is summoned to take a look at Camel, an old man who, after drinking Jamaican ginger extract for many years, can't move his arms or legs. Fearing Camel will be "red-lighted" (referring to the practice of throwing circus workers off a moving train as either punishment or as severance from the circus to avoid paying wages),he hides him in his room.
The head trainer, August, is a brutal man who abuses the animals in his care (such as the new elephant Rosie) and the people around him. Alternately, he can be utterly charming. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August and his wife, Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love. August is suspicious of their relationship and beats Marlena and Jacob. Marlena subsequently leaves August and stays at a hotel while she's not performing. Uncle Al then informs Jacob that August is a paranoid schizophrenic and then utters a threat: reunite August and Marlena as a happily married couple or Walter and Camel get red-lighted.
A few days later after discovering that August has tried to see Marlena, Jacob visits her in her hotel room. Soon after he comforts her however, the couple sleep together and then eventually declare their love for each other. Marlena soon returns to the circus to perform (and also to have secret meetings with Jacob), but refuses to have August near her, which makes Uncle Al furious.
One night Jacob climbs up and jumps each car, while the train is moving, to August's room, carrying a knife between his teeth intending to kill August. However, Jacob backs out and returns to his car, only to find no one there but Queenie. He then realizes that Walter and Camel were red-lighted and Jacob himself was supposed to be too.
As the story climaxes, several circus workers who were red-lighted off the train come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance.
In the ensuing panic, Rosie the elephant takes a stake and drives it into August's head. His body is then trampled. Jacob was the only one who saw what truly happened to August. As a result of this incident, which occurred during a circus performance, the circus is shut down. Soon after, Uncle Al's body is found with a makeshift garrote around his neck. Marlena and Jacob leave, along with several circus animals (Rosie, Queenie and others), and begin their life together.
Ninety-three year old Jacob is waiting for his family to take him to the circus. It is revealed that Jacob and Marlena married and had 5 children spending the first seven years at the Ringling Bros. circus before Jacob got a job as a vet for a Chicago zoo. Marlena is revealed to have died a few years before Jacob was put into a nursing home. After finding out no one is coming for him, elderly Jacob goes to the circus on his own. He soon meets the manager Charlie and begs to be allowed to accompany the circus by selling tickets. Charlie agrees and Jacob believes he has finally come home.
About the book: Young Chinese American Henry Lee meets Keiko Okabe, a Japanese American girl, in the early 1940s. They both attend an (otherwise) white prep school as "scholarship students" in Seattle. Henry's father is adamantly anti-Japanese, as is the increasingly hostile general population of Seattle following the Attack on Pearl Harbor. In spite of this, Henry and Keiko begin an intense friendship until Keiko is taken to an internment camp with her family.
Henry finds her, first at local Camp Harmony. After failing to make his feelings known at Camp Harmony, he follows her with his friend, a local Jazz musician named Sheldon, to Minidoka, Idaho. Upon finding her there, he promises to wait for her. They decide to write each other letters until the war is over, and Henry returns to Seattle.
He religiously mails Keiko letters, but receives very few in return. His father is intent on sending him to China, now that the Japanese are being pushed back, to finish his education traditionally. Henry arrives home one day to find a ticket to China in his name. He agrees to go on the condition that his father (as part of an association of elders) saves the Panama Hotel from being sold. The Panama Hotel is where Keiko's family stored the larger part of their belongings when they were shipped to the concentration camps. Many families stored their possessions in the basement of the Hotel.
He then meets the woman he ended up marrying, Ethel, who worked at the post office and became casual friends with him. He did end up meeting Keiko again, though their postal contact was severed by Henry's father, who was stopping the letters in transit. With the help of Henry's son he finds Keiko in New York after she sent a package to Sheldon's funeral. He goes to see her and they have casual conversation, until Keiko begins a Japanese compliment that Henry had spoken to her in during their childhood, which Henry finishes.
The Author Jamie Ford shows the places in the book.
2011 was a great year for us. We read a lot on interesting books. We started the year by reading The Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, which we all love the book and loved talking about the book at the Stockton Miner's Cafe. A lot of our meetings were held at the Stockton Miner's Cafe where we enjoyed the book discussions and a delicious lunch. Throughout the year we enjoyed Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, Murder at the Vicarge by Agatha Christie, Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
We have invited two Utah authors to come and discuss their work. Ogden Native, Clyde A. Landon discussed his book His Name is Guck. A tear-jerking story about a boy and his dog. Salt Lake Native, Roger T. Muir came and discussed his book Like Father, Like Son?. It was filled with heart-wrenching and hilarious stories about having a father and not having a father. He co-wrote with author Greg D. Boyle. The book was written in two styles, one was the point of view of someone having a father in their life. The another point of view was of someone without a father in their life.
We had a lot of things happen in book club and not just reading books. In May, the book club was featured in the Hometown section of the Tooele Transcript. We celebrated our second anniversary in September by having a night on the town. We watched The Help at the Theater and eat dinner at Applebee's after.
We are excited to see what 2012's books bring. We are planning on doing more fun things like going to a play, the movies, etc. We have talked about going shopping in Park City or Salt Lake City as book club. We hope to grow and gain more members, because we love having discussions about the books... good or bad. We welcome anyone to join our club.
~~~~Stockton Book Club Newsletter ~~~~ October / November / December Edition #9, 10 & 11 Fall and Winter stocktonbookclubut@yahoo.com http://www.stocktonbookclubut.blogspot.com/ The Help byKathyrn Stockett (October’s Book Choice)
The Help is a 2009 novel by American author Kathryn Stockett. The story is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. AUSA Today article called it one of 2009's "summer sleeper hits". An early review inThe New York Times notes Stockett's "affection and intimacy buried beneath even the most seemingly impersonal household connections" and says the book is a "button-pushing, soon to be wildly popular novel". TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution said of the book, "This heartbreaking story is a stunning debut from a gifted talent".
Note:If you want a copy of the books that we are reading, please call Jamie at 435-840-8183. I’ll be happy to get you a copy and have it delivered to your home.
***If you have another book title that you think the Book Club would like to read, please let us know. Send us an e-mail at stocktonbookclubut@yahoo.com.***
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (November’s Book Choice)
Tuesdays with Morrie is a 1997 non-fiction novel by AmericanwriterMitch Albom. The story was later adapted by Thomas Rickman into a TV movie of the same name directed by Mick Jackson, which aired on 5 December 1999 and starred Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. The book topped theNew York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers of 2000. This novel tells the true story of Brandeis University retired sociology professor Morrie Schwartz and his relationship with his students. On his graduation, Mitch Albom, the narrator, tells his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz, that he will keep in touch. However, Mitch doesn't contact his professor until one night when he sees Morrie being interviewed on T.V. It turns out that Morrie has developed ALS, a terminal disease, and is in a wheelchair. Mitch begins to visit his professor and soon realizes that, though he has grown remarkably, he still has a lot to learn from Morrie. After five years in hardcover, Tuesdays with Morrie was released as a trade paperback in October 2002. It was re-released as a mass-market paperback by Anchor Books in January 2006. According to this edition, 11 million copies of Tuesdays with Morrie are in print worldwide.
Christmas Party!!!!!!
For December we will not have a book to read, but we encourage you to enjoy your holidays with loved ones. If you would like you can read a book of your liking and you can discuss the book with our club come January. We will have a Christmas Party, we ask that you bring a White Elephant Gift, a book to trade, and a dessert to share.
When: Thursday, December 1st 2011 Time: 6:30 pm Where: Stockton Fire Station
Bookjigs Bookmark We have an order for the bookmarks. Visithttp://www.bookjigs.com/ to look at the different designs, each design costs start at $18 for a package of 6. We can trade and switch designs with other members who have purchased the bookmarks. These are very nice bookmarks, they clip on to the cover of your book and the ribbon attached will hold your place in your book. You don’t lose your bookmark.
Recipes
Minny's Chocolate Pie (The Help by Kathryn Stockett)
1 packaged pie dough crust, such as Pillsbury
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whipped cream, for serving
Preheat the oven to 350°. Ease the pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate and crimp the edges decoratively. Prick the crust lightly with a fork. Line the crust with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Remove the foil and weights and bake for about 5 minutes longer, just until the crust is dry but not browned.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the sugar with the cocoa powder, butter, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and salt until smooth.
Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for about 45 minutes, until the filling is set around the edges but a little jiggly in the center. Cover the crust with strips of foil halfway through baking. Transfer the pie to a rack and let cool completely before cutting into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.
MAKE AHEAD The chocolate pie can be refrigerated overnight.
Chocolate Chip Cookies (Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom)
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.
If you have an idea for a recipe that coordinates with the book, please let us know. stocktonbookclubut@yahoo.com.
Current Stockton Book Club Members
RonnaLee Hesford - Founder
Jamie West - Co-Founder
Nadine West
Kathleen Memmot
Lela Anderson
Mary Durtschi
Debbie Rusk
Suzanne Thompson
Jim Wilde
Donna Wilde
Don West Jr.
Josie West
Jill Bartholmew
Doralee Speakman
Joyce Grogan
Tami Olsen Books We Have Read in the Past Months
2009 -
Sept. - To Kill a Mocking Bird by Lee Harper
Oct. - Peyton Place by Grace Metalicous
Nov. - Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
Dec. - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2010-
Jan. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffennegger
Feb. The Importance of Being Eanest by Oscar Wilde
Mar. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Apr. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini
May. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Jun. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Jul. Agent Bishop by Mike Peters
Aug. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Sept. Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lighting Thief by Rick Riodan
Oct. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Lerouix
Nov. The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright
Dec. Collection of Christmas Stories by Various Authors
2011-
Jan. Fried Green Tomatoes of the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg.
Feb. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Mar. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Apr. Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
May. His Name is Guck by Clyde A. Landon
Jun. Like Father, Like Son? by Roger T. Muir and Greg D. Boyle.
Jul. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Aug. Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray Sept. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Oct. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Nov. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Dec. Book of your choice (Opitional)
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Happy Reading!!!!!
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Please Email your comments, questions, and suppgestions to stocktonbookclubut@yahoo.com.
We'll be reading The Help by Stockett for October's book. Last month, our book club went and watched the movie The Help. We decided to read the book. The novel is told from the point of view of three narrators: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children, and who has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid whose back-talk towards her employers results in her having to frequently change jobs, exacerbating her desperate need for work as well as her family's struggle with money; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman and recent college graduate who, after moving back home, discovers that a maid that helped raise her since childhood has abruptly disappeared and her attempts to find her have been unsuccessful. The stories of the three women intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help", with complex relations of power, money, emotion, and intimacy tying together the white & black families of Jackson.
In 2009, Labor Day Weekend we had our first ever book club meeting. We discussed To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee and enjoyed a yummy dessert. We want to CELEBRATE our book club's milestone. We came from humble beginnings. Beginning with a conversation that RonnaLee and Jamie had on Facebook. Since then, we have a fan page and group page on Facebook, a blog, an article in theTooele Transcript and have invited local authors to come and discusse their works with us. RonnaLee and Jamie have decided that it would be fun to have an outing with our book clubbers for a movie and dinner. The movie would be The Help and dinner will be at Applebee's. We will discussing the books we read during our Summer Break. Books are Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
When: Thursday, September 15th 2011
Time: 6:00pm
Where: We will meet at the Stockton LDS Meetinghouse, we will meet there and we go to there together.
We have decided to watch The Help and we will be reading the book in October.
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Please Email your comments, questions, and suppgestions to stocktonbookclubut@yahoo.com.