Sunday, September 5, 2010

Book Titles!!!!

Here’s a list of book titles, the titles that have a X are the books we read in the previous months.




1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma-Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein X

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code Series - Dan Brown X (we read The Lost Symbol).

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dicken X

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

101 The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom.X

102 Peyton Place - Grace MetaliousX

103 The Importance Of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde X

104 Agent Bishop - Mike Peters X

105 Jacob Have I Loved - Katherine Patterson X

106. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver X

107. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire X

108. Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lighting Thief - Rick Riodan X

109. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux X

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief by Rick Riodan


September's Book Choice
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief by Rick Riodan
Choosen by Jamie Wilde West
Meeting held on (To Be Determined) at Jamie's House

Plan: I was thinking for those of you who still want to read Wicked, you are welcome too.  We will still discuss Wicked along with The Lighting Thief and then watch The Lighting Thief DVD at the meeting for fun.


Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire


September's Book Choice
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Choosen by Jamie Wilde West
Meeting held on (To Be Determined) at Jamie's House

Editor's Note - I'm sorry for the book change. I started reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and I found the language to be a little rough and graphic, I was afraid of another "Peyton Place" incident. But, for those of you who still would like to read the book this month instead of t...he Percy Jackson book you are more than welcome too and we can still discussing in this month's meeting. I'm still reading Wicked too. We all agreed to read The Lighting Thief at last week's Book Club Meeting.


Thanks for Understanding!!!!



The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver


August's Book Choice

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsoliver
Chosen by RonnaLee Hesford
Meeting held on Monday, August 30, 2010 at 7:00pm at RonnaLee Hesford's House




Agent Bishop by Mike Peters



July's Book Choice

Agent Bishop by Mike Mc Peters
Chosen by Lela Anderson
Meeting held on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 12:00pm at Lela Anderson's House

****Facebook Discussion****

Jamie Wilde West This book was kind to a trial for me. I usually get the audiobook version....but in this case there wasn't an audiobook version available. With the audiobook I can listen to it while I drive in my long commute to Salt Lake City to work, while cleaning house or doing something. This, I had to sit and read..... it was quite a struggle.


Anyway, I loved the book.....the story how the main character juggled being a FBI Agent and a Mormon Bishop was great. I know of a couple of great men in my ward that work in the Criminal Justice Field and they serve neat callings in the Church. One is a Highway Patrol Man and the other is a Lawyer.......I couldn't help but think what kind of things these great men are exposed to in their field. Always witnessing someone broking the law or in the Lawyer's case defending the criminal's case. In Agent Bishop, the Author also talk about how his wife supported him in being a Bishop and a FBI Agent. With those men in my ward, they are married to some awesome women that I look up to who support their husbands in their career and their callings in the Church.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel


June's Book Choice

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Chosen by Donna Fischer Wilde
Meeting held on Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 2:00pm Jamie's House (due to illness' and conflict of schedules we had to combine two book club meetings for June).


The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom





May's Book Choice

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Chosen by Suzanne Edmunds Thompson
Meeting held on Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 2:00pm Jamie's House (due to illness' and conflict of schedules we had to combine two book club meetings for June).

****Facebook Discussion****

Jamie Wilde West This was an awesome book to read...I loved it....It was a tear-jerker. It was about a family in Holland who hid Jews in their house during World War II.



The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseine





April's Book Choice
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Chosen by Mary Durtschi
Meeting held in April at Mary Durtschi's House.

****Facebook Discussion****

Jamie Wilde West When I downloaded it on Audible, they classified it as Children's book, Okaaay! But it was a good book, very character driven. You fill love for the two boys, one is rich and the other is poor. They go through life as friends before and during the Cold War in Afganistan. The rich boy is a coward growing up and is alway looking for acceptance from his Father. The poor boy is always protecting the other boy and cares for him. During the Cold War the rich boy and his father go to America, they are poor. During the Taliban, the rich boy get a call from one of his father's friends asking him to come home to find the poor boy.


I'm not going to finish, read it and find out what happens.

RonnaLee Thompson Hesford NOT .... NOT a book for kids! I almost stopped reading it when I got to a part that was very upsetting. I couldn't sleep that night.

I DID keep reading it (not yet finished) and I'm glad I continued. So it you're reading it and thinking of stopping ... keep reading!

 Mary - I'm loving it! I'm just tender hearted and some parts are difficult to read. I can't wait to finish it!


Mary Browne Durtschi Jamie, it is hard to imagine that Audible would class this as a children's book. Someone must have been sleeping on the job. I know that children grow up fast now days, BUT, not that fast.

I hope everyone enjoys 'The Kite Runner'. I LOVED this book. I like many different kinds of books, but, this is my favorite type. I want my characters totally developed and life-like. See you in April.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown





March's Book Choice
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Book Choosen by Don West Jr.
Meeting held on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 2:00pm Don's House

Jamie Wilde West This book was very interesting. It kind of makes you look at the places around Washington DC a little differently. The Villian in the book is kinda of a dork, it's like he was bad out of boredom. He seemed like a tattooed version of Smidley Whiplash. The plot was interesting, but got a little too wikipediaey in some places. I read this book awhile back, but I plan on reading it again.


Oh, Yeah the part about the Giant Squid, Yuck!!! I still get grossed out by thinking about it.



Don West Jr I have to admit I am a fan of most of Dan Brown's books. This one was good, but not as good as the two that proceeded it in this series. I thought the plot was good but some of the story getting up to the climax was unnessecary. I thought the tie in with the villian and the other characters was too predictable. I really did enjoy The Lost Symbol.



RonnaLee Thompson Hesford Our discussion about The Lost Symbol today was very interesting. It was fun to share our views about the book. I wish we could go to DC to take a look at the things we read about. It seems like Dan Brown does a lot of research into what he writes about.

Being a relative of a 33rd Degree Mason, I wonder how much of what he wrote about their lodge ceremonies is just plain made up. It was written as if Mr. Brown respects the Freemasons and if he does, he would not disclose details about things they hold as sacred. If he were a Mason himself, he wouldn't write about it either.

In my opinion, there are so many similarities between the Masonic symbols and other symbols used in other religions, because they must all stem from the same truth way, way back when. I think these truths have been slightly changed by different groups as they separated from each other to form their own groups/religions. What do you all think?

I respect the Masons based on what I learned from my 33rd Degree relative and from what I read when researching about their basic beliefs. I also respect them based on how my relative lived his life with honor, morality and charity. It is true (as in the book) that many men who are Masons are prominent members of their communities, in business and politics. Would it upset "National Security" if someone were to reveal that many of our nation's leaders are Masons? Would people remember that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and many other Founding Fathers were Masons? In my opinion, it wouldn't if their organization were looked at for what it really is. In the book's plot, the video of the Masonic rituals was edited in a way to make the ceremonies look evil and they were unexplained. In a case like that, I do believe that it would cause problems for America's leaders today. In general, people fear what they do not understand. This was a book to promote a lot of thought about the "what ifs".

I agree w/ Don that it was too predictable when it came to it's bad guy. I caught on right away to that twist. The squid, castration and tattoos was a bit much I thought - but that's just me.

All in all, I'd recommend this book to others, especially if they are someone who likes history.



The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde




Feburary's Book Choice
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Chosen by Jim Wilde
Meeting held on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 2:00pm at The Stockton Fire Station.

Event Details: We met at the Fire Station, discussed the book and watch the play on DVD that's was borrowed from Sheldon Talbot's video collection.

****Facebook Discussion****

RonnaLee Thompson Hesford Our book club met today to discuss The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Since this was written as a play, we watched it today on video. It was good to see it as a play after reading it. It was interesting to learn a little bit about Oscar Wilde himself.

When I first began to read the play, I found it slow and easily got distracted. As I got farther into the play, I found the odd characters like Aunt Augusta very quirky. There were many odd lines of dry humor sprinkled without the text.

I'm glad I read this classic and learned about it's author.



Jamie Wilde West I love this book. I remember back in High School my senior year we read this book. My English teacher announced to the class that we were reading this book. The entire class turned around to look at me and a guy that was sitting behind me asked, "Dude, are you related to him?" As we read the book in class I laughed at the english humorous content, because my Dad loves english humor and it rubbed on me. As I read it now, it was refreshing to read it again. I still love those same jokes that I laughed at while reading it back then.



RonnaLee Thompson Hesford I got more out of Mr. Wilde's play after watching two different movie versions of it. I caught many humorous lines that I had missed before. I've never been one to "get" English humor much, but some lines were just great.


Here's a taste of the version we watched at the meeting.