Fa La La Christmas Party

We had our Christmas party last Monday night at Tina's house and we had a "Snuggie" good time! We will definitely remember this party as the year of the Snuggie and the year that Carolynn opened all of the gifts. I think we all had a great time and loved our gifts.

Wasn't it great to see Tina's house? Thank you Tina for having us over and your warm hospitality.

We didn't even talk about the book for December, but we did choose the first book of the year. We are reading "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.

We will meet again on Tuesday, January 5th at 6:30 at Panera Bread.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

November Meeting

We had a good time discussing our Mitch Albom Book.

For December, we have chosen "Christmas List" by Richard Paul Evans.

We are changing things up for our December Meeting. Tina is hosting us at her house for a Christmas party. Notice the change of date - it will be on Monday, December 7th at 6:30. We will send out a reminder closer to the date.

We are going to have a "white elephant" gift exchange. Bring a wrapped book, or any other item that has to do with reading (light, glasses, bookmark, magnifying glass, etc.). (Around $15).

Also, please bring an appetizer or dessert to share.

Hope everyone can make it.

October Meeting

We had a small group Tuesday, but had a lot of fun. We had very little discussion about our book, but we had lots of laughs about what is going on in our lives. Most of us would not classify the book as one of our favorites. The word that was used most often was BORING!

Hopefully we have chosen a better selection for this month. We are reading "Have A Little Faith" by Mitch Albom. I don't even think I am going to try to contact Mitch. I think he is a little out of our league, but you never know. We have had some really great authors in high up places call us.

Another suggestion for a book for your general reading is "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson. It is about the devastating Galveston storm from the 1950's. Several people had either heard about it or read it, and thought it was a great book. I think we decided that it might be too heavy to read during the holidays.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 3rd. Get your book, read it and save the date on your calendar.

Chat With Juliette Fay - September Meeting

How lucky are the Fa La La's? I am amazed every time we get to talk to an author. It is great to hear about their book and the characters from their perspective.

Talking with Juliette Fay was every bit as fun as her book. She had such an outgoing, bubbly personality and was full of information about her characters - her friends. I think it is so neat for her that her first novel was picked up by Target as one of their featured books of the year.

This is a book that everyone really enjoyed. One thing that is fun to me, is to talk about how each of us imagine the characters in our mind. Then it is fun to "cast" them as if there is a movie in the works. It was fun to hear who Juliette thought would play the characters. I think "Shelter Me" would make a great movie.

Juliette, we are all anxiously awaiting your next book. Thank you for taking time away from your family and busy schedule to visit with us.

Next month, we will be reading "While I'm Falling" by Laura Moriarty. Happy Reading!

Book Reading List

Liz Rosenberg, author of many books including last months book, "Home Repair" was so kind to take the time out of her busy schedule to make a list for us of some of her favorite reads.

Here is the note from Liz:

Dear Fa La La's,

Thanks for bringing me into your lives. It sounds like the kind of book club I'd want to join.

I've been thinking about what books you might possibly like, and came up with a few ideas:

1) IN DEFENSE OF FOOD by Michael Pollan (a possible alternate choice is his book THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA.) In Defense of Food is just a great, funny, well-written social history of food and our own ideas about nutrition. I bet it would provoke some lively discussions. It's non-fiction of course, but as well written and engaging as any novel.

2) THE HOUSE ON BEARTOWN ROAD by Elizabeth Cohen--- admittedly another book about my region of the country, also shows up as THE FAMILY ON BEARTOWN ROAD but it's the same book with a different title. It's also memoir, the story of one woman's year when her husband walked out on her, leaving her to contend with her aging dad who had Alzheimer's and her one year old daughter. It's a book about acquiring and forgetting memories, and also about family and responsibility. It's a very honest book about being a mother. which brings me to:

3) THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeanette Wallis, absolutely gripping memoir about this woman's childhood with two highly dysfunctional parents who end up homeless. Despite how grim this sounds, there is a lot of humor in this as well as pathos. I could not put it down, and when I've taught it, people just adore it.

4) Elizabeth Berg's OPEN HOUSE. I know this is not one of her new books, but this one to me had just the right blend of humor and pathos,. so if you enjoyed Home Repair and the Guernsey book you guys might just like this one--I'm also fond of Anne Tyler's Digging to America, and I like it that the heroine is a young grandmother. It also deals with some issues of adoption, of family connections, old world vs new world.

Can you guess I am not an enormous fan of new fiction? Given my druthers I'll re-read The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty or The Movie Goer. Of course--if you ever decide to read poetry I'll have LOTS of suggestions, starting with a posthumous book by my beloved friend Jason Sjinder, called STUPID HOPE., But it is a very dark journey--beautiful, beautiful but heartbreaking book about illness.

I send you all my fondest regards, and please, if any of you don't mind writing your thoughts about Home Repair, on places like Goodreads and Amazon and B & N.com-- reader reviews really DO make a difference!

You inspire me to want to keep writing, and to keep trying to writer better novels.

Liz Rosenberg

Thank you Liz, from the Fa La La's!

August Meeting

For all of you girls that didn't make it, if we look a little sweaty, it is because the room was about 95 degrees. It was a hot night.

We had a good time discussing "The Beach House". Unfortunately, we didn't have Jane Green on the phone with us to discuss it. Most of us really liked it and thought it was just a good, fun, summer read.

We chose the book for next month. We are reading "Shelter Me" by Juliette Fay. I have read it and really enjoyed it. I hope you will too.

Last,but not least, we are giving a "shout out" to Travis. He has faithfully taken most of the pictures on this blog. Thanks Travis!

July Meeting

We are getting really spoiled. We have talked to several authors about their books. What a treat it was to talk to Liz Rosenberg. We were so privileged to get to talk to her about her first "adult" book, "Home Repair."

Liz has such an outgoing, charismatic personality. Now we know where so many of the personalities for her characters came from. After our phone call, we continued our discussion for about 30 more minutes. She gave us such insight into the characters that we couldn't stop talking about them. It makes you see them as "real" people. One thing that we have learned from the authors is that the characters really become their friends.

Liz, thank you so much for contacting us. It was such a pleasure to visit with you.

For next month, we have chosen an easy summer read, "The Beach House" by Jane Green. Enjoy and we will see everyone on August 4th.

Movie Night

Monday night, a few of the book club members went to see "My Sister's Keeper". It is too bad that more of us couldn't be there, but from what I hear, it was a great movie. We thought it would be fun to do together since that was one of our books that we reviewed.

We will meet again next Tuesday. I have been communicating with Liz Rosenberg and we are trying to arrange a phone call from her to discuss "Home Repair". It is so fun to get to talk with such great authors.

June Meeting - With Kathryn Stockett

Are we the greatest Book Club or what??? We have just celebrated our first anniversary together and we have met several very famous authors. How fun is that?

Last night we had the privilege of talking with New York Times Best Selling Author, Kathryn Stockett. "The Help" is her first novel. She spent 5 years writing it and was rejected by 45 publishers before it was finally accepted. It appears that a movie is in the works.

I think this is probably the first book that everyone has bought and attempted to read. Not everyone finished, but most did.

We had a great time last night. We are busting at the seams. We may have to choose another meeting place if we continue to grow at this rate.

The book for next month is "Home Repair" by Liz Rosenberg.

MAY 2009 ... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FALALA BOOK CLUB!

• I can't believe it's been a year! Here is the picture and cake from our May meeting.

• Our May book, "My Sister's Keeper," was a good book for a great discussion. I hope you are looking forward to the movie ... we will be planning a field trip! I think everyone is anxious to see how the movie ends ... since "they" say it's different than the book. There were quite a few of us that did NOT like how the book ended. It will be interesting to see what happens in the movie.

• Our next meeting is TUESDAY, JUNE 2nd. For our June book we have chosen "The Help." The author is Kathryn Stockett. I can't wait to read this book. The reviews say it's a "can't put it down" book ... my favorite kind!

• Also, we may have some exciting news concerning a guest at our June meeting ... stay tuned for more info ... suffice it to say, you better get started reading!
  
  
  

APRIL MEETING

Here's the picture of our fabulous April meeting. We had 16 in attendance ... our largest group yet! The reason for the great turnout ... a call from the author, BARBARA DELINSKY! She so graciously gave us more than 30 minutes of her time .. we are so appreciative!

We all loved the discussion of While My Sister Sleeps and gaining more insight into the characters' personalities. I especially loved when it was mentioned to Barbara that Kathryn Snow wasn't one of our favorite people ... she defended her like a true friend ... which is one of the things that makes Barbara Delinsky a lovable author! Her characters are her friends! It was a memorable meeting.

Thanks again also to Janet for doing such a great job of moderating for us! And thanks also to our technical director, Laura, for use of her cell phone/speaker (and for testing ahead of time.)

Although it will be hard to keep moving up from there ... we are coming up on our ONE YEAR anniversary of being a book club. Our first meeting was May of 2008. We will be celebrating! So be sure and don't miss it ... here's the info ...

Book: My Sister's Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult (pronouned Pico as in pico de gallo .. thank you, Leslie!)

Meeting is: Tuesday, May 5th @ 6:30
Place: Panera Bread in Hurst

Note: We will be taking a field trip in June to see the movie! (Which we hear has a different ending than the book!)

APRIL 7TH MEETING INFORMATION

Here is the email we received from Barbara Delinsky's office: (**Note that the time is 7:45 our time)

Barbara has marked her calendar to discuss WHILE MY SISTER SLEEPS with your reading group on April 7 from 8:45 to 9:15 pm ET. She’s lending you her private number for the occasion. Please call her at 781-444-XXXX at the designated time. (I didn't want to post the phone number.)
As a backup, will you please provide a phone number Barbara could use in case she needs to reach your group?
Here are some suggestions as you plan your meeting:
1) Since the discussion will take place by phone, choose a meeting location with a speakerphone so everyone can converse with Barbara easily.
2) Prepare a list of 8-10 questions you’d like to ask Barbara during this 30-minute Q&A session.
3) Before the visit, check out Barbara’s website for information and ideas. You’ll be particularly interested in the WHILE MY SISTER SLEEPS page (http://www.barbaradelinsky.com/delinsky-wmss-summary.htm ),
which contains a Reading Group Guide for the book, and the BIOGRAPHY section (http://www.barbaradelinsky.com/delinsky-bio.htm).
4) Be prepared for a good back and forth discussion with Barbara.
Also, please invite your group to look at Barbara's official Facebook page. They don't need Facebook accounts to look, though if they're members they might enjoy becoming official fans! Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Delinsky/48944228249
Please do send along a phone number for the speakerphone at your earliest convenience.

I am going to check with Panera Bread to see if they have a speaker phone we can use. This is going to be so exciting. We will still get together at 6:30 to have our questions and discussion ready for her!

MARCH MEETING

Here is the picture of our March meeting. We had a newcomer ... Welcome Donna! I hope you join us in April.

We are reading While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky. Several of us went to Fort Worth to meet her and are very excited about reading her new book, which is already on the Best Seller List! I have submitted a request for her to call in to our April meeting, which will be on Tuesday, April 7th. So have your questions ready for her!

MEETING BARBARA DELINSKY

Here is our picture meeting Barbara Delinsky. It was such a fun night! We met at Pappasito's for dinner and went to The Scott Theatre in Fort Worth.

Barbara Delinsky was delightful! She talked with us and autographed her newest book for us "While My Sister Sleeps." We will be reading her book for our next month (April).

I hope everyone is ready to discuss "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" on Tuesday, March 3rd.

FIELD TRIP #2

I hope you received the email and responded, but just in case here it is:

We have tickets to hear Barbara Delinsky on Wednesday, February 25th at Scott Theatre, 3505 W. Lancaster in Fort Worth. It starts at 7:00 p.m., but the tickets are not reserved, so you must be seated by 6:50 p.m. From what I understand, there will be an overflow room, so you might want to get there as early as possible.

The first 10 people that email me will get a ticket. We will start a “waiting list” if necessary. I know some of you mentioned that you would like to bring a friend. We will put friends on the “waiting list” until all of the regulars have had a chance to respond. Let me know if you would like a ticket and we can work out the logistics.

I believe she will be autographing her latest book that was released this week, “While My Sister Sleeps”.

To see other books written by Barbara Delinsky go to www.barbardelinsky.com

I'm pretty excited. This our second book club "field trip" and we haven't even been meeting a year. (Our first one was to see Ron Hall and Denver Moore who wrote "Same Kind of Different as Me". They will be at Pantego Bible Church speaking this Sunday.)

If you are unable to go, we will miss you ... hope you're enjoying our book this month, I AM!!

FEBRUARY MEETING

Here is our February picture! We had a fun meeting again. Those that read the book all agreed that it was very slow at first, but once it got going, we couldn't put it down! I thought it was a great discussion about the book. And the members that read it didn't tell us how it ended so that we would all have to finish it to find out. After all ... as the Panera Bread employee that heard us talking said ... "I thought the purpose of a book club was to read the book!" We all got a good laugh out of that. Sooo ... let's all try to finish the next month book (myself included!)

Here is our selection for March ... The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. The authors are Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. A few of our members have read it and they highly recommend it!

Also, it looks like we WILL have tickets to this event! It is February 25th. Here is the information. http://www.star-telegram.com/books/story/1159792.html
I hope everyone will be able to join us for the field trip. I will email more information to everyone when we know for sure!

FEBRUARY BOOK

I heard from several members that were having trouble finding the book we had chosen for February. Sorry about that! Going forward, we will check before we vote and be sure that the book is available.

So let's go with another book that was nominated ... (and I just checked to make sure, and it is available at Amazon and also at Borders!)

Read the synopsis below the book. I think you're going to want to run out and get this one today!

"Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone from her own deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate."

Sounds like a great mystery!!!

JANUARY 2009 MEETING

Here is our January group! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Domestic Affairs was a great book for us. We haven't had a book in a while that everyone liked, so it was fun discussing this one. Everyone who read it liked it! We really liked the fact that there was so much going on in the book, with lots of characters and side stories, it was a great read!

The discussion was a little different because we had a few people that hadn't read the book and one person who hadn't finished it yet, so we sort of told the story to them and added our opinions as we went along. I thought it was a lot of fun.

We had 2 new members (or should I say prospective members) ... I sure hope they come back! Welcome Kathy and Myra! They will be a great addition to the group!

And now to what you really want to know ... the book for February. We have been wanting to branch out and read a mystery ... so that's what we picked. The book is titled "The Lady Godiva Murder" by Laurie Moore.

Don't be scared off by the book cover ... as they say "You can't judge a book by it's cover." It does look different ... (not exactly the ice cream sundae look that we have chosen before)!

So even if you aren't "into" mystery ... let's all give it a try!