Book Club at Twilight

July's Book

2010-07-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

I hope all who were at the midnight Ball return for our next event where we will discuss Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer! It will be at Libby's new house in Riverton. Tell a Friend and Bring them!

The Midnight Ball

2010-07-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome All Princesses:
We had a phenomenal Evening last night as we celebrated the book, Princess of the Midnight Ball. I Had a wonderful time preparing with Briony for this Book club history event. Briony again topped all with her salty and sweet food table, which tempted and teased our senses and left us wanting more. We also crowned our own Princess of the Midnight in a special ceremony and it turned out to be our own Briony who more than deserved it. We had wonderful discussions and Author Meetings and our favorite fairytales. It was truly an enchanted evening. Thank you to all who participated and came to this wonderful event. Please leave your comments here on the blog so we can all share in the fun memories of the evening.

YOUR OFFICIAL INVITATION:

2010-06-10T18:30:00.001-07:00

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A

MIDNIGHT BALL

THIS EVENT WILL BEGIN AT 7PM
ON TUESDAY, JULY 6TH, 2010
AT THE HOME OF BRIONY
PLEASE WEAR YOUR MOST BEAUTIFUL BALL GOWN!

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED
IT WILL BE AN ENCHANTED EVENING OF DANCING
AND MUSIC!

2010-06-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

So it was voted as such... we will be reading Princess of the Midnight Ball!

2010-05-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Tricia's house eating the most positively, wonderful delicious Monte Cristo Sandwich Ever. Tricia, you are truly are a blessed soul. thank you so much.

Dun Dun Da Dum! Happy reading see you on the 4th of June.

April's Book

2010-04-11T09:14:00.001-07:00

I think we all need to be reminded of how great we really are.

March's book...a little late

2010-03-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui

This is the authors website and blog http://www.spaceclearing.com/html/
Check it out and learn new stuff! Happy reading!

February's Book:

2010-02-06T20:46:00.001-08:00

Ta Da!

Attention all: The Guernsey Literary and potato Peel pie society has come to order!

2010-02-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

The we had our Literary meeting at Katrina's cute house yesterday, and boy, was it Baby central. We had Marilyn's, Libby's, Mine and surprise... Aileen brought her brand new twins. They were so adorable and cute and tiny and everything else adorable. We all loved having them.

Aside from the baby fun, we had amazing food. Briony roasted pork tenderloin and made parmesan asparagus couscous. Lydia brought homemade Jams and applesauce and Katrina made delicious chocolate chip cookies. We were eating like Kings, probably like the Guernsey literary society themselves that great day. No Germans, you can't have any.

We all thoroughly enjoyed this book. As we talked about the style of writing, our favorite characters, and of course the love plot. We overall connected very well to the small town islanders of Guernsey and felt, like Juliet, at home with them. Our hearts broke with each story from their experiences during the occupation and were sad for the loss of a main character. I believe the story was an overall heart warming success. Thank you all so much for your participation.

January's Book

2010-01-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

January's meeting

2010-01-09T11:35:00.001-08:00

This meeting we had at Marilyn's House. Everyone brought the book they had read that month. Here is a list of what was read:

Hope for the flowers

A light in the Attic

Summergreen

Outlaws of sherwood

An old Fashioned Girl

The Count of Monte Cristo

The good the Bad and the difference

Confessions of an unbalanced woman

Then some additional books that were brought to Share were:

The Celestine Prophesy

Your true nature

The book of mormon

SO we had a lot of good discussion.

Sorry about this being the only picture and it's of me how lame huh. But I forgot to take more pics. This is me representing The Rockn roll band from the light in the attic.

More Christmas feast...and December's Books!

2009-12-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

This was the Delicious Plum Pudding that Libbie brought and the Bouche du noel that Libbie finely crafted into amazing christmas Art. She should get a prize for that one. We exchanged books this year like we did last year and these are the fun titles we are all reading now. We also discussed and decided together what six of next years books are going to be. It is sure to be a learning and growing year and I hope to continue it with all of you. This book club means so much to me and I love spending every minute with you guys and I hope years down the road we can look back and well...laugh, but appreciate the friendships we have shared together. Merry Christmas and as always Happy reading!

Christmas Dinner by Candlelight!

2009-12-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

So our christmas Dinner this year was held at my house! Jen and Amanda helped with the decorating( thank you so much), and Briony, Libbie, and Jen helped prepare the delicious dinner we had. The Book we discussed was The Hunger Games. I liked the book because it had so many dimensions and was such a great adventure that seemed to cover everything. From Danger to intrigue, Love and survival! I personally have to say that I liked this book better than Twilight in a sense that I connected with the main character way better. I also read the second book which we tried not to discuss so as not to spoil it for those who hadn't, and loved it just as much.

October's book

2009-10-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is an Awesomely fun book and I had so much fun devouring this book. Pick it up and start reading for the meeting on November 6th. I promise you won't be able to put it down.

The Actor and the Housewife Book Club Premiere!

2009-10-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

We were inspired by Becky Jack and domestic abilities so we decided to have a service project wherein we each brought a pie to share with lonely neighbors. Of course we couldn't give them all away we had to devour some ourselves. We really love all of Shannon Hale's bookes, this is the third book we've reviewed together. Due to the controversial subject mater, this was the least favorite.

While we sampled the pies (we kept a key lime, a deep dish apple, and a pumpkin) we started the dialogue. To get the conversation started, we each put a question or discussion point on a slip of paper and then pulled them out one by one. The topics/questions varied drastically and the reaction was diverse to say the least. The opinions of Becky Jack varied greatly. Several members felt she was almost evil for fairly denying her testimony whereas other members did not see that at all. They felt Becky was a real person with real shortcomings who crossed a boundary line of which she should have been more aware.

We have a member who is struggling with a spouse in remission and so the saga of Becky and Mike hit especially close to home. To add humor and reality to a difficult situation, she and her husband talk about what should happen in the event the cancer returns--in terms of moving on with another person. Other members felt that if they were in a similar situation they would never move on with another spouse. There was a very robust conversation about who was right and if this is an appropriate conversation to have with your spouse.

We also briefly touched on the concept of "celebrity lists," meaning that if a certain person on your list presented himself, you would be "allowed" to have a relationship of some sort. Our book club consensus was that this is not appropriate for a committed relationship but almost everyone had a friend or family member who didn't agree with us and felt we were silly for thinking this way.

Overall, we didn't love this book but we did appreciate the honest conversations it brought about as well as the opportunity for each individual woman, as she read, to reflect on the state of her own marriage, her own values related to that marriage, and her feelings as a woman and individual in general. We all walked away from this book club meeting with a better understanding and appreciation for our own spouses.

September's Book...and Contest!

2009-09-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

There is a contest that Shannon Hale is doing for any book club that chooses this book as their selection so that is what we are doing and it is going to be big. So get reading and I would love everyone's participation to win and yes everyone will get a prize. So check back often for updates. Happy Reading!

the actor and the housewife in a bookclub near you! Read the actor and the housewife with your bookclub and then report the experience. I'll select the account that interests me the most (I know! Vague criteria!) and the winner will get a big ol' box of books, filled with my titles (signed) as well as others. Remember how exciting it was to go to school the day book orders came in? And getting that new stack of books? That's how it'll be. But even cooler. No real guidelines for this. You can write me an account, send me a link where you've posted photos, or make a video, or do any combination of the three. However you want. Shorter seems better, i.e. a 3000 word commentary or a 15 minute video can get boring. Email me the account (or link to it, if you post a video or a blog with photos), with the subject line "Actor and the Housewife contest" to squeetus (at) gmail (dot) com. Please no attachments. Contest runs through January 2010.

New Pretty Town Party

2009-09-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Uglies and the New Pretties party it up together... Completely unheard of! Can you tell who is who?
We had to recruit a boy to play 6 man bingo, and then we shared our plum cobbler, peach cobbler, cookies, breadsticks, of course the root beer.
Libby had to change a diaper for losing at spoons! ( I bet that was weird for her...hee hee hee)
Katrina had to run around the house outside with a can of juice concentrate down her shirt!
Jen had to pick up Heber for losing at spoons... good luck with that one!
Our Spoon game where we were trying not to spell PIG!
The unpregnant team lost the beer pong game and had to kiss poor Heber.

We had a fantastic book club at Libby's house this month. She planned a kegger style party with drinking involved... Homemade Root Beer that is. It was so fun we were giggling the whole time.

August's Book

2009-08-08T07:13:00.001-07:00

UGLIES!!!

Book Club Party Bash

2009-08-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

Monstrous Regiment

What an awesome book club party. It was so much fun talking about the book having past book club trivia, giving out prizes and the cake of course. Thanks everyone who came it was the best. more to come

I'm in Austenland???

2009-07-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

Our Lovely Garden Party

We had croquet on the lawn, drank delicious lemonade and talked of suitors and unmentionables. It was a jolly good time. And I didn't forget the lovely scones with jam and cream. Simply Marvelous!

July's Book

2009-07-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

This is it... the chosen book for this next month. It is a "Landa Fav" so hope you enjoy this comedic adventure.

Shannon Hale Book Signing

2009-06-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I had so much fun with Landa at the Shannon Hale book signing. I made this apron special for the event, and look colin firth was even there... tee hee hee. She was so funny and someday I would like to just sit down and chat with her. I can't wait to read the new book and have our Austenland Lwan party and talk about her and the book. it will be fabulous!

June's book

2009-06-06T14:17:00.002-07:00

Austenland By Shannon Hale

Scarlet Pimpernel Book Club Bash

2009-06-06T14:17:00.001-07:00

We had this month's book club at Julie Nelson's house. We had a wonderful Crepe buffet and had the movie going on in her movie room downstairs. We had so much fun chatting and playing a game. i think it is funny that we find the funniest places to chat, like in the hallway of her downstairs. I just love you guys and I hope you had a good time. Welcome everyone who came for the first time and again thank you so much Julie. It was a blast. More photos later when I get them...

May's Book Club Meeting

2009-05-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Yeahhhh, We had it at Landa's house (Thanks by the way) and we had fun and interesting discussions about the last Lecture. We all need to remember the dreams we had as kids and did we achieve them. I really learned to appreciate my husband and how I really want to enable the beautiful Dreams of my children.

Here we are watching a little of the Last lecture online. I love you guys and I hope you enjoy the meetings. I always learn a lot.

May's Book

2009-05-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

The Daring adventure of the...

Set in France in the Late 1700's

An irresistible blend of romance, intrigue, and suspense, this timeless historical adventure recalls the terror following the French Revolution.

It is a play and has also been made into a movie. Also Hale Center theatre is doing the musical August 11 to Sept. 26th That should be lots of fun to have a group go together.

April's Book

2009-04-17T16:00:00.001-07:00

Check out the website for more information and to read excerpts.

Sorcha's Journey...

2009-04-17T15:55:00.001-07:00

Sorcha's Journey...

2009-04-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun talking about March's book at Briony's house. She Served Oat cakes, Onion and Barley Soup and yummy scones with butter and honey. It was great to talk about the Irish and their folktales. This was a great fairytale and I hope everyone gets a chance to read the rest of the trilogy: Son of the Shadows and Child of the Prophecy.

March Book:

2009-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Daughter of the Forest

The retelling of an Irish Faeirytale where a young woman must save her 7 brothers from an evil curse. Check it out is an addicting read.

The Spy wore (Spanish) Red.

2009-03-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

Our book was about a woman (Aline Countess de Romanones) who was a spy during WWII for the US. It is a true account of her adventures in Spain and how she aided her country during the war.

Are you the Double Agent?

2009-03-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Agents: Ruby, Diamond, Pocahontas, Sacajewea, Tatiana, Juliet, Hera, Athena, Gloss, Shadow.

Special OPs:

Koala, Rhino and Blush.

Spy Field Agents

2009-03-07T13:28:00.001-08:00

Agent Blush and Agent Rhino at work.

Party of Spies

2009-03-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

This book club everyone was Recruited to a top security mission and given code names, ex. Agent Pocahontas with a top secret message they were supposed to follow. When completing the first assignment they were then required to proceed to the next location where they were given another message, this time to decode. After finding the next clue they then had to figure out who their contacts were and their teams. The team was then supposed to uncover the Double agent working against them. It was quite the espionage game and might I had many of you have the means and talent to really make a living out of this. Libby was our winner for the highest score in the memory test and Mandee wins the " put together a gun blindfolded while everyone else is freaking out about a spider" contest. It was quite eventful. Mandee also found the package secretly hidden for her. Good Job Agent Koala you have been officially recruited as our top spy. Thank you so much to all who came. It was a really awesome night.

Special thanks to Briony and Mandee for helping to put the game together and hosting the night.

Get your Spy On

2009-03-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

Tonight is sure to be an exciting night of intrigue and espionage. The Party will begin at 8pm so make sure you find your contact at the specified location beforehand. Make sure you are dressed appropriately so as not to be discovered. Find your clues and discover the danger that awaits before it strikes... and by all means don't get caught.

This message will self destruct at any time.

I have finished...Have you?

2009-02-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

The time is getting short. Please grab a book and read it before there isn't enough time left. You will be receiving special emails very soon and having read the book will help to sort out the mysteries.

February's Book is: The Spy Wore Red

2009-02-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

There is a limited number of copies out there and some of us have them. The Libraries have two and there are some used available on ebay and such. Let me know if you want to borrow one of ours. If you do be prepared to tackle it as soon as you get it so everyone gets a chance to read it.

Bangles, Beads.... and Dancing?

2009-02-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

Southern Asia Evening

2009-02-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

We had an amazing book club on Friday with fantastic food thanks to Kashi and Adrian, Shahzad and Kendra. Thank you so very much for all your work. Thank you also for the amazing outfits you let us borrow. It really added to the evening. I think we had one of the best book discussions. Everyone's insight was amazing! I love hearing about everyone's views and I hope you enjoyed yourself and the company.

Night @ Twilight

2009-02-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Twilight. It was an awesome girl's night out.

Exchange

2009-01-31T16:17:00.000-08:00

So here we tell all about the books we had read. It was very exciting everyone's presentation on how they depicted the books. We even had some spies among us and there definitely was Dancing.

The Chef and Hostess

2009-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

Briony put so much thought and work behind preparing this most Delicious meal. We emailed, chatted, planned, toiled and slaved over the meal.

The Ladies of the Evening!

2009-01-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

These are the most beautiful ladies, in their fine, ornate dresses and teased curls. May they forever remind you of a dream you once had, memory long cherished. What Graceful Damsels they were to behold, what knowledge they did hold oh how they could have danced in the soft light forever.

Our Meal

2009-01-31T15:28:00.000-08:00

Beauty Night

2009-01-31T12:26:00.000-08:00

This was by far an elaborate endeavor that we all still love to talk about. Many thanks go out to Briony for the absolutely fabulous Five course Dinner we had. We all dressed up to the Nines and there are lots of pictures. After the dinner while we had the tea we talked about the ending and how we all felt mutual about it being a little rushed. We just wanted more details, right girls? Thank you Sara R. for the amazing Decorating and to all of you who came. It was a royal engagement to remember.

Rebecca

2009-01-31T12:21:00.000-08:00

Our Gothic Mystery Romance. Hosted at Emily's House we watched a lot of the black and white Alfred Hitchcock movie and listened to an old abridged radio show of it(remember the smoking Commercials) Then we talked about how the ending of the movie differed from the book. Emily had Tea and biscuits for us and the chit chat was great. It was fun to see everyone get excited at the dramatic points. Hee hee.

Thousands of Days

2009-01-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry no pictures on this one but I know I dressed up like Dashti the main, only because I had just finished the dress and wanted to wear it. (Crazy) We had it at my house and ate halloween M&M's and pomegranate 7up. We also watched the new Twilight Trailer to get everyone excited.

Twilight Night

2009-01-31T12:07:00.000-08:00

This is Our First book Club Event. Sorry there is only one Picture. We talked about Breaking Dawn And the others in the series, as well as the up and coming movie. We had "the food that Edward ate as well as bloody cranberry juice and water for the werewolves I believe. It was a lot of fun. A lot of us got to know the others for the first time and I think some of us stayed until the wee hours. Anyways good times.

2009-01-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome To the Brand New Book Club Blog. Here we will feature our current selections, keep track of events and post all our fun adventures for everyone to enjoy.