Procrastination Central

Book Review - Thankfully, A Success....

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:03:32 -0400

All day yesterday I felt like I was cramming for a test. I shut the door to my office and read over 100 pages during the day! I finished the book at 6:42, just in the nick of time since the ladies were expected at 7pm. Adam was a complete sweetheart and had grocery shopped and prepped a veggie platter, cheese & cracker platter, and brownies while I was in my exam class on Tuesday night. AND, he had straightened up the apartment, so I wasn't running around like a crazy person worrying about last minute things... At 7:10 I hadn't heard from anyone yet and was starting to get worried that no one might show. I lfelt like I was waiting for a blind date... What should I wear? Is this too much food? Not nice enough? Overdone? It was a little nerve-racking.

We ended up being a group of six, and everyone had recently finished the book, so I would have looked like a real loser if I was the only one that hadn't. It took us awhile to get into things because L, my connection to the bookclub, was having some sister-in-law drama.... So, it wasn't until 8pm that we got around to the book, but it wasn't a big deal. Things were so much better this time compared to last time. Everyone was vocal and opinionated and there was a lot of building off of each other's comments.... VERY PLEASED!

Something that was strange was that none of them really drank. I had bought two 1.5L bottle of white and one 1.5L of red. Out of 5 guests, only two took a glass of wine. The others drank water & iced tea. In an hour, neither lady had drank even half of their wine. After two glasses of white (which I didn't think was very much in an hour and a half!!!) I switched to iced tea so I didn't look like a boozer. I always had in my head that book clubs were about female bonding and booze???? Not this group, I guess.

I'm torn whether or not I should stick with it. Exam-studying really needs to take priority right now and is it worth it to spend hours reading a book that I we will only talk about for an hour or so? On the fence.... my decision might come down to whether or not I have an interest in reading the next book that gets selected....

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Tomorrow is the day....

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:13:46 -0400

My book club is meeting tomorrow night, at our place.... as I alluded to earlier, I am a Bad Book Club Hostess. Until yesterday, I couldn't even FIND the book. Thankfully, I located it hiding in our bookshelf and managed to get some reading in... I am now only 90 pages in a 400 page book, that I am supposed to be LEADING the discussion on....

I was looking forward to "playing hostess" and making fun drinks and appetizers for the ladies that came over... Partly because I was disappointed with the food/drink offerings last month, but also because I wanted to take my new fun book out for a spin. Not going to happen.

Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Cocktail Parties (Williams-Sonoma Entertaining)

Georgeanne Brennan

This was all before I "played cater" for the after-funeral affair at my in-laws on Friday. Now, I'm toying with the idea of making some brownies -- not from scratch of course, and pulling out the remainder cheese from Friday. A bottle of two or wine and that will be that...

Tonight I have my "exam" class (why do I keep putting that in quotes?) from 6-10pm, so, when exactly am I going to have time to get anything prepped, or read for that matter.... STAY TUNED

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Bad Book Club Hostess

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:08:34 -0400

Book Club: I got to pick the book this month, sort of by default because I had said I would host (at some point) and suddenly I became the following month's hostess... I'm already sucking at being a host - I picked the day we were leaving for Shenandoah (oops!) and just realized it last week and had to reshedule. And, I haven't even cracked open the book since I put it down after returning from Japan... in January.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Kim Edwards

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Book Club Bummer

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:55:07 -0400

I had been looking forward to this book club meeting for weeks now. I thought the book was intense and was looking forward to discussing a variety of topics with others.... well, there were 7 or 8 of us, and about half of the group had read the book previously, not explicitly for the book club meeting, and hadn't bothered to go back and reread, or even refresh their memories about the book. The others, were extremely quiet and barely shared their opinion. At first, I was excited when I realized that they were all so different from me, there were 3 social workers, a nurse, a teacher, and someone who dealt with immigrant issues... "what different and interesting viewpoints they will have", I thought... NOPE.

I felt like I was coming off as this opinionated crazy woman. No one really had any comments when I spoke up and didn't really recall the specifics of the book enough to even know precisely what I was talking to. I was especially speaking less than I normally would have, since I was new to the group, but I still felt like I was sharing so much... mainly, because no one else really discussed the book. They talked about this author's second book, some volunteer program in Camden, Bush's healthcare policy, and on and on....

Luckily, the whole thing lasted less than 2 hours, so it wasn't unbarebly painful. I was disappointed. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but the fact that I had a (future) book suggestion, somewho got me put in charge of the next meeting. So, I'll stick it out for another month or two and see how things go. Maybe the fun, interesting women were the ones that couldn't make it this time around..... fingers crossed

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Finally in a book club!

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:06:07 -0400

I'm so excited!!! After years of trying to get it together, I'm finally reading a book with a book club. We meet next Thursday and I have lots of reading still to do. It figures that I finally get my act together on this just a month before I need to start studying for "the exam" -- as if I really have time for leasure-reading over the next couple of months....

This is the book we are reading... I'm only 100 pages in, but I think it is fabulous so far....

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

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