Yee Haw with The Bookies

I know this is kind of late, but I recently got a hold of these pictures of us gals at October’s The Bookies book club meeting, that we had on Sunday, October 28th.

I really wanted to be a bumblebee for October’s book club. Due to lack of time, it didn’t happen. Maybe, I’ll be a bumblebee in February since I want to make Bee Mine Valentine’s Day cards.

There was no way I was going to book club without a costume. Dressing up is the best part of Halloween! After you grow up, you seem not to care for candy as much anymore. The day before my book club meeting I had to search my closet and my Halloween tote in the garage to see what I could scrounge up. Surprisingly, I had everything at home to be a cowgirl.

Disney’s Woody was sitting on my bookshelf; the Wrangler’s t-shirt was in the closet, which I got from my mom. The straw hat I got a few years ago at the 99 cent store just in case I ever wanted to be a cowgirl for Halloween. Sometimes you just have to think ahead. The boots were a gift for my aunt up north, who lives on a farm. I’ll be mailing her a picture of me as a cowgirl. I know she’ll get a good kick out of it. The horse on a stick (also from the 99 cent store) and toy gun (I got from a friend when he was moving out) I found in my Halloween tote. The tote stores my old Halloween costumes and many Halloween accessories, which I purchased for guests to wear if they didn’t come in a costume for one of my Halloween parties.

Amanda dressed up as Mrs. Lovett, with her meaty pie. Regina’s costume was inspired by the Day of the Dead, and Amy wore an “I survived a Hunted House” pin, made by Amanda. Amy actually did survive a hunted house! Okay, maybe not a real one. Amy writes for our local newspaper and had to write a review on a fake hunted house.

All the Bookies costumes were homemade. Yee Haw, for homemade costumes!

Book Review: "Memoirs Of A Geisha" by Arthur Golden

November’s book club book was “Memories Of A Geisha” by Arthur Golden. Our dinner theme was Chinese food; one of my favorite foods, and our creative project was to decorate a fan. I dressed up as geisha minus the kimono for the book club and added a –san to everyone’s name, “Hello, Christi-san.” 

 

“Memoirs Of A Geisha” is an intriguing book from beginning to end. The beginning of the novel immediately sucks you in as Sayuri, a retired Japanese geisha, now living in New York, decides to tell her life story to a writer with the conditions that it doesn’t get published until she and the men mentioned in her biography are deceased. Which begs the questions, “Is she ashamed?” “Is she trying to hide something,” etc. Throughout the novel, Sayuri finds herself in numerous conflicts. I couldn’t put the book down, wanting to find out what happened next. “Memoirs Of A Geisha” will teach you about the kind of life a geisha lead during the Depression in the 1930’s and 1940’s in Japan. What I enjoyed the most about reading the book, other than learning some history, is that Sayuri was a very poetic character. She used lots of metaphors and similes. For example, “They just melt away like snowflakes” (page 141) as Sayuri refers not being able to retain information. Is the book based on true events or is it fiction? Read the book first; the author’s acknowledgment page at the end will relieve the answer.

As some of you may know, “Memoirs Of A Geisha” is also a movie. I watched the movie when it first came out in theaters so I vaguely remember it but it did help add a few faces to the characters in the novel. I didn’t want to watch the movie again until I finished the book. Plus, people always say the book is always better. I plan to borrow the movie from a friend soon and I can’t wait see the differences and similarities between the book and the movie.

Overall, I give “Memories Of A Geisha” by Arthur Golden four stars. I highly recommend book!

The Bookies’ October Meeting

Yesterday, my book club, “The Bookies” had our monthly book club meeting. The book chosen by October’s host Regina was “The Witch’s Daughter” by Paula Brackston. I gave the book three stars for being an okay book. The book goes back and forth from present time to the past as Elizabeth, a 384 year-old witch, tells a neighborhood girl, Tegan, who she befriends about a evil sorcerer she keeps hiding from throughout her life. I enjoyed reading the stories of Elizabeth’s past than her present life, especially when the author places Elizabeth during the time of Jack the Ripper. The other book club members weren’t very fond of the book either.

Regina, the hostess, wanted us to dress up as our favorite witch at the meeting since we were reading a book on witches and she also gave us a wooden witch mask to paint. I didn’t get a chance to paint my witch mask but I did dress up as a witch. By default I won the best witch costume because I was the only one who dressed up except for Regina. Can you guess whom I dress up as? The green face and the monkey should be an easy give away.

Like always, the food was delicious and above are the fun and tasty desserts we had.

Remember to brush your teeth and have a safe and happy Halloween!

Happy Two-Year Anniversary Book Club

On Sunday, June 26 “The Bookies,” my book club, celebrate our two-year Anniversary as a book club at Roadhouse restaurant. We ate and discuss the book for June, “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen. We also got new book boxes to put our book club invitations in, which one of the bookworms is holding in the group picture. We shared our favorite book club memories. I said that not only did we read great books but also I liked that I could vent my problems to them and know they would give me good advice. Some of us mentioned our favorite books like “The Shack” by William P. Young, “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” by Katherine Howe, and “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett, which is one of my personal favorites. I read “The Help” twice and look forward to seeing the movie.

For every book club anniversary we get a new patch to sew on our book bags. Our two-year Anniversary patch is of a worm leaning on books reading a book. The patch says, “READING FUN.” I got the patch on eBay. Click here to get yours. All our patches are  Girl Scout patches. I put the patches in little coin envelopes, hole punched them twice on the top, and ran blue yarn to make a bow. I also made stickers with our logo and designed a 2-year candle to place on top of the logo.

Happy two year Anniversary Bookies! I’m excited for the new adventures this year’s books will take us on, for the delicious food we'll eat at book club meetings, and for our continued friendship.

Reading Patch of Honor

In my book club “The Bookies” when we celebrate our anniversary as a club we sew Girl Scout patches onto our book club tote bag. The patches represent each year will have been in the book club. In July, the Bookies will be celebrating two years as a book club. Last years patch and the first Bookies patch was of a little girl sitting on a chair reading a book with the word READING above her head. I got the first patch on Etsy at HeyYoYo. This year’s patch I found on eBay at troopmoore, who sells all types of Girl Scout patches. This patch says, “I Love Books” with a picture of a heart and an open book. I’ll hand out this year’s patch to the all the girls in July when we celebrate our second anniversary as a book club. Troopmoore even sells swap patches too! I’m thinking of getting one to use for my next swap activity.

Currently, I’ve been going a little crazy buying reading themed patches and pins for my Bookies tote bag. I got one new vintage patch for myself on eBay to sew on my tote bag when I finished reading some borrowed books, outside book club reading, that are laying around my house. Once I’m done reading my borrowed book, I’m sewing the little patch on my bag as my own personal reward. The patch has a picture of three stacked books and an open one. I also got two new reading pins, one that says, “I’m Bats for Reading” and other one is of Raggedy Andy sitting reading a book.

It’s fun to see what new pins the Bookies’ members have on their tote bag at our book club meetings. I got a few pins done on Etsy at Love Badge with our Bookies logo on them, which I designed, as prizes for when I host a book club meeting at my house. However, I’m going to have to get some more done since all the girls want one now. The Bookies logo is also silk screened on our tote bags . We got our totes at Michaels and a local clothing designer, Nate from Vatican clothing, was nice enough to silk screen our logo onto a dozen tote bags for a reasonable prize.

Having the Bookies tote bags, pins, and yearly patches really makes us feel like an official club. Are you part of a club and if so what fun things does your club do? I’ll love to know.

March’s Book Club Meeting

Like always, this was another fun filled book club meeting. We discussed the book “Delirium” by Lauren Oliver, which we all liked. I actually read it in one week and I consider myself a slow reader. I highly recommend this book. The book is about living in a society without love. Unfortunately, I won’t have a book giveaway for “Delirium” since the girls are gradually switching to electronic devices like the nook or an iPad to read their books. But no worries, I will be having some kind of giveaway this month.

For those who love cupcakes, I know I do, you’ll love April’s book. It’s called, “Crazy about Cupcakes” by Krystina Castella. It’s a cupcake recipe book. We try to spice things up with our books. We have read self help books and this will be our first recipe book. Regina (second on the left) choose this book and said we don’t have to read the whole book just the intro. She’s such a sweetheart that she bought all of us our own cupcake recipe book so we don’t have to buy it. She wants us to pick a recipe from the book, bake a batch, and bring them to April’s book club meeting for everyone to enjoy. There will be cupcake trivia and cupcake judging. I’m so excited! I can’t wait! So, I’ve decided to make my next giveaway cupcake themed! I just don’t know exactly what yet.

The conclude this post, I will like to announced March’s book giveaway winner…

Congratulations Rocio! I will be emailing you to get your address to ship your book “Outside Valentine” by Liza Ward. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Sweet Treats (includes Book Giveway too)

This is part two of my “February’s Book Club Meeting,” post were I shared pictures of all the awesome Valentine’s Day boxes the girls from my book club made.

I decorate my dinning room window with book club invites. I used clothespins to attach the invitations onto a Valentine’s Day garland with hearts on it, for the book club meeting. It made me reminisce on all the past books we have read and our monthly meetings and how much I always look forward to them.

Just like when we were little kids at school on Valentine’s Day, the girls brought Valentine’s Day goodie to put in our boxes. One of my favorite goodies came for Christi. She made heart magnets. She got wooden hearts, painted them, added glitter, and clued magnets on the back. What a simple, yet adorable idea! Maybe, I’ll make some for next year for the Valentine Craft Swap. I made a flower design on my refrigerator with the magnets.

Since it was my birthday this month, I received a $10 gift card from Barnes and Nobles from “The Bookies” that all the girls pitched in for. Christi and Amanda (mother and daughter) got me a much wanted “I heart Fire Fighters” t-shirt and it was boxed in a cute alligator gift box. Christi and Amanda were afraid that I already own the t-shirt but I didn’t. Once I opened the alligator’s mouth and realized what it was I ran to the bathroom to try it on. I love anything fire fighter related. It was a size small and I was afraid it would fix. It did fit!! I was so excited that I couldn’t stop squealing and thanking them. It was the perfect gift!

After, passing the Valentine’s Day goodies, we ate. I made Rueben sandwiches; I cooked the corn reef all by myself! The sandwiches came out delicious and that’s saying a lot since I don’t cook. After dinner we discussed the book, “Outside Valentine” by Liza Ward. Two people out of seven liked the book but you can make your on conclusion because it’s BOOK GIVEAWAY time! One of the girls was generous enough to donate her book. The giveaway also includes a “Reading is Sexy” pin. Anyone, anywhere is welcome to enter.

There are 6 ways to enter and win! You can do all 6 if you like.

Leave a comment telling me what is your favorite book genre is. For example: Mystery, Young Adult novels, etc. (please leave your name and email)

Mention the Book Giveaway on your Blog, Facebook, or Tweet about it.

Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect and if you already do, let me know.

Add my button to your blog!

Last day to enter will be Friday, March 25. March 27 will be the next book club meeting and one of the girls will randomly choose a winner!

February's Book Club Meeting

Yesterday, Sunday, February 27th, my book club meeting was held at my house. I was really thrilled to see that the girls put a lot of effort into their Valentine's Day boxes. There was a Barbie themed box, a Anti- Valentine's Day box, a floral Spring time box, an All About Amy box, and the house box. Lots of fun things happened during the meeting; however, I would like to share pictures that I took of the girls' boxes first. The judge for the Valentine's Day boxes was Jennifer since she didn't make a box. The winner was Christi; she made the house box. Her box was originally a Taco Bell box. She received a $5.00 Love Meter gift card from Target and a custom "The Bookies" pin with our book club logo on it. All the girls wanted her Bookies pin.

Since I have more pictures of the book club meeting I've decided to blog about it tomorrow. But, I leave you guys with one question, "Which Valentine's Day box is your favorite and why?"

January's Book

As I had mentioned, I’m in a book club called, The Bookies. This month’s book is A Collection of One-Night Stands, My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler. This author is also the talk show host of Chelsea Lately even though I have never watched her show. I’m almost done reading the book on my nook that my husband got me for Christmas. It’s a funny book and I sometimes find myself blushing due to the sexual encounters Chelsea goes though as well as the sexual jokes. January’s meeting will be pajama party themed with breakfast food on January 23rd. I still don’t know what to make for the meeting, so if anyone has any breakfast food ideas I would really appreciate it.

My Book Club

I have been in a book club named The Bookies for over a year now and not only have I made new friends but also been introduced to new authors.

I would love to share with you how The Bookies book club works and maybe you'll like to start one of your own. If you're a bookworm like me, keep an eye out! I will be having monthly book giveaways donated by The Bookies.

This is how the book club works. We read the book chosen for the month, we meet on the last Sunday of that month at 7 p.m. at the person's house that choose the book for that particular month, and we discuss the book after dinner. However, we have gotten a bit more creative since we first began our book club. We now make invitations based on the theme of our books, we have themed dinners, we sometimes have contests, and at the end of every meeting we take a group picture with the book we read. On our birthday we get a $10 gift card from Barnes & Nobles, which everyone pitched in for.

This picture is from our monster mask contest for October's book club. 

Book Club Rules 

• Respect each other and each others opinions. Do not verbally attack anyone or tell them that their opinion is stupid! We are all different.
• You MUST read the chosen book of the month
•  Discussion meetings will be two hours long, and we will meet on the same day each month.
• It is the discussion leaders' responsibility to remind everyone of the upcoming meeting and what to bring.
• No kids allowed! This is a time for us to get away, relax and enjoy ourselves.
• LET'S HAVE LOADS OF FUN!! 

D.E.A.R (Drop Everything and Read)