Friday, October 7, 2011

GUILTY!!

Me...I'm guilty of slacking. Not in the reading department I read the book. It was strange, and I liked the strangeness. I'm guilty however of life getting between me and you and us eating cake!! O and gossiping! Don't forget the gossip!

So here we are way later than anticipated trying to set a gossip/cake eating/book reviewing date. Notice how I made us sound like academics with the book review part worked in there right after the gossip and cake eating :). It's a good thing.

Ok so lets mull over a book date. What does your Sunday, October 23rd look like? Is Sunday bad for you? Jesus thinks literacy and gossip (as long as it is not mean gossip) is good, he usually refers to it as fellowship-we talk about it all the time me and the big guy. And since it will be gossip about cake and books I think he is ok with it as long as it is in the spirit of friendship and love. Which, for me personally I think it should be.

So let me know if Sunday, October 23rd works for anyone! I'm thinking like mid-afternoon?

Thursday, September 1, 2011

What kind of reader are you?

Hi Folks,

One of my favorite e-readers just confessed that they have not even started our book! I'll find it somewhere in my heart to forgive her :)But it got me thinking, what sort of readers are you?

I'll tell you a little about myself, because I feel myself slipping into old habits! I'm a book starter. Well I'm a great starter in general, I start a lot of things and then I get a little distracted. I have started our book about Lemon Cake, but I have not finished it. I'm about half way.

It was in the juvenile fiction section at the GVSU library, I should be able to finish it in a night. But...like so many other good books I get stalled. I swear to you I'll finish it.

But I want to know more about how you read? Do you actually read for fun? Maybe you just like to gossip and eat cake.

I like to read. I start tons of books. I love the library! I visited my new local library the other day and I loved it! My all time favorite book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Mostly I love a lot of Steinbeck's work. But they are LONG, which makes them extra challenging for a book starter like me. But definitely worth the read!

Tell me about your favorite book! Or your hate for books and love for cakes.

(Are you going to read our book? Or better question are you going to finish it?)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

So how does this work?

Alright folks! I have started reading! It's a super easy read, but I find myself re-reading especially text that is dialogue. As you might have noticed dialogue doesn't use any "quotation" marks at all. I keep reading along, and then being like wait wait wait, I am so confused, and then I remember oh yeah that's part of the sort of magical fantasy genre.

I'm excited to finally be reading this book! It's been on my list for at least 6 months.

Anyhow, I have been asked by a New York City friend how this long distance participation is going to work. And I'm not entirely sure, but I have friends on both coasts that I think would love to eat cake if they were here. So I am wondering if anyone has interest in blog posts from afar. You could write something up about what you thought as you read and I would be happy to post it for us all to share here.

Another idea is for me to post discussion questions and then we can all share our thoughts as comments. Like I said originally, this is a no frills book club. Fun is all that is allowed, so don't think of read gossip smile as an obligation, but another outlet for reading, gossiping and smiling!

Discuss!

Monday, August 22, 2011

For the e-book readers out there!

The Nook Book


Ibook


Kindel


Did I miss any?


Also for people like me :)
It's available in hard and soft cover at your local book store! Or better yet check it out from the library!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Our first book!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The book was first recommended to me by one of you that knows how much I love lemon deserts...and that I like a good book. Here is some information that might be helpful for you as you begin your reading!


The Amazon link for the book and consumer reviews


The author Aimee Bender has her own website! Or maybe it's just dedicated to her? I don't know but it's worth a poke around.


And here is what NPR has to say.


Share your thoughts folks! Post something! Let's get this party started!

Book Club!

I might have sent you this e-mail--or maybe you just found us on the web and want to share your thoughts on our book!


Hi Friends,


I am e-mailing you to find out if your interested in 'joining' or being part of a very casual book club. I have been to a book club before in California that met weekly and required about 150 pages of reading and sort special interest report on something from the reading. This is NOT what I have in mind. :) I'm busy, your busy, life is to crazy for reports or 150 pages of instructed reading per week.


Instead I was thinking I really want to read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender http://www.amazon.com/Particular-Sadness-Lemon-Cake-Novel/dp/0385501129, and I just saw this recipe and thought I really want to make this Lemon Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean Frosting http://annies-eats.net/2011/08/19/lemon-layer-cake-with-vanilla-bean-frosting/.


I thought...well that cake looks a little large for me to eat alone, I mean I could do it, but I probably should not. And it got me thinking...I could read that lemon cake book and bake a lemon cake! And then I thought, well I know people that know how to read, maybe they also want to eat some lemon cake (or maybe not).


Here is the deal, let me know if you want to join in the fun. Otherwise I will be eating an entire cake by myself.


I included a few far away people on this e-mail, because I know they like to read and I figured if they can't make it to the cake eating time that I will just get to eat more cake. I am also considering including a blog to share thoughts about the book and an opportunity for dialogue. I figured people are generally busy, and maybe not everyone will be available on the same day, but it could be fun to swap thoughts and ideas virtually. This might also include recipes for other lemon deserts-or just anything tasty.


If you hate fun, let me know and I will not send you further book club info. :)


I am considering a date in mid-late September for the cake eating. I'm happy to host at my casa and we can consider the future of the book club at that time :) including future titles, frequency, blogging?, whether people like to read or would rather just get together, if people would rather just read and not get together, and all sorts of general stuff.


Can you tell that I just wanted to read a good book, bake/eat cake, and gossip with good friends?


Happy Friday!
Kate


Notice I CCd Dave-He hates to read, and does not like lemon. Consider inviting anyone that is nice, they don't even have to like to read or eat cake.






And I got pretty good response overall! People are excited about possibly reading the book, maybe eating cake, and being loosely committed to sharing some friendly gossip!


The very first step I had to do was start the blog because 2 of my far away friends said they are definitely in...and so I had to put together this little virtual starting spot.


Don't worry it will evolve. Some day we will be fancy-shmancy like some of my other favorite blogs. (To bad I don't have cute kids photos to distract you...my favorite blogs have cute kid pictures!)