May's Book

Well here it is girls...a few days late, but here none the less. May's book was selected by Megan and is called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Now there has been some concern, even on my part, that this book could be just trying to convince us all to become vegetarians, but I have done some research and read reviews, and that's not at all what it is about, so I am very excited to read it! It is actually written by one of my favorite authors, and chronicles a year in her families life when they moved to a farm and eat locally grown foods. This does spark my interest because I have been thinking a lot lately about the counsel we are often given regarding food storage and self reliance. My father-in-law is an expert gardener and his garden is amazing and inspires me to have my own. This book supposedly shares so interesting ideas from vegetables, to recipes, to the sex life of Turkeys! I for one am interested to read about that! :) So, if you haven't got the book already, get to the library or book store and let's have a fun month discussing. We'll keep all the discussing under this one post and let Megan kind of lead the forum!

Posting Update

So I think it's unanimous....I am bad at posting topics. With this realization, I think I might have come up with a good solution. I kind of like how the conversation has been going under the post announcing April's book. I was thinking that each month we could just post what the book is and then everyone is free to comment whenever, on whatever. I thought this could be a good solution because each of us has different thoughts, insights and views on what we are reading, and would come up with varying conversations with each post. It would be kind of like how it has been going under April's book announcement. What do you think about doing things this way? Let me know and we'll go forward. Even though there have been kinks, I for one am really enjoying this book club and looking forward to many more months of reading!!!

April's Book

Melanie's choice for April's book is "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. It is one of her favorite's and she's sure we will all love it, so I am excited to start it. Reading starts April 15th, so we'll read for a week or two and then start discussing as we finish our reading. And this time the posting will be better! :) Enjoy!!!!

Mudbound Topic #2

Okay...so I failed miserably this month on posting discussions. With all that has been going on I just let it slip away. I've had discussions on an individual basis and that was fun, but I promise to do better with my next turn!! At this point I was thinking we should just make it an open discussion. Post anything you would like to about the book....something that stood out to you, something you didn't like, whatever sticks out in your mind. My favorite thing about this book was reading about this period of sharecropping and racial segregation along with World War II. I've never read another book that put all those events in history together, and it kind of gave me another look at it. It's hard to imagine that people could hate one another so much, and even be afraid of another person because their skin was a different color. I also thought it was interesting that people were not treated badly in Europe, when in the US there were treated almost unlike human beings. So tell me your thoughts....

Mudbound Topic #1- Characters

Well, our reading was supposed to start last Saturday, the 15th, so I figure we can start blogging a little. I've talked to everyone, at we are all at different places in the books, including our speed reader Amanda Marshall who has already finished the book!! :) So, keeping in mind that we all are in different places, I thought we could at least start an initial chat on some of the characters mentioned in the first couple of chapters. I for one am enjoying this book, but I could be biased since I picked it out. :) I like the author's style. The character that I have connected with the most is Laura. She seems so simple, but the more I read the more I see the strength she has, especially when it comes to accepting the challenges she is faced with. She seems to get bolder as time goes on. Also, the more I read the more I realize how lucky we are to all have husbands that we are equal in decision making with! :) I don't know if I could ever be very submissive. So, let me know what you all think about Laura, and/or the character that is most intriguing to you. As we get further into our reading we'll discuss more in depth, but I thought this would be a good initial topic until we all get more into the book. I am leaving tomorrow for Ohio and will be there until next Thursday, so let's chat on this topic for a week and when I get back I will post a more nitty-gritty topic! :) Enjoy reading!!

Blog Features

I added a list at the bottom of the blog showing who is assigned to choose the book each month, and then name of the book if it has already been chosen. It might be a good idea to choose books a little in advance so we have time to get them and try to check them out at libraries to save some cash! :) I assigned months based on the order of our birthdays, except it got kind of thrown off because I was the first to choose the book, but my birthday actually comes after Melanie's. Oh well! :) I also added some link to other book clubs to help us get some ideas. I'm still trying to figure how to go about the posting and getting everyone access to post, but I'll work on that next and let you know. In the meantime, just email me if you have already chosen the books for one of your months!

March Book Selection: Mudbound

So, I'm still figuring out how to add images, but here is an image of the book, the first official selection of the Book Club Formerly Known As The Halvorson Book Club. We really might need to come up with a better name, but it was all I could come up last night. I'm so excited to start this! You can find the book for this month at Borders, Amazon.com or even your local library. Reading starts this weekend! This is going to be our trial and error period in figuring out how and when all the posts should happen, but we'll have fun figuring it all out! More to come!