Thursday, January 8, 2009

How Was Your Day??




We had our book club business meeting today. I did not know if I was going to be able to have it or call it off. Last night we had our monthly Rosh Hodesh meetings.

I came home I promised my son that I would take him to McDonalds. I drove into their parking lot, and heard a thump. ugh oh! David I think we got a flat. Sure enough we did it was 11 PM. Luckily it was warm in SC last night. We walked home. Waited till 8 in the morning and was ready to call a tow truck.

Because the tire was ruined I had to be towed. I could not find the phone book. My book club would be meeting in three hours. And I could not even remember who did I use last time when I got a flat. I had called my girlfriend Gayle. She started reading down the list of car repairs till she got to Hussy. Both of us said that name sounds familiar.

I called and told me it would be taken care of right away. I went with them to have the car towed. He gave me some more bad news. I needed another tire for the other front tire. I would rather him tell me now. Rather then get into a car accident with a flat. He had to get me two new tires. With towing and two new tire $240.00. Well that was the worst of it.

I did get home but my house looked like a bomb hit. I did not even have time to take a shower. I looked terribly sloppy. I looked like a mess. And even after the book club we were going to Olive Garden of a group of six of us. You want to talk about stress. To top it all off only two of my friends showed up for the book club.

These are the people that showed up: Amy and Carrol.
It turns out Lisa was not feeling well. And Teasa told me she was coming and her husband told me she came but no one was there. That was impossible it turned out she went to the temple not to my house.

I had a brain storm I called Lisa and Teasa for their imput. And that was that.
I was so hurt and angry because some people did not even bother to come. Their answer I am not giving up my Wednesday for a book club. If they really were dedicated they would have came. The three of us sat down and decided on a few things. We decided on the time of the book club. I sent a email over a month ago. This gave them enough ample time to decide on a few books and if they wanted to bring anything up. Some members did make a point letting me know what book they wanted and if they wanted to hostess the book club.

Well the three of us at my house, and the two on the phone decided what books we wanted to read. We decided we wanted to read some Native Indian literature, memoirs, just not contemporary women's fiction. I wanted to slip in a classic. But I just could not think of anyone my friend Carrol had mentioned Little Women. Not sure if that would be appropriate. Did any of you read Little Women when you are older? Let me know what you all think. Well we finally got on a roll but by the time we came to the end of the year, I think we were just picking out of the sky. Since the other members did not show up or call and let me know if they wanted to have some input they don't have a right to criticize. But I am sure they will.

Listed above is the information going into the temple bulletin. You can hover over the picture to enlarge the picture to read the flyers.
I hope all these ladies will be happy with the decisions we make. Come on, who am I kidding. Well they should have been there and they would be able to get their say.


Here is the list of Books we decided:

February- The Reader by Bernard Schlink
March- Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
April- Matrimony by Joshua Henkin- conference call with book giveaway
May- My Father's Paradise by Ariel Saber
June- Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
July- Don't let the Dogs Out Tonight by Alesander Fuller
August-Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover
September-Mistress in the Art of Death- Adriana Franklin
October- Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
November- Strong Medicine by Louise Erdridge
December-The Bad Bad Pig by Cy Montgomery

I got some picks that I wanted that were in my pile of books. That will decrease the pile. A few books that I was hoping to get on our list that I was hoping to get there. I quesss I was not a good ssales person. Some of my friends don't trust my blogging friends. They think they just want to sell books.

What do you think of the choices we made?? Have any of you ever had these kind of problems in book clubs?? What did you do to fix it?? Let me know. What is your worst thing that happened in your book club???

5 comments:

kristen said...

My book club had similar problems and so a few months ago we had a "come to Jesus meeting" and ended up splitting into two book clubs. Half of the club was retired and really wanted to meet for lunch at a restaurant rather than fight rush hour and give up an evening. The other half (not retired) wanted to continue to meet in the late afternoon/early evening. Since I work from home, I decided to stay with both clubs -- so now I have 2 book clubs! Interestingly, the choices each group have made since have been quite different -- the evening group chooses literary fiction,(next up: S. Rushdie) while the lunch crowd chooses the latest "hot" popular pick (The Shack). So, I love the variety! :)

Anonymous said...

The list is a good one, and I've read a few on there, myself.

Book clubs are difficult to keep attendees involved in, and in showing up.

Anonymous said...

"The Hong Kong Connection" is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It's a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html

Bonnie said...

It sounds like you had a stressful day! I like the announcements that you put together for the bulletin. I hope that in time things will work out for your book club. I think that it's hard to make everyone happy. I've found with my book club that we've had to make clear that it is a book club and not a social club. Every group is different. Hopefully, your group will work through the bumps. You have a great list of books on your schedule.

Marie Cloutier said...

the choices look fine. I think you'll have a fun year. These things are always difficult with competing personalities and such. I'm sure things will work themselves out :-)