June Book Club Selection - Tracy

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

The Last Summer at Chelsea Bay - Discussion

Book: The Last Summer at Chelsea Bay by Pam Jenoff

Meeting Place: Tribes Alehouse and Grill

Ratings:

Tracy - 3.5

Barb, Sherry, Joyce

Michaelene - 2.75
Joyce - 3
Melissa - 3.5

Barb - 3
Sher - 2.25
Kim - 2.5

Average Rating:  2.93

  
We began our evening by torturing the waiter.  Poor guy!  We're glad he had a great sense of humor.  We studied his appearance and all guessed his name, which happened to be Mike.  

When Kim announced May's read a few weeks ago, she claimed it was a strong recommendation from another book club.  We all had high hopes for The Last Summer at Chelsea Bay but it ended up being a flash in the pan.  We all agreed that it was a quick, easy, beach read.  Many felt the main character was a little promiscuous for that time period.  Another flaw was the disappointing ending.  The author may want to find a new editor because we noticed many grammar errors and typos.   Although many did not like the book, a few of us somewhat enjoyed it, but definitely did not rate it in "one of the best books ever" categories.  We ended our meeting with some good ol' Fannie May.  Thanks to our former BCDP winner, Barb, for making our waist line thicker! 

Kim, Tracy, Melissa

Recommendation:  Although we did somewhat enjoy the book, I'm not sure many of us would recommend it for the reasons above.

BCDP

BCDP:  While we were guessing the name of the waiter, Kim decided that whoever comes closest alphabetically to his name wins the BCDP.  Tracy wins with a guess of "Matt"!  She won a really cool frame featuring our members of BC.  It is displayed in her living room!

May Book Club Selection - Kim

The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff

The Lake House - Discussion

Book: The Lake House by Kate Morton

Meeting Place: Rockwood Tap House

Ratings:

Kim - 2.75

Drawing names and JW's dessert!

Tracy - 3.5
Michaelene - 2.5
Joyce - Made it to chapter 9!
Melissa - 3.5

Barb - 4.5
Sher - 2.5

Average Rating:  3.21

We all met at Rockwood Tap House in Downer's Grove.  We had a great
 night....well, except for the service.  Obviously, Rockwood Tap House was the last place this waiter wanted to be on this particular Wednesday evening.  Especially serving 6 women who were going to sit for awhile discussing a book.  But we did have a great meal along with Joyce's cherry-cream cheese dessert!  Yum!  Thanks Joyce!

  
We began our evening with Sherry's discussion questions.  Most of us had some concerns about the eminent author Kate Morton.  We all praised her for The Secret Keeper.  Then we read The Forgotten Garden and ratings fell slightly.  This month we read her latest The Lake House and ratings dropped again.  Her books are all pretty similar in format and we feel she needs to change things in future books.  Although we still enjoyed various parts of The Lake House, we all had similar complaints.  First, some felt the book could've been 100 pages shorter.  There were some events in the book that were irrelevant.  She adds a great amount of imagery to her books.  Some view this as too much "fluff" while others feel it paints a clear picture of the setting.  Last, some of the events were a little too far-fetched.  Way too unbelievable or coincidental to say the least!  

Baby Theo

Recommendation:  Although we did somewhat enjoy the book, I'm not sure many of us would highly recommend it for the reasons above.

Barb's win

BCDP:  Sherry had us draw out of a hat and the winner was Barb!  She picked the paper with baby Theo, one of the characters from the book.  Barb won a beautiful flowering pot!

April Book Club Selection - Sherry

The Lake House by Kate Morton

The Hypnotist's Love Story - Discussion

Book: The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

Meeting Place: Barb's House

Ratings:

Sher - 

Kim - 3.5
Tracy - 4
Michaelene - 3.25
Joyce - 3.75
Melissa - 4

Barb - 3.5

Average Rating:  3.67

Barb ran out to Jimmy John's and picked up sandwiches for the book club.  She also served beef barley soup and one of her famous, homemade Easter lamb cakes.  Delicious!

We couldn't find discussion questions so we just attacked different scenes, characters, and themes in the book.  We were intrigued by the stalking and hypnotherapy themes.  Most of us agreed that Saskia, the pathetic stalker, was our favorite character.  We also admired Kate, Lance's wife, who appears at the end of the book.  

One creepy scene discussed was when Saskia shows up at Ellen and Patrick's house in the middle of the night.  There were also many side discussions that can't be discussed on this blog!  Haha!  

Recommendation:  Overall, most enjoyed the book and rated it quite well.  Many talked about recommending this book to some select friends.  

BCDP:  Barb had us pick a number between 50 and 100 to determine the bcdp winner.  Joyce wins!  Unfortunately, we will not be able to enjoy one of her awesome desserts next month since she will be out of town.  Darn!

Other events:  The movie, Me Before You, makes it's grand entrance on June 3rd.  We are thinking of possibly seeing the movie together since it was a very popular, well-liked book we've read!