Recipes!

Hey! Sorry to totally be bombarding you with blog updates these days .... I just have a lot of time this week before my class starts next week, so am having fun doing all the nerdy stuff I love to do : )

If you head on over to our recipe blog (via the button in the sidebar) you'll see I posted Anna's couscous recipe. I've made it quite a few times since she hosted last May so thought maybe you guys would like the recipe as well (it's from myrecipes.com so I just googled a bunch of the                                             ingredients and it popped up!).

We obviously don't need to have every single recipe we ever consume as a group up on the food blog, but if you haven't posted there yet and feel like it, go ahead and add a recipe or two from when you hosted. Or just send me the recipe and I'll do it for you!

-Carolyn

The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

Remember this guy? I have to say, he's up there on my list of favorite characters ever. I loved that he spent is years at Shawshank Prison in the library. He completely defied any judgements I had made about inmates. Brooks was kind, intelligent, and good with people and animals. He valued books and made them an important part of prison life. Is Brooks the only one for books in prison?

Brooks Hatlen: prison librarian/trustee and one of the oldest convicts at Shawshank.

I'll get to the point. Solveig told me about the story Art behind bars that she heard on MPR's Midmorning this morning. Being that I've always been interested in prison life (don't ask- weird obsession) and the books/the arts I listened to the story as soon as I got home. We agreed that it must be shared with the other Bookettes right away. 


The guests on today's show were Avi Steinberg (check out his book cover below), who spent time working in a prison library and saw first-hand what books and literature meant to some prisoners and Janie Paul, works with prisoners on creative arts projects.  During the show they share their perspective on arts and humanities in the prisons. The host, Kerri Miller, also takes calls from former inmates and their families. In a time when budget cuts abound, this story makes an compelling argument for the value of the arts in prisons.

Is this fitting with our recent read, The Accidental Tourist, or what?

Janie Paul

Improvisation 3
2005

You can listen here:

How about you? What books have resonated with you? How did that particular book relate to what was going on in your life at the time you read it?

-Marit

Step into my office- let's talk business.

Can't wait to see all of you at our next meeting in a few weeks! I have a thought and a question about our upcoming meetings. (I hope I don't bore you too much...)

1. If you haven't received the invite for November 20th be sure to let me know. I did change the time to 10 am.

2. When we set our January 15 meeting, I didn't realize that was Martin Luther King weekend. We are planning on going out of town, so I won't be able to make it. Does that effect anyone else? If so maybe we should find another day, if not no big deal.

Happy reading!
Marit

GoodReads

Have you guys heard of this?

http://www.goodreads.com/

For all you bookworms out there .... this is a website where you can track all of the books you've read, write reviews, and keep a list of books you'd like to read someday. You can add friends and view their lists, and even comment and interact with the BookReads community. It's kind of like facebook, for readers!

Just thought I'd recommend it to you guys in case you're interested. If you join, look me up and I'll be your friend : )

Carolyn

PS - Have we picked our next book yet? Or are we just going to do that at our next meeting? I am a big fan of the online voting system, but since our next meeting won't be until January, we aren't exactly in a big rush. 

Next up: Anthropology of an American Girl

It was a close call, but the poll is closed and it looks like we will be reading Anthropology of an American Girl next!

A review that Solveig recently found says, "If publishers could figure out how to turn crack into a book, it'd read a lot like this"... can't wait!

Sarah, do you have any input on what day would work best for our next meeting? Anyone else?

-Marit

August meeting time (and VOTE!)

Hey folks! Remember to vote for your book choice on the blog if you haven't yet (it looks like there's only one day left to do it...perhaps we can post it again though).

I'm not sure if we've set a concrete date yet for the early-August meeting at Sarah's, but for me it looks like I have to leave on Thursday with my family for a wedding in Chicago that weekend (my cousin's). If Wednesday the 4th was still a possibility then that would be my first choice...but if Thursday the 5th works better for everyone else, I understand and I'll be sure to make the next meeting. :) Post comments as you wish.

Remember to VOTE, and see you all on Friday the 25th @ 7:00pm!

~Christine

Our new FOOD Blog!

Hey Girls! Notice anything new on this page? Scroll on down and look on the right side just after our list of books we'd like to read someday.... I made a new blog for all of our recipes! I figured that way it will be really easy to keep adding recipes as we keep making food for our meetings. Click on the pizza icon to take you to the site where I explain it in better detail and took the liberty of starting out with a recipe post. Feel free to add your recipes when you have time. Looking forward to recreating some of the goodies we've enjoyed so far!

Also, I added Hannah, our newest member, to our email notification list... so welcome, Hannah! Can't wait for you to meet everyone at our next meeting! (I'll email you with the details on how to sign in to the blog).

~Carolyn

Recipes online?

Hey Girls,

Great meeting yesterday! Anyone want to write about it? I will post the group photo sometime this week. I was thinking it might be cool to post our recipes on our blog! That way we can find them whenever we want and who knows, maybe we have a follower out there who wants to try some? You can create a new tab/page right at the top of the blog and we can throw all of our recipes in there. I could post mine all together under the title "Recipes from Portrait of an Artist" or something like that... and then they will all be in one place and Solveig can easily snag 'em to throw in a book. Only problem is I can't figure out how to add a new page... I tried and it didn't really work. Any geeksters out there who can help me out?

Carolyn

PS - this wouldn't be taking over the final book product we've been planning on. It would just be an easy way to keep them together electronically. : )

Forward recommended

I picked up my old high school copy of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the other night and decided to start off at the very very beginning -- with the forward (which I definitely never read in high school). If your copy has an introduction like this (mine is by High Kenner) I highly recommend reading it, or at least skimming it, because I forgot that the beginning of the book is quite confusing. It isn't complicated in that you have to keep track of herds of characters, but rather it takes a while to figure out who the narrator actually is... or rather, his age... Let's just say that this book is written from the perspective of the protagonist, and the protagonist's journey starts at a very early age... ; ) I believe it makes more sense as you get into it (and the protagonist grows up) but being as I haven't gotten very far yet, I couldn't tell you for sure.

The introduction in my book went into quite lengthy detail, almost a critical analysis, so no need to read it thoroughly. But Hugh Kenner will set you straight on a few things. Have fun!

Carolyn

Peace Like a River

Our next book...tell us your thoughts.... by Leif Enger

The Bookette's Are Now Online!

Hi Girls!

As promised, I started our book club Blog! I'll send the sign-in to everyone shortly :-)

Please feel free to comment on our current book, post receipts, discuss books we'd like to eventually read, and anything else that you'd like to share with the group.

Take Care,

Heidi