March 28, 2004
Book Club, #2
Our bookclub met today at Ellen's for more good food and talk (about lots of things besides books, and some talk of books). Here we are (Ellen, Tina, Emy, BobbiLynn, and me.)
Some of the things we talked about/recommended:
Books
Jasper Fforde books (since Ellen recommended Jane Eyre, I had to jump in and mention The Eyre Affair)
Rediscovering Nancy Drew by Carolyn Stewart Dyer and Nancy Tillman Romalov
The Girl Sleuth (by Bobbie Ann Mason -- almost another BobbiLynn)
Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (and also the movie)
East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes (and the movie)
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (and the movie)
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (and the movie)
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (10 stories, people hiding out from the plague)
(and actually recommended by people in knitting group:
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg --
I had brought up Bee books because I was trying to remember the name of the Los Gatos Town-Wide Read, which turns out to actually be The Bee Keeper's Apprentice by Laurie King instead)
Movies/TV
6th Sense
Mork and Mindy
Brideshead Revisited
Scarlett Pimpernell
Arrested Development
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hildago (mostly because Aragon is in it)
Never Ending Story
Princess Bride
Labyrinth
Whale Rider
Places to go
Outside of the Campbell library, there is apparently a word-find of children's authors in the cement -- will have to check when I work there 4/8
Thoroughly Modern Millie (BobbiLynn and I saw an ad on the back of a bus and want to go see it here in San Jose)
Santa Clara County Library
Questions to ponder
How does the Care Bear Theme Song go? (Lyrics and .wav file of Care Bear Count-Down, 5-4-3-2-1 -- funny, I thought it would sound more familiar...)
What percentage of your brain are you actually using? Is the 10% figure people cite include all the things like breathing?
How can I learn to take better minutes in meetings? Should I learn short-hand?
What ever happened to Jello pudding pops? (Look! petition to bring them back!)
Can you freeze jello pudding? (In fact, here's a recipe for Homemade Pudding Pops!)
Don't take "stunning" as a complement from Ellen...
Where does the phrase "hoochie mama" come from (and how do you spell it?) (The Urban Dictionary says it is a "polite term used by women to define other women as sluts", but I'm still looking for word-origins)
Making jewelry out of people's ashes (no, really, check out Life Gem -- eeww)
And knitting from one's pet's fur (see VIP Fibers: Hand-spun yarn from your very important pet, though my favorite is the headline Making mittens out of kittens)
Happy endings...