The last two month has been very busy for out book club! In April we met at one of our members homes on the West side of the island. Beautiful views, great food, books, what more could we ask for? Most everyone enjoyed our April book Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was fun to compare it to another book we recently read, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
In May we discussed The Lottery by local author Patricia Wood. It was a quick read and everyone really enjoyed it. One of our members entered our book club in a drawing for audio books for the whole group, and . . . we won! We will all be reading, or rather listening, to The World Without Us by Alan Weisman as part of Audio Book Month. Our June meeting will be a little earlier this month, we will meet at the Big City Diner on the 20th at 10:30.
We have been lucky enough to have quite a few literary events happen in the last few months. A great way to keep track of what is happening in the literary world on Oahu is Hawaii Book Blog. This site has a calendar that features events, book sales, readings, library events, etc. all around the island. You can also check out information on local authors and books that focus on Hawaii. This is a great resource for anyone that lives in Hawaii or is interested in local literature. You can also follow them on twitter!
Speaking of fun events, the Hawaii Public Library is now offering their summer reading programs. Sign up now and participate from June 1 to July 1. There are categories for children, teens and adults with incentives and prizes for everyone. Stop by your local library to check it out!

What a Great meeting last Sunday! There were very mixed feelings about our last book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which made for great discussion. Our April book was suggested by one of our new members (Yeah new members!). We will be reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. We also talked about all the other books we either have been reading (or would like to read) as well as movies and other events around the island. One event that a few people were interested was Celebrate Reading which is taking place at the University of Hawaii Campus on Saturday, April 17^th. I will try to send an email the Thursday before to see if anyone is still interested in going, that way we’d have the option of meeting and going together or at least know you’re not the only one attending. The flyer for Celebrate reading as well as a quick introduction letter to the program and schedule of events will be emailed to all members.

Another upcoming event is the Bamboo Ridge pre-launch part for their upcoming book of poetry No Choice But to Follow. The poetry is a Renshi, a fascinating style of Japanese poetry where each poem depends on the other. (If you are interested in learning more about Renshi here are two articles on linked poetry http://renku.home.att.net/what.html#renshi & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renku ) The information for that event is as follows:

WINE & WORDS!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 5:30 PM

Special pre-launch party for
NO CHOICE BUT TO FOLLOW
linked poetry by Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita, and Christy Passion

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
5:30 p.m. wine and pupu
6:00 p.m. reading
Tamarind Room, ‘Ohelo Building
Kapi‘olani Community College
FREE PARKING
$12 suggested donation at the door, reservation recommended--call 626.1481 or e-mail bambooridge@hawaii.rr.com

Wine and words, saké and poetry, full moon and round food!
Advance copies of NO CHOICE BUT TO FOLLOW will be sold at a special discounted price.
The four gifted poets will share their year-long poetry chain, first posted in 2008 as weekly additions to this website to commemorate BRP's 30th anniversary, now a moving book and CD.

Another of our members has shared with us an opportunity at the Kapolei Library this Saturday. Here is the information for that program:

Kapolei Public Library and the Romance Writers of America, Aloha Chapter are pleased to announce a program for this Saturday April 3, 201 at 10:30. Author Jill Marie Landis will discuss writing and her newest novel, Heart of Stone.
Ms. Landis is a very popular author, with 26 titles in the Hawaii State Public Library System catalog. We are very excited to have the opportunity to host this mainland author. Please spread the word among your book clubs and friends and fans of romance and budding romance writers.

And one last event I’d like to mention. Kaui Hart Hemmings will be speaking at the Hawaii Pacific University campus in the penthouse of the library building on April 23^rd from 2-3. We have read one of Hemmings books in the past and a few of us even had the chance to meet her at last year’s Celebrate Reading. Kaui Hart Hemmings novel The Descendents is also being made into a movie which is currently filming in Hawaii (as in right now! George Clooney has been sighted all over the island!). If anyone has any questions about this or any of the other events mentioned please feel free to email me.

On to our next meeting! Susanna has been kind enough to offer her home for our next meeting. We will be meeting there April 25^th at 1pm. Susanna will be emailing directions to her home later on. Everyone should bring a dish they’d like to share and sturdy shoes if they’d like to climb the hill to see her beautiful view. It’s always fun visit Susanna’s home and I thank her again for letting us join her.

That’s all for now, please feel free to email me with any questions or information you’d like to share with the group. Enjoy the next book!

We had a great meeting in January! It was great to hear about all the different books we had been reading, what a selection! We rated each book that was read on a scale of 1 to 5. Here’s how it broke down.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett-5

Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan – 5

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver – 4

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay – 2 ½

The Alchemist Paulo Coelho -5

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon – 5

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen- 4 ½

Everyone in Hawaii is familiar with “Furlough Fridays” but you may not know about the furlough days happening at the library. Here is a list of the furlough schedule.

All public libraries will be closed:

February 3, 10, 2010
March 5, 12, 19, 2010

Aiea, Hawaii Kai, Kaimuki, Liliha, Manoa will also be closed:

March 4, 11, and 18.
April 7, 14, 21, 2010
May 5, 19, 2010

Aiea is also changing their hours on Thursday from 1pm-8pm

There are also a few library events going on around the island. To celebrate Chinese New Year the library is hosting “Chinese New Year Feng Shui Lectures” by Clear Englebert. Englebert is the author of Feng Shui for Hawaii. The schedule for the lectures is:

2 February at 6:30pm – Kapolei Library

4 February at 6:30pm – Kailua Library

6 February at 2:30pm – Mililani Library

7 February at 2:30pm – Kane’ohe Library

There will be a romance writing workshop at the Kapolei Library February 6^th starting at 10:30am. I borrowed this quote from the Honolulu Advertiser “The discussion panel includes three published authors and takes place upstairs in the Adult Fiction section.” So if you’re interested in writing or just want to hear a few published authors speak go take a look!

I know we’ve discussed the Bamboo Ridge Press taping of “Aloha Shorts” before. The next tapping will be February 7^th and it sounds like it’s going to be an interesting topic! From the Honolulu Advertiser:

"WOMEN'S STORIES," program of selected poems and prose, written by women, and published in Bamboo Ridge Press, next in the series of Hawaii Public Radio's live taping of "Aloha Shorts"; 6:45 p.m. music, 7 p.m. readings, Feb. 7, Atherton Performing Arts Studio, 738 Kāheka St.; free; reservations recommended, 955-8821.”

Hope you all take advantage of some of the great events we have going on around our island! See you next month!

Our November meeting was a lot of fun! We had a great time at Susanna’s home, played with the animals, saw a beautiful sunset, ate some great food and discussed our book. Since we will not be having a December meeting because of the holidays our next meeting will be January 31st. We decided to try something different for the next book selection. Each of us will read a book and discuss their selection with the group. Similar to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society! This was we can either catch up on some of the books we’ve been meaning to read or share new books we received during the holidays. We should have quite the collection of books to discuss since we all have different tastes. If anyone has a problem with the date for the next meeting just let me know. It’s so far in advance that we should have no problem changing the date if someone can’t make it. I hope you all have a great holiday season! See you next year!!

I was unable to attend the October meeting but after talking to a few of the members there were mixed emotions about the book. Here are a few reviews from our book club members

“This book was painful to read, not because it didn't capture my interest or the prose, but it was like seeing two buses on a collision course and anticipating the inevitable twist of metal and gruesome breaking of bodies. This is one of the many reasons I don't read "Oprah" books, because they always drag you through the mud to make an impression. However, I must attribute these stories to making me think more about the news clips I hear or read and to put faces and life stories to the people involved. We know war-torn places in Africa embody tragedy and suffering that I cannot understand or empathize. I admit that while I appreciate the plight of a people, I don't appreciate the plight of persons. I'm better able to conjure the feelings I had while reading these stories.
There were two main themes running through my mind reading these stories. First, religion is the root of the violence depicted here. This only bolsters my support that religion, particularly when unquestioned my most of its adherents, can be used to justify anything, including the most inhumane atrocities people inflict on other people. It provided a fictional account of how religion or faith as the primary source for basing decisions in one's life, as opposed to logic or faithless humanism, leads people to practices that are contrary to their beliefs. A second theme was that these children are always paying for the sins of their parents, particularly when the "sin" is being of one religion/faith or another. I think the author was clever in choosing children as a vector for delivering these stories; they impart a sense of innocence that makes it easier to evaluate the world the author creates with a more objective view. Still, the book cover claims these stories portray the resilience of children, and I'm not sure that was a trait I identified in each one of the characters.”

“In some respects, it makes me reflect on the time I spent in Zimbabwe. However, at the time Zimbabwe was more politically stable than it is now. Still, childhood was, as it is in this book, a luxury most of the population could not afford to enjoy. It's heart breaking to think such atrocities happen to children in developing nations. The book makes me feel both guilty and blessed for the life I live.”

Our next book will be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden. One of our members has generously offered us the use of her house for our November meeting. Since we don’t usually meet in December this will be a sort of holiday party. We will be having a potluck again so please bring something you’d like to share. A main dish will be served and all the utensils, water, etc. will be taken care of. If you need directions Susanna’s home please let me know. Can’t wait to see all of you!

We had a nice meeting September. All of us liked Born to Run and we had a chance to talk about a lot of other books. I found a couple pictures of the Tarahumara and other characters from the book.

Tarahumara sandal

FiveFinger Vibram

Tarahumara

Scott and Arnulfo

Jen

Barefoot Ted

Scott Jurek and Arnulfo Quimare

Caballo Blanco

Our next book will be Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan. We will be meeting October 25th. See you soon!!