A Book Group Miracle

With only 3 weeks notice we were able to pull off a book group miracle and gather together on a Friday night with our significant persons for a fabulous dinner. This is the same group that has troubles picking a week night to gather with 6 weeks notice and no child care issues to work out. Amazing! We cozied in around Melinda & Mark's dining room table and chatted away about current events, (Is Sarah Palin really considered an "author"?) Hobbies, kids, recent social events and of course... books. We rounded the table sharing which books were our favorites as kids, titles included:

Little House on the Prairie

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Ayn Rand, The Fountain Head

Larry McMurtry

A Wrinkle in Time

Monster at the End of this Book

Where the sidewalk ends

Some of the more "adult" Judy Bloom titles even made an appearance.

Each title was met with oohs and chatter. We did discuss at length whether or not "The Giving Tree" is a good book or very depressing. We did agree that while it has been used as a corporate gift that it is a questionable selection. Are they saying that the receiver is the tree, who gives and gives until it is dead, or the human that takes and takes until it is filled with regret. Either way, not a merry sentiment.

Another book that we decided was creepy is "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch.

The story goes like this: A mom goes into her son's room and rocks him to sleep professing she will love him forever. As he grows older - um, like to a teenager he's not so excited about being rocked to sleep so she's forced to sneak into his room after he's asleep and cuddle with him while he is unaware. He, getting irritated at waking up in footed pj's eventually moves out of state, but she continues to commit crimes of breaking and entering to assault him in his bedroom.

Eventually, she gets too old to make the trek across the state and the son, never having been able to form normal man/woman relationships starts to do what he knows with his mom. He starts to sneak into her room and rock the feeble old woman with no boundaries to sleep professing he will always love her.

Then, they buy a hotel, a cute hotel and they name it after themselves. Thus is the story of Mrs. Bates and her sweet boy Norman.

Anyway - back to the party. We had lots of laughs, enjoyed each others company and celebrated the simple miracle of scheduling.