We write to taste life twice

Last night was the final book club for me. It was a good meeting. We didn't spend a lot of time talking about the book though. But that was okay. It happens sometimes.

We had lots of tasty food (our hostess served these AMAZING meatballs in some kind of fig sauce) and there was a lot of conversation. I was presented with a card signed by all the ladies with a photo taken of our group at El Greco last June. It was really a nice gesture.

I borrowed a couple of books from the hostess since I lack for reading material right now. Rebecca Wells' Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I won't see her again before I leave, but I can give the books to Christine, who will give them back to her.

I came home with more food than I brought. In addition to the leftover food that I brought, I also came home with two banana chocolate chip muffins and a half dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Today is kind of a lazy day for me. Lance has the car, so I'm not going anywhere all day. I have the day off from working out. And it's not very pleasant outside. Lance is going to get home early today (he's now officially finished with work and he's supposed to be spending all his time outprocessing) in order to change into his civvies, and then we're going to the chow hall for Thanksgiving dinner.

For any of you who are traveling today for the holiday - stay safe, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

The first selections for book club were emailed to me yesterday (although I had no final say in what we're reading...everyone was asked to suggest a few titles and then we were supposed to vote, but I wasn't given the opportunity for any voting).

September - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini...this book has only been out for a month, so I can only get it in hardback. Ouch. We generally try to keep things cheap in book club, so I'm not sure why we're reading this one now. Probably because The Kite Runner was one of the best books we've done in the past couple of years, and we expect this one to be just as good (amazon reviews indicate that it's even better, which is quite an accomplishment).

October - I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis...this was one of my suggestions. One of the other book club members showed me this book, and I freaked out because it is so completely up my alley. Written from the perspective of the woman who posed for da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". It ended up being a book club selection because I was absolutely dying to read this. I suggested 4 other titles too, including one written from the perspective of Shakespeare's daughter, Judith, but this was the one that was selected.

November - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen...this will, in all likelihood, be my last book club meeting. :(

So...guess I have some book shopping to do when I get home. All these books are pretty new, so I doubt I'll have any luck at Half Price Books. But I may have to use this as an excuse to visit The Book Loft. (*cries*...I just compared the Book Loft's prices with amazon.com on A Thousand Splendid Suns...amazon's prices are about $8 cheaper. I would so much rather patronize an independent bookseller, but I can't bring myself to do it if there's that much of a price difference).