Happy Birthday Michelle!

Have a great day Michelle!

The NTSBC Gals

No Reading Required!

Did your invitation to the Royal Wedding get lost in the mail like mine? If so, please join me for breakfast to watch the celebration (via recording). Come for a few minutes or stay for the whole morning. Pajamas, casual or formal attire ~ hats optional!

May Book Selection

Sorry for the delay in announcing this...Cari has chosen, The 5 Languages of Love by Gary Chapman as our May book selection. We will meet on May 18...details to come on time and place.

An excerpt from Amazon.com:

Unhappiness in marriage often has a simple root cause: we speak different love languages, believes Dr. Gary Chapman. While working as a marriage counselor for more than 30 years, he identified five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. In a friendly, often humorous style, he unpacks each one. Some husbands or wives may crave focused attention; another needs regular praise. Gifts are highly important to one spouse, while another sees fixing a leaky faucet, ironing a shirt, or cooking a meal as filling their "love tank." Some partners might find physical touch makes them feel valued: holding hands, giving back rubs, and sexual contact. Chapman illustrates each love language with real-life examples from his counseling practice.

You can actually take a test to assess what kind of love language you speak. Take the test here.

The days are long, but the years are short

Since reading The Happiness Project, the phrase "the days are long, but the years are short", has become my personal daily mantra. This morning's Zits comic strip struck a chord with me. My parents are visiting and my dad asked me why I was hiding eggs and doing baskets for my kids who clearly are beyond believing in the Easter Bunny. I told him it's one of our family traditions. I felt a little defensive about it and thought maybe I was just doing it for myself because I wasn't ready to give it up. However, once I saw my big boys and little girl practically taking each other down in the big hunt, while laughing hysterically, I was convinced that they too like our traditions. May you have a blessed Easter holiday with your loved ones and enjoy celebrating your traditions...be it with children, parents or friends.

You or Somone Like You -- a "not too serious" review

Sitting in Brigid's handsomely appointed living room, sheltered from the cacophony of the world outside, the intrepid ladies of the NTSBC delved into You or Someone Like You by world renowned scent critic and self-styled auteur extraordinaire, Chandler Burr. Wine and conversation flowed freely as these loquacious literary ladies dissected and divined the larger portent of M. Burr's controversial contention that Judaism's fixation on separateness is a myopic world vision and every bit as racist as any other "ism" in which one group ascribes superiority to its members simply as a matter of birthright. While some thought the work provocative, daring, and original, Brigid and Margaret cogently observed that the tome read more like a term paper than a novel and passionately objected to the scribe's incessant and contrived references to esoteric literary works. Kelby and Peggy tacitly agreed with their erudite assessment. Not having finished the book, Teresa diplomatically recused herself from the discussion, but commented that she would toss the book out straight away. Her sudden vehemence took us all by surprise, but privately we all envied her, for unlike us, she would never have to carry with her the memory of You or Someone Like You.

Happy Birthday

Julie!

Wishing you a happy day!

The NTSBC gals

All Things Books

Here are a few things we thought you Bookies might be interested in...

www.bookbrowse.com and www.bookmovement.com are both good resources, similar to goodreads.com, but with more emphasis on book clubs. Book Browse has a section on book club advice as well a list of weekly recommendations. Both websites allow you to peruse the site but to gain complete access, they require membership. Book Movement is free but Book Browse charges a fee after a one month free membership.

Peggy found a site that offers FREE audio books at www.bookshouldbefree.com. Are you saying to yourself that there must be a catch? It appears there really isn't a catch and the books are really free. While you won't find any books from the current best seller list, you will find many classics and older books. This would be a great way to catch up on all those books you feel you should read. The audio books might be be helpful to some of the high school students who are struggling with the books on their required reading list.

Lastly, Peggy discovered we are not the only Not Too Serious Book Club in existence! Our sister NTSBC is a program offered through the Midland, Michigan Library. In case you are curious, they have read such books as The Eyre Affair, The Time Traveler's Wife, Look Again, Cover Her Face and Mysterious Affair at Styles. Perhaps they'd like to check out our blog!

12 Tips for Reading More

Thought you might be interested in these tips from our friend Gretchen...

gretchenrubin

12 tips for getting more reading done. Never enough time to READ! In fact, I'm going to go read right now. http://bit.ly/cMsWje

April NTSBC Meeting

We will gather at Brigid's home on Wednesday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m to discuss YOSLY. Light appetizers and desserts will be served. Since this blog is public and probably has a huge audience on the world wide web (ha!), I don't want to post Brigid's address. Please let me know if you need it and I will send it to you privately.

Hope you can make it for a lively discussion. Looking forward to hearing what Cari has selected for May!

Click here to look over some discussion questions: YOSLY Reading guide

"A book is like a person, and one's reaction to a person invariably has more to do with one's own personality and life experience than with the actual person herself."
— Chandler Burr (You or Someone Like You)