Happy Holidays the Book Club way!

Hi all, we had a fabulous time with our third annual Holiday Book Swap. We laughed and laughed, all the while trading around great books with great stories about how we picked them. What a wide range of interests are represented in the group! It was great.

The most traded book of the evening was Hilary Mantel's most recent book, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, a collection of short stories and a departure from Thomas Cromwell. That will be our January book, and I can't wait. If it hadn't been sitting on my shelf, I would also have claimed it!

Although it did not get traded, there was lots of interest in the book Dawn brought that Fiona was lucky enough to get, called Empire of the Summer Moon. It is the rise and fall of the Comanche and we selected that as our February book.

This year, for the first time there were some post-swap swapping, as Beryl ended up with the book she brought and Susan was willing to trade. Humm, another angle to add in!

There was lots of food and fun, thanks to all for coming!

Here is the complete list of the books that ended up under the tree:

Gray Mountain - John Grisham
Please Look After Mom - Kyung Sook Shin
Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause - Heath Hardage Lee (Bonus DVD of Parade's End came along with it - I have always loved The Good Soldier, part one of this Ford Madox Ford trilogy.)
Texts from Jane Eyre - Mallory Ortberg
The Bridal Wreath - Sigrid Undset
Joan of Arc - Mark Twain (who knew Twain wrote a book like this? Twain said it was his best work, can't wait to hear how it is!)
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain
On Agate Hill - Lee Smith
Tigerman - Nick Harkaway
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher - Hilary Mantel
Empire of the Summer Moon - S.C. Gwynne
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted - Elizabeth Berg

If you are looking for something to read, this list is a great place to start!

In the coming year, I have a board meeting on the second Monday of each month, so can we move to the third Monday? That will make our next meeting January 19 - did someone volunteer to host? If so, I have forgotten, pipe back up!

Hope to see you all then! Thanks and Happy Holidays!