Books 'n Booze

Ok, I swear I wasn’t trying  to wait until the last minute to post this, it just happened. But I really think I may have taken the award for latest post, at least so far. I’m sure someone can beat me.

Naturally I remember nothing that we did or talked about so this will truly be a pathetic recap. I just got super-excited when I finally remembered that I made tacos for dinner. Yay tacos! That’s it. That’s all I got.

Adding to my confusion is the fact that, though it was my turn to host and I made dinner, we actually had book club at Sarah’s. I feel that this justifies, at least in part, the next several paragraphs.

Appetizer was Sarah’s and I’m just gonna go ahead and say it was cheese and crackers. And grapes maybe? Close enough. Then I made tacos. Yay tacos! And Des brought dessert! Dessert was a “disgusting thing” Des brought. (These are her words not mine. I liked it! But it was really sweet.)

We talked about the book, which everyone agreed that they liked – huzzah! People liked several of the characters – the dad, the housekeeper, the boy, Werner. We agreed it was hard to read some parts- Werner, the young Nazi, is not a bad person, but is a victim of circumstances . It’s a beautiful tragedy, and while it’s lovely that the blind girl (Marie-Laure) lived to a ripe old age, you can’t help but be sad to never know what became of her father, and to feel like the jewel is a bit wasted hidden in the ocean. Anyway good.

We talked about a couple things – not many posts this month but still interesting. ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ is coming out soon, and we’re all so excited! We talked about a couple other movies – trailers are out for the new Hunger Games and Des and I wanted to go see ‘Gone Girl’ (and we did!). We talked about what a dick Kanye is (he wants people in wheelchairs to “stand up” for him, ugh). So it was a very light, fun, musical book club and now I have (somewhat) accurately recalled it for posterity, and officially taken the “latest recap post” award since it’s now 30 minutes into October book club. GO ME!

I dare you people to put up a later post than this. DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU. It’s 6:10pm and book club for April starts in 20 minutes. So I think I officially take “slacker” title for the month.

This was our first book club away from Sarah’s house post-Sawyer so that meant 1. yay Sarah! and 2. a very quick book club in between Sawyer feedings. But that’s ok, we’re pros at this now! We can power through these things double time.

So we started out with food. Sarah was the winner because over-achiever new mom brought homemade dip and veggies. Turns out they were “homemade” by her mother-in-law but it was still better than Des and I. Des brought super-tasty Girl Scout cookies and I was the biggest slacker ever and made a frozen pizza. Go me.

We read “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Des had never read it before; Sarah and I hadn’t read it since we were much younger. We agreed that it was a little bit predictable (though in its defense, it’s an older story and no doubt other stories have followed its concept). We also thought it was pretty absurd for her to be right next door to her future father and guardian and have him not know. We really felt for Becky, who had an equally hard time of it, more so without an education and good upbringing, but who remained a maid after Sara Crewe was rescued (albeit in better circumstances). All in all we liked it ok, and Sarah and I had a great deal of nostalgia in reading it, but Des, who taught us that there was apparently an unabridged version, wasn’t as impressed.

Our quick review of current events covered interesting topics like taking care of our elders (mandatory in some countries!), breast feeding in public (oh, the HUMANITY!), how to write an awesome Amazon review for pens (“I use it when I’m swimming, riding a horse, walking on the beach and doing yoga!”), horrible, entitled parents (Ooops! you forget to send a gift!!), and recognizing and dealing with anxiety amoung other things (I love parentheses; this thing shoulda been a run-on sentence 40 words ago).

So while a super-quick event it was FANTASTIC to catch up and check in and we really enjoyed our evening. Three cheers for getting out of the house and setting attainable goals! 🙂 And now it’s 6:27pm so I really MUST publish this.

And for this month’s edition of Sarah’s-strange-recap adventures, I’d like to present:

Our Bookclub Recap – In 6 Haikus

Chips and salsa first
followed by creamy chili
a Mexican feast!

Yogurt and berries
were the intended dessert
(but, some had ice cream)

No music to share,
no complicated dishes,
a simple Saloon.

And as for the book,
the classic Little Women
was enjoyed by all

The movie is great
but Jen and Des have not seen-
something we’ll soon change

Current events time,
only a few to discuss
A laid back book club.

Happy January, and thanks for a relaxing book club evening!

Love,

Sarah and little DB
😉