Hooray...Hunger Games Trailer

Ohhhh....I am so excited to take a little break from our club's latest choice of novel to bring you a trailer for the Hunger Games movie!!! Hooray - I know I got Nat B and Erinn to read the trilogy, but has anyone else in our group read them? They are quite the addictive little things, hard to put down once you start. Very easy to read too (being written for teens and all) I can't seem to find an actual trailer from the studio, but click here for some awesome fan-made ones that will leave you wanting more...

Looks like it's got Robert Downey Jr. cast, which is always a treat. Downside, I may have seen Hayden Panettiere in there too (hopefully whomever she plays doesn't survive the games!!...Too harsh?)

Amazing...so excited! A great way to end the week :) Enjoy B-Fabers xoxo

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

So I have had major issues getting into this book. I'm hoping a little research and this blog post will motivate me!

I found out that this book was the Winner of the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award. I also found this review:

The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own.

But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime — even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past.

A thoroughly entertaining romp of a novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is inventive and quick-witted, with tongue-in-cheek humour that transcends the macabre seriousness of its subject.

this I am looking forward to our book club to see what other thought and also to see what books we select up for next year.

Remember to bring your ideas for new books for us to read.

See you next week!

Erinnnnnnnnn :)

Escape

So I just wanted to add some information about the book that I mentioned last book club, Escape by Carolyn Jessop. This is from the jacket:

"Seventeen years after being forced into a polygamous marriage, Jessop escaped from the cultlike Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints with her eight children. She recounts the horrid events that led her to break free from the oppressive world she knew and how she has managed to survive since escaping, despite threats and legal battles with her husband and the Church."

I don't know about you guys but there is something interesting about polygamy, kind of like a train wreck, you just can't look away! I have yet to read it but I am looking forward to it....how can someone 'escape' with 8 children???

Ninnnn

Re-cap and Dip Recipe

So nice to see your post Erinn - can't wait to hear your thoughts on Year of the Flood...I loved it too (when I got into it - it took a little while, but then I was hooked!)

Last night's BFAB was so fun and delicious! Consensus was that everyone loved it. Here are some major points for Nat D who missed out:

* The only time most liked or felt anything for Somer's character was at the beginning of the novel where she struggled to conceive and seemed to really want to be a mother.

* We felt the story fall a little flat in terms of the mother/daughter bond between Somer and Asha - she grows so fast in the story that you don't get the chance to feel a connection there.

* Everyone loved Dadima (but felt awful for Somer when she put a left-over hamburger in Dadima's strightly vegetarian fridge and caused her to throw out everything and want to toss her dishes as well).

* Lots of interesting cultural differences - We will never look at dull, western mashed potatoes the same again (but we'll still eat them!)

* Kavita and Jasu's son's name is pronounced VI-jay and not Vjay...and Somer went for a biopsy, not an autopsy!!! (We learn something new everyday)

* Not many liked Jasu, could not get over what he had done to their first-born daughter

So we are set to read our final selection for next months club called "The sweetness at the bottom of the pie."

We talked about perhaps doing some non-fiction in our next selections (Some ideas were: Infidel (a.k.a "hmmmmm") and another about a polygamist wife who escaped with her children...need the title on that one Erinn.

Thanks again to hostess Nat B who took it to a new level with her dishes and wine - and to Amy for her sweet apple dip!


Here's the Apple Caramel Dip Recipe that Amy made (I found courtesy of Ottawa blogger Janet: http://janetishungry.blogspot.com )

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 container caramel (usually found in the produce section)
1 pkg skor bits
Granny Smith apples, sliced

1. Beat the cream cheese with brown sugar until smooth. Spread thinly onto large serving plate.

2. Heat the caramel slightly (about 15 second in microwave) to make spreadable. Spread on top of cream cheese.

3. Sprinkle the package of Skor bits all over the top. Serve with sliced Granny Smith apples for dipping.


Cheers, R-FAB xoxo

Defended!!

I am happy to report that I am essentially done my Master's and defended my research project today. So now that I have finished doing so much writing for my thesis I hope to be doing a LOT more reading!!

To keep sane I managed to get a few books read over the last month or so. They were 'Eating Animals" by Jonothan Saffran Foer and "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood. They are extremely different yet kind of similar, one is about the ethics around eating animals while the other is set in the future about a group of vegetarians known as the Gardeners. I hope to do a more complete review of each in the next few days.

Can't wait to see you guys tonight to hear what everyone thought about "Secret Daughter" I am on the LOVED IT team!!


Erinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
xoxo