If live gives you lemons... keep them, cuz hey, free lemons!

Hi everyone! I think we'd all have to agree that the Christmas Book Exchange was a huge success. Although the really cool game Jake made up for the exchange was too much for all of our wine-softened brains to handle! It was a cool game, though. We had a dozen people and a lot of food and great conversation. I'm glad that we were able to talk about The Raw Shark Texts, our prior book. So many different opinions and theories! Great discussion.  We had a couple of newbies join us as well, which made me very happy. Hopefully they were just as happy as I was!

Our new book was revealed, and  I have to admit I'm seriously stoked about this one. My process for choosing books has been pretty organic lately. It's pretty much been me, wandering around the bookstore until I find the one book I believe is the book I want to read right this instant, above all others. To be fair, be fore I head out, I naturally do a little online research and almost always know quite a bit about the authors on my short-list. It worked out pretty well the last two times, and well, here we go again. This author has written two other books that I am crazy adamant about reading. The first was Everything Is Illuminated. I'm often told I need to read this book, and I often want to watch the movie, but I still haven't because I'm so opposed to the watching of the movie first. The second book is getting a ton of press coverage right now, it's called Eating Animals. And, being vegan, you would think I'd be ready to shove this one down everyone's throat, naturally. BUT, that's not my style :). SO, we go with his middle work, which has garnered so much praise that I am almost a little scared to read it in case it lets me down. I think I'll take the risk.

Without further adieu, our new selection isExtremely Loud and Incredibly Close. By Jonathan Safran Foer. I have often read it said that this is a person's "Favorite adult book of all time". Many many blogs later, this is our choice. I'm very excited about it, and I hope you will find yourself excited as well. It's linked above for purchase on Amazon, so throw it in your Holiday shopping cart, and stuff it in your stocking as a little treat from yourself to yourself. You deserve it! I picked up my copy at Borders, and I have seen it gracing the shelves of Half Price Books as well.  Our next meeting is January 19th, so you have some time to enjoy it over your holiday break, or come home from your fantastic holiday break and still have plenty of time to read it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful season this December, no matter what you celebrate, or even if you celebrate at all. Make one of your resolutions to start reading more! And choose us to read with. We'd love to have you.

Here's my special gift to you. Cheers: