Betsy once again hosted our holiday cookie exchange and book group at her festive and elegant home. We all enjoyed the soup, salad, beverages and a plethora of cookies and treats. Much book talk, what we read this year, likes and dislike and what we'd like to read next year. It was a wonderful way to welcome the holiday season and say good-bye to yet another year.
We really enjoyed the language of this book and the tea sandwiches and other treats were also a delight.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's only known novel. The work first appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890, and it was revised and published as a novel the following year. The work was considered scandalous and immoral when it first appeared, but it was really a way for Wilde to write about his philosophy of art.
Our summer July/August book group meeting was hosted at the Hastings house and the book "boss" was Miss Molly. 
Washington Times
"The Zookeeper's Wife is a groundbreaking work of nonfiction," said selection committee member Mark Kurlansky, "in which the human relationship to nature is explored in an absolutely original way through looking at the Holocaust." Kathleen Dean Moore, the committee's chairperson, said: "A few years ago, 'nature' writers were asking themselves, How can a book be at the same time a work of art, an act of conscientious objection to the destruction of the world, and an affirmation of hope and human decency? The Zookeeper's Wife answers this question."
The Zookeeper's Wife ( a war story)
usual droll, big-hearted self. Vowell's breezy style often disguises her solid craft and the richer messages below her work's shiny surface, so don't be fooled. She's a genuine treasure." 
“A rich account of one woman’s journey through Europe and into the self.”
Our March meeting was moved to a Saturday and started an hour earlier, but we still managed to talk until after 11:00. When we ladies get together we have a lot to say and some of it actually is about the book. Suzi hosted this months gathering at her lovely East Sac bungalow.
Deborah recommended this book for our March read: 
ctor and house slave for Rufus, the young son of a plantation owner. Eventually Dana comes to the realization that Rufus is destined to be her great-great-grandfather, fathering a daughter through one of his slaves.
Kindred, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, is Octavia E. Butler's masterpiece. This novel is deeply emotional, beautifully written, and its historical context painstakingly researched. As Butler herself has pointed out many times, Kindred is not technically science fiction, since the mechanism by which Dana is transported through time is never explained or rationalized - which makes it all the more frightening. Nonetheless, time travel is central to the story of Kindred, and thus it has developed a cult following among SF&F fans. It is also probably the only "science fiction" novel to appear on the short list of books included in academic programs devoted to women's studies and black history.
Kindred is more that simply a victimization story of an intelligent black woman ripped from her comfy 20th century existence and thrown unexpectedly into the cruel slave culture of the Old South. We are told in the book's opening scene that Dana mysteriously loses her left arm as a result of her final return to modern times. Exactly how or why this happens is never fully explained, but perhaps this is a reference to the time when blacks were Constitutionally considered three-quarters of a person (perhaps it's a reminder that blacks are still not fully "whole" even today - although why that is could be the subject of hot debate). Dana's husband Kevin (who happens to be white) is transported back to Maryland with her, giving us a perfect opportunity to contrast his ability to assimilate to a society in which white men are virtual gods.
"Octavia Butler is a writer who will be with us for a long, long time, and Kindred is that rare magical artifact..the novel one returns to again and again," Harlan Ellison
"With the same incomparable style and warm, inviting voice that have made her beloved by millions of readers far and wide, New York Times bestselling author Fannie Flagg has written an enchanting Christmas story of faith and hope for all ages that is sure to become a classic. — Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it. Once you experience the wonder, you too will never forget A Redbird Christmas. " Bookjacket summary
"Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place-he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their timely ghostly teachings-like the ability to Fade. Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other. This chilling tale is Neil Gaiman's first full-length novel for middle-grade readers since the internationally bestselling and universally acclaimed Coraline. Like Coraline, this book is sure to enchant and surprise young readers as well as Neil Gaiman's legion of adult fans." website book summery
