Holiday Cookie Exchange and Book Club dinner

In December we met at Betsy lovely home in Elk Grove to discuss Dead End in Norvelt and to share delicous Holiday Cookies. Yes, it is the annual cookie exchange!
The book is actually a young adult book about the summer vacation in a small town that is slowly dying and how a young boy makes new friends, learns a bit about history and deals with his parents.
 " Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. "

 The book was pretty good and an easy read. We like something easy for December but this might have been a little too easy. We discussed the characters and the action. I would say overall all it got mixed reviews. Fun and fast but not exciting enough to hold our attention. The real excitment of the evening was the company and the delicious cookies. As usual, everyone out-did themselves and we had a ton of cookies to choose from. Betsy made her delicious vegetarian minestone soup, bread and cheese. Plus, Judy brought a salad. Beth did her annual coffee tasting with Starbucks Christmas Blend. We left there full and happy. We decided on our next 6 books! Nice Job everyone
. January- Death comes to Pemberly- recommended by Suzi
February- The Holy and the unbroken; Leonard Cohn, Jeff Buckley and the unlikely ascent of Hallelujah- recommended by Rory
March- March recommended by Beth
April- Songs of Willow Frost- recommended by Lori
May- Mr Pemumbras 24 hour bookstore- recommended by Molly
June- Behind the Beautiful Forevers- recommended by Jane.
It's going to be a great 2014 !

Coffee tasting