January Book??

See below for the book suggestions for January. Everyone is encouraged to click on the book title below that will take you to a link on amazon with a description of the book. Please do this before voting on the right hand side. Thanks!

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman

Life by Keith Richards

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes

BCCP 2011

We had some serious camera issues at BCCP but still mangaged to get some sort of a group shot.

It was a great night with a fun white elephant gift exchange, we had a first time double gift this year. Who know a wine monkey was the hot gift of 2011?!? The party of course went too late and everyone drank too much wine but had a great time!

Herbed Shrimp Dip

1/2 pound frozen shrimp (any size), thawed
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 scallions, coarsely chopped, plus more for garnish (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Crostini, crackers , or crudites, for serving

In a medium bowl, combine shrimp, sour cream, mayonnaise, scallions, parsley, and lemon zest and juice; season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate shrimp dip until chilled, at least 30 minutes (I would try and do overnight). Serve shrimp dip garnished with scallions, if desired, alongside crostini, crackers, or crudites

(I doubled this at BCCP)

Every Book Club is Different

Elizabeth sent me this article which has some good suggestions for January books.

"From what I know of book clubs, I would wager that no two are exactly alike. There are the groups who take their books very seriously and frown on regulars who have failed to read that month's selection. Then there are the ones where members might be more interested in sharing the latest gossip than discussing the book."

Read full article here

Annie....

...would like to remind you about Book Club Christmas Party! She can't wait to see all of you and of course she loves her late night dance parties!


See everyone in one week! We didn't pick a book for December but please bring some suggestions for January.

November Book Club

Cheers to us! It's been awhile since almost everyone has read the book and we had a good discussion. Everyone really enjoyed Sarah's Key, even a few people loved it. The book is told from two different point of views (a favorite style of our book club), Julia & Sarah. Based on rarely mentioned French historical facts involving the Holocaust, the story flips between 1942 and present day. It's a great combination of history and a little chic lit. It's a quick read that will keep you turning the page. RBTW gives s stamp of approval with two thumbs up!


Topics of conversation included really stinky cheese, babysitting, golden showers, rescue pets, "your" homeless, fall boots, Skinnygirl Margs, Thanksgiving plans, Christmas, grandma's, Northwestern degrees, paying your Mom to clean your apartment, match.com, and BCCP. Per the usual too much wine was drank and many purple teeth headed home far too late for a school night!


Thanks to Lisa, Minks, and Christopher Joseph for hosting!

Another Movie Outing?

I know this Book Club can not wait for this movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S9a5V9ODuY

Rachel Getting Married

So happy so many of us Book Clubbers were able to celebrate with Rachel and Greg on their big day! Not sure what we are going to talk about at Book Club now?

I think we were all on the dance floor most of the night, so clearly we all had a great time!

Congrats to Rachel & Greggers!!

September Book Club

I didn't get a chance to blog about our September Book Club or a take a picture. Bad blogger!!

But I do remeber a fun night and lots of talk about weddings, The Rules, doctors, boyfriends, and barely anyone read the book yet again. Oops!



Next up...Lisa and Sarah's Key.

Movie Outing

My first post was about the book The Help. And this week a few of us went and saw the movie. It was a great movie! Of course the book was better, but isn't it always?

We will have to make movie outings a regular thing!

August Recap

August Book Club was a great night with a great view! Thanks for hosting Tiffany!


Unfortunately this month only one member read the book and she was ready to celebrate.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, everyone seems to think they'll get lots of reading done in the summer but there are always work events, parties, family vacations, and other things. This makes it difficult to find the time to read. Hopefully in the coming months we'll all get back on track.

Topics of conversation included weddings, Amazon Prime, work, D lifting weights, upcoming moves, baby names, braWs and West Side Story.

We also talked a lot about books, there were many good suggestions for upcoming months. The September book will be Rebecca. But keep in mind some of the others that were mentioned...The Joy Luck Club, Maine, Rooms, and One Day. Click any of the titles to read more about the book on Amazon.

We also tried really hard to get a great pic but it didn't really happen.

Here you can see our beautiful faces but not our beautiful city.


Here you can kind of see our city but not our faces. Ok you actually can't see anything.


And this one kind of worked from an iPhone.


Best Quote: "I almost starting crying I haven't seen you in so long."

Summer Reading!

How is your summer reading coming along?


When it comes to reading on the beach, I always think I will read a ton then I read about 3 pages. Anyone else have this problem?

See everyone next Wednesday!!

Fabulous!

It's summer time here in Chicago, which means it's time to shine! Everyone puts on their cutest outfit with a summer glow and hits the town for those fun summer parties! Many of the ladies from Book Club attended a Surprise Birthday Party for one of our members (who happens to be the writer of this blog). And what-do-ya-know we’ve been blogged about for...well...being so stylish!

You can read the blog here.


Thanks for coming ladies! A BIG thanks to Liz for hosting! And a another big thanks to Ryan for throwing the party (although he will never read this).

June Book Club

Thanks Rachel for hosting! Your new place is so nice and we all agree you need to have some parties this summer on your rooftop!!

We had a great showing this month and almost everyone finished The Hunger Games and a lot of us also read the second book, Catching Fire. Although a discussion never got off the ground on the book, we all enjoyed reading The Hunger Games. It was an easy read (it's a young adult book so it kind of has to be) and a great summer book. Plus it's totally gonna be the next Twilight so everyone will be talking about these books a lot in the next few months. A movie is set to come out in 2012. Read them now before everyone else! I know a lot of will be reading the third, Mockingjay in the next weeks ahead. If you are leery about reading about young people dying just remember "it's not so much about killing people as it's about politics".

Topics of conversation included: Margarita's, vampire facials, botox, Bridesmaids (quotes and all), Coco's butt, full-body laser hair removal, CrossFit, gossip! (about random people), new and old boyfriends, speeding tickets, blue & red & brown lines, Japanese hair straighter (Katie stop touching your hair!), Kindles, hipsters, organic wine, coconut water, and Italy.

"Look grandma........"


We forgot to take a pic last night. :(

It's a Trilogy

Our June book, The Hunger Games is a trilogy. I know of at least three BC members who already finished the first book and are on to the second. So if you order The Hunger Games, you may just want to go ahead and get the box set.

Let's see who can finish all three before the next Book Club on June 23rd!!

Busted!

Has anyone else been busted reading the new June book under their desk?


It's just one of those books, if you haven't started, grab a copy today!!

May Book Club

First off, thanks for hosting Liz! It was so nice to sit around your table chit chatting and eating!! And of course always good to see Lexi and Jasper.

We have been talking about Signs of Life for awhile now, so it was nice to discuss the book. Natalie is such an inspiration and everyone should read this book! If you know Natalie or not you will have a way to relate to this book in one way or another. Thanks Natalie for writing a book like this, that is so honest!

Last nights topics included: dogs & cats (lots of pet talk), in-laws, weekend plans, crossfit, when the pizza man knows you, purple shampoo, women in the working world and actually the book a lot. We discussed the characters and other general topics from our own lives that relate back to Signs of Life.

And the best quote, it could be an all-time best quote:

"I secretly hope that someday when I am pregnant that it will be Cassie inside me." (hand motion included)


Up next...The Hunger Games at Rachel's new pad!

Small world

As much as Facebook drives everyone crazy, when stuff like this happens you gotta love it. Or maybe just love to hate it.

Natalie Taylor (author of Signs of Life) posted this picture with the following comment:

This just in! Random woman on the El in Chicago reading Signs of Life! Love it! Special thanks to my Chi-town correspondents! Chicago is reading!


That is a member of our Book Club, Kathy!! So funny!!

See everyone tomorrow, can't wait to discuss!

A Royal Book Club

Sorry the RBTW readers...this post is very late but I promise it will be worth the long wait!! I can't remember what we talked about at April BC, and I didn't really remember the next day either. Note to self: sisters should not start gossiping after their friends leave, it makes for a very late night, especially on a school night!


Thanks for hosting April Book Club Katie, it was such a fun night!

We should have planned better and taken Friday off from work because everyone wanted to stay up and watch The Royal Wedding of William & Catherine.

Only two people who attended read the book, not our best month. Oh well...we still had LOTS to catch up on like the Royal Family, Kate, Wills, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Harry, Diana, Pippa, Charles, Camilla, and everyone in-between. If you didn't know much about the Royal Family you got most of your answers questioned at this Book Club, we pretty much talked about the Royals the entire time. And some of us only slept a few hours so we could wake up at 3am to watch the wedding live. We learned some interesting facts about the Royals!! There weren't a ton of other topics...maybe some boyfriend talk and hair removal, ya know the usual but other then that it was all Royal Wedding!

It truly was a Royal Affair..........


A big thanks to Alexis for this pic!!

Signs of Life

I am not sure how many people check this blog that aren't actually in our Book Club. I know a few of my friends and my parents look now and again but I doubt anyone is getting real advise on what books to add to their book shelves. It's more about our funny nights of drinking wine with small book reviews and discussions. The whole blog started as a joke but ended up being kind of fun to write and even more fun to think of new ideas for posts.

But in this case, I have a real book review (sort of) and a suggestion...

Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor

The cover states "Sit down with this book. See if you can stop reading after page one." Seriously I dare you, no double dog dare you! Do it.

Signs of Life is a memoir about Natalie, a 24-year-old who lost her husband in a freak accident on Father's Day 2007, she was 5 months pregnant with there first son. Natalie takes you on a journey through her grieving process while at the same time becoming a new mother (have some tissue handy). I won't say too much other then her honesty is probably one of the best parts of the book. You will laugh out loud with tears rolling down your face. It feels like a friend telling you a long story of how she coped with something that seems totally uncopeable. Through the power of her family, friends, new son, books, students and lots of other factors she is able to start to find her way back. You don't have to know what it's like to deal with death first hand or becoming a mother all you need to know is that shitty stuff happens, and whether you like it or not you're gonna have to deal with it...maybe with a little help from a Fairy God Mother (FGM).





Three of us in Book Club went to High School with Natalie, she graduated a year behind us. It was a different experience reading the book for me since I actually know the characters in the book; they aren't characters they're real people. Of course reading a memoir you're aware that you're reading about real people but it's different when you can picture that real person. When my coworker told me this morning that she started this book last night and couldn't put it down, I decided I needed to do anything I could do to get the word out about Signs of Life and if my little blog about books and wine is my outlet then so be it. I knew I was enjoying it while reading it cover to cover this weekend, but the fact that someone who doesn't know Natalie couldn't put it down really confirmed that this is a wonderful book. So needless to say next week at our April Book Club Meeting I will hardcore be pushing for this to be our May book.

Natalie Taylor is an inspiration to everyone!

You can read more here.

Other Blogs

Did you know some Book Club members have blogs of there own.....

Hillary has one all about art:
hillarysbrook.blogspot.com

And another about working out:
hillaryscrossfit.blogspot.com

Lisa has a makeup/fashion blog:
lipglosslush.com

Dislike

I really dislike when a book changes it's cover to an image of the upcoming movie. When shopping at one of the last standing Border's over the weekend, I noticed Water for Elephants changed the cover to an image of Reese & that Edward guy from Twilight. Many of us Read Between the Wine ladies are in Advertising, so we understand...promote people to read the book quick before the movie because we all know the book will be better. Of course then at a cocktail party you can always say "Oh yeah I read that book it was so much better than the movie" and sound super smart. Don't get me wrong I want to see the movie Water for Elephants but why not just keep the normal book cover?


















I had to buy a movie cover book when we read Julie & Julia and it really made me mad, I was emabrassed reading it. I think a fellow member even made fun of me when I brought it to Book Club. And there are lots more examples....

April Book

April's book is Invisible by Paul Auster. This was Lisa's pick and she really enjoyed it. Sounds like it's chalk full of drama, can't wait!

Also for all you over-achievers, Book Club plans on reading Signs of Life at some point by Natalie Taylor. A few of us know Natalie and went to High School with her, so if you want to get ahead start go for it. It's sure to be a major tear jerker, I can barely watch the trailer without tearing up. Hopefully it will be an inspirational story for everyone.

Another book we discussed reading last week was Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain. Katie is going to read this one and report back. Not sure it's a good discussion book, but it could be a good scary read.

Go get 'em ladies!

March Review

Cheers to us! Everyone read the book this month! Even all the girls that missed BC read the book. Ok ok, all but one person but we just like to see her frown smile monthly, so we let her attend anyways. Emily attended her first 'real' Book Club in February then hosted in March, a big cheers to her, thanks Emily!!

Little Bee by Chris Cleave was our March book, it was a good read. Overall everyone liked this book, I mean let's be honest it had to be pretty good if the whole Book Club finished, we don't exactly have a prefect record. Little Bee is about a young Nigerian refugee who changes the entire course of a young English couple's life. The story is told from two different characters, Sarah and Little Bee. This is a trend in a lot of books these days, we like it, it's a nice way to keep the book moving along. It's a sad tragic story but you'll want to keep reading to see how the story will unfold. We had a great discussion about this book, and any Book Club would have lots to talk about....really Sarah is 32? where did the book take a turn for you? what the heck were those men drinking on the beach? did you like Sarah, Little Bee, Lawrence and Andrew?

Other topics included The Little Couple, Cabrini-Green, cupcakes, TLC shows, frown smiles, how cute Emily & Katy's apartment is, cats, urban (Chicago) legends (that really are true), hair removal (I know this a topic every month but this time we really learned in detail about laser hair removal), Real Housewives of OC, Miami and NYC (how will we find the time to watch all three), NBC Thursday night line up, magic s----h, baby names, Facebook privacy settings, Spain, being over-served on an airplane and Erin Brockovich.

Also congrats to Rachel! We discussed wedding details, Catholic churches, venues, and all the good stuff! I'm sure there will be a lot more wedding talk to come!

One more thing...congrats to Katie on the new job! It's funny, the first blog ever written we were celebrating her new job at the time, so on to bigger and better things!

Another New Member

Alexis

College: Hanover College (undergrad) and Indiana University (grad school)
Hometown: Greenwood, IN
Occupation: Program Coordinator at Northwestern

Alexis lives in Uptown with her boyfriend and cat named Dante. A few fun facts: she likes talking about running and buying running clothes but not really running, she is teaching herself Urdu (a language), she is addicted to Amazon, she buys things from Sephora.com just so she can get the free gifts, she likes drawing in Microsoft paint, she recently received her masters in international education and just moved back to the city and most important (not really) she loves to read. This is actually Alexis' second Book Club, she is in a South Asian Literature Book Club and is looking for a BC with a little more wine fun! I know she has already finished Little Bee (and the lastest Us Weekly) and is looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow night! See everyone then!

Another one put a RING on it!

Congrats to Rachel and Greg on there engagement! This comes at a prefect time, just as Tiffany's wedding comes to an end now we have a new wedding to discuss at upcoming Book Clubs. :)


Congrats again!!

National Wine Week

Who knew Smith & Wollensky hosts a National Wine Week?

March 7-11
Sample up to 10 wines for $10 with your lunch purchase.
Lunch? What? Sounds like that calls for a half day!

Click here for more info.

Little Bee

Our new book for March is Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This was an easy one to pick at the last Book Club and everyone agreed quickly. Sooo....hopefully everyone has started, you have 3 weeks. Get reading!!

Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 Cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
1 Cup Packed light brown sugar
1/2 Cup White sugar
2 large Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
1 ¼ Cup All Purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon (1/2 for dough, and 1/2 to sprinkle on top) Morton® All-Purpose Natural Sea Salt
3 Cups Instant Oats
1 Cup Semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar in mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in one egg at a time until combined. Add vanilla.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and ½ tsp of salt and then add to butter and egg mixture and mix until combined.
4. Fold in oats and chocolate chips into entire mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheet two inches apart. Use the last ½ tsp of salt to sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the top of each cookie. Bake for about 12 -15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Amazing! I don't think I will be able to eat another kind of Oatmeal Cookie, it must have Morton Salt moving forward. This Book Club supports Morton Salt. ;)

February Book Club in Lincoln Square

It's been awhile since we had a nice big turn out and almost everyone finished the book, it was great because we had both! We were only missing our two Katies. We also had a new "member" that was a surprise to everyone, although not totally new to the group, Emily has attended numerous BCCPs and other get togethers. We are so happy she has finally "joined" BC. It was so nice to catch up with everyone, but first the book review....

This month we read An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (yes, the actor). Overall everyone enjoyed the book (we had one "hated it"). This book didn't blow anyone away with numerous themes or drama. The book had a thin plot and heavily goes in the art scene in New York from 1993 through 2009. Steve Martin has an extensive art collection, and after finding this fun fact out (thanks Hill), you could maybe understand his idea for writing this book. Everyone enjoyed the pictures in the book and learning more about the art and artist, but it lacked real depth. So, An Object of Beauty is a nice quick read that will keep you interested but it's not a "must-read".

It was a quick turn to gossip when Norah said "Wait look at J. Lo's shorts real fast.".....and there is was on to the celeb gossip. We learned someone has a real crush on Russel Brand. And another has a real crush on Jon Lovitz, there you have it ladies, are you Team Brand or Team Lovitz? We also discussed Rahm Emanuel, Christina Aguilera, Joan Rivers, Arcade Fire, Giuliana Rancic and a few other celebs but this time since we hadn't seen each other in a while we discuss who else, OURSELVES.

We had lots to catch up on from our own lives. Birthdays, Weddings, Trips to Mexico, Attending the Superbowl, Honeymoons, Buying a house....whew we've been busy ladies. We had to rehash Tiffany's wonderful wedding and talk about how gorgeous she was looking on her special day. We also received tour of Kathy's new home which is super cute and looking great! We also all got to meet her nice dog, Jake, oh and her husband, Brian too, they hide out in the basement away from the girl talk, until we needed them for our group shot.

Some favorite quotes:

"Let me break this down for you...her jewelry is from Clair's"
"When I haven't cut my toe nails in awhile my shoes don't fit." (what?)
"I want to clarify I don't like books about poor people."

Thanks so much for hosting Kathy! The food was delish, she even had a chocolate cupcake for the recent Birthday girl and white cupcake for the recent bride. Recipes will be posted later.


Seems there were a few BCAD (Book Club After Dark) parties going on.....

-Two members carried the party on and a certain hostess may or may not have spilled wine on her brand new couch. Luckily another member was still there to show the 'ole white wine gets red wine out trick'. Good thing we don't discriminate wine, since both were still avaiable.

-Four members may have been spotting having some late night beers at Butch McGuire's. One member may or may not have basically chopped off the tip of her finger on a bar stool, it could be the reason behind this blog is being written on Monday instead of Friday.

A Post Wedding Post

Tiffany was a gorgeous bride! Congrats to her and Demetrois!!

The night included all the important things...family, friends, great food, dancing and lot of drinks! It was a prefect night!


This is what happened when we tried to get a BC picture at the end of the night. Like I've been saying at Book Club, we should have done this earlier in the night!




Oh well, see everyone next week!

3 down 9 to go

Have you finish the book?

Some have already finished the book, let's go for a prefect record this month! Everyone seems to like it and it's a quick read!

Lisa
Norah
Elizabeth
Hillary
Rachel
Katie
Liz
Kathy
Katy
Kris
Molly
Tiffany (hall pass- getting married)

Will your name be checked off the list? Get to reading!!

Tiffany's Night

What a fun night!! Everyone in Book Club is so happy for Tiffany and her upcoming wedding, we just had to celebrate and surprise her, she deserves it! Who isn't up for a fun girls night on a cold night in January?!?


I think Tiffany had a great night with both old and new friends, some great gifts, good stories and some awesome dancing. Congrats to Tiff and D!! xoxo


Oh and I swear this blog is going to get back to being about our Book Club and books and less about our fun nights out on the town. (maybe?)