The Next Chapter Catch Up

I just finished reading my Totally Amazing, Best Part Of My Month, Love These Women Book Club Book for our April meeting and realized I haven't done any reviews this year.

I'm sure you are all very disappointed!

But you all know I'm way too Type-A to not at least mention our last 3 meetings!

So a brief recap and a current review for your reading pleasure:

DECEMBER'S MEETING was hosted by my Awesome Mother In Law, Darlene.

Amber posted all about it RIGHT HERE.

Darlene picked Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans.  It was a cute Christmas story that was an easy read and we all really liked it.  Darlene's house is a Christmas Wonderland so you should go look at the pictures on Amber's Bloggy.

JANUARY'S MEETING was hosted by our newest member Kim.

She waited all year to host and had the awful luck of being scheduled the night of the Georiga Ice Storm.

Everyone bailed except Amber and I, which worked for us since Kim made a seriously yummy dinner and even better cake!

We read Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray.  It's about a woman whose life is a mess and she turns to baking cakes to save her family.  It was a cute story and different then what I normally read so I liked that.


FEBRUARY'S MEETING was held by Yours Truly.


The day I hosted I had just spent an entire day at Gabe's Cardiologist.  Plus I was in the final countdown to not one, but two birthday parties for Josie.  Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed.

I choose Three Cups Of Tea by Greg Mortenson.  Only a few of us finished it because, honestly, it was a hard read.  It took a quite a few chapters for me to get the idea that it was not a story but an account of real events.  More like a history book.  But once I got into it, I loved it.  Most people just couldn't get past the first 100 pages.

No pictures.  Sad.

MARCH'S MEETING was at Vicki's house and I can't even post any details since I was smack dab in the middle of my stint in Arizona.  They read Winter Bloom by Tara Heavey and from what I hear, it was good.

Again, no pictures.  Double sad.

Which brings us up to this month's pick.

We're back to my Sister Wife Amber as our host and if you're keeping track (you are right?!?!) she has picked an awesome book every time it's her turn.

I think she has an inside man on Oprah's Book Club or something.

She picked Half Broken Horses by Jeannette Walls and it rocked my socks off.

I read Jeannette Walls Memoir, The Glass Castle, last year and loved that too.  Half Broken Horses is like the prequel to that.

The story is all about her Grandmother's life and about half way through, Jeannette's crazy mother is born.  The story is just really, really good.

Plus is real life so I love that.

None of the chapters are over 3 pages long so I stayed up way past my bedtime three nights in a row saying, "Ok, just ONE more chapter."

Luckily I finished it the third night so I could finally get some decent sleep.

Since I finished it two weeks early, I picked up The Glass Castle again and it was even better this time.  If you haven't read it yet, I suggest reading Half Broken Horses first.  Jeannette's writing style is really easy to read and pulled me in right away.

And in true Amber Fashion, she knocked the meeting out of the park.

So there's some reading material for ya!