2016.10.24 Meeting Notes

Before I jump into our notes from the October meeting, I wanted to point out that we will be voting on books at the November meeting. If you have suggestions, please:
# Check the Douglas County Library website to make sure there are 9 or more copies of the book available
# If that is the case, log into your Book Movement account
# Click on the Blue tab labeled “Possible Club Selections”
# Click on the pink “Add Books” and enter your choice and then click “Find Books”
# When you see your book, click “Select This Book” and it will go on the list
The deadline to do this is Saturday, Nov. 12th at midnight. I will be creating the booklist on the 13th and emailing it out the following day to let those who can’t make the meeting vote via email. Those that can make it, we will vote on the 28th before we discuss Redemption Road by John Hart. I will be leading and Amy is bringing snacks.
We will choose 6 books that will get us through August 2017 and in June 2017 we will choose 5 to get us through January 2018. I’d like to get back on the 6 at a time schedule, voting in November (for Feb-July) and June (for Aug-Jan). This avoids having to vote in October so we can concentrate on Halloween, and gives Terri a chance to get each set of 6 on the website in advance.
Just a sappy side note. I almost wrote above “Amy if you can’t bring snacks let me know.” And I used to write that both for the person leading the group and the one bringing snacks. And then it occurred to me, I trust this group more than I trust any of my other friends. You guys always let me know if you can’t bring a snack or can’t make it to a party. That’s such a great thing. We’ve never been left without a snack or a character in a murder mystery party. Thanks to all of you for making this such a great club!
So...October’s meeting. Thanks to everyone who dressed up, as adults we don’t get enough of a chance to do this, so it’s always fun. We had:
File: SisterSlasher.jpg|Kerry: Murderous Nun, aka Sister Slasher
File: AgathaRaisin.jpg|Pat: Agatha Raisin
File: Ghostman.jpg|Jeff: Ghostman from Vanishing Games
File: ItalianMasquerade.jpg|Lorraine: Italian Masquerade Party attendee (shamelessly plugging the upcoming August party)
File: WickedWitch.jpg|Janine: Wicked Witch of the West with Dracula Cat
File: Masquerade.jpg|Bruce: Also in the Masquerade theme, with the elephant mask
File: OldCrow.jpg|Amy: Old Crow
File: PrizeWinners.jpg|Prize Winners
Jeff came in first place and left with a signed Harlan Coben book, Amy came in second for a bottle of Writer’s Block wine.
Chris Pavone’s The Travelers, his third book to date, met with mixed reviews. Here is Amazon’s description, in case you forgot or blocked it from your memory:
Meet Will Rhodes: travel writer, recently married, barely solvent, his idealism rapidly giving way to disillusionment and the worry that he’s living the wrong life. Then one night, on assignment for the award-winning Travelers magazine in the wine region of Argentina, a beautiful woman makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Soon Will’s bad choices—and dark secrets—take him across Europe, from a chateau in Bordeaux to a midnight raid on a Paris mansion, from a dive bar in Dublin to a mega-yacht in the Mediterranean and an isolated cabin perched on the rugged cliffs of Iceland. As he’s drawn further into a tangled web of international intrigue, it becomes clear that nothing about Will Rhodes was ever ordinary, that the network of deception ensnaring him is part of an immense and deadly conspiracy with terrifying global implications—and that the people closest to him may pose the greatest threat of all.
It’s 3:00am. Your husband has just become a spy. 
A bit dramatic, but you get the idea. We had 19 people who weighed in and here were the results:
9 – three votes
8.5 – one vote
8 – one vote
7.5 – one vote
7 – two votes
6.5 – one vote
6 – one vote
5 – five votes
4 – one vote
3 – one vote
2 – one vote
1 – one vote
As you can see, we were all over the board. The score of 5 received the most votes, but the average is actually 5.92. Hmm.
The people who liked it based their rating on the following things: enjoyed the travel, locations were well described, kind of interesting, and the book was “not tedious.”
On the negative note, we had some interesting comments: hopped around too much, “I don’t know what’s happening,” couldn’t get into it, stupid, made myself read it, ending disappointing, didn’t buy that Chloe was CIA, the author tried to show off his vocabulary and needs Ritalin, verbose, didn’t care about the characters, it hopped around too much.
Keep in mind that even the people who gave the book an 8 or higher had some negative things to say (in case you were noting that the good paragraph was far outweighed by the bad and wondering where the scores of 9 came from).
Many of us were able to pinpoint the page where the book picked up. For Deborah, it was about 200 pages in, for Raj the first 47 pages were grueling because nothing happened.
The slap vote was tied between Elle, pretending to still be with the CIA and Steve, especially for skipping naked in Malcolm's office. Not cool Steve.
See you on the November 28, we discuss Redemption Road by John Hart. I will be leading and Amy is bringing snacks.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!