2014.10.27 Meeting Notes

There was a lot going on at last week’s meeting. For October we didn’t just discuss the book, we had a Halloween Costume Contest, chose 10, yes 10, books for 2015, and we had a Harlan Coben Missing You crossword puzzle created by Sharon Long.
 Since we’ve read Harlan Coben before, Sharon created a fun, and oh so tough, crossword based on the author and the October book. Male Chris and Jose tied for the most answers and Sharon picked a number to see who came closest. On the second try (first time they were equidistant) Jose won. He received a copy of Thursday’s Children by Nicci French.
 We had a lot of costumes for the contest. Jeff won as Dexter, complete with table cloth to catch the blood, splash mask, Dexter apron, and cutting tools. He received a copy of Thursday’s Children by Nicci French as his prize. I’m sure he would have preferred a fresh victim, but we can’t always get what we want. He did try to sever Judy’s head at one point, but decided at the last minute to let her live.
 Six Little Soldier Boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Janice came in second in her stunning portrayal of Emily Brent, one of the victims from And Then There Were None (December’s Agatha Christie book) – oops, belated spoiler alert. Oh who am I kidding, we’ll all forget all about it by December. Janice’s English lady costume was complete with dress, shawl and shoes. She brought her own cup of coffee (not tea) and had the bee sting mark on her neck, the method that was used to kill her in the book. Many of the votes for her costume mentioned specifically that her accent was the deciding factor, it just made the entire costume come together. She won a Blueray DVD featuring the movie Killing Me Softly (based on a Nicci French book).
Honorable mentions go to: Lorraine as Patch Adams (in honor of the late Robin Williams), Rita as 50 Shades of Grey, Amy as a worker from Mooby’s (the fast food joint in Kevin Smith’s Dogma), Kerry as Where’s Wenda (Waldo’s girlfriend), Sharon K. as an Asian goddess, and Jose as Sheriff Grimes (from The Walking Dead). I hope I got all those right, feel free to bring me cookies if I didn’t (I thought it was worth a try). You can see the photos on wiki soon, stay tuned for webmaster Jeff’s email.
We ended up choosing 10 books for 2015 because there were 6 books that got the same amount of votes and rather than try and remove one, we put them all in. I think we have a great booklist. The books are listed at the end of this email, with the dates next to them. Keep in mind that the May meeting falls on a holiday, so we’re meeting a week early. We’ll pick the remaining two books (November and December) sometime next year. I loaded these to Book Movement already, so they’re there if you ever need to refresh your memory.
Also, save the date for the Christmas party. It will be at my house on Thursday, December 18th at 6pm. It’s a different day and time from the normal book club, so mark your calendars. I will ask for RSVPs next month, because as you all know, I need a head count.
We discussed Missing You by Harlan Coben and Sharon L. led the discussion. We had a whopping 18 people at the meeting for this month. 12 of the 18 scored the book in the 8 range (4 slightly higher than a flat 8, since we allow any form of decimals – yep, that’s just how we roll). Of the remaining 6 votes, the book got one 9.5, two 7s, one 6, and one 5. Roxane gave it a 0.
Many of us love Harlan Coben, and will read anything he writes. We’d probably peruse his grocery list if we could get our hands on it.
Grocery List
Apples
Cheerios
Bananas
Plot for the New Myron Bolitar book
T-bone steak
Some of the positive comments were that we liked the online dating catfish scheme premise, it was different. The characters were well done, both the good guys and bad guys. It was a fast read, and there were some things that happened that we didn’t see coming, namely that Kat’s Dad was dating Sugar. It was sadistic, gruesome and gory. Oh wait, I think those were mentioned as bad things not good. You can see where I may be a bit confused with this group, though. There were cries of “great,” “good,” and “riveting.” Female Chris does not condone criminal activity, however, she thought Titus was smart to think up his scam. Sharon Long liked Aqua (and we’re still bummed to find out that that was Jose’s second costume idea and that he didn’t go with it) and she also liked the Sugar angle.
On the bad side, Janice aka Emily Brent, thought there were too many people in boxes. We tried to clarify whether or not she would have made the same comment if there were, say, less than 5 people in boxes rather than the 10+ in the book. It did seem that she just didn’t like the “people in boxes” thing as a whole, as opposed to Harlan surpassing some sort of threshold for the number of people in boxes. In addition, some found it a bit Daisy-like that Kat would help Brandon so readily. Some didn’t believe Kat would be obsessed with Jeff after 18 years (those people have never met my aunt who obsesses about her ex-husband 40+ years later). Denise didn’t like the setting (I think she was referring to the Amish country farm) and she stopped believing the book when we found out about Sugar.
Some of us thought Stagger killed Kat’s Dad, so it wasn’t a surprise that he had a part in the death. And a couple of us thought that Titus was Jeff in disguise. When Titus read her email and said something about “Kat” we thought maybe, just maybe, Jeff was the bad guy. Jeff thought Jeff was the killer too, but I’m not sure whether he meant putting the people in boxes and then killing them part or killing Kat’s Dad. My notes only get me so far when I write this a week later.
The slap vote went to Jeff (from the book, not from club). Titus came in a close second.
The Books for 2015 (sign-up sheet for leading and snacks will be available at the November meeting):
January 26: Mean Streak by Sandra Brown
February 23: The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connolly (Mickey Haller #5)
March 23: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
April 27: Kill Fee by Owen Laukkanen (Stevens & Windermere #3)
May 18: In the Blood by Lisa Unger
June 22: That Night by Chevy Stevens
July 27: One Kick by Chelsea Cain (Kick Lannigan #1)
August 24: Personal by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #19)
September 28: Stone Cold by C.J. Box (Joe Pickett #14)
October 26: The Heist by Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon #14)
Next month we are discussing Sycamore Row by John Grisham. I am leading and I’ve got Amy down for snacks. I’m pretty sure she’s bringing burgers from Mooby’s. Amy, let me know if anything changes and you can’t bring the snack.
Until November, oh wait, it IS November.
Kerry