June potluck

Two weeks ago my book club met for our annual June potluck dinner and summer reading suggestions evening. As usual we ate very well- lots of delicious food. We have a couple of new members (one of our members moved to VA).

We had read Best to Laugh by Lorna Landvik. I think overall it was fairly well received and met the criteria we established in May which was something light, humorous, and not terribly long. I don't think it is one of Landvik's better books but it was enjoyable. What I found interesting was the journey of becoming a standup comic. I had recently taken my mom to her 75th college reunion in Maine and the Saturday night entertainment was a woman comic. Having read the book I could relate to the comic's presentation because of the timeline of the book. The discussion was not very lengthy which is what usually happens when we have a potluck. Oh well. I did manage to put together a short list of summer reading ideas. I finished Pachinko which I really enjoyed. Set in Korea as it was being colonized by Japan, it follows a family through several generations.

I found it very interesting as my knowledge of Korean history and its relationship with Japan is limited to say the least. After finishing that I read The Accusation, smuggled out from North Korea, written by Bandi who is residing in North Korea.This group of short stories is fictionalized from actual events in North Korea. Disturbing and interesting.

My current read is The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love, a true story. Enjoying it so far.

So that is it for now. Looking forward to lots of summer reading.

Beginning of summer

The past few weeks have flown by. We celebrated my mother's 95th birthday, with almost the entire family, with a catered dinner. It was really nice, and my mom was really happy surrounded by kids, grandkids and even great grandkids!

One week my husband and I drove from McAllen Texas (about 5 miles from the Mexican-US border) traveling through twelve states in six days. Why? Well my husband bid on a car on an online auction site and "won". Actually the trip was sorta fun despite the fact that we had couple of incidents with the transmission not working well. It was a pretty drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In several states we stopped at a quilt shop so I could continue to collect fabric for my 50 states quilt. We stopped at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and did a short hike which was calming and beautiful. Needless to say once home we had a mechanic go over the car and fix the little transmission issue and the car runs beautifully. When we started it had 35000 miles on it and we drove over 3000 to get back to Connecticut.

My book club met in May. One of our members was in the process of selling her house and moving back to Virginia. This development opened a discussion on how our group would be changing in the coming years as some of us would be retiring or moving on to a different career. Not sure what the group will be in five years. Last night the Democrats in my town held a presentation by Alyssa Mastromonaco who has published a book Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? about her time working for President Obama (even before he was president). She was funny, witty, smart and very friendly. Clearly she was used to being in the limelight. Afterwards she autographed her book and took pictures with everyone. Well done by the Dems.

Book club meets next week for our annual June potluck dinner and (hopefully) book discussion of Best to Laugh. Always a good time. Before I close I am going to share several pictures of flowers from my gardens. This year the rhodies and iris are especially beautiful.

And lastly a double rainbow that appeared while my husband and I were eating dinner in Westerly, RI last week.