December 14, 2016

What a glorious evening! We met first at Carolyn's home to enjoy drinks and light hors d'oeuvres and, after catching up on a busy month, we then did our annual ornament exchange as Barbara read "T'was the Night Before Christmas."

We then moved on to Volpi's restaurant and after finishing our dinner, retired to their little bar to sing Christmas carols accompanied by John Volpi and his accordian. What a great evening!

Our next month's book is How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran.

November 16, 2016

Another month and another supportive gathering, this month in Carol's home. This month's book, Lottery, was discussed repeatedly throughout the evening.

Since next month is our holiday dinner we chose not to assign a book to read, though a book was chosen for January, Radical Remission by Kelly Turner.

October 19, 2016

Sharing the excitement and pictures from her son's wedding, Chris welcomed us into her home for our October gathering.

 

We talked about our thoroughly enjoyable book, The Little Paris Bookstore. It had brought back memories of Lucienne's fabulous trip following the same canal as in the book some years ago. She brought her photo album and shared fond memories with us.

Our book for next month is Lottery by Patricia Wood.

Sept 21, 2016

Outlander was the theme of our meeting this month, with music, food and talk all around this book and the world it creates. At least in the mind of this month's host, Bev...

Okay, it wasn't the only topic of conversation as we had a recent daughter's wedding photos to enjoy, the upcoming wedding of another member's son to discuss and several upcoming trips out of state to consider, but we did service to our hours of reading as well. We laughed in glee at the plans to carry dinnerware AND a frozen turkey to a beloved daughter in carry-on luggage, showing the unlimited love and joy of this extraordinary group of ladies.

 Table talk

Next month's book is The Little Paris Bookstore by Nina George.

August 8, 2016

The luxury of a warm summer afternoon, plentiful food and drink and cherished friends made our hours (and hours) of conversation on Trey's deck a special treat we all enjoyed. Add to that the discussion of an unusual book, Life after Life, and it was simple perfection.

To fashion a radical change, our next book is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Lots of time to read before we meet at Bev's house.

Celebrating a most impressive birthday

Though not an official Book Club event, all of us were invited to join Donna in celebrating her birthday by joining her on her favorite hike for her 80th. Several of us took up her challenge, none of us thinking "well if she can do it..." We stand in awe of Donna, her adventurous spirit and enthusiastic participation in life. Together  with sons, grandsons, brother-in-law, sisters, and dear friends, we made our way on a beautiful 3 mile hike from a redwood forest, up and over a hill top down to the Pacific.

Once our hike was completed, we gathered with even more Ya-Ya members for the delicious ravioli lunch Donna promised as a reward. The real reward though was spending yet more time with her. On this happy occasion we presented her with our often discussed and now official Divine Recipes of the Ya-Ya Book Club.

Wishing a very happy birthday to Donna and our other birthday girl, Lucienne.

June 2016

June is beach month! We enjoyed another wonderful day at the beach, enjoying Barbara's generous hospitality. Food was exceptionally abundant, exceeded only by the generosity spirit of everyone there.
We will be doing a lot of reading over the summer! We decided to read "Life after life" by Kate Atkinson for our meeting in August, and "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon for September.

April 2015

Yum! Bruce's chili! Yes, a delicious meal after a discussing a completely enjoyable read: The Rosie Project. We each decided to follow Cathy's example and read the follow up book The Rosie Effect on our own. She guaranteed the same number of laugh out loud and memorable moments in the second book as in the first.
Our book for next month will be The Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.

March 2016

You never know quite what will be discussed at our gatherings - always the book & news of the families - these are a given. But what cracks us up and sends us home with aching stomachs from laughing so hard can be anything.
March gave us an unusual treat when our hostess, Cathy, shared a gift from her daughter (pictured below.) Evidently it's quite tasty though none of us were game to give it a try.

Our next book is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. See you in April!

February 2016

Gathering at Donna's home, we spent a fabulous evening reviewing our book, hearing tales of great worry and sadness and, on the flip side, laughing until tears were rolling down our cheeks. What a night!

Next month's book is The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. We'll be meeting at Cathy's home.

January 2016

After learning the exciting and happy news of an expected but very desirable marriage since our last meeting (congratulations Sarah and Justin!), we settled down to discover everything that had changed since our last gathering and discuss our book. Dinner was a delicious soup and salad with birthday cake for Carolyn, our gracious hostess, to top off the meal.

Our book selection for next month is The Indifferent Stars Above by Dan E Brown at Donna's home.