Gone Girl

Join me in reading and discussing 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn *Now a major motion picture distributed by Twentieth Century Fox*

I saw the movie and since I enjoyed it so much - I decided to take a crack at the book!

Anyone free for a chat to discuss the book and movie sometime between November 21 - 30?

The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Time to trade-in the satrical love story of The Princess Bride by William Goldman, for a solemn and reflective story of a butler in postwar England, The Remains of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

For reference, here is the quick Amazon summary of the title :

"The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.” But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness” and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book."

We are tentatively planning a mid-July chat, so grab the book soon and get ready to discuss the book and movie next month.

Stay tuned for a doodle later this month to pick a firm date and time to reconvene.

Princess Bride Chat Sunday at noon

Thanks for responding to the Doodle poll, everyone!  Our rescheduled chat and movie viewing will be this Sunday, June 8th from noon to 2 pm Pacific.  See you in our chatroom on Sunday!

Princess Bride Chat RESCHEDULED

Hey gang,

It sounds like we need to reschedule our chat on The Princess Bride, as the person most obsessed with it *coughCindycough* can't make it on the 31st anymore.  (I'd give her a harder time about it, but it's her birthday eve, so I'll go easy.)

So, let's try this again--respond to this poll, and we'll announce a new date shortly!

http://doodle.com/cqp35am74vz7hbqq

Princess Bride Chat: 5/31, 4 pm Pacific

It looks like the best date and time for our next chat is Saturday, May 31st at 4 pm Pacific.  That gives you a couple of weeks to finish reading (or rereading) The Princess Bride.  You'll also need to get your hands on a copy of the movie, as we'll be watching it together while we chat in our chatroom.

Or, if you aren't able to find a copy of the movie (I found a used DVD on Amazon for $3), there's always this delightful reenactment:

Vote on a May Date for The Princess Bride

Thanks for the fantastic chat on Divergent, after a bit of a hiatus.  It was great to be able to compare the book to the movie.  Will anyone be reading the rest of the series (besides those who've already finished it)?

Next up is the critically acclaimed tour de force The Princess Bride!  I am assuming we want to read the book in advance, but watch the movie concurrently with our chat--comment if you had something else in mind.

Vote for our May date to chat here:

https://doodle.com/5ck52ebcgg8zfhma

Note: one of the dates coincide with when a certain someone is in San Francisco, which could make the chat a little less virtual.  Another is on that certain someone's birthday, which might not work at all, or could really excite her, given her passion for this book/movie.  And, I threw in some times on Memorial Day, in case people get it off and are available to chat then.

Warning: this is a kissing book.  ;-)

Divergent Chat: 4/19, Noon Pacific

“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”

Thanks to everyone for filling out the Doodle poll.  It looks like our best date and time is Saturday, April 19th at noon Pacific.  We'll meet in our chatroom to discuss the book and the movie, so don't forget to finish reading and go see the movie!

P.S. - The movie website has an aptitude test.  Leave your results in the comments!

Vote on an April Date to Discuss Divergent

Hey, gang!  Long time, no chat.

During our last chat, we had discussed reading Divergent as our next book/movie combination.  If that still sounds good to folks, let's go ahead and pick an April date by voting here:

http://doodle.com/nveeu9pivauh24e6

Keep in mind that those dates include Palm Sunday and Easter weekend, if you have any family or church conflicts.

The movie comes out March 21st.  Let's all make sure we both read the book and watch the movie before the chat!

A Christmas Carol - Chat TODAY

Chat today at 3PM EST (12PM PST) in the usual spot, our chatroom.

Reminder we are discussing A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

"Before our chat, we will watch An American Christmas Carol (1978), in which Henry Winkler is Benedict Slade, "a heartless finance company president in Depression era New England."

Then, during our chat, we will concurrently watch Scrooge (1935), which is the first sound version of the film adaptation, starring Seymour Hicks, who played the title role many times on stage and in an earlier silent film version."

We will also decide our next book, so stay tuned.

Bah Humbug

Thanks to everyone who was able to participate in our Ender's Game chat!  As always, a transcript is available in our chatroom.

To get into the holiday spirit, our next book/movie combination will be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  It's more of a novella, really, so it should be a pretty fast read.  In addition to reading the book, we will be watching not one, but two movie adaptations!  There were simply too many from which to choose.

Before our chat, we will watch An American Christmas Carol (1978), in which Henry Winkler is Benedict Slade, "a heartless finance company president in Depression era New England."

Then, during our chat, we will concurrently watch Scrooge (1935), which is the first sound version of the film adaptation, starring Seymour Hicks, who played the title role many times on stage and in an earlier silent film version.

We'll check in next week to figure out a time to schedule our chat, but we're tentatively looking at the weekend of December 20 - 22.

Merry Christmas!

Ender's Game Chat Saturday

We're all set for a chat on Saturday, at 9 am Pacific, 12 pm Eastern. Should be interesting to compare the book to the recently released movie! Talk to you all tomorrow and remember, the enemy's gate is down.

Ender's Game

Thanks to those who made it to the Emma/Clueless chat yesterday. We had a lot of fun comparing/contrasting the early 19th century British text with the late 20th century teen film.

Next up in our queue is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

The book is about 350 pages of young adult text, so it will read much faster than the lovely, verbose, Jane Austen.

If we want time to wrap up the year with a Christmas themed text, for example A Christmas Carol, it is important that we get this book wrapped up in the month of November. This means just about three weeks to read the book and watch the movie (which is now in wide release at theaters nationwide).

This will have to be a single book/movie chat, following our viewing the movie independently at the theatre.

When are we available this month to chat? The last weekend of November is Thanksgiving, so that might be tricky planning, but I know I will be in town and easily available to squeeze in a 1-1.5 hour chat.

Emma Chat: Nov. 9th, 4 pm

Alright, gang, we're going to forge ahead with our Emma chat:

Saturday, November 9th
4 - 6 pm

The plan is to chat about the book (in our lovely chatroom) while watching the movie Clueless, which is available on Netflix.

Thanks to everyone for filling out the Doodle poll!  And, it's never too soon to start thinking about what our next book/movie should be...  Feel free to leave ideas in the comments.

Scheduling Chat for Emma / Clueless

“It's such a happiness when good people get together.” 

Hey, gang!  Looks like folks are interested in a long chat while watching the movie, which means we need to pick a date and time.

Let's use a Doodle poll.  If you're unfamiliar, it's a website that allows you to fill in when you're available for an event that needs to be scheduled.  If you log in with Gmail, it'll sync your calendars and autofill the poll based on your availability.  Yes means you're available, (Yes) means "if need be," and No means you can't make it then.  Also, I created the poll in Pacific time, but there should be an option to switch time zones in the upper right.

So, fill out this poll as soon as possible, and we'll see when we're all free.

Clueless Emma Chat Approaches

Fall has started, which means September is almost over and our early October chat is just around the corner.

How are we doing? Finished? Almost finished? Almost started?

Is everyone able to secure a copy of the film so we can watch it as a group?

Let us know where you are at in the book, when you are available to chat, and whether you prefer to participate in

a) 1 "long" movie watching / book discussing chat
b) 2 separate chats: first about the book (before watching the movie), and a second about the movie (after watching the movie) - these chats can be on different days, over different weekends.
c) 1 "short" chat where we discuss the movie and book together, after both are complete.

So many choices, pick the one that works the best for you schedule. But please be as flexible as possible since we are working with many different schedules, and different time zones.

Emma by Jane Austen

We had a fun discussion on Hans Christian Andersen'sThe Little Mermaid today, and have decided on our next book/movie combo. Next up, we will read Jane Austen's Emma (which is available for free in the Kindle store, and here for those who don't want to go through Amazon) and we will follow it up with the mid-90's film, loosely based on the text, Clueless. Clueless is available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

I'm super excited to combine two of my favorite things, Jane Austen and 90's nostalgia, and hopefully you are too.

Since August is now over half finished, this will be an August/September read, and we are currently planning for an early October chat. Mark your calendars, and talk to you then!

Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Take Two

If you missed the chat for Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (ahem, everyone but Amanda), good news for you is that we are rescheduling.

Options for chat + movie watching:

1) August 11 - propose time that works for you
2) August 12 - propose time that works for you
3) August 17 - propose time that works for you
4) August 18 - propose time that works for you

Options for chat (no shared movie experience)

5) Evening, some day soon - propose time that works for you.


Choose wisely!

I would prefer to have the chat sooner than later, but I realize this weekend might be a bit short notice.

Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

We have our next book to tackle, Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. This includes a lot of stories we are familiar with (at least the G-rated Disney versions), including The Little Mermaid.

You don't have to read all the stories, but everyone should read The Little Mermaid and get ready to watch the film together. Chat is tentatively scheduled for July 27 at 4PM PST. If you have a suggestion on a better time, please leave it in the comments.

See you soon!

The Help Book Chat And Our Next Book Is...?

Last minute reminder, our book chat for The Help will be this evening at 6 PM PST. I have added a link to our chat room on the right hand toolbar for easy access.

The Help movie chat is tentatively set for next weekend. Let me know when people are available.

***UPDATE: Movie chat is scheduled to begin at 4PM PST, Sunday May 5th (aka Cinco de Mayo). The movie is about 2.5 hours, so we are starting promptly at 4PM. Make sure you get your hands on a copy in time to join the party!

NEXT BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Based on some discussion with others, and because I really want to read this next book and see the new movie, I have decided to pick our next book rather than have us vote. Our next book is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The new movie comes out May 10, 2013, but I am anticipating a Memorial Day weekend-ish chat (late May). Due to our varied locations, a chat while we view the film is not feasible (although those near each other should definitely arrange a movie date), so I think we will probably just have one chat. Let me know how your late May looks in the comments and we can arrange a date to chat about the book and new film adaptation.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

An overdue update on scheduling our chat for The Help.

Is everyone/anyone free for a chat next weekend (April 27-29) to wrap up this book and get started on our next book/movie combo?

it sounds like Sunday and Monday are generally preferred, so let me know your availability.

It doesn't matter if you have finished the book, or haven't even started it, we'd love to have you join our chat.