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Alison & Mike go to Thailand

Irv's story in the SJ Mercury News

Mark

Mark Traps Crawdads

Mark at the Prom

Mark Goes Sailing

Mark Makes Chainmail

Mark at the Mock Con

Mark Skates

Alison

Alison's story in the Fremont Argus

Alison's UCSB Graduation

Alison's Menagerie

Burning Skirts @ Stanford 05

Burning Skirts @ Stanford 08

Burning Skirts @ UCSC 05

Burning Skirts @ UCSC 06

Burning Skirts @ Regionals 07

Burning Skirts @ Nationals 07

Burning Skirts @ Nationals 08

The WWI Sock Knitting Machine

Mike's date with Laurie Roberts

Emandal (Farm Camp)

Stitches

Miscellaneous


other fun stuff

Book Club Archive

Jewish Mother Jokes

Friday the 13th

Addison's Disease

Amusing Videos

 

What my book club has read...

Most recent books are at the bottom of the list.

Books were rated on a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the highest score (note: not all books were rated, and scores were averaged over those who did rate the book).


Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley - 3.0
Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx - 2.0
Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama - 4.3
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks - 3.3
Message in a Bottle. Nicholas Sparks - 2.5
Deep End of the Ocean, Jacquelyn Mitchard - 4.0
Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver - 4.5
Joy School, Elizabeth Berg - 4.0
Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg - 3.5
The Color of Water, James McBride - 4.0

She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb - 3.5
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt - 3.5
Midwives, Chris Bohjalian - 4.0
Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald - 2.5
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden - 4.4
The Pilot's Wife, Anita Shreve - 3.8
The Language of Threads, Gail Tsukiyama - 4.5
A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson - 3.5
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier - 4.0
The Road From Coorain, Jill Ker Conway - 3.5

Plainsong, Kent Haruf (not rated)
Chocolat, Joanne Harris - 3.7
The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean - 2.5
Where the Heart Is, Billie Letts - 3.5
Diary of Mattie Spenser, Sandra Dallas - 4.0
Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Nasland - 3.5
Gap Creek, Robert Morgan - 3.0
Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende - 3.7
Samurai's Garden, Gail Tsukiyama - 4.7
Snow Falling On Cedars, David Guterson - 3.5

Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells - 4.0
Georgianna, Fay Logan - 2.5
Tara Road, Maeve Binchy - 4.0
Resistance, Anita Shreve - 4.0
House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus III - 4.0
Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl 3.0
These Is My Words, Nancy E. Turner (not rated)
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant - 4.2
Big Stone Gap, Adriana Trigiani - 3.3
The Weight of Water, Anita Shreve - 4.0

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, Ann Ross - 2.0
Sister of My Heart, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - 5.0
Goodbye Without Leaving, Laurie Colwin (not rated)
Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier - 3.6
It's Not About the Bike: Mv Journev Back to Life, Lance Armstrong - 4.7
The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan - 3.3
Cane River, Lalita Tademy - 4.8
Big Cherry Holler, Adriana Trigiani - 3.0
Seabiscuit - An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand - 4.5
The Nanny Diaries, Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - 3.2

Empire Falls, Richard Russo - 3.5
The Dive From Clausen's Pier, Ann Packer - 4.3
Good in Bed, Jennifer Weiner - 4.2
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett - 4.4
An Italian Affair, Laura Fraser (not rated)
Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn (not rated)
Falling Angels, Tracy Chevalier - 3.0
Good Harbor, Anita Diamant - 2.5
Portrait in Sepia, Isabel Allende - 3.1
Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford (not rated)

In Her Shoes, Jennifer Weiner - 4.2
Stolen Lives, Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi - 5.0
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, Jim Fergus - 3.0
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd - 3.7
How to Make an American Quilt, Whitney Otto - 3.0
City of Dreams, Beverly Swerling - 5.0
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith - 2.3
Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, Lorna Landvik - 3.7
True to Form, Elizabeth Berg - 3.0
Dreaming Water, Gail Tsukiyama - 4.3

Kate Remembered, A. Scott. Berg - 1.0
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown - 4.5
The Red Hat Club, Haywood Smith - 2.7
La Cucina: A Novel of Rapture, Lily Prior - 4.0
Eat Cake, Jeanne Ray - 4.0
Cork Boat, John Pollack - 5.0
Catching Heaven, Sands Hall (not rated)
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson - 4.5
Virgin Blue, Tracy Chevalier - 2.5
My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult - 5.0

The Pact, Jodi Picoult - 4.8
Saving Graces, Patricia Gaffney - 3.5
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon - 3.7
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, Elizabeth Robinson - 4.0
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi - 3.5
The Eight, Katherine Neville - 5.0
Life of Pi, Yann Martel - 3.8
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck - 4.0
Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant - 4.0
Jane Austen in Boca, Paula Marantz Cohen - 3.0

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini - 5.0
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger - 4.0
Bringing Down the House, Ben Mezrich - 4.0
Good Grief, Lolly Winston - 3.0
Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy - 4.5
Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett - 4.0
The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason - 3.0
The Secret Lives of the Sushi Club, Christy Yorke - 2.0
Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks - 4.0
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Julia Alvarez - 3.0

The Ghost of Hannah Mendes, Naomi Ragen - 3.3
The Distant Land of My Father, Bo Caldwell - 5.0
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld - 3.8
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey - 4.4
The Emancipator's Wife, Barbara Hambly - 1.0
Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh - 3.0
Seven Degrees of Ambiguity, Elliot Perlman - 3.7
Paradise Park, Allegra Goodman - 2.3
In the Company of the Courtesan, Sarah Dunant - 4.0
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards - 4.8

Last Days of Dogtown, Anita Diamant - 1.8
The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd - 2.7
Mr. Darcy's Daughters, Elizabeth Aston - 2.3
The Bright Forever, Lee Martin (not rated)
I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron - 2.3
Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan - 2.6
The Wild Girl, Jim Fergus - 3.0
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri - 4.6
Broken for You, Stephanie Kallos - 3.8
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See - 4.8

The Tortilla Curtain, T. C. Boyle - 3.8
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen - 4.8
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - 2.3
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini - 4.7
The Glass Castle, Jeanette Wall - 4.4
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky - 2.3
Mao's Last Dancer, Li Cunxin - 5.0
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield - 3.3
Digging to America, Anne Tyler - 3.4
Friday Night Knitters' Club, Kate Jacobs - 3.3

Beautiful Boy, David Sheff - 5.0
Tweak, Nic Sheff - 5.0
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks - 3.7
Love Walked In, Marisa de los Santos - 4.1
Free Food for Millionaires, Min Jin Lee - 3.1
Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey - 3.0
Loving Frank, Nancy Horan - 3.8
The Girls, Lori Lansens - 3.5
Reading for the November 18 meeting: "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld
Reading for the December 16 meeting: "Run" by Ann Patchett