Whidbey Book Groups » Updates and Communications

Only A Month Away… Are you Attending?

Whidbey Book Groups — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:41:15 +0000

This year’s get together is at St Hubert’s Church in Langley. If you are the leader of a book group and have not confirmed how many in your book group will attend, please do so now.

If you are looking for a book group to join, you are most welcome to join us for this event. You too must confirm with linda@lindacasale.com that you are attending.

Award winning author, Elizabeth George is the speaker for the gathering which will start promptly at 6 PM

Evening activities include: the potluck, book sale, and a raffle of gift cards besides the presentation by our guest speaker and the Best Picks 2009 by each of the book groups attending.

Donations to the book sale are a vital part of this event. The book sale provides the funds to continue this event. Please call if you have books you would like picked up before the event, 331-5372 and bring all you can the night of the event.

The theme of the evening is “It’s A Mystery to Me” in honor of our guest speaker.

Book groups will have assigned food categories so we can provide a well rounded meal and have less brownies. Of course brownies are always appreciated.

So if you are a book group leader, or a new book group who has not attended and have not assigned a leader, (someone take charge please) here is it is in a few short sentences.

1)Get a count on your group of who is attending and contact Linda.

2) Confirm with your group the date, time to meet, book reminders, and that you have purchased a gift card to include in the raffle. Be sure to remind the group a few days before the event and set up car pooling when possible.

Again please email or call Linda Casale if you have any questions, don’t have your assignment, or if you are a new group and need to be added to the mailing list.

Thanks for your help, and we look forward to seeing you on February 9th!

2010 Island Wide Book Gathering Feb. 9th

Whidbey Book Groups — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:16:06 +0000

The seventh annual island-wide Book Groups Gathering will be held on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at St. Hubert’s Catholic Church in Langley.
If you are a leader and have not received an email, please contact linda@lindacasale.com now.
Evening activities will include a potluck, a book sale, a presentation by award winning mystery writer Elizabeth George, and a silent auction for book-related items. Book groups will share their top three picks from 2009 readings, and those not yet affiliated with a book group may sign up to attend a “forming a new group” meeting. Emails with specific instructions for each group’s participation will be sent to group leaders.
The theme this year will be “It’s a Mystery to Me” so donations of mystery novels will be especially appreciated. Anyone wishing to donate books for the book sale or any new book groups formed in 2009 should contact Linda Casale at 360-331-5372 or linda@lindacasale.com.

2009 Book Group Gathering A Great Success

Whidbey Book Groups — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:18:31 +0000

This year’s book gathering was held at St Hubert Church in Langley. Seventeen book groups attended and 9 “want to join a group” guests. Jennie Shortridge was our special guest speaker, giving us the wonderful suggestion of asking authors to come to our individual book groups and some ideas on how to make that happen.

As usual we had a great selection of food, with the emphasis on brownies. The book table was full of great titles, and most of you were able to get at least 6 to 10 books that you will really enjoy. We appreciate all of your contributions to this part of the program.

We have a slide show of the event at the Photo page on this site. Look closely you are surely in one of the photos. We have also posted the 3 books that each group shared with us on the top picks of 2008. We will update the book groups page very soon and ask that you review for any corrections.

Please let us know what you liked and didn’t like about this years get together. Thank you for your donations. They allow us to continue to have this fun event every year.

Update for the Gathering on January 27, 2009

Whidbey Book Groups — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:30:59 +0000

We are looking forward to another very successful gathering this year. We have a number of new book groups that will be participating this year. We have made a few changes that we think everyone will support.

First in place of the silent auction we are doing a raffle. We will have a number of wonderful raffle prizes and we are asking that each person buy at least a set of 5 tickets for the raffle ($5.00) .

Second, we are asking a $5. donation from each of you which in turn gets you six books of your choice. After that you may buy additional books at a dollar each.

Basically the $10. that each group member contributes guarantees that we will be able to continue to have this quality event for book groups every year. So thank you for your support in this.

We didn’t mention the pot luck dinner in the new bulletin that everyone received from their leader, but I guess we should have. Please do bring something to share with the group. Entrees and salads are greatly appreciated, as we were short on them last year. But whatever you bring it will be appreciated!

We will have the books in the large hall when you arrive for you to pick from and a volunteer will add the books you bring. Please don’t forget your books!! If you want us to pick them up in advance just give me a call. We already have some incredibly great titles available. Many are still on the best seller list.

The raffle items will also be displayed for you to see what you just might get if your ticket is drawn.

Our program as usual includes an author. This year Pat Detmer will do the last 15 minutes. We all enjoyed her wonderful humorous talk last year. Jennie Shortridge, a award winning Seattle writer will also give a short talk.

Of course the highly anticipated group discussion of your book group’s favorites, is the highlight of the evening. We are asking the leaders to give us your top three in advance, so we can print out all of the titles and have the list for when you leave that night.

Your comments are welcome here, and we will provide a comment sheet at the event for you to give us your thoughts on how we might improve the event, and any other ideas or comments you may have.

We look forward to this year’s event and seeing you there.

6th Annual Book Group Gathering January 27th 2009

Whidbey Book Groups — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:50:53 +0000

Hi Book Groups of Whidbey Island

We have secured the large meeting hall at the St. Huberts Church in Langley. We picked it for a couple of reasons. One, it has convenient access and parking with lots of lighting. Also it is on Bayview Rd coming into Langley, so it is also easy to find.

The date is on Tuesday January 27th beginning at 6 PM as usual with the book exchange and potluck before the guest speaker and book discussion. This year Peter Casale will be the emecee. We have a couple of excellent authors to choose from as our guest speaker, and we will get the news on the choice to you soon.

We have sent an email out to the group leaders (names who signed up at the last get together to receive correspondence). Unfortunately, the Lit Fun group contact email came back. If anyone knows someone in that group please have them contact me directly.

We are asking a group member to attend a short meeting in November to go over details of the upcoming event. Our goal this year is to include all of the book groups in the planning process, and continue to improve as the years go by in making this a must go to event for book group participants.

Check back at the beginning of December. We should have more information then on the guest speaker and feedback from all of the group leaders who attend the meeting.

We look forward to seeing you on that dark night of January for some stimulating conversation at the book club gathering.

Suggested Books for 2008

Whidbey Book Groups — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:24:16 +0000

The Whidbey Book Groups together at the annual event decided to read “Loving Frank” by Whidbey’s own Nancy Horan. The Book Owls are reading it this month (March). I will let you know what I hear from this group. Please feel free to make comments on this book and others that your group is reading this year.