Book Club 3-Year Anniversary!

  Hey gang!  

 

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  When Andrew and I moved to Chicago in May 2011, a week after grad school graduation, I was so excited for our new adventure.    However, without a job and without the large group of friends like I was used to having in Ohio and in DC, I was a little anxious after we arrived.   Luckily, Andrew's friends from MSU were here, my Little from my sorority was here, I met amazing co-workers (once I landed a job soon after moving) and I met a darling gal through a friend of a friend. Thanks to these lovely ladies (and their acceptance of my silly planning emails full of exclamation marks!!!), the Hardcover Hotties Book Club was born.   I am a firm believer in girls' nights: I think that even though they can be rough on the wallet and the liver, that they are essential for the soul.    For the past three years we have met about once a month, rarely ever discussing books for longer than maybe twenty minutes at a time. We're basically a bar-hopping club, trying a new bar each meeting. Sometimes we read a book around a theme, sometimes we read books that were movies so we would watch them together and other times we'd just vote on whatever we wanted. Needless to say, it's been a lot of fun and twenty or so gals are now on the emails. We even get together for cookie exchanges around the holidays.   Curious about what we've read over the years? Here's our list!  (OK fine, if you do the math you'll see that we haven't been insanely consistent about reading a book a month. Whateves.)  

 

1. Bitter is the New Black
2. The Stupidest Angel
3. The Marriage Plot
4. Growing Up Amish
5. The Shadow of the Wind (personal absolute #1 favorite!!!!)
6. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
7. Prep
8. The Paris Wife
9. The Casual Vacancy
10. Breakfast at Tiffany's (then we watched the movie!)
11. Cold Mountain
12. Wild
13. Gone Girl (personal favorite!!)
14. The Sex Lives of Cannibals
15. The Great Gatsby (then we watched the movie!)
16. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (personal favorite!)
17. The Cuckoo's Calling (personal favorite!)
18. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
19. The Wolf of Wall Street (I know it's raunchy but I really liked it! We also saw the movie!)
20. This is Where I Leave You (personal favorite - I still need to see the movie!)
21. Rules of Civility
22. The Fault in Our Stars (I still need to see the movie!)
23. The Book Thief (then we watched the movie!)
24. Never Have I Ever: My Life So Far Without a Date
25. The Silkworm (The sequel to The Cuckoo's Calling! Highly recommend!!)

Do you have any suggestions for what we should read next?
If you're in Chicago, please join! The more the merrier!

Little Bit of Class Tuesday!

I'm so excited for tonight! 

The book club turns two!

Yep! Two years ago I wanted an excuse to hang out with girlfriends and drink wine. And (I guess) chat about books. The Hardcover Hotties Book Club was born!

Admittedly I didn't finish the book for tonight (oops), but I am really enjoying it and definitely plan to finish it this week.

Sometimes we didn't follow our once-a-month meeting schedule due to holidays or whatever life throws at us, but we've been pretty consistent! I love that new people join all of the time and we even have two new ladies tonight!

Curious about what we've read?

Here's a list!

Bitter is the New Black

The Stupidest Angel

The Marriage Plot

Growing Up Amish

The Shadow of the Wind

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Prep

The Paris Wife

The Casual Vacancy

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Cold Mountain

Wild

Gone Girl

The Sex Lives of Cannibals

The Great Gatsby

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

The Cuckoo’s Calling

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

That's our order over the last two years, starting with a Chicago-based book to currently an amazing book based in 1950s London (The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets). My absolute favorite by far is The Shadow of the Wind. It's an amazing book. I also really loved Gone Girl, The Cuckoo's Calling and Where'd You Go, Bernadette? It was so fun to re-read Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Great Gatsby as a club. We watched the films in the meetings following those books. We definitely plan to do the same for The Wolf of Wall Street! 

People sometimes ask me what it's like moving to a new city when I don't know many people. When I lived in DC I luckily knew my amazing roommate (sorority sister!) and my co-workers were hilarious. I also played kickball. Hence, friends formed.

When I moved to Chicago it was different. Maybe because I was older and/or because I'm not single, or maybe because the city's bigger. I don't know. My co-workers are awesome here, too, but our group of girlfriends didn't all hang out right away. Only months after moving here I itched for a group of girlfriends.

So I started a book club with a friend! It's full of co-workers and friends...and friends of friends. I absolutely love it. I definitely recommend joining or starting one if you're looking to meet new people. Not only was it a great excuse to get together and gab for hours, it also forced me to read!

Are you part of a book and/or wine club?

Any suggestions for our next book? 

I definitely plan to keep the Hardcover Hotties alive for many more years to come!

Weekend Update

Sooo sleepy today. Sooo jealous of anyone with the day off of work.

Friday: went to the gym and then promptly passed out. I was sad to miss my friend's housewarming party.

Saturday: football, cleaning, baking, then friends!

My Big and one of my Littles came over, so it was a "family" reunion of sorts!

We introduced Cat and her boyfriend to the gloriousness that is Giordano's Pizza. YUM.

I also baked Mo Cookies, named after my high school BFF Mo, who made them often for any reason and brought them to school. It's a Milky Way inside a chocolate chip cookie. DOUBLE YUM.

Reflecting on all of the goodies made me feel even more gross the next morning as we cheered on friends who ran the marathon.

Our church had a big group run and they had a special blessing at the end of Mass.
The heavy eating Saturday night and the marathon buzz almost made me want to run a marathon.

(And by almost I mean the attention would be cool but that's it.)

But it did make me research triathlons in Chicago and indoor pools for training.
Next August I will OWN the (sprint distance) triathlon!

(And by OWN I mean I will participate in the shortest race available and earn a medal for sweating. I guess I'll finish, too.)

Aside from these activities we cheered on our victorious teams all weekend. I couldn't believe all of our teams won! I even beat Andrew in fantasy football this week!!!

Last night we made Gina's Skinny Carnitas and Andrew's mom's AMAZING recipe for black beans...mmmmm

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I also rushed to finish The Paris Wife before book club tonight! 

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I was pretty sleepy, sure, but nowhere near as tuckered out as Teddy.

How was your weekend?

(I linked up with Sami, Dana, and Leeann today!!)

Little Bit of Sass Thursday

Some good ones this week from Pinterest. View more on my "Sassy" board!

Source: Uploaded by user via Mary on Pinterest

Source: thechloeconspiracy.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: houzz.com via Mary on Pinterest

All of these put a smile on my face. P.S. I want that broad's outfit.

The weekend is upon us, friends! Will it be a sassy or classy one...or a little of both?

Little Bit of Sass Thursday

Howdy! So much has happened since my lazy Sunday. Here's a quick recap:

Monday I tried Jillian Michaels ab workout On Demand. Wowsah. I need to keep doing that. I yelled back at her through the TV. I think it helped. We're cool now, though.

Tuesday was a big day! First of all, I WAS HIRED!!!!!!!!! You're looking at a full-time employee! Big step up from my blog posts over the summer, eh? I contract through the end of the week and then boom. I get a salary. A-mazing. An impressively sizable group of co-workers joined me at the last minute to celebrate at a bar across the street from our office. Then I went to my first book club meeting! A group of ten fun ladies decided last Friday that we'll get together once a month to discuss a book while enjoying each others company and sipping beverages of choice. It was a grand time getting to know new girls and honestly just being in a group of girls again! Our first book is Bitter is the New Black by Chicagoan Jen Lancaster. I've read it before, but she is SO funny that I can't wait to read it again! We're hoping she'll attend our November outing! You better believe I'll sport pearls and a polo for that momentous occasion. There will be a photo on here too. She's seriously one of my favorite authors and inspires me to write. Oh! And after the book club meeting Andrew took me to a late and silly dinner to celebrate! He's so fun and sweet :) His cousin Daniela brought me some flowers to book club, too!

Don't the flowers look perfect on our mantle and especially in that blue vase?

Yesterday was also a fun day. After work I schlepped a big pumpkin about a mile up Lake Street to Andrew's office. I swear I put a smile on everyone's faces because really? Who carries a pumpkin around on a busy street? This girl does. Honestly I was terrified that I would drop it and have it splatter everywhere, including on me. I didn't want to get punk'd, if you will. Luckily I made it to Andrew's office without one trip or stumble! At his office I was showered with free candy, cheese, and beer. Yum! Then we trucked up to Lincoln Park for a pumpkin carving party! Andrew's good friends from MSU get together every year for carving, cider, and pumpkin seeds. It was a blast! Here's our creation:

Here's the group of pumpkins at the end of the night:

I thought ours was a pretty sassy rendition of a jack-o-lantern, don't you? We like to call it our pumpkin bucket, or pumpket. :) Stay sassy, my friends.