3. Feb. 24th. It's time to talk about the book. pages 3-50 something

9! of us have gathered at Dixie's house for a mushroom tortellini with a gorganzola cream sauce, a variety of wines, Ukrop's chocolate pie and our first fifty pages.
Almost everyone has made it to the first dinner. Lisa decided it was best to stay in bed, under the covers and get over whatever ailment made her lose her cookies at work earlier. Thank you Lisa.

After our catch up chatter we get seated and begin. It was a tight fit with all nine and Leo but we did it. However, let it be noted that Karen attempted more than once to oust Leo from the table.

Half of us read what was assigned and the other half either read some or were not able to get started yet. The good news is one had a note from her 7 year old neice.


I wouldn't call our first discussion a complete success. with 9 girls and only half read it's hard to keep focus on the task at hand. And I was a bit concerned when only 15 minutes of our 2 hour evening was about War and Peace.

So here's a little run down:

1. Our over concern for Liza's downy lip.
2. Shaun White is awesome. Go USA!
3. The Kindle which both Karen and Birgitte have and love.
4. keeping track of all the characters introduced in the 50 fifty pages
5. A recent ski trip
6. Kindle
4. Should Wendy get a Kindle?
5. An upcoming ski trip.
6. The opening at Anna Pavlovan's and how she navigates through the evening trying to keep control over the overall party atmosphere.
7. The G-D olympics
8. The G-D Kindle
9. Andrey's defense of his friend Pierre, who has aligned himself with Napolean in a room full of Russian's who think of him as the antichrist.
10. Andrey's disinterest in his wife and all things social. His encouragement to Pierre to not marry until he has concured all he wants to do in life.
11. The 10k in March
12. My suggestion for everyone to keep a little diary or log to help keep track of characters and what's going on. At least in the beginning.

We ran out of time and did not even get to the name day party at the Rostov's. This is important because it sets up our first love interests.
Some of the girls have suggested that I lead the discussions to keep us more on track. This does not appeal to me. I understand most book clubs work this way but it's not what I invisioned for our group. Don't you like it when you are out with friends, drinking, eating good food and you get into a great discussion/debate about something and you don't even feel the evening getting late? This is my dream.

Needless to say I am worried at this point in the evening. But as I leave Dixie's house, kissing her littlest giggling girl goodnight for the 50th time, I'm filled with hope. I had forgotten one very important thing. The 9 girls that showed up tonight. Thank you. You might think it was the free food and wine but I know better. And I know our next meeting will be filled with a little more War and Peace.

2. Set up dinner: Jan 28th Polish Kielbasa. my house

We decided to have a set up dinner to discuss how we want this little adventure to play out. I've traveled with all these girls and have found that planning anything is sometimes the best part. Since I couldn't come up with anything creatively Russian to make for dinner I did the closest thing that I know how to make. Polish Kielbasa with green peppers and onions. Served with a variety of wine but nothing worth mentioning.

Lisa is the first to arrive on the scene. You always know that for anything Lisa is first to arrive. If Susan or Eileen were ever to be first to anything, worlds are colliding and I would find shelter fast. Please know that I'm right there with them. At least in the past. In order of last to arrive used to be Jennifer, Susan and then Eileen. I've been working on this for the past two years and have made great strides.

Table is set and ready with one guest already seated. Lisa's first words are "who invited the hasidic Jew"? She's allowed to say these things. It's her people.
Yep, it's Leo seated at the head of the table beard and all. And no, Tolstoy was not Jewish.

Not only do I think this book is great but I find the author himself to be a fasinating figure so I plan to have him with us for each dinner.


Those who made the first non-meeting meeting were Me, Lisa, Dixie, Eileen, Susan and Wendy. Oh and Doug, Eileens little gray poodle breed.

What we discussed:
1. I gave the girls a 15 minute backdrop to the War of 1812, the french influence and why we need to know a tiny bit about what Napolean was up to. None of us were history majors and since 7th grade was so so many years ago I thought we needed a little boost. If you've never read this book and want to start I highly suggest you do a smidge of research.
2. We will meet at the end of every month on Fridays.
3. We will read around 50 pages for the first few meetings and then speed things up to 100 to 150 a month. I know, 50 pages? but remember this book is thick, the amount of characters introduced in the first 50 pages alone will make your head spin and this is not a primary read for most of us. We are treating this as our book in between books.
3. Each girl will host a meeting.
4. If you come to the meeting without reading you will do a shot of Vodka.

Side note: In honor of Tolstoy himself, Theo (my husband) has decided to grow a beard for the first time. not really. well the beard part is true but he started a month before I decided to start this little club.
But I find it interesting when seperate parts of your life seem to be working in the same direction. Other coindences worth mentioning. The movie 'The Last Station' about Tolstoy's last days is about to hit theatres. And in my other book club we are starting to read 'The Elegance of a Hedgehog',a wonderful book where one of the main characters names her cat Leo for her love of War and Peace. cue twilight zone intro music.

1. How this came to be

It's been hanging over me for years, I should read War and Peace, I should read War and Peace, I want to read War and Peace, I want to read War and Peace. But time and time again I would let another year pass without doing so. So many other books with shiny titles with 400 page limits would lure me in..."read me...read me!". The art of distraction, foiled again. Or maybe it was the fact that you need the strength of both arms and a good lower back to pick this book up? I don't know but 2 years ago inspired by my mother-in-law or better known as the little gypsy in California (who reads the book annually as a gift to herself) I pushed forward and started reading the greatest book ever written. And started falling in love with this book getting halfway through but something happened that happens every year around March 21st. spring. My love for all things in bloom, planting and being outside pushed my lover away again. parting is such sweet sorrow.

So here we are 2 years later and it's time to finish. Instead of picking up where I left off I've decided to start over. Clean slate and I've invited my group of girlfriends to join me. 10 of the greatest girls you could know.

The objective: Read about a 100 pages a month, meet, eat, drink and discuss the greatest book ever written. Did I say that already? Actually we are starting slow with about 50 pages for the first few meetings and then we are going to speed it up a bit.

I sent out an email one day with my pitch trying to sell the idea to my girlfriends. My husband, who reads everything under the sun and would rather read one of his 1100 page Stephen King novels for the 5th time than read this book, guffawed and said no way will I ever be able to convince these girls to do this with me. Ye of little faith. Truthfully I thought I'd be lucky if I convinced at least 4 girls.

HOLY TOLSTOY! 10 girls are on board!
Even my girls with Calendars jammed with dinners, dates, and parties have decided to play my game.
Thank you ladies.

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?
Me, Jennifer Dobson, Diane Heipel, Dixie McMahan, Karen Ivie, Eileen Lamb, Susan Coggsdale, Birgitte Tingley, Lisa Rogerson, Vonda Strader, and Wendy Coggsdale and of course Count Leo Tolstoy.

Not your typical book club. We will have our dinners at the end of every month. The idea is to take it slow and enjoy the written words that this man has gifted to the world...too much? That was borrowed from part of my sales pitch to the ladies. And this allows us to pick up other books and enjoy our other book clubs that we may be in. Which I'm going to plug. I'm in another club right now that I adore. I'd like to give a quick hi! to the Hanover Ave book club! I think I just used the word "club" 5 times in one paragraph. Oy.

My soap box: and I promise this will be the last.
Why do I want to read this book? I equate War and Peace to another piece of art. Well known but few have experienced in modern times. There are things in life that we know we want to do, we don't know why but believe deep down it will be good for our souls.

This blog will chroncicle our dinners and discussions.