Welcome to the January 2010 edition of the Mother Daughter Book Club.com newsletter!

January is a time to set goals and make resolutions, and I've been busy doing both in the last week or so. My daughters, husband and I rang in the New Year with a night of burgers and bowling then followed up the next morning with a couple of New Year's Day traditions in our house: watching football and cooking cabbage rolls and black-eyed peas.

Every year as I was growing up, my own mom ensured our family's coming prosperity in the new year by serving cabbage and black-eyed peas, and now I do the same. It's a widespread tradition in southern Louisiana where I grew up, and I understand that other parts of the country have a similar tradition. I hope your New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrations were equally as hopeful of fun and prosperous times in the year to come.

So what's ahead in this first mother-daughter book club newsletter edition of the year?

• Book By Book News: Upcoming Author Appearances, Ways You Can Help

• New Look Coming to Newsletter, Website and Blog

• Book Groups Find Pen Pal Matches

• Fantasy Book List as Read by a Barnes and Noble Book Group

• Book Reviews:

• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

• FlashBurnout by L. K. Madigan

• Featured Website:  Book Club Queen.com

News About Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs

Upcoming Appearances

Mommy on a Shoestring Radio Show

Tune in Thursday, January 14 from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Central Standard Time as I make a guest appearance on the Mommy on a Shoestring radio show. Hosts Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs will be talking with me about starting a mother-daughter book club and ways to keep your club thriving over the years. Just go to http://toginet.com/shows/mommyonashoestring at 1 p.m. CST and click on the arrow at the top that says "Live Stream, Now Playing." You can also peruse the list of previous guests and listen to their interviews as podcasts. The Mommy on a Shoestring show is part of Toginet Radio, so the podcasts include a long list from other featured shows as well.

Here's a description of the show from the website:

"Friends, moms and business partners Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs tap into their backgrounds in education, book publishing, and graphic design to share chic and creative tips, projects and ideas for budget conscious moms. Shows will feature a variety of guests including authors, educators, mommy bloggers, artists, and other fabulous women who are making their lives rich by being creative and thrifty."

Mother-Daughter Book Club Workshop

Do you live in the Portland area and would like help getting a mother-daughter book club started? Plan to attend a workshop that will help you identify who to invite, where to meet, how to choose titles and more. Handouts at this interactive presentation will get you started, and there will be time for questions and answers. Here are the details:

When: Tuesday, January 26 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Northwest Library, 2300 N.W. Thurman St., Portland, OR 97210

Call 503-988-5560 for more information.

Ways You Can Help Promote Mother Daughter Book Club.com and Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs

Forward this Newsletter on to Five Friends and Recommend They Subscribe

Do you like what you read in this newsletter each month? Recommend it to your friends. The more subscribers I have the more interactive our community is likely to be.

I never sell the information from my list, so you can be sure any information you or your friends provide is confidential. Occasionally reporters from newspapers and magazines contact me hoping to find moms in mother-daughter book clubs to interview, and even then I only pass along your contact information once you've given me permission. There's a sign up link at the bottom of this email, so please point that out if you forward it along.

Suggest Your Favorite Blog for Me to Make a Guest Appearance

Last fall when Book by Book was released, I had a lot of fun making guest appearances on blogs written by authors, book reviewers and parenting advisors. I'm currently searching for new sites to approach and ask about guest blogging with topics such as:

• The benefits of being in a mother-daughter book club

• Using novels to broach difficult topics with your teen

• Connecting your book club with authors of the books you read

• And more

 If you have a favorite site you'd like to recommend, please send me a note at info@motherdaughterbookclub.com with the website address and tell me what you like about the site. If you have a personal contact at the site, please let me know if I can use your name when I contact the blog author.

Recommend My Book to Your Librarian

Does your local library carry Book by Book on its shelves? If not, consider recommending it to the adult or children's librarian or acquisitions manager. Requests from patrons carry a lot of weight with librarians, and when Book by Book is available to check out, many moms can find the inspiration and instructions on how to start their own groups.

Write a Review at an Online Book Site

The more reviews Book by Book has, the more likely it is to be recommended to readers.  Choose your favorite from the list below or even contribute to more than one:

Powell's.com

Amazon.com

BarnesandNoble.com

Borders.com

New Look Coming to Website, Blog, Newsletter

 After two years online, MotherDaughterBookClub.com is due for an overhaul. While I'm not the most tech savvy person, I have been working on a new design that will combine the website and blog so you can find all the information you need in one place. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to debut the new site in February.

It's time to upgrade the look of this newsletter too. To get a more professional look, I plan to move to Constant Contact, which has more flexible newsletter templates. As the transition occurs, you may be asked to confirm your subscription. I'll send an email with all the details as the changeover gets closer.

Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Finding Pen Pals

A large book club in Brazil with two age groups connected with two clubs in the U.S., one from Gresham, Oregon, the other from Antioch, California. A club in Santa Barbara, California connected with another in Highland Park, Illinois. I'll feature some of the ways the pen pals get in touch with each other in future issues.

Want to join the fun? Peruse the pen pal list at MotherDaughterBookClub.com, and send me your information for listing. It's a great way to learn about other parts of the country, or even other parts of the world.

Fantasy First Book Club Reading List

In November I had the opportunity to talk about Book by Book and mother-daughter book clubs to the Fantasy First Book Club that meets at the Barnes and Noble store in Clackamas Town Center here in Portland, Oregon. While not officially a mother-daughter book club, this group is composed of many moms and their high school-aged daughters. The group has been meeting for about a year, and they focus on fantasy books targeted to young adults and adults. The group happily shared its reading list for others who are interested in fantasy books. If you read books by a theme, you may be interested in this group's list for 2009 and the first few months of 2010.

2009

January:  City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (teen)

February:  Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (teen)

March:  Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (adult)

April:  A Great & Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (teen)

May:  Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison (adult)

June:  Marked by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast (teen)

July:  Nightlife by Rob Thurman (adult)

August:  Sabriel by Garth Nix (teen)

September:  King Dork & Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman (author at book group meeting) (teen)

October:  Dog Days by John Levitt (adult)

November:  Maximum Ride: Angel Experiment by James Patterson (teen) (Cindy Hudson author of Book by Book at book group meeting)

December:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (teen)

2010

January:  Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn (adult)

February:  Percy Jackson and The Olympians series by Rick Riordan (go see The Last Olympian movie with the group + then discuss the series at the meeting)

March:  Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (adult)

April:  Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (adult)

Book Review: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

The summer of Calpurnia Virginia Tate's 11th birthday was a hot one. Everyone in her large family suffered from the heat in their Fentress, Texas, home, but as Calpurnia was the only girl in a family of seven children, she also found freedom during afternoon naptime. That's when she stole away from her room and down to the river, where she floated dreamily in the cool water.

During her outings away from the noise of having six brothers, Calpurnia discovers the natural world and starts making observations about it in her notebook. She also screws up her courage to talk to her grandfather, a shadowy figure who spends most of his time by himself caught up in reading or scientific experiments. But when her grandfather discovers that Calpurnia's interest is genuine, he begins to include her in his experiments and observations. When they believe they discover a new species of vetch, they send it in to the Smithsonian for judgment.

Calpurnia's activities with her grandfather brings up a conflict with Calpurnia's mother, who believes that in the year 1899 girls must prepare to be women who run households, and nothing more. That means cooking, sewing, knitting and tatting, all occupations Calpurnia abhors. As she struggles to follow her heart's desire, Calpurnia must discover if there are options for women in her time who have interests other than the domestic.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly is historical fiction that reveals turn-of-the-last-century times in rural Texas. It was a time not very far removed from the Civil War, and Calpurnia's grandfather as well as many others in town fought in the war. The Tate family farms cotton, and they are wealthy by the standards of most people in town. They have a housekeeper and a cook as well as regular farm hands, and while the children have daily chores, they don't have the responsibility of making the farm productive.

This was also a time when Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was making an impact. It had been published for about 50 years, but his conclusions were still hotly debated, and as Calpurnia found out, some libraries refused to carry copies of the book. Each chapter begins with a quote from Darwin that's applicable to the action to come. As the book progresses, Calpurnia grows in her ability to understand the people and the world around her through observations made with a microscope and her regular vision.

This book is sure to delight mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 12 and up. Discussions can center on the differences between life for girls and women in 1899 versus life now, living up to the expectations of your parents versus following your heart, and scientific experiences. Girls may even find inspiration for a school science project, and groups can also tie in craft or sewing projects. I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan

Blake has a pretty good life for a high school sophomore. He's got a girlfriend who loves him and makes him happy, he's got good friends, and for the most part he likes his classes in school. And he lives in a loving home with two parents and his older brother Garrett. He doesn't give his situation much thought until he's showing a photo assignment to his friend Marissa in class one day. When he uncovers a photo of a homeless woman passed out on the sidewalk, Marissa gasps and says, "That's my mom." Suddenly he's compelled into Marissa's life in unexpected ways and finding out that not everyone leads mundane, uneventful lives away from school.

As he's drawn to help Marissa more and more, Blake's relationship with his girlfriend, Shannon, becomes strained. Can he be the friend Marissa needs and the boyfriend Shannon expects at the same time?

Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan juxtaposes suburban middle-class life against the lives of the homeless and addicted. It shows the toll addiction and neglect can take not only on family members, but also on friends and others in the community around them. The book covers issues of sexual abstinence, safe sex, underage drinking, using alcohol to escape, honesty in relationships and more. It also introduces complex supporting characters that add interest to the story: Blake's mother is a hospital chaplain, and his father is a coroner. Garrett interns at the morgue with his dad. (Their work discussions make Blake queasy and may do the same for some readers.) Marissa's brother Gus is a thrill-seeking bike messenger who takes responsibility for his family.

Madigan lives in Portland, and I really enjoyed picking up on some of the local references in Flash Burnout. I would have liked to know more about Blake's conflicted thoughts between his feelings for his girlfriend and his friend, particularly after a volatile event near the end, and I would have preferred less description of Blake's ordinary life. Even so, I really liked following his story, and I liked that Flash Burnout doesn't tidy up all the answers into a nice package at the end; instead it asks the reader to consider what will happen next. I believe the issues and the characters should provide great discussions for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 14 and up. Flash Burnout is Madigan's debut novel, and I eagerly anticipate her next book.

Featured Website: Book-Club-Queen.com

There's so much to explore on Book-Club-Queen.com you may want to set yourself a time limit for browsing before you visit. You'll find recipes, book reviews, author interviews, a discussion board, ideas for hosting a meeting and more. While geared mostly to adult book clubs, many of the ideas for meetings can be adapted to a mother-daughter book club.

You'll also find author pages on Book-Club-Queen, including one for Book by Book. This is a site you can visit over and over again and find new gems each time.

Copyright 2010 Mother Daughter Book Club.com.