Whether you are curled up by the fire with cookies and cocoa or trying to tune out on a long plane ride on your way home for the holidays, there is nothing better than a good book to help you relax! The LakeNormanMommies Book Club is the perfect excuse to slow down and take some time for yourself while still tickling your brain cells this holiday season. Here are our upcoming titles so you can get a jump on your reading list for 2012!

Water for Elephants: A Novel
by Sara Gruen
As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
-- Publisher's description

The LakeNormanMommies Book Club will meet January 26 to discuss this selection. Click here for more details and to RSVP.

Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before -- and survival.
-- Publisher's description

The LakeNormanMommies Book Club will meet February 29 to discuss this selection. Click here for more details and to RSVP.

We are looking for ideas for future Book Club dates for the spring! What book would you nominate for Book Club and why? Tell us about your top titles as well as your thoughts on hosting a Book Club event in our Books, Movies & Other Entertainment forum on LakeNormanMommies.


Happy reading, Mommies!