Friday, January 25, 2008

Welcome, Book Buddies !!!

Essencia Island will function as our place to party and visit and chat and have fun. When we discuss books in earnest, we'll go back "home" to Book Buddies. Welcome to our first blog party. Introduce yourself and tell us what food you brought to share.


I'm Bonnie and I have brought ... hmmm, let's see ... I've brought these scrumptious hors d'Ĺ“uvres. Plus a variety of drinks over there in the sidebar, including the mango iced tea in that pitcher.


Somebuddy asked for the recipe for that mango iced tea. This recipe serves four, though we have an endless supply here on our island:

2 cups lemonade
2 peach and mango tea bags
2 cups boiling water
2 cups mango nectar, chilled
1 cup orange juice, chilled
125g dried mango, finely diced

I forgot to mention that the weather on Essencia Island is always perfect, not too hot, not too cold, no swarming insects to ruin the fun, no allergy-inducing pollens drifting in the balmy breezes ... and best of all, no calories in the virtual food. So everybuddy eat, drink, and be merry.

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Others should be arriving soon. Here's the invitation I sent all book buddies:


There's a meme going around that asks, If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Nah, that's too tame. We Book Buddies will "bring to life" all the characters of all the books we have read so far:

Feb 2008 ~ In Lucia's Eyes (ILE) ~ by Arthur Japin
Jan 2008 ~ Pictures of Hollis Woods (PHW) ~ by Patricia Reilly Giff
Dec 2007 ~ Cold Comfort Farm (CCF) ~ by Stella Gibbons
Nov 2007 ~ The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (BSP) ~ by John Boyne
Oct 2007 ~ The Other Side of the Bridge (OSB) ~ by Mary Lawson

Oops! Lucia will have to wait for the next party. She's February, and we don't really know her yet.

So invitations have gone out to Hollis and Josie and Beatrice ... and the mustard lady, too ... to Steven and the Old Man and Izzy and the baby Christina.

And I've invited Flora and Charles ... Aunt Ada Doom and the Starkadder boys ... let's see, Seth and Meriam and Mrs. Beetle ... Rennett and Mr. Mybug and Amos and Judith and Urk and, oh, you know, all of THEM ... and I wouldn't be surprised if Adam doesn't bring Graceless, Aimless, Feckless and Pointless (the farm cows), but surely he wouldn't bring Big Business (the bull), would he?

Bruno and Shmuel will be there, too, along with Gretel and the Commandant and Bruno's mother and grandmother (did they have names?) ... and there may be several nameless people wearing striped pajamas, though they remained nameless in the book. Do you think the Lieutenant and any other soldiers would be interested?

Jake and Arthur Dunn are coming, as are Laura and Ian and Dr. Christopherson (Ian's father, that is) ... Ian's mother may be hanging around the edges of the party, if she shows up at all ... Pete will be there, and so will Cathy.

Have I forgotten anybody? Oh, yes, everyBUDDY is expected to show up with a marvelous party dish (or two) to share. Since all our food and drinks will be virtual, no calories are involved and we don't need designated drivers.

DATE: the rest of January.
TIME: around the clock, allowing for everybuddy's time zones
WHERE: Essencia Island ... you can start putting out chairs and tables and dreaming up excellent little areas to chat with the characters ... and each other.
WHAT: our first party ever, since moving the whole kit and caboodle "over here" to this blog after Oprah dumped us.

No RSVP needed, but please bring photos ... if you know how to post them. So that nobuddy gets lost in the "comments" sections, I omitted those. Go thou and POST your conversations, buddies! It's PARTY time! Don't forget to bring food.