"Gemina: The Illuminae Files #2" Book Club Ideas

 What an amazing book club night. This photo shows how magical it was. We asked the group which book they liked better: Illumina or Gemina. It was about 50/50. You know how most of the time the second book in a series just doesn't live up to the first or final book. Well in my opinion I like book two even more. I didn't think the authors could make me fall in love with another couple from this series but I pretty much LOVE Nik and Hannah.
(maybe even more than Kady and Ezra and that is saying a lot if you have read the first book)

I am very excited to see how these two authors finish this story in book 3. I am going to have a hard time waiting until October for that book. And I can't wait to see what the cover is going to look like.

“Her eyes shining with the light of it. Beneath, between, beyond.Along the endless circle.Down the ceaseless spiral.And waiting for her on the other side? Just like he promised....“A whole sky of different stars.” ― Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, Gemina

{Decorations}

So you know those crazy lights that appear on the front of houses during Christmas? Well that gave us the perfect idea to use as the stars in the universe. We just plugged one in and cast the stars towards the ceiling. Wa La... Perfect setting for our discussion feeling like we were on the Heimdall Jump Station in outer space.

“It’s not about what I say, right? It’s what I do that matters here.” ― Amie Kaufman, Gemina

{Dress Code}

So we were told to wear anything space station like or spy like. People came in things from jumpsuits, to leather jackets, to all black to blue hair with guns and ammo to help defend the Station.

{Food}

I can not believe we didn't get a picture of our Baked Potato Bar. We thought "Let's get BAKED" with our main dish. Since being on "Dust" made you feel high we went with that pun. Haha you could also do anything with hamburger or milk also since there were cows in this book. We had a few people bring a bunch of Baked Potatoes and tons of toppings. Yum.

Let's Eat

{Handouts}

When we arrived we were given this folder with important documents we would need for the night. They were used during the game and during the discussion. Alix made these folders using several manila folders and cutting them up to make pockets.

I LOVED this creative idea of adding the "tetraphenotrithylomine 'Dust'" to our kit. It was perfect.

If you wanted to know the Life Cycle of a Lamina then here you go. These beings are disgusting and creepy. I didn't know if Amie and Jay could top the scary zombie type people from book one but I think they did with these mysterious worm things.

{Game}

Everyone got a glow in the dark bracelet to wear for the game. The group was split into two team. The team wearing the red light stick bracelets was on the bad team that invades the Jump Station and the other team had yellow light stick bracelets. If you were caught by the opposite team saying any of the words listed above then that person got to take your bracelet  and the team with the most bracelets at the end of the night one. Of course I lost mine when I said I wanted to discuss "The Kiss". I was just too excited to hear what everyone thought about Hannah and Nik. (Sigh)

“And blood and tears and screams did not matter anymore, because at least they are together.” 

― Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, Gemina

Second Game
Inside the Confidential envelope was a question that everyone opened at the same time.

"During the wormhole surge, a particular item from our universe passed through the Heimdall wormhole and into a parallel universe. Your objective is to identify that item. What item is missing from the room that was present before the wormhole sure?"

Alix had another book club member wearing a Jasmine Corsage on her jacket all night. When the wormhole surge (turning off all the lights and then back on) occurred the person took the corsage off and hid it. Our objective was to pick which person and which item was missing. You can use any object we used the corsage because that is what was used in the book. The person who guesses correctly won a prize.

{Discussion}

We had the honor of having a Skype chat with both of the authors. We are so happy it worked with their schedule to be able to talk with us and answer all of our questions.

Mr. Jay Kristoff

and...

Ms. Amie Kaufman

If you haven't read our Review yet make sure to check it out.

Alix

Hikari

Alix, Hikari, Kelly, Kaylynn, & Summer

Thank you to Summer for the memorable photos

Thank you to Kaylynn for hosting tonight

and 

Thank you to Hikari and Alix for moderating

A Special Thank you to Ursula for helping set up our video chat with Amie and Jay.

Until next month when we will discuss The Boys in the Boat
xoxo,
Kellie