The Recipes are Back!!

Click on the link to the left to see the recipes from this month's Book Club Meeting. I am trying to get back to posting the recipes - sorry I flaked out on that for a while.

DiscoSplitz Gets the Gold Star!!

That's right, she was the only one who powered through this month's Book Pick. The Debt to Pleasure turned out to be a total dud for everyone. For those who are wondering what the big twist at the end is... it is that the narrator is a serial killer and has been killing every character in the book in various ways but mostly with poisonous mushrooms. Everyone agreed that the book was terrible.

It was a small meeting last night, only four of us made it. We had Lillian Hellman's Pot Roast, cooked carrots, mushroom salad (we are still living, thank goodness!!), Parisian Salad and Chez Helene's Bread Pudding. Both the Pot Roast and Bread Pudding Recipes came from Heartburn. The food was delicious!

We got through the business of planning for the year. The February Book Pick is Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Three of the five people who submitted ideas brought this book - so February was easy. The March Book Pick is The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien. It is a book set in Ireland, written in the 1950's and immediately banned. Looking forward to both!

Also, we planned out our themes for the rest of the year.
April - Books made into Movies
May - Classic
June - Science Fiction
July - Africa (choose a book set in Africa)
August - Chick Lit (i.e. The Devil Wears Prada, Lipstick Jungle, etc.)
September - Banned Book
October - Mystery
November - Christmas
December - 4th Annual Book Exchange

I am going to try and figure out a way to add a feature to the blog with book lists for the different months. That way if you see something you can add it to the list and not have to worry about remembering when it is time to choose books. I am excited about the year to come! I hope you all are too, I think we have opportunities for some really great choices.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This novel follows the lives to two young Chinese girls in 19th century China who are laotongs, or old sames, kind of preordained best friends. They live in separate villages and communicate through a secret language invented by women for women called nu shu. They use this language through embroidery on handkerchiefs and written within the folds of a fan passed to each other. We follow their lives through painful footbinding, arranged marriages, love, loss, sickness and secrets. One of these girls ascends to wealth and respect while the other lives in poverty.

The chapter on the footbinding is fairly detailed but not too gruesome and the Chinese rituals and rites were fascinating to read about since I didn't know too much about them. I liked the book and while it repeats what we know about China, that boys are a blessing and girls are a burden to the family, it does shed a different light and questions the power that women ultimately have in the Chinese family of old. I also ask myself if one of the girls grows up to be a hero, villian or victim. Or maybe all three. If anybody else has read this I would love to know what you thought.

Windfalls by Jean Hegland

After 2 months of a serious reading funk, I finally picked up a book that captured my interest and broke the dry spell. I chose Windfalls by Jean Hegland because I thought her other book Into the Forest was amazing. I tried to have no expectations of the book that might lead to disappointment. This book is a story about two mothers who come from very different backgrounds and live very different lives. When their lives intersect, each woman emerges from the brief friendship stronger, inspired by what she has seen in the other and changed in a way that would never have happened otherwise. It is not too often that a book makes me cry, but this one made me cry tears of joy, sadness, understanding, anger and hope. I loved this book! I literally hugged in to my chest to savor it for one more moment when I finished reading. Hegland has a way of writing that expresses feeling in a way that I have never seen. I look forward to whatever she writes next.

The Blue Cotton Gown:A Midwife's Memoir

This book was definitely not what I expected. During the period Patricia Harman is writing about, she no longer attends deliveries because insurance is too expensive. The book is very much a general memoir which includes a lot of her disclosing personal details to her patients in a way I didn't think was appropriate. Seems more about her personal problems than about her patients stories which I always find incredibly unique in my practice. This is just an FYI - certainly not a recommend that you read.

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

Light on Snow is a story of Nicky, a twelve year old girl, and her father Robert who take a walk in the snow only to find an abandoned baby freezing and wrapped in a bloody towel. They immediately rush home to warm the baby and then take her to a hospital. There the police question Robert but, he is released.
Days later with more snow coming, the mother of the baby comes to their home under the pretense of shopping for furniture which Robert makes. Eventually, she admits who she is and Robert has to decide whether to turn her in or not. And then they get snowed in. She tells her side of the story about the birth and his thoughts about her change. An incredible story about the decisions we make and the consequences these decisions make on others. This is a quick read and a perfect story for snowy weather when you don't want to shovel any more.

Restless

Feeling restless...after turning the corner into the New Year, I find myself more and more restless. Reading has not been as soothing, enjoyable or relaxing as usual, which in my case is incredibly unusual. Historically, I have read through the darkest of days and now I struggle through a page or two before I am off doing something else.

So, I was in the school library today looking around and made the decision to make the library even more usable. Taking my example from the Temecula Library I have decided to move all of the young children's picture books into the middle section and all of the 2nd grade and above fiction to the perimeter of the room. Right now I am using the middle section to showcase series books but that seems to be confusing to the volunteers who are reshelving. I don't know why this is confusing but perhaps my logic isn't as logical as I think. I doubt rearranging the library is the answer to my restlessness but it will burn off some energy anyway.

Happy New Year!!!

Despite the economy, the country and frankly, the world, being a complete mess at least we can look back at our Book Club year and still smile. Gone With the Wind, The Ice Queen, Unless, The Witch of Cologne, Moloka'i, Atonement, Rebecca, Mistress of the Art of Death, The Tender Bar, The Haunting of Hill House and Heartburn - pat yourselves on the back for this accomplishment. We read 11 books last year, not counting any on the side or the ones floating around the "underground book club". As you all know, I love Book Club and it wouldn't be what it is without all of you. I value every one of your opinions, outlooks, worldviews and, above all, your friendship. I look forward to another interesting and fun year - I can't wait to see what we will read this year.

Bethany, wow three years have passed since we started this group! 34 books and counting, baby!

I love you all! Here's to a spectacular 2009!