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!

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

So, I have been messing around with the Blog tonight - adding some cool new features...check them out.

I got this book at the December Book Exchange. It was just what the doctor ordered for the holidays. Light, easy, entertaining and forgettable. The main character, Jane Rosenthal, is out in the mad, mad world of singleness and dating. This novel captures what is must be like to be coming of age in America today. My only complaint about this book is that the author would skip big gaps of time from chapter to chapter. It gave me the same feeling as when I miss dialogue in a movie, that I have to "catch up" to understand what is happening. Otherwise, it was a fun read.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

This book to me forever to read. The author has this rambling, speak-writing style that really slows down the reading pace. The novel is an Oprah Book Club pick and it is always hit or miss for me with her picks. I loved Night by Elie Wiesel and Cane River by Lalita Tademy but this one was so-so. The novel takes place in post-Hitler Germany. Michael, the 16 year old narrator falls ill on his way home from school one day and is rescued by a woman twice his age. After a time, she becomes his lover and then inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, she is on trial for war crimes. As he watches her refuse to defend herself, he realizes that she is illiterate. Torn between his revulsion of her actions and his prior love for her, Michael ends up reading books onto tapes and sending them to her in prison. The plus for this book is that it makes you think about what subsequent generations thought and felt about those who participated in the war but that is about it. I am glad I finished this book but I can't really recommend it as a great read.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

The comment on the front of this novel says "sidesplitting" and while there were some funny parts I am never particularly amused by the disintegration of a marriage. However, once I learned that this novel is essentially autobiographical, I realized it might have been the only way the author could process what had happened to her marriage. So, okay, I'll cut the book a little slack.

The Book Club meeting, on the other hand, was truly sidesplitting! We met at Allie's Wine Bar and Tapas and shared some extraordinary food, drinks and desserts. Our waiter, a young Don Henley look-alike, was funny, engaging and very patient with his rowdy cougar den. We were so loud, rowdy and raunchy that it is a good thing we had our own room with doors that could be closed!!

I love the December meeting! It is not about the book but about spending time with each other reminiscing about the past year and talking about our plans for the year to come...laughing, drinking, eating, crying, arguing, encouraging, complimenting, complaining and just truly caring about each other. This was my 3rd December meeting and Book Exchange and I couldn't be happier. We have a great time, every time and I look forward to many more Book Club meetings!

Disclosure by Michael Crichton

When I first started reading this book I was sceptical because it wasn't Crichton's usual science fiction. This book is centered on corporate politics and sexual harassment. A high level male executive gets passed over for a promotion by a woman. The woman sexually harasses him. He then finds himself with a serious problem. How can he keep his current position, how can he address the issue of harassment by a female superior, and can he figure out the political reasons why he was placed in that position in the first place? The book presents interesting statistics from 1994. At which time about 5% of all the reported cases of sexual harassment were made by men about female superiors. Doesn't sound like very many but, at that time only about 5% of top level executives were women. This then suggested that the rate of harassment by women was the same as for men. Makes me wonder if it's the same or worse now?

Done with Facebook

Hello All. I have pulled myself off of Facebook. I wasn't connecting with anyone I'm not already connected with and it just seemed redundant. If your reading this - you are already my friend anyway. Love you all.

Travels With Charley In Search of America by John Steinbeck

There's never been a Steinbeck I didn't love, and this book is no exception!

B&N.com says, "To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.
With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity." This book is in turns funny, poignant and contains a nauseating view of a sliver of the Civil Rights movement in the South. Steinbeck starts his journey in New York, cutting across the American midwest into Oregon and California - finding that it is true what they say, "You can never go home again." He then continues through Texas into New Orleans and then back up through the Eastern states to return home. Very isolated parts of this book drag, but for the most part it is an interesting view of our country during the early 1960's. Several areas made me laugh out loud. Steinbeck's interaction with his poodle, Charley, will cause any dog lover to smile more than once. Not a novel, but a well-recalled tale of his personal journey, this will be one that I will certainly read again someday. Among my favorite quotes from the book: "I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts."

The 2nd envelope please......

The winner for the January Book Pick is The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester. Thank you for voting.

I am not a statistics major...obviously!!

We have a tie again! Please vote one more time for the January Book Pick. Thanks!

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

I became a big Ian McEwan fan after we read Attonement. His books are beatifully written and there's always a little bit of a twist (that damn Briony!). This book is no different, has a twist (or two) and has at least one funny moment that the other books I've read of his don't have.

The BN synopsis says: On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence. Clive is Britain's most successful modern composer; Vernon is editor of the quality broadsheet The Judge. Gorgeous, feisty Molly had other lovers, too, notably Julian Garmony, Foreign Secretary, a notorious right-winger tipped to be the next prime minister. In the days that follow Molly's funeral, Clive and Vernon will make a pact with consequences neither has foreseen. Each will make a disastrous moral decision, their friendship will be tested to its limits, and Julian Garmony will be fighting for his political life.

I'll bring it along to our Dec Tapas Fiesta!

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

I read this book only because my husband kept insisting I should. But, I was so glad I did. What a wonderful book! Enzo, the narrator, is a dog and he wants nothing more than to be a man. He is part of a happy family, Denny, the race car driver; Denny's wife Eve, and the daughter Zoe. Life is good. Then Eve develops cancer and decides to remove herself to her rich parents home along with Zoe. In the end, the grandparents decide to challenge Denny for custody of Zoe and do so in a manner that isn't what most of us believe grandparents are. This book will tug at you in so many ways. Without giving too much away, let me say that I haven't teared up so often while reading in a long time. (When asked my husband admits to tears while waiting to board a plane - so, be careful where you read this.) But, don't let me scare you off. The Art of Racing in the Rain is a book you've got to read, especially if you love dogs ( or animals in general). With a wonderful storyline and characters you become attached to this book is amazing.

The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall

Furnivall's first book, The Russian Concubine, was fantastic. And, I wasn't disappointed by her second book. In 1933, Sofia struggles to survive her ordeal in Siberia's Davinsky labor camp. She lives because she has a long term goal of freedom and a short term goal to keep the spirit of her frail friend Anna going. She knows that Anna depends on her to maintain a fading flicker of hope. When Anna becomes ill, Sophia must seek help, which means escaping the camp. She escapes in hopes of finding Anna's childhood love, Vasily, a revolutionary allegedly living in Tivil. Sofia meets factory director Mikhail, whom she thinks is Vasily in disguise. As she falls in love with Mikhail, she doesn't want to act on her feelings because he belongs to Anna.
This a deep character driven novel looking at two courageous women, a brave man, and the labor camp that is so vividly described it sends you to bed with horrific visuals. The characters become exactly how I imagine people would have been at a time when your neighbor, who you have known all your life, could very well be the person to sign your death warrant. The romance in this novel takes a back seat, though it is well written and enhances the overall plot. Furnivall concentrates on the historical aspect that focuses on the horrors of the Siberian death camps.

The envelope please......

and the winner for this month's book pick is........




Heartburn! by Nora Ephron!


Happy shopping ladies!

Don't forget to vote for the January Book Pick.