December 14th meeting - Beneath a Marble Sky

We met at Kristen's for lovely soup (black bean and butternut squash-and-leek), Yankee swap, and a chat with John Shors, the author of Beneath a Marble Sky.

We all liked the book and enjoyed our 15-minute chat with Mr. Shors, who seems like a very nice man. It was fun to get the scoop on his movie deal for Beneath a Marble Sky and to hear about his next book, which he has just started.

We had a somewhat tame Yankee swap -- everybody ends up with nice stuff, so it's hard to be too covetous.

Thanks to Kristen, her husband, and baby Louise for hosting us! We had fun visit from the black labs too. ("I've never seen a coffee table cleaned off so fast," remarked Leann after the dogs came through furiously wagging their tails.)

Other Books
Books people talked about that I was able to note:

• Don't Know Much About History - readable history book, by Kenneth C. Davis
  
• The Hidden Assassins (and the first two in the series before this - The Blind Man of Seville and The Vanished Hands) - mysteries set in Spain, by Robert Wilson
  
• A Girl Named Zippy - memoir, by Haven Kimmel
  
• A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - fun fiction, by Marina Lewycka

Next Meeting
We're going classic in our next meeting.

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird
Place: Becky's
Date: January 25, 2007

We're going to discuss the book and watch the movie.

Happy holidays, everybody!

New Book! Author Joining Us!

Several of us found our chosen book, The Inheritence of Loss, hard to get into, so we changed the discussion book to Beneath a Marble Sky, by John Shors. Mr. Shors talks to book groups over the phone, and he will be joining us for our disucssion on Monday, November 27th. We are very excitied!

October 16 meeting - The Thirteenth Tale

Lisa Ladd hosted us for a large group! We welcomed new member Gina welcomed and back Kristin (along with baby Louise!).

Lisa fed us well, of course. There were two soups: Lentil/Ham, and Winter Squash with pears and apples. The dessert was a harvest pumpkin roll (King Arthur recipe).

The Book
We had a good discussion of the book, too! Everybody liked it, but there was some disagreement about exactly when the story took place and who is the mysterious sister in Vida's house was. Kristin was more taken with the gothic story at Angelfield than the beginning of the book, which I find interesting, because I thought Angelfield dragged in some parts and loved the beginning. We also noted how some parts reminded us of other books we'd read recently (Shadow of the Wind, Brief History of the Dead). What is it with ghost stories in this group? At least this book had a happy ending.

Book Soup
Lisa shared three books she'd read: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan (a really fun read); The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr (a good, new Sherlock Holmes story -- better than Conan Doyle!); and The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (a different, very interesting, and alarming take on Afghanistan, especially after reading Kite Runner).

Next Meeting
Our next meeting with November 27th at Kristin's, for which we are reading Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss.

P.S.
For those of you who prefer independent bookstores but still like to shop online, check out BookSense.

Recipe: Spicy Ethiopian Stew

Thanks, Becky!

Spicy Ethiopian Stew

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 small zucchini, diced

6 cups vegetable (or chicken) broth

¼ tsp. dried thyme leaves

½ tsp. cumin powder

½ tsp. curry powder

1/3 cup long-grain white rice

16 oz. thick & chunky salsa (you choose the spiciness)

2 cans (16oz) Garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained & rinsed

1/3 cup peanut butter

In a large saucepot, heat the oil to medium high and sauté the onions, sweet potato, garlic and zucchini for about 5 minutes. Add broth, thyme, cumin, and rice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the salsa and beans and bring to a boil. Add the peanut butter and stir until combined.

Tips from Gary’s test kitchen:

Before adding the peanut butter, dip out about 1 cup of liquid from the cook pot - be careful, it‘s hot. Add the peanut butter to the broth to make a slurry, then add this to the stew. (I’ve also used crunchy peanut butter when creamy was not in the kitchen cabinet! )

To make a thicker stew, puree a portion of the garbanzo beans in a food processor or immersion blender - with a little water - depending upon your preference.

Sept. 20 meeting, The Brief History of the Dead

Becky hosted us for our discussion of Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead. She served us a delicious spicy Ethiopian soup, the recipe for which she promised to share. For dessert she made coconut custard pie, inspired by her time in North Carolina. I hear it was yummy (not a coconut girl myself, which was my loss).

The Book
We had an interesting discussion of the book. We talked about it for a while, then we stopped, and we kept coming back to it. Lisa had an interesting way to describe it: like early Ray Bradbury, but more literary, with a dash of Stephen King.

I found the ending depressing, but that sentiment was not universal. One thing that was: the chapter about the guy with the placards (chapter 7, "The Patriarch") ground the story to a halt. It was too long harping on the same thing. We also agreed that the story overall could be hard to follow and it wasn't always clear what had happened.

All that being said, I didn't hear anybody say they didn't like it. It's an interesting book that makes you think long after you've put it down.

Other Books
OK, I didn't catch what everybody was talking about when it came to other books. But Ann told us quite a bit about a non-fiction book called Fluby Gina Kolata. It's the story of the 1918 flu pandemic. Sounds really interesting

And this one's for Darla. I was telling her about a book I just started reading and thought quite promising, but I remembered neither the author nor the title. So here it is: Greenstone Grail by Amanda Hemmingway.

Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be at Lisa's, and we will read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. The date will be either Monday, October 23, or Monday, October 16. Please chime in with your preference.

--Nancy

August 23rd meeting - The Shadow of the Wind

Last night Leann hosted us and we welcomed new member Ann Perry and welcomed back Tracy Falls. While we waited for dinner and chatted, Darla showed up her list of like 100 books to read she had culled from the archives of CurledUp.com. (You have to check out the archives to see just what a daunting and obsessive task this was.)

Leann served us a delicious dinner of broccoli-mushroom quiche, Mexican broccoli slaw, Cesar salad, and cucumbers & vinegar, and topped it off with strawberry-rhubarb pie. Yum! We forgive you for not serving soup, Leann. :-)

Throughout dinner, we talked about The Shadow of the Wind, which we all loved. First Darla entertained us by reading the quotes she had taken down out of the book. Then we discussed Daniel's pal, Fermin, who was a favorite. We felt that Nuria was a tragic figure. The major plot surprise that Julian and Penelope were half-brother and half-sister was summed up by Becky, who said, "Yuck!" There was some feeling among the group that Daniel was self-absorbed and should have gotten over himself (and stopped whining that he was a coward), but we cut him a little slack for being a teenager through most of the book. In discussing the atmosphere in Barcelona after the Spanish Civil War and WWII, Lisa said it echoed our times. When Nancy tried to protest, she gave up, because she ended up supporting Lisa's point [and being called a Republican for her trouble ;-)].

Book Soup Time

• Darla recommends Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears.
• Tracy recommends The King of Lies by John Hart .

Lisa had brought the latest Bookmarks magazine for us to flip through (Shadow of the Wind was listed in the "Perfect 10" section!). Apparently there is a book group mentioned in the issue that consists of one man and a bunch of women who call themselves Dick & the Bibliotarts. Don't know why that's significant, but I wrote it down, so here it is.

Next Book & Meeting
We meet next at Becky's on September 20th. Book: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. (This was one of the NPR's summer reading series, "Caution: These Books May Make You Skip Work.")

July 13th Meeting - In Cold Blood

Thank you, Darla, for hosting our little group. You folks who couldn't make it, you missed out on good eats! Wonderful soup -- I know the ingredients but I don't know the name, a southwestern-flavor with ravioli. Plus enchiladas. And margaritas!

Let's see. People found In Cold Blood a bit of a tough read, and not everyone agreed with me that it was incredibly well-written. Then we watched "Capote," the movie, and found it very interesting. I had seen the movie before and enjoyed it much more this time, after having read the book. We agreed that Truman Capote was one strange dude. Oy, oy, I'm blanking, girls! I'd better start taking notes. I know we had a great time, enjoyed the discussion, and went home full. We all had kitchen envy too.

Next meeting
We will meet Wendesday, Augst 23rd, at Leann's, and we chose The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Other books
A couple of us heard the NPR story, "Caution: These Books May Make You Skip Work" and were interested in the books discussed. I was intrigued by The Brief History of the Dead and ordered a copy.

May 9 Meeting - Without Reservations

Sue hosted us with delicious fresh, organic asparagus soup, a lovely green salad, bread, cheese, humus, baba ganoush, a lovely fruit salad ... please forgive me if I left anything out!

We read Without Reservations: The Travels of an Indpendent Woman by Alice Steinbach, and everyone liked it. Mostly it solicited stories of our own travel, and we had a good time with that. Soon we were off discussing everything else.

Around 9 we looked up and said, hmm, maybe we should pick a book and a place for next time. We decied on In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, meeting to be held at Darla's on June 13th, when we will watch the movie Capote. Doesn't that sound great?

We talked about going to see The DaVinci Code when it comes out, but we tabled the discussion until we can see where it will be playing. There was general agreement that the Lebanon 6 should be avoided if possible.

Until we eat again, keep reading!

--Nancy

March 13 meeting - Anil's Ghost

Lisa fed us delicious homemade chicken soup and fantastic espresso cupcakes for our discussion of Anil's Ghost. We eventually had an excellent discussion of the book, which we all liked. (Please someone chime in, I'm having a brain cramp.) But first, I distracted us all with my tales of messing up my work life, which caused everyone practically to agree they were at a career crossroads too. Thank you all for listening, sharing, and making suggestions! We shall overcome! :-)

After much viewing of "light" books people brought for review, we chose Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach. Sue offered to host us on May 9th.

I mentioned a book I planned to read that talked about people who are "scanners"--people who want to do and learn everything, not just one thing. It is called Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher. I will bring it to the next book group for show and tell.

Thanks everyone! Until we eat again!

--Nancy

January 26, 2006 meeting - The End of Faith

We had a lively meeting at Nancy's house discussing The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Everyone seemed to dislike at least portions of it, and some of us took great exception to his arguments, which we found exaggerated. Some of us felt it was good that he made the argument that religion needs to be examined in the light of reason, and maybe it's just as well he pushed the envelope, because it makes people think about it and talk about it. But we agreed it was a hard book to read, and if Mr. Harris is really trying to reach a large audience, this might not be the way.

An aside: Nancy's husband Bill came home during our meeting and actually joined the discussion! Yay Bill!

Next Book
Many suggestions for the next book to read were floated. Nancy had the advantage of being able to access her pile of books, since she was host (served Irish Potato soup, green salad, bread), and we picked one of those: Anil's Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje.

Next Meeting will be at Lisa Ladd's in mid-March on a day-yet-to-be specified.