The Help

Thanks to the Doctor for hosting a really fun and chock full BC on Monday! El Jefe's always glad to rearrange the date so that everyone can come. It was great to have the whole group (minus our Sun Valley exile--we missed you, Blondie!) together to start off 2010--our 8th year of The Club of Books! While we caught up on each other's holiday gossip, we noshed on a bountiful platter of dips, spreads, olives, and possibly the most delicious rosemary crisps around. And speaking of delicious, if we ever got a cook book going, the Doctor's pulled pork orichiette would, in my humble opinion, be the starring recipe. It was a meat and pasta lovers' dream dinner. Oh right, and a hearty salad and homemade chocolate cheesecake topped with mixed berries for dessert. Thank goodness El Jefe's New Years resolution is not a diet, and apologies to anyone whose was.

And on to the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. This book was extremely well-received, getting an average score of 8--which for our group, whose tastes in literature are all over the map, is fantastic. Despite its imposing length (made none the more comfortable by being in hardcover), almost all of us either finished the book or made very good progress, which made for a great discussion. We talked a lot about the book, mostly during the ratings, which took us all the way until dinner to complete. It must be a good sign when people have so much to say that they can't sum it up in a nutshell. One of the obvious points that impacted everyone's reading experience was the author's use of the southern black dialect (NOT Ebonics, as we learned!) which she phonetically spelled out during the chapters that the maids Aibeleen and Minny narrated. Law, it seem like it gone drive everyone a us crazy during them first few chapters. But then, once people became accustomed to reading the dialect, it quickly grew to be less obtrusive and became a unique and endearing feature of the story. We talked about whether it was controversial for a white author to use such dialect in her work (although El Jefe notes that white southern authors have been using black dialect for decades--this was hardly a new convention, perhaps just the most extreme example). We also talked about our various favorite parts in the plot and that this book, whether intentional or not, is just begging to be made into a movie. There were plenty of engaging characters and storylines that kept the pages turning, from Skeeter's prank of delivering 32 toilets to Hilly's lawn, to Celia Foote throwing up all over her cleavage-enhancing pink sequin evening gown, to Minnie baking up the Terrible Awful. And on top of all of this was the revealing look at what it might have been like to have been born into a different time, a different place, and a different color, and to have had to suffer the back-breaking work, humiliation, and often times violent discrimination that the "help" experienced in 1960's Mississippi. Truly this was a story that made us think about our past and our present, and made us feel sad, lucky, ashamed, and hopeful all at the same time.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Merci to La Madamoiselle for hosting a really fun BC last night.  It was great to have Logan's Run back with us but it sure is a revolving door these days--Ms. K will be out next, then the Highlander. Pretty soon, we'll need to take volunteers for apps, dessert, and next pregnancy!

We started out with the Contessa's ever-delish roasted eggplant dip with baguette slices, followed by that perennial IKEA special, Swedish meatballs! Kudos to La Madamoiselle for finding a way to keep in theme without serving us herring and mustard sandwiches with coffee.  Alas we didn't think to bring the Aquavit!  But really, those meatballs were delish, with Swedish cheese inside, served over egg noodles with a side salad.  And for dessert, mixed berry tarts. Quite an impressive feast, as usual.

Now, onto the book.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nee, Men Who Hate Women, generated a surprising spread of ratings. Everyone thought this would be right up La Madamoiselle's alley (we're still waiting for something to impress her as much as the Da Vinci Code; maybe Dan Brown's new novel?  It's available at Costco!), but no, she gave it a lackluster rating as did several others. Only the Highlander's write-in "9" saved it from total mediocrity. On average, a little over a 7. Which isn't bad, and certainly the book spurred a lot of conversation.

Every person finished this 500+ page suspense murder mystery, and across the board we all agreed it was a page turner. But, we were split between those who knew it was Martin from the moment they saw the Vanger family tree, and those who didn't suspect the pudgy, friendly CEO for a moment until they entered his underground lair (don't you love the word "lair?!");  those who knew Harriet was alive and sending pressed flowers to her great uncle each year, and those who had to do a double-take (or double-read) upon discovering her on a sheep farm Down Under.  But, whether fooled by the mystery or not, there was not a single one of us who was prepared for the dark, Satanic, sadistic twist that the novel took in its last 100 pages. Our reactions ranged from not wanting to read about such disgusting acts, to thinking it was just so over the top that it ruined the book. In any event, we did agree that this author has some serious issues that needed to be worked out, and we wondered how they contributed (as they most certainly did) to his untimely demise. Finally, El Jefe would be remiss not to mention--especially following upon the ast meeting's titillating conversion about M.H.'s--how much air time we gave to B.P.'s. Did you guess it yet? They look like big mushrooms and they can be used as votive holders. Is El Jefe hearing things or did someone actually throw that out there....and over dinner!?

Our November book is Lie Down in Darkness, by William Styron. The November meeting is at the home of Logan's Run (we can't wait to meet little Logan!) on the first Wed. in Nov., the Doctor is bringing apps and the Foxx dessert. The December co-ed book club is at P_____'s house at Mandy (tentatively, Dec. 2), and the January meeting is at the Doctor's. The January book is The Help.  Until next time, read early and often! xoej

Strangers on a Train

Thanks to La Mademoiselle for hosting a very lively BC at her new home! Over the river and through the woods--the directions were a full paragraph shorter this time. And no cars were towed!  Better yet, no sooner had we started to sip our first glass of wine than we got a wonderful announcement from Logan's Run.  Ms. K, can you guess? We all did before Logan's Run even got the last word out of her mouth. That's right--BC offspring #11 is on the way!! We are all very very excited!

We started off with a dalish platter of assorted cheeses salami, grapes, and raisin toasts, followed by tomatoes stuffed with chicken and herbs over saffron rice, a luscious green salad, and profiteroles topped with Valrhona chocolate sauce. Tres Francaise, and tres lishy.

Moving right on to the book since it was so well received.... Strangers on a Train got an average rating of 8.3--easily ranking in the top 10 percent of all BC selections. Not only was the rating high, but there was a lot of discussion over this story of a psychopathic closeted homosexual, who meets a social-climbing architect on a train, murders his wife after she just miscarried another man's baby, and then is driven to madness ultimately killing the psychopath's father in return, until he finally is nabbed in a sting operation by a private detective while confessing his crime to the real father of his wife's illegitimate, miscarried baby. And yet somehow, this book did not come across as overly dramatic (in fact, La Mademoiselle thought it was somewhat dull and predictable). Our group was fascinated by all the characters. Bruno started out as repulsive (because of his zit, natch) and annoying, but then a few people found themselves understanding and perhaps even sympathizing with his psychoses, which clearly stemmed from confused sexual identity, a feeling of jealousy and worthlessness, and some weird unnatural attachment to his mother. And thinking about it now, the same comments came up in relation to Guy: he was alternately annoying and weak, and at the same time you could get an insight into where he was coming from and you really wanted him to succeed.  As the Doctor pointed out, it was almost as if Guy turned into Bruno over the course of the book.  Plus, the story was just a lot of fun to read with its deliciously retro throwbacks--the two martini lunch, the boat rides "upstate," the dressing jacket, the gumshoe private detective, the cougar country mom standing to gain from her husband's life insurance policy.  All in all, we had a lot to talk about analyzing the characters and reviewing the twists and turns of the gripping plot. (And talk about analysis, I'm not sure we spent quite enough time probing how Red's dad happened to "just turn up" an article on Patricia Highsmith from, ah, 6 months ago in a hard copy of the newspaper?!--int.)

Please note the dates for the next 2 BCs: Thursday, Apr. 9, and Monday, May 11 at the Doctor's and Foxx's houses, respectively. Logan's Run volunteered for apps and the Tiger is getting volunteered for dessert. Also, Jackie is on Jury Duty for the next week so PLEASE ORDER THE BOOKS YOURSELVES! There are links below people--click and ship! Until next time... xo

The Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell (Note: he is really hot and there's a video of him on Amazon)

Now that he's gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."

http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236841236&sr=1-1

The Gardner Heist, Ulrich Boser

Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest art heist in history. They stole a dozen masterpieces, including one Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. But after thousands of leads, hundreds of interviews, and a $5-million reward, not a single painting has been recovered. Worth a total of $500 million, the missing masterpieces have become the Holy Grail of the art world and one of the nation's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=gardner+heist&x=42&y=12

Home

It was great to see everyone at BC last week--it was a lot of fun to have everyone together again! All of us, including O.T., enjoyed the dates stuffed with cheese and drizzled with honey. After which we feasted on rack of lamb, roasted brussel sprouts and truffled mashed potatoes (hello fall) and Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake. Everything was delish!

A great turnout, a great meal, and a book that generally was liked by everyone--this night was going pretty well so far. Recall that Home had been feilded by Red's muse, J. Lee (have we mentioned she's an English professor?). As would be expected, the recommendation was a good one and the book scored about a 7 on average. But also as would be expected, it was not easy reading and despite liking the story, several people just couldn't make it though. The author's prose was beautiful but complicated and difficult to read at times, with the result that you could get stuck on a sentence or paragraph and read and re-read it several times without being able to get past. El Jefe also can't seem to get past the mental roadblock of what we discussed in relation to the book. We said Jack needed to stop beating himself up over his past, he was married to a black woman who came back to try and find him, and we revealed what happened at the end of the book. But El Jefe honestly cannot recap a single other thing we said about the book. Clearly, despite the fact that El Jefe never had that cocktail she wanted, her mind was elsewhere. Hmmm, now why would that have been the case?

So, to circle back to the point about the night going well so far, the next day things got even better. That book club will always stand out as the last day of an old era, the day before Obama's election became a reality. El Jefe has a visual image of us all sitting around the dining room table discussing the election and the propositions. As sure as we were that he was going to win, it still was remarkable and momentous when it actually happened. So, we can add history-making election to the long list of things this Book Club has experienced together. A lot has changed since 2002!

Our 6th anniversary holiday book club is coming up on Wed., Dec. 3. The Highlander is hosting, and since she ducked out early it seems like she didn't need volunteers...? Just kidding, please send us designated tasks. Just don't assign the Doctor or Blondie salad. ;)

The January book is Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson.

Felicia's Journey

Thanks to Red for hosting a great BC on Wednesday.  Red, now that Blondie and I have moved Westward you are the last east side holdout and it's definitely time to migrate!  Nonetheless, it was worth making the journey to the Dena to get together over a cheese and charcuterie platter, followed by baked penne with roasted vegetables and "Cesaresque" salad, and brownies a la mode.  Delish!  

Not sure that we actually had a quorum to rate the book given that a few people didn't make it and a few people didn't read it.  But for what it's worth, the score came in just below a 5.  The reason for this mediocre rating is unclear, because as the discussion continued, the general consensus was that the author did an excellent job of springing unexpected plot twists upon the reader, and subtley unravelling the story of poor Mr. Hilditch in a novel and clever way.  The subtlety was especially apparent in that we didn't even all agree (at first) about whether or not the girls in Mr. Hilditch's "Memory Lane" had been killed or had merely run away like Felicia.  We went back to various passages in the book several times and explored the idea that Mr. Hilditch killed his victims because of latent guilt about his "very close" relationship with his mother and his paranoia that the girls had discoverd his secret.  While the erstwhile catering manager was a complex character that generated good discussion, Felicia herself was less well received.  People found her to be too simple and annoyingly gullible, and also thought it was implausible that she would be contented to wind up homeless, as she did at the end of the story.  In short, this book had a lot for us to talk about, and the low rating belied the fact that the group found many interesting nuances to the story.  And of course, political March madness continues--Hill and Obama both got plenty of airtime over dinner, and I'm sure we'll have lots more to say about them as the saga unfolds!

El Jefe is hosting the next book club on April 2 (regular date) and then Blondie is hosting on April 30 (one week earlier than regular date).  La Mademoiselle is bringing apps and Blondie dessert.  The next 2 books are...

Heat by Bill Buford

Bill Buford's funny and engaging book Heat offers readers a rare glimpse behind the scenes in Mario Batali's kitchen. Who better to review the book for Amazon.com, than Anthony Bourdain, the man who first introduced readers to the wide array of lusty and colorful characters in the restaurant business? We asked Anthony Bourdain to read Heat and give us his take. We loved it. So did he. 


Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafon

Ruiz Zafón's novel, a bestseller in his native Spain, takes the satanic touches from Angel Heart and stirs them into a bookish intrigue à la Foucault's Pendulum. The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert-the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels. As he grows up, Daniel's fascination with the mysterious Carax links him to a blind femme fatale with a "porcelain gaze," Clara Barceló; another fan, a leftist jack-of-all-trades, Fermín Romero de Torres; his best friend's sister, the delectable Beatriz Aguilar; and, as he begins investigating the life and death of Carax, a cast of characters with secrets to hide. 


See you in April!

Infidel

Thanks to Blondie for hosting a terrific BC on Wednesday! Great turnout, great food, GREAT discussion. We started out with canapés topped with shrimp and roasted baby tomatoes, followed by chicken tortilla soup and quesadillas with guacamole (definitely a BC cookbook entry!) and a salad, and all polished off by chocolate chip bread pudding with crème fraiche. Lish!

Better get right to the book. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel was one of the all time greats of BC discussion. The rating was 7.6, but that number belies how much this book was loved. El Jefe rated it a lowball 6.5, partly to counteract the Infidel frenzy: both Blondie and the Foxx came in strong with 10's, and La Mademoiselle almost went there too. People were absolutely floored by this woman's tale and touched and inspired by her courage. We literally talked about the book from the moment everyone arrived until dessert was finished. Although our discussion touched on many different aspects of the book, from Ayaan's relationship with her mother to the different factions of Islam throughout the world to the author's writing style, to a comparison with the Glass Castle, we really had the most to say about her internal struggle to accept Islam, culminating with her ultimate rejection of religion altogether. We talked about whether Islam was different from any other extremist religion: Is it any more violent than Catholicism has been throughout the ages? Is it any more oppressive than Hasidic Judaism to women? Is it any more abusive to children than fundamentalist Christianity, brainwashing them to speak in tongues? We probed Ayaan's turmoil in dealing with Islam, the way for so many years of her life and even into adulthood long after moving to Holland, she waffled between being a believer and an unbeliever and then--why the dramatic break into atheism? Why couldn't she become comfortable with a modified version of Islam that incorporated peaceful and rational concepts and had a place for individuality? That is what she had been trying to rationalize all along but at the last minute she abandoned the idea of a "modern" Islam in favor of atheism. Finally, we talked about the author's shocking position that Islam is inherently violent and oppressive--this thesis sounds so incredibly un-PC to all of us brought up to respect the differences in other cultures and never make sweeping assumptions about them.

The next book club will be on April 4 at Ms. K's house. The Doctor and the Foxx are bringing apps and dessert (I'm not sure which is which-please touch base with each other to decide). We are continuing our memoir streak with A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. (Not surprisingly, this comes up as a recommended book on Amazon for anyone who bought Infidel!)

The Glass Castle

Thanks to the Doctor for hosting a great BC last week. Since it had been five weeks since the last BC and only a few people attended that one, the evening felt like a reunion--almost! We missed you Ms. K! Congrats again on the arrival of E___. We can't wait to meet him! We started out with a yummy appetizer of goat cheese and roasted pine nuts nestled inside fresh basil leaves, followed by prosciutto lasagna and salad and, for dessert, cupcakes from Sprinkles. Not at all on my diet but very lishy!  El Jefe needs to be reminded why she is a lawyer and not the owner of an incredibly lucrative cupcake boutique.

What a hit Glass Castle was! The book scored an 8. In fact, save one 6 from the Highlander, no-one rated it lower than 8 (and the Highlander said she would have grade inflated if she had known the direction everyone else was going!).  This book seemed to touch a nerve in everyone.  Jeannette Walls' memoir was both astonishing and heart-wrenching, and the reactions by our group ranged from empathy to sympathy to anger to admiration.  Each one of us seemed to have taken away a vignette from the book that we will never forget, whether it was Jeannette fishing for her lunch in the school trash, the mother sneaking a chocolate bar under the covers, the father's giving away stars and planets as Christmas presents, or the family dog being chucked out of the car on the highway.  People had very strong reactions to the parents in this unusual family, and we had a good discussion about whether the societal expectations for the role of men and women swayed our judgment of which parent was better or worse.  We also talked about the author, marvelling at the irony of how she went from suffering abject poverty in Apalachia to reporting on glitz and glamour as a gossip colunmist.  How upset some of us would be if she turns out to be just another James Frey--"Well, I really never actually ate a lard and margerine sandwich, it was tuna fish!"  Overall, this book generated great discussion and was a surprise hit for The Club of Books.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wed., March 7.  We got so wrapped up in the LOD discussion that El Jefe forgot to figure out who is hosting or any food volunteers.  Seems that Blondie, La Madamoiselle, and Red were all on the horizon for hosting, so if any of you can do March just holla.  El Jefe is on apps and we need a dessert volunteer.

We are reading Infidel, a memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  Until next time, read early and often and don't forget your LOD suggestions! See you in March.. xo