Bel Canto

Thanks to Ms. K for hosting last night! The delish menu started off with crudités and creamy sun-dried tomato dip, followed by a tomato basil soup topped with homemade parmesan crostini (yum!) and Logan's Run's decadent specialty, Heath Bar crunch cookies. People who want the recipe can e-mail Logan's Run!  El Jefe's little kitty Bella would have liked them too.

As for the book, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, on the whole the group did not seem to like it as much as our last book The Hours. Complaints ranged from "too flowery" to "too dramatic" to "first 150 pages put me to sleep" to "I pictured Roxanne as a big fatty." Yet there really were no standout characters that truly turned people off from the book. Mr. Hosokawa, who drew the most criticism for his self-centeredness, certainly didn't raise the type of heartfelt annoyance that, say, Laura Brown did for some people. Perhaps this book simply didn't have as much to discuss, as Ms. K suggested. But even so, we did raise some interesting points about the Stockholm Syndrome, whether Roxanne and Gen married for love or merely an homage to their shared experience, and the correct pronunciation of Gen's name (4 for "Jen," 3 for "Gen").


A couple of points of business were decided: TCOB will regularly be the first Wednesday of each month; our first BC field trip will be the movie The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Merryl Streep, and Julianne Moore, on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 22. El Jefe will reconfirm attendance and buy tickets the day before.

Next meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 5 at C____ Pearson's house, directions to follow. As per the vote, we'll be reading The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

P.S. Please e-mail El Jefe if you're willing to bring an app or dessert.