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

The Magician's Assistant

Belated again! Gone are the days of the Thursday morning recap, but you know what they say... Thank you to the Foxx for hosting TCOB. It's so fun to see the progress on your house--it looks better every time! We started off the night with margaritas (the cocktail is a menu addition I like very much!) and chickpea bruschetta with olive tapenade. Then, some very healthy chicken enchilladas (courtesy of the Foxx's mother-in-law's famous recipe) with a mixed vegetable salad, and strawberry and rhubarb cobbler with creme fraiche for dessert. Dalish, and requiring a major workout the next day!

The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett, scored a 6.75 on the Richter scale. However, as is often the case, that number doesn't tell the whole story. There were mostly 8's and then two nay-sayers brought the average tumbling down. The general consensus among the 8's was that the book was totally enjoyable, the story was good, they liked the Fetters family, and it was cool that the book (or at least half of it) took place in L.A.--Beverly Hills, downtown, and West Hollywood no less! We were about split down the middle on whether people liked Sabine: half found her character annoying or frustrating in that she had no backbone and put everyone else's interests ahead of her own. The other half really found her to be sympathetic. We also discussed Sabine and Parsifal's relationship, and again, opinions were mixed. How could Sabine have spent her whole life pining away for someone who definitively was not going to reciprocate on a sexual or even an intimate basis? Her living with Phan and Parsifal seemed weird, like the third-wheel neighbor who bunks in. On the other hand, maybe it was just a "non-traditional" family--and who are we to judge? We talked about Sabine's parents, and how even though they were such an important influence in her life, perhaps they were enabling their daughter in continuing on a path that never would lead to fulfillment for her. There was a lot to talk about with this book, and I feel like we just scratched the surface--probably because we hadn't gotten together for more than 5 weeks which meant lots of gossip to catch up on. In particular, El Jefe was curious to know everyone's take on the final magic trick, which Sabine seemed to have learned in one of her dreams and which supposedly was "real" magic. How did this fantastical and mystical twist fit in with a book that, although fictional, otherwise stuck to a completely realistic and pragmatic view of magic tricks?

Reminder: Janna Conner Designs and Lila Boutique trunk show at Logan's Run's house on May 2!

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, May 3 at Ms. K's house. La Madamoiselle is bringing apps, and Logan's Run dessert. The book is Last Orders, by Graham Swift, the 1996 Booker Prize winner.

Devil in the White City

Beter late than never for a BC recap! Thanks to Red for hosting a fun evening--we are so glad to have you and La Mademoiselle back in town! It was clear that Red was back in full effect since the quotation mark fingers came out early in the evening. We started off with a cheese and charcuterie plate. Then, since there's no such thing as too much cheese, we segued into a mixed green salad with hot chevre for dinner's first course, followed by sauteed chicken and asian vegetables as the entree. Dessert was stewed mixed berries over vanilla ice cream with Vahlrona chocolate. But why stop at just one dessert? We then had a taste testing of assorted Belgian chocolates courtesy of Raf. How do you say "lish" in Flemish?

The White City had rating of 6.57, but that doesn't tell the whole picture. Everyone except Logan's Run loved this book and rated it in the 7 to 9 category, but Logan's Run's score brought the average down. Harsh! In general, people found The White City to be fascinating. The story of the Chicago world's fair and how it was built undoubtedly is a landmark of huge cultural and historical importance--yet most (not all) of us knew very little about it. One neat aspect to reading non-fiction is that it puts into context things you have learned before. For example, some of us had studied the architects who built the fair, so the names Burnham, Root, and Sullivan already were familiar. For the rest of us, it gave shredded wheat, belly dancing, and the Ferris wheel new meaning. But, as interesting as these tidbits are, our discussion really focused on the difference between life at the turn of the 19th century and now, just over 100 years later. In what ways are we better off now, and in what ways worse? Throughout our discussion, a little of both came out. Take pollution. The description of Chicago's persistent haze and blanket of soot from coal burning and construction, not to mention the omnipresent stench of slaughtered animals was pretty revolting. But then someone raised the point of how much more we pollute the environment today. On the other hand, the rampant killing (even H. H. Holmes aside), kidnapping, "disappearances" and general violence--most of which went unprosecuted--seemed worse than what we have today. I could go on and on, we talked about medicine, the war in Iraq, women's rights, moustaches and the Whitechapel Club. We didn't have a whole lot of time left to discuss the characters, although another hour probably was warranted to talk about Holmes himself and what lead him to become one of the most grisly serial killers in history. Not lish. I have to give some airtime to the alternative viewpiont. Logan's Run just didn't find the story to be gripping, but rather a bit too bogged down in the details for her taste. Partly that may be because of writing style, and we did poke fun at the author, Eric Larson, for some of the dramatic sentence structures he used to try to infuse a potentially dry historical account with interest...... "and that man was Frank Lloyd Wright!"



Our next BC is on Wednesday, April 5 at Ms. K's house. Please volunteer for dessert or apps. Also, at our next meeting we will discuss potentially moving BC to the second Wed of the month to have less conflicts with Red's and La Mademoiselle's trade shows, so please look at your calendars and think about it. This change is part of a larger effort to increase book club attendance that has been expressed by some of our members. One last administrative point: bring book suggestions! The LOD is so 2004. We want to resume picking two books at a time.



We will be reading the Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett.

Freakonomics

Thanks to Logan's Run for hosting a fun and intimate TCOB last night!  Dalish as usual. Prosciutto-wrapped melon and fresh mozzarella, baked penne with a crisp arugula and parmesan salad, and a scrumptious apricot mousse Birthday Cake in honor of Ms. K.  Yum!  We missed our traveling compatriots:  Blondie (Sun Valley), Red (Paris--obv.) and La Madamoiselle (NY). Hurry home girls, we miss you!

On to the book. Freakonomics came in with a 6.5.  Despite a fairly respectable score, the commentary on this book was kind of lackluster.  It's not that people didn't like it, but rather that they didn't see much to discuss.  The overriding reaction was "neato, but not mind-blowing"--which is what the book jacket made it out to be.  There were mixed views of the author's methodology.  The Doctor, in particular, was not convinced that Levitt proved the theses he put forth because he didn't prove causality.  Ms. K and the Highlander, on the other hand, found his research convincing.  The most well-received chapter was the author's conclusion that legalized abortion accounted for nearly 50% of the crime drop between the 1980's and 2000.  A bold and controversial position that he handled with finesse and objectivity.  But, who wants finesse and objectivity when we can talk about scan-dal? (see below)  Did James Frey's drug addition cause him to forget he never served prison time, or was it just correlated?  A million little pieces of controversy. Tempting as it may be, we've decided not to suppot his literary career. Oh-o-woh-o-Oprah!

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 1 at Red's house. (Red, please confirm this--we talked about it a long time ago). We need apps and dessert volunteers, please! The book is Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson. It's a long one, 447 pages, so just click on the link below, and read early and often.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Another late BC recap, but better late than never. We had a very lively meeting at Chez Jefe that kicked off with tuna tartare, followed by pumpkin-black bean soup and grilled cheese (the beginning of those hearty winter BC dinners!), and a low-calorie Oreo cream cake for dessert.  Lish!  After a thorough discussion of Red's new Belgian love interest, we reluctantly moved on to a discussion of the book....

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was relatively well received, with a 6.75 rating. Could it be that our typical grade inflation is deflating?  That is a comparatively low average score for a book that everyone seemed to like.  But, we certainly are talking about "like" and not "love."  No one was passionate about this book.  We talked about the game show math puzzle a bit (the goats and cars behind closed doors) and once everyone was satisfied with the answer to that, there wasn't a whole lot else to say.  The strongest part of the book was the author's insight into autism, and his portrayal of how an autistic mind sees the world. Several people were surprised to find out that Christopher's character was 15 years old, since his narration suggested that he was more like 10 or 11.  We also talked briefly about the father;  in a recurring BC theme, we were split between being sympathetic towards and disgusted by this character who had dealt a deadly blow to an innocent dog with a garden fork, and yet clearly was dedicated to his handicapped son.  And.... that's about it.  The group was much more interested in discussing the holiday calendar. I believe there is a triple-threat trunk show (the Foxx, La Madamoiselle, Red) being hosted by Logan's Run on the 14th, so save the date.

As I mentioned, the discussion was very lively when it came to the LOD selection and the stressful challenge of picking a book for the December meeting. I've tallied the votes to date, and even though two people didn't weigh in (ahem) there are two clear leaders of the pack, so we'll go with those for December and January, respectively.

The December book will be The Sea by John Banville, this year's Booker prize winner. Yes, it's hardcover, but hey, writers need to make a living too.  January's book is Herzog, by Saul Bellow.

As for the date for Dec. BC, everyone I've heard from so far (missing two) is available all of the dates, but P___ likely will prefer to generously let us use her home on Monday the 5th. So, please pencil that date in and I will send a confirmation once I hear from the rest of the group. Remember that you are welcome to invite a guest but please make sure they read the book and make sure to let the Highlander know if you are bringing someone or not so she can get a headcount.
La Madamoiselle has volunteered for apps for the December BC.  Logan's Run, can I volunteer you and your Skor Bar cookies for dessert?!  Everyone else, wine, bubbly, you name it, but please designate a driver. Until then... read early and often! xo