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

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.