Meeting #5: The Places in Between

I've been a bit tardy in getting these photos up on the blog, but here's a snapshot of our group after discussing The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart.

Oops, guess we weren't ready for that one. Let's try that again... ; )

We had an awesome time at Anna's house. Big couscous salad (which I learned is called Israeli Couscous), along with some garlic naan and fresh pineapple and strawberries were perfect after a discussion about Rory Stewart walking across Afghanistan (he ate mostly flatbread... didn't quite have the luxury of strawberries, pineapple, and chicken!). I believe the highlight of the day was the frozen tiramisu dessert (a great Trader Joe's find!). We were a rather small group this meeting, but we're excited to have the whole group back next meeting -- with the addition of a newbie: Hannah!

See you all in a few weeks!

~Carolyn

It's time to vote!!

Hey Bookettes! Two business things:

1. We discussed Thursday, August 5 as a potential date for the meeting at Sarah's. Can we put that on the calendar?

2. At our last meeting we decided to wait to vote for our August book so that Jenna and Hannah could get in on the decision. The three choices and descriptions are below. When you are ready, place your vote! I created a poll to the right. Voting closes next Friday at 4 pm.

Is the teacher in me coming out?

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned homeafter graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

"Anthropology of an American Girl" by Hilary Thayer Hamann

A semi-autobiographical novel. It is the story of a young woman and her culture that strives for a measure of narrative depth, detail, and objectivity. It follows its protagonist, Eveline Auerbach, as she moves through a pre-digital American landscape during the 1970s and 1980s. In the most basic respect, it is a coming of age story that prescribes a return to simplicity as the most rational and ethical response to the chaos and confusion of upward mobility.

From the publisher:
"This ambitious work explores the sexual and intellectual awakening of a young American woman struggling to remain true to herelf as she encounters love, passion, and death amid the challenges and heartbreaks of growing up. Newly edited and revised, 'Anthropology of an American Girl' is an extraordinary piece of writing, original in its vision and thrilling in its execution."

From the author:
"The working title for the book was "Eveline," as I initially considered it to be the story of a girl. It became "Anthropology of an American Girl" when it began to describe more than one girl and when I could no longer separate what happened to my character from what happened around her. I chose the smallest thing I could imagine to explore the vastness of America—a single voice. The voice provided a thread to trace through the thickly woven tapestry of American ideology, with its legendary ethos of liberty, justice, equality, autonomy, self-discipline, and hard work and its conflicting legacy of prejudice, greed, abuse of privilege, excessive consumption, and lack of accountability."

"The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood

Set in present-day Toronto, the novel begins with three women (Roz, Charis, and Tony) who meet once a month in a restaurant to share a meal.The Robber Bride is inspired by "The Robber Bridegroom," a wonderfully grisly tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them, one by one. But in her version, Atwood brilliantly recasts the monster as Zenia, a villainess of demonic proportions, and sets her loose in the lives of three friends, Tony, Charis, and Roz. All three "have lost men, spirit, money, and time to their old college acquaintance, Zenia. At various times, and in various emotional disguises, Zenia has insinuated her way into their lives and practically demolished them.

To Tony, who almost lost her husband and jeopardized her academic career, Zenia is 'a lurking enemy commando.' To Roz, who did lose her husband and almost her magazine, Zenia is 'a cold and treacherous bitch.' To Charis, who lost a boyfriend, quarts of vegetable juice and some pet chickens, Zenia is a kind of zombie, maybe 'soulless'" (Lorrie Moore, New York Times Book Review). In love and war, illusion and deceit, Zenia's subterranean malevolence takes us deep into her enemies' pasts.

Our new FOOD Blog!

Hey Girls! Notice anything new on this page? Scroll on down and look on the right side just after our list of books we'd like to read someday.... I made a new blog for all of our recipes! I figured that way it will be really easy to keep adding recipes as we keep making food for our meetings. Click on the pizza icon to take you to the site where I explain it in better detail and took the liberty of starting out with a recipe post. Feel free to add your recipes when you have time. Looking forward to recreating some of the goodies we've enjoyed so far!

Also, I added Hannah, our newest member, to our email notification list... so welcome, Hannah! Can't wait for you to meet everyone at our next meeting! (I'll email you with the details on how to sign in to the blog).

~Carolyn

As we begin LTGWS...

Let the Great World Spin is such an incredible book and I'm glad we've chosen it for our next meeting! I finished up what I had left the other night and I loved it. Colum McCann has an amazing attention to detail, background, and an overall sense of the characters. As you read through the book you discover how each person's story is interwoven with the others. Every character is so diverse, and yet there's still a powerful sense of universal community.

In case anyone is interested in learning more about the tightrope walker in the story (Philippe Petit, who walked between the World Trade Center towers in August 1974), he wrote his own book called "To Reach the Clouds", detailing the adventure. In addition, there's a documentary based on that memoir called "Man on Wire."

Depending on the version of the book you get, see if there is a section added on at the end (after the Author's Note and the Acknowledgments) called "Walking an Inch Off the Ground." It's just four pages or so, written by McCann, and offers a great introduction to the book and what inspired him to write it. If you want a little background before reading, without discovering any "secrets" or spoilers, it's very touching. (That said, I wouldn't read the following section "A Conversation with Colum McCann and Nathan Englander" before actually reading the book.)

Lastly, I will leave you with a quote that I absolutely loved! From page 314: "Everything falls into the hands of music eventually."

Recipes online?

Hey Girls,

Great meeting yesterday! Anyone want to write about it? I will post the group photo sometime this week. I was thinking it might be cool to post our recipes on our blog! That way we can find them whenever we want and who knows, maybe we have a follower out there who wants to try some? You can create a new tab/page right at the top of the blog and we can throw all of our recipes in there. I could post mine all together under the title "Recipes from Portrait of an Artist" or something like that... and then they will all be in one place and Solveig can easily snag 'em to throw in a book. Only problem is I can't figure out how to add a new page... I tried and it didn't really work. Any geeksters out there who can help me out?

Carolyn

PS - this wouldn't be taking over the final book product we've been planning on. It would just be an easy way to keep them together electronically. : )

Meeting #4: Portrait of the Artist.. and Pizza!

Thanks for coming over last weekend for another lovely book club meeting!

Perhaps these faces look familiar? I think it's funny how some look super friendly and cute and others have a little evil thing going on, hehe...

How about this face: And these adorable sisters! Can't wait to delve into our next book! Happy reading!

Come Hungry!

Hey girls,

I just wanted to let you know I am changing up our typical meeting schedule a bit and serving dinner first -- so come hungry! It'll make things a bit easier with what we are "creating" for dinner... ; )

We can do our discussion afterwards, perhaps over a little treat!

See you all Saturday at 6pm!

Carolyn

PS - Sarah, can you let me know if you get this? Not sure if I have your email address correct.