June 2009

We're halfway through the year and the summer solstice is drawing near, so I thought last night felt like a celebration of sorts. We welcomed Doloros to the group, Elaine and Mick are still glowing from their daughter's wedding, and Pam was great to make the Our Lady of Drown Your Sorrows Cake with Heavenly Frosting from the book Rococco by Adriana Trigiani.  If the book is anything like the cake, I think I found my indulgent beach read for the summer.  

   Pam's cake inspired me:  would anyone be interested in a literary potluck one of these days?  I have a lot of books that include recipes, from Marlena de Blasi to Susan Loomis to Frances Mayes, and I'd love the excuse to try them out.  Maybe in the fall when our schedules slow down.  Let me know what you think.

   Thanks for making the book club something I look forward to every month.  Mom said it best last night when she quoted Paul Theroux from The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star:  "I think most serious and omnivorous readers are alike - intense in their dedication to the word, quiet-minded, but relieved and eagerly talkative when they meet other readers and kindred spirits.  If you have gotten this far in this book, you are such a singular person."  Paul Theroux is "coming to dinner".

Here's what else we discussed:

Caravans - James Michener

Regards From a Dead Princess - Kenize Mourad

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

Loving Frank - Nancy Horan  (this will be discussed at the Sandusky Library in September)

The Women - T.C. Boyle

Always Looking Up - Michael J. Fox

Bret Stephens is a brilliant WSJ columnist.  Remember his name!

Holy War - Karen Armstrong

The Spiral Staircase - Karen Armstrong

Shakespeare's sonnets

The Best Poems in the English Language - Harold Bloom

Sara's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

The Twilight series - Stephenie Meyer

The Outlander series - Diana Gabaldon

The Monster of Florence - Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

And She Was - Cindy Dyson

If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name - Heather Lende

Kolyma Tales - Varlan Shalamov