Big Breasts and Wide Hips

Lynda hosted this December and invited us to admire all the renovations to her house since the past summer's flood.  Thank you Lynda for a lovely evening.  I love the new powder room, and the basement too.  Not everything about that flood was unfortunate.

Big Breasts and Wide Hips was a long book to read and several of us hadn't finished.  I must say that the reading I've done since Wednesday evening has only made me more impressed with this vivid novel.

A reminder that next month on Tuesday, January 7th, we'll be meeting at Jane's place.  The book will be Dear Life by Alice Munro.

A couple of movies were recommended:

• Nebraska

• Philomena

The books that were mentioned:

• Road Ends by Mary Lawson
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

• The Other Side of Youth by Kelli Deeth

Here's that review of The Other Side of Youth.

November 2013

Thank you to Wanda for hosting in November.  We had an excellent evening talking about 419 when we weren't caught up in the endless controversy surrounding city hall scandals.  Sheesh!

Next month we'll meet on a Wednesday, December 4th at Lynda's house.  The book will be Big Breasts and Wide Hips.

In the new year, our first get-together will be at Jane's house on Tuesday,  January 7th.  We considered reading the recent Giller prize winner,  Hellgoing by Lynn Coady,  but in the end we decided to go with another book of short fiction:  Dear Life by Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel prize for literature!

Other books mentioned:

• Cataract City by Craig Davidson
• The Crooked Maid by Dan Vyleta
• Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
• Reykjavik Murder Mysteries by Arnaldur Indridason
• The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

In the past few days the world has been horrified to witness how typhoon Haiyan has devastated the Philippines, causing unimaginable misery.  The Canadian government has stepped forward with aid, and has promised to match any donations toward relief.  The Red Cross, Unicef Canada and the Humanitarian Coalition are among the options that you might consider.  

Two changes

On Thursday November 7th the location has changed to Wanda's place.

Lynda will host the following month and the date for that is Wednesday December 4th.   

Sweet

We had a great turn-out for Thursday's book club at Susan's house to talk about Sweet Jesus.  Thank you to Susan for providing a super evening with two kinds of pie!

A reminder that next month (November 7th) will be at Lynda's home.  Let's hope that the builders have finished her renovation.  We'll be talking about 419.

These books were mentioned:

• The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• The Hour of the Red God (The Honey Guide) by Richard Crompton
• Cleaver by Tim Parks
• Italian Neighbours by Tim Parks
• Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon
• Erasing Death by Sam Parnia

We also got into some discussion of our favorite television series:

• Breaking Bad
• Broadchurch
• The Americans
• Six Feet Under
• The Sopranos
• The Big C

Native Women & Charlottetown Accord

In The Inconvenient Indian, the author discussed the Charlottetown Accord. I don't believe he mentioned the fact that the Native Women's Association was excluded from negotiations leading up to the Accord. Although other native and Metis organizations were given funding and invited to participate in the negotiations, native women were not represented. The NWA therefore went to court to seek the same financial support as the men's organizations. Here is a link to a summary of the Supreme Court of Canada decision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Women's_Association_of_Canada_v._Canada

At Maureen's in September

Welcome back Saara! And many thanks to Maureen for hosting last night.  

We covered a lot of ground talking about the thorny issues raised in The Inconvenient Indian,  and several other tricky topics.  Some of the subjects that came up were Word on the Street, TIFF and the film Like Father Like Son, Ai Weiwei, the civil war in Syria and chemical weapons, the new Quebec law restricting religious symbols, etc. etc.  

We also made plans for meeting this fall.  

• On **Thursday October 17th** we'll gather at Susan's to talk about Sweet Jesus by Christine Pountney. 
• On Thursday November 7th we'll be at Lynda's and the book will be 419 by Will Ferguson.  
• On Thursday December 5th the book will be Big Breasts and Wide Hips by Mo Yan and we'll be at Wanda's.  

Other books that were mentioned:

• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
• The Emperor of Paris by CS Richardson
• The Orenda by Joseph Bowden
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer 
• Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole
• We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo
• Fever by Mary Beth Keane
• Life by Keith Richards
• The Painted Girls by Kathy Marie Buchanan
• Everybody has Everything by Katrina Onstad
• Erasing Death by Sam Parnia
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• Mount Pleasant by Don Gillmor

Sorry about the books I've missed here.  Some of my notes from last night that seemed OK at the time are just flat-out cryptic this morning.

In case you haven't seen it already here's Jian Ghomeshi's interview with Ai Weiwei.

Notes from August 2013

First of all, down to business:  Last night was at my place because of Lynda's flood damage.  And it follows that I won't be hosting in September - Maureen will.  The date is still Sept. 11 and the book is still The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King.  As for October, we'll be reading Sweet Jesus by Christine Pountney and in November the book will be 419 by Will Ferguson.  We didn't pin down locations for these two evenings, as there were a number of unknown variables.

It was no surprise that everyone had some kind of flood story to report.  For those coping with flood damage, and in reference to The Inconvenient Indian here's the government of Canada's advice about mould.  To be fair, I did find another link provided by Health Canada where the broader public is advised about coping with mould.

Also, on the topic of the ethics of college football and other contact sports, here's the interview that Fareed Zakaria had with Malcolm Gladwell recently.



 Here are the books mentioned last night:

• Maine by J. Courney Sullivan
• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Last Friends by Jane Gardam
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
• Red Joan by Jennie Rooney
• Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
• NW by Zadie Smith
• Walls by Marcello di Cintio 
• TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

Here's Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian in a Q&A:




And in preparation for October here's a link to Christine Pountney talking about her book, Sweet Jesus.

Also I forgot to mention last night that I'd recently enjoyed reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.

Backyard Book Club - July

It's always a good time when we can hold book club outdoors on a warm evening.  So here's a big thanks to Jane for providing the charming setting, good food and wine; and thanks also to mother nature for giving us good weather.  Mister Pip was a happy choice - everyone seemed to enjoy reading it.

We chose a book for September: The Inconvenient Indian A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King.

A reminder that our August meeting will be at Lynda's when we'll be reading A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson.

Here she is introducing the book:




Other books mentioned were:

• A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

We also talked about digital privacy.  DuckDuckGo is the search engine that allows for anonymous searching on the web.   There is more than one service for maintaining anonymity on the web.  One of them is Hide-My-IP and c|net has a list of others. All I know about keeping phone records hidden is what the spies do in the novels I've read.  They are careful to replace phones, or sim cards daily or even more frequently, which is not exactly practical for most of us.  

At the Beach

Thank you to Jo for hosting.  We had a great time, and the report from those who had dinner at your local restaurant Whitlock's sounded very positive too.

Our next gathering will be at Jane's on July 3rd and we'll be talking about Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.  Here's Lloyd Jones talking about the book:



The book I mentioned having enjoyed was Sweet Jesus by Christine Pountney.  Here's a review.

But I forgot to mention The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.  Just so you know, neither of these books is remotely like a "woman's weepy".  

A reminder that three recipes were requested: Wanda's orange cake, Jan's cheesecake and Jo's spicy shrimp.  

Getting Organized

A big thank you to Jan for jumping in to host our May 1st gathering.  It was a grand evening.  Spring finally made an appearance and allowed us to enjoy the back porch.  Also, thank you in advance for the cheesecake recipe, Jan.  And for future reference is this (cabernet sauvignon) the red wine you served?

Our next three books have been chosen as well as our locations and dates until January 2014.  

Here goes: 

• June 5th at Jo's: The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman
• July 3rd at Jane's:  Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
• August 7th at Lynda's: The Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
• September 11th at Marian's: TBA
• October 10th at Maureen's: TBA
• November 7th at Saara's: TBA 
• December 5th at Susan's: TBA
• January 9th at Wanda's: TBA  

Lastly, here's a link to Susan's blog.

May 1st

We're meeting at Jan's place.  Thanks for this Jan!
Here's a video to inspire conversation when we get together.

In March

It seemed that our appreciation for The Headmaster's Wager was enthusiastic, and the evening was a pleasant one.  Actually I always have a great time at book club.

We chose a date for our next get-together (May 1st - not a Thursday!) but didn't choose a location.  There was some talk about meeting at a restaurant or bar.  Two suggestions were 17 Steps and On the Rocks, both on Bloor Street.  For this occasion we will be reading My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova.

Other books mentioned:

• Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan
• Blonde: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates 
• Pierre Burton's War of 1812 
• A Widow for One Year by John Irving
• The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Some time during the evening we talked a little about The Elders, a group of global leaders working together for peace and human rights.

March reminder

Our March book is The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam.  We'll meet on Thursday the 28th at my place (Marian).

February

Thanks again to Jane for hosting our group so graciously.  It's always a pleasure to get together. 
We didn't know when we chose to read February in February that it would be the winner of the Canada Reads contest this month too.

Here's Lisa Moore talking about her win on Q.


And the same week, 31 years after the Ocean Ranger disaster Canada was horrified to learn of another capsizing with the loss of 5 young lives. 

Other books that were mentioned last night:

• The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah
• Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Suzannah Cahalan

I forgot to mention a book that I heard Matt Galloway rave about on Metro Morning.  Since he also raved about Let the Great World Spin at an earlier time it might be worth looking up this book.

•  Sweet Jesus by Christine Pountney

Other topics of the evening included 4.48 Psychosis that Jo saw at Canadian Stage Berkeley Street Theatre.  There's more about this play by Sarah Kane here.

Below is Jill Bolte Taylor's Ted talk.

There were some requests to be re-connected with Sue's blog, For Family and Friends.

And finally, here's a video interview of Liz Maloney.

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique remains scarily current

I found this to be an interesting article on the state of feminism, and the precariousness of women's gains!

Read it here:   Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique remains scarily current

Website Launch

You'll remember that Jo's daughter Corey was one of the enthusiastic founders of a grassroots movement called "Stop the Crazy".  They approached me to help them with a website, and here it is: www.stopthecrazy.ca . We're still adding content to this fledgling website, but it's "live" and you can be among the first to check it out. 

Happy 2013

Bravo Lynda!  Your updated living room was a wonderful setting for a great evening of The Book Club with No Name versus The End of Your Life Book Club, and all the other topics that arose.

Here is Will Schwalbe's web site, Cookstr.com.  The recipe for Chocolate Chip Cranberry Muffins is amazing.  I've also made Fisherman's Pie more than once.  So yummy!

Here's the NPR audiofile on the subject of end of life decisions:



Books that were mentioned:

• The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
• The Emperor of Paris by C.S.Richardson
• Daughters who Walk this Path by Yejide Kilanko
• The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins her Life's Work at 72 by Molly Peacock
• 419 by Will Ferguson
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Those who are free in the daytime may be interested in the lecture series provided by Learning Unlimited Etobicoke.  I'm taking Designs on You this term. They have another series of lectures in the works for the fall.

On the subject of feminism in the twenty-first century here's where you can hear the interview with Sherry Cooper, the retiring Chief Economist and Executive Vice-President of BMO.

We also had a few lively words about file sharing.  This is a video of Aaron Schwartz giving his perspective.