Booker Prize winner's complaint

Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, feels that people like us have too much influence on the publishing industry: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/30/marlon-james-writers-of-colour-pander-white-woman-man-booker-event-brief-history-seven-killings

Last time in 2015

The final book club gathering of the year took us out in fine form with some great conversation on many topics. Thank you to Jan for hosting this time.  It was a great evening.

Our next book club will be in 2016.  We'll meet at Susan's on Wednesday, January 13th and the book will be A Train in Winter: An extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead.

The following month we'll be at Jo's.  The book will be Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis and the date is Thursday, February 11th.

On St. Patrick's day, Thursday, March 17 we're going to Lynda's to talk about The Green Road by Anne Enright. Better be prepared for blarney.

Here are some of the book suggestions:

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Road Ends by Mary Lawson
• Hand me Down World by Lloyd Jones
• Capital by John Lanchester (the inspiration for a new BBC series)
• Us by David Nicholls
• Illegal by Lawrence Hill
• Daddy Lenin and Other Stories by Guy Vanderhaeghe
• Neapolitan Novels (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) by Elena Ferrante
• Aging Backwards (Essentrics) by Miranda Osmonde-White

And some talk about TV and movies:

• Mimi and Donna
• River (Netflix)
• Spotlight
• Room
• Hinterland (Netflix)
• Indian Summers
• Borgen
• Master of None (Netflix)

Here is the recipe for Jan's amazing dip:

Imperial Cheese Dip

• 115 grams Imperial Cheese ( half of a container) 
•  1/4 block of cream cheese 
•  1/2 tbsp brandy 
•  3 finely chopped green onions 
•  Curry powder to taste 

Blend together and press into serving dish.   Top with Chutney of your choice ( I used President's Choice Mango Chutney)

As requested...

A great evening at Jane's was made even better by perfect attendance.  Thank you Jane.  A good time was had by all.  So much so that as we were leaving there were requests for your cookie recipe. Here it is.  It's a version of a recipe by Delia Smith.

Jane's Cookies

• 4oz butter
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 3oz demerara sugar

Dissolve gently in a saucepan for 3-4 minutes.  Then mix together:

• 4oz self-raising flour
• 4oz porridge oats 
• pinch of salt
• 2oz dried cranberries (Reddi-bulk)

Pour in butter mixture and combine well. Put large walnut size lumps on a greased pan and flatten with fingers. Press slivered almonds on top.
Bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes on centre rack. Cool on tray for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack
Suggested variations: raisins and hazelnuts, apricots and pecans, dark chocolate and unblanched almonds. Always 2oz fruit plus 1.5oz nuts, chopped if necessary.

And then there was a request for some photos of the summer weddings. Hint: Click on the photo to see a larger version.

In the end we didn't do much talking about books other than The Children Act.  I did note:

• They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson
• The Illegal by Lawrence Hill  

Please remember that our next book club will be at Jan's house on Thursday, November 26th and the book will be The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King.

September

Our September book was Ellen In Pieces.  Our September host was totally Wanda.  Thank you Wanda! The evening was a pleasure in every way.

A reminder that our next book is The Children Act, and we'll meet at Jane's on October 15th which is another Thursday.

I can't remember any books being mentioned.  Correct me if I'm wrong.
But here's the Ted Talk about palliative care, what really matters at the end of life:

For Lifeline Syria click here. There are several options for giving, either to resettle refugees in Canada, or to bring humanitarian aid to those in camps on the donate page.

Also since we all missed the debate in favour of book club here's your chance to see the WHOLE THING.

August Evening (Chorus)

Redstart 

Thank you to Saara for the gracious hospitality last evening. What a view of Toronto!  What a sunset!
And thank you for starting off our book discussion with an unforgettable bird anecdote.

We set up some future dates and book topics:

• September 17th at Wanda's - Ellen in Pieces by Caroline Adderson
• October 15th at Jane's - The Children Act by Ian (FU) McEwen
• November 26th at Jan's - The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King
• ***Please note that there has been a change of location in October and November.*** 

Also mentioned last evening were:

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Adult Onset by Ann-Marie Macdonald
• 10:04 by Ben Lerner  
• Lila by Marilynne Robinson
• The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
• Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud
• Black Rock by John Fetridge

I forgot to mention an noteworthy book that I read recently: Family Life by Akhil Sharma.  It's at once heart-breaking and comic.

If like me you missed the two sources of colourful gossip in print here they are again:

• The Journey to Rebuild a Life: Camilla Gibb's Memoir
• Jian Ghomeshi: His Life of an Outcast

And here's a trailer for the recommended movie Best of Enemies.

New Date in August

Heads up - we've had to change the date of Saara's book club evening to Monday August 17th.

Wake

Isn't life grand when we can meet on a perfect summer evening at Maureen's to enjoy each other's company and assorted refreshments?  Thank you Maureen.  Everything was just right.

In response to Wake here are pictures of the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, the subject of Wake.

Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior 

Remember that our next meeting will be on August 18th at Saara's.  The book we chose for that evening is Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys, and we thought that we'd also look at Helen Humphreys' memoir Nocturne.  If you have any books to share, bring them along as well.

Books mentioned last night:

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
• The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
• The Green Road by Anne Enright
• At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen
• River Music by Mary Soderstrom
• Boo by Neil Smith
• Family Life by Akhil Sharma
• The Damned by Andrew Pyper

Thanks again to Maureen for providing the link to Day 6's summer reading list, the source for six of these titles.

The website for Lifeline Syria is online now.  Wanda and I have plans to attend the information session on July 29th.  Meanwhile check out another option, AURA for Refugees. 

Save a Family From Syria

Thanks to Saara we have a contact for joining the effort to bring Syrian refugees to Canada.
Here is an organization called Save a Family From Syria collecting donations through CanadaHelps.  Exploring the donation page at CanadaHelps I see that aside from the default donation option there's also an option to fundraise.
Any thoughts? 

H is for Hawk

As always, it was a treat to see each friendly face again and spend some time together.

H is for Hawk led us to consider much that was new territory for most of us.  Here's more about T.H.White and in case anyone wants to try falconry you can even buy your own bird.  Who knew?

Helen MacDonald has coincidently combined our April book choice about the world of spying with birds in this Guardian article, Spies in the Sky.  

A reminder that we have the next two months planned.
On July 9th we'll be at Maureen's and the book will be Wake.
On August 18th the book will be Evening Chorus and we'll be at Saara's.
There was talk of meeting at a restaurant, or perhaps the islands in September, so no book.  But we decided to leave that decision for later on. 

Books mentioned:

• Confidence by Russell Smith
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends by Jane Gardam
• Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk
• The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

Topics discussed:

• Truth and Reconciliation: Have you seen the 8th Fire television series?  If not here are links to the complete videos:
  At the Crossroads
  Whose Land is it Anyway?
  It's Time 
  Indigenous in the City 
• Syrian Refugees:  I sent an email this morning to the LifelineSyria contact to ask them to let me know when the organization is in business. I'll let you know how that works out.
  And here are the best sources of information about sponsoring refugees that I've found so far:
  The Refugee Sponsor Training Program
  The United Church Refugees and MigrationCanadian Lutheran World Relief

Recommended on Netflix:

• The Fall
• The Bridge
• Rita

Finally, I looked up Shad on Canada Reads and am pleased to confirm that I didn't imagine it. 

Our Book for April

A big thank you to Lynda for hosting a wonderful book club evening. And what a treat to have the whole group together at once.

A Spy Among Friends sparked some spirited conversation on various topics.  This BBC documentary from 2013 is fascinating.



We made some plans for future occasions:

• On Tuesday June 2nd we'll be at my place (Marian) and for that evening the book will be H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald.  
• In July our meeting will be at Maureen's house on Thursday July 9th.  The book then will be Wake by Anna Hope. 
• The book in August will be Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys.  We'll meet at Saara's place on Tuesday August 18th.   

Here are the books mentioned last night:

• A Measure of Light by Beth Powning (not Christine Powntney, the author of Sweet Jesus)
• Nocturne by Helen Humphreys
• Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
• Do Muslim Women Need Rescuing by Lila Abu-Lughod
• They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson

I neglected to mention a book that I read recently - one that I could hardly stand to put down and finished in a day - The Children Act by Ian McEwan.

Another piece of information I forgot to pass along last night was The Ultimate E-Book Library, a Canadian website where you can easily and legally download shared e-books.

And don't forget about In Your Neighbourhood for University of Toronto graduates. 

Click here for the documentary video about Andy Barrie and his Parkinson's treatment (permission is required to embed it but we can watch it on vimeo.com)

All My Puny Sorrows

The book was quite a conversation starter.  Was it because of our sensitivity to the book, or maybe because we were sitting around the kitchen table, that our talk was about topics both personal and universal?  Thank you to Jo for arranging another wonderful book club evening.

The next will be on April 16th at Lynda's place.  The book for this evening is A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.

Canada Reads 2015 is over now; today was the last day.  With Wab Kinew as the new host, and an articulate and passionate panel it's worth a listen, and even better to watch.  If you missed it you can watch or listen online here.

We didn't get to books of interest last night, but since my daytime book club is in the process of accumulating book suggestions for next year here are some to consider:

• Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan
• The Third Secret by Steve Berry
• The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
• Stones from the River by Ursala Hagi
• A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez
• Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
• And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyn Saucier
• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Nocturne by Helen Humphreys

Us Conductors

It was certainly a treat to enjoy Susan's fireplace on a cold night in February.  But will we all be expected to supply embroidered cocktail napkins too?  Anyway, thank you Susan for all.  Us readers do like to get together at your house.

Here is Clara Rockmore's haunting version of Summertime as she played it on Leon's theremin.

Here's the link to the herb dip recipe we all enjoyed.

A reminder that next month we'll be at Jo's (March 19th) talking about All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews.

Other books of note:

• The Bosnia List by Kenan Trebincevic
• A Path Appears by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
• Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
• City of Women by David R. Gillham
• Train to Nowhere by Colleen Bradford Krantz or was it one with the same title by Kay Bratt? My notes are sketchy and my memory is too. 
• The Dog by Jack Livings

There's still time to get to the Piano Extravaganza which started on February 4th and runs to the 14th.

Starting out in 2015

Thanks to Jan's hospitality we made a happy start on this year's book club evenings.  And thanks for the apple cheesecake recipe too Jan - so delicious.

I believe we finally decided to read All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews in March.  The date for that is March 19th and we'll meet at Jo's.

In April the book will be A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre.  We'll be at Lynda's house on April 16th.

A reminder that on February 5th we'll be at Sue's house talking about Us Conductors.  Below is a video of Leon Theremin demonstrating his invention.


Other books that were considered:

• The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (Erpenbeck talks about this book here)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Tell by Frances Itani
• A Path Appears by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl DuWunn
• A Party of One by Michael Harris
• No Relation by Terry Fallis

 Websites to explore:

• tunnelbear.com 
• wotif.com
• serialpodcast.org

Recommended movies:

• Force Majeure
• Pride