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

Jane's Shortbread Recipe

All by weight!

Salted butter 8 oz 
White sugar 4 oz 
White flour 12 oz

Cream butter and sugar until soft.
Add flour and combine thoroughly
Press firmly into greased tin making level.
Prick all over with fork.
Bake at 300 deg for 35-45 minutes, until light gold.
Sprinkle with white sugar while still hot.
When cool, cut into portions, and leave in tin until completely cold. Enjoy!

Stoner

That was certainly a fun evening at Jane's.  Stoner inspired some great conversation.  Also we were pretty clearly enlivened by the wine and nibbles, and happy to be catching up with each other.  An enthusiastic thank you to Jane!

We have dates decided for the next four months.  On January 8th, 2015 we'll be at Jan's to talk about the winner of the Man Booker prize, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.   On February 5th the book will be winner of the Giller prize, Us Conductors by Sean Michaels. We'll be meeting at Sue's.

March 12th will be at Jo's and April 16th will be at Lynda's.  I believe we decided to wait before choosing books for these dates.

We noted the passing of P.D. James who is seen below talking about her last novel, Death Comes to Pemberley.



A few movie recommendations:

• Pride
• The Imitation Game
• The Theory of Everything
• St. Vincent

And Netflix:

• Orange is the New Black
• Call the Midwife
• House of Cards
• Death Comes to Pemberley
• The Bridge (Broen)

Also I think you may find the podcast Serial intriguing.  

At Wanda's Thursday Night

Through heavy rains, thunder, lightning and even flooded underpasses we made our way to a warm welcome at Wanda's.  Thank you for hosting the evening which turned out to be wonderful once we entered damply though your door.

Everyone seemed to appreciate The War that Ended Peace for the information and insights about the deliberate and inadvertent steps that lead to war.

A reminder that our next book is Stoner by John Williams.  (Read Julian Barnes on Stoner: the must-read novel of 2013).  We'll be meeting at Jane's on November 27th.

We won't be meeting in December but on January 8th our book club will meet at Jan's.  The book will be The Mann Booker prize winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.

Dates and locations were set aside for the future.  On February 5th we'll be at Sue's and on March 12th we'll be at Jo's. We didn't choose books for these occasions but thought we might consider reading the winners of the Giller and the Governor General's awards.

Other books that were mentioned:

• Tell by Frances Itani
• All my Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Returning to the subject of war, here is some perspective:

No Name Book Club with No Book

On Wednesday night we had a wonderful time at 7numbers on Danforth - excellent food, plenty of wine and chat.

Saara, our scout at the Toronto International Film Festival recommended four movies to watch out for in the coming year.

• An Eye for Beauty directed by Denys Arcand
• Still Alice starring Julianne Moore from the novel Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Wild starring Reese Witherspoon from the memoir Wild by Cheryl Strayed
• The Grump - a Finnish film based on Tuomas Kyro's novel.

There wasn't a great deal of book talk in the course of the evening, at least not within my earshot, except a mention of David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas, who's just published a new novel that's getting high praise:  The Bone Clocks.

Remember that we'll be at Wanda's on October 16th to talk about The War that Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan.