December Evening

How we all look forward to meeting at Susan's house in December, and sampling her delectable Christmas goodies!  A very merry thank you to Susan for welcoming us again this year.

We jumped ahead to make plans for the next several months.  In January we'll be meeting on Wednesday the 16th at Lynda's.  *This is a change of date.*  The book will be The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.

February's bookclub meeting will be on Thursday the 21st at Jane's place.  We'll be reading February by Lisa Moore. 

On March 28th we'll be at my place (Marian) and the book will be The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam.

In April we'll be reading two books about the experience of stroke: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova.  The date for this meeting is still undecided. 

Books also mentioned:

• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
• Away by Jane Urquhart
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
• Why Men Lie by Linden MacIntyre
• The Gift by Lewis Hyde

You may find goodreads suggestions for book club reading interesting.
I also recommend browsing through The Millions Year in Reading 2012 where authors tell what they've been reading this year.  And catch this list of Bill Gates' best reads of the year.
Finally, the CBC has a list of best Canadian books of the year here.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Here is the link to the recipe I used: http://www.foodfixe.com/foodfixe/pumpkin-bread.html

Enjoy!

Wolf Hall

The unexpectedly warm weather for November, and the usual warm hospitality at Maureen's house made for a most pleasant evening.  Thank you again Maureen.  There didn't seem to be a great deal of enthusiasm for Wolf Hall, but we did come up with many ideas for future reading.  And we established a book choice for next meeting: Ru by Kim Thuy.   Here's Kim talking about her book:




A reminder that we'll be meeting at Sue's house on December 13th.  Lynda will be hosting the January book club evening on January 24th.  I'm not sure if we settled on a book though. 

Among the books mentioned last night were:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam
• Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
• How Starbucks Saved by Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everybody Else by Michael Gates Gill
• The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
• 419 by Will Ferguson
• The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler
• Inside by Alix Ohlin
• The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
• Who Killed Mom?: A Delinquent Son's Meditation on Family, Mortality and Very Tacky Candles by Steve Burgess
• Blue Nights by Joan Didion
• Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hanna Arendt
• The Purchase by Linda Spalding

For a moment of peace in this busy season, enjoy this heart-warming video.




And now for something a little silly.

Agreed!

Yes, it was a wonderful book club evening at Wanda's house, with excellent cake. I am particularly grateful that Wanda stumbled upon my purse the next morning, and graciously brought it to me before I'd even missed it!

While on the subject of 'stumbling upon', here's a passage from The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe on the subject of e-books vs. printed books:

One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality.  Electronic book live out of sight and out of mind.  But printed books have body, presence.  Sure, sometimes they'll elude you by hiding in improbable places: in a box full of old picture frames, say, or in the laundry basket wrapped in a sweatshirt.  But at other times they'll confront you, and you'll literally stumble over some tomes you hadn't thought about in weeks or years.  I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me.  They may make me feel, but I can't feel them.  They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight.  They can get in your head but can't whack you upside it.

We had some conversation around the Giller Prize.  This year's short list comprises:

• 419 by Will Ferguson
• Inside by Alix Ohlin
• The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler
• Ru by Kim Thuy
• Whirl Away by Russell Wangersky

We also heard about Jan's experience with Ryerson's Life Institute.

Wanda gave us her impressions of Sleep No More which she saw in NY recently.   

Our book selection for next month is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, winner of the Man Booker prize in 2009 and the Orange prize in 2010.  Hilary Mantel has also won the Man Booker prize for the sequel Bring Up the Bodies.

Our book club meeting in November will be at Maureen's house on Thursday November 22nd.  We also set aside a date in December.  There was great enthusiasm for meeting at Susan's house for the December meeting, but we'll probably have to check in with Susan before finalizing our plans.  The date is December 13th.  Maybe we'll read the winner of the 2012 Giller?   

Thursday october 25th

Thanks to Wanda for a lovely evening, and especially for the cake! 

Edna O'Brien memoir

I thought this was an interesting column about Edna O'Brien and her recently published memoir:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/12/country-girl-edna-obrien-review?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+(Books

September: Finding Nouf

With the first hint of autumn in the evening air, how warm and welcoming was Maureen's hospitality last night!  Thank you Maureen!

Along with the themes that Finding Nouf inspired, we also talked about other topics and other books.  I'll try to remember most of them.

As we considered the restrictions imposed on women in places like Saudi Arabia we considered the necessity for vigilance regarding women's rights on our own country.  Such as the appearance of Bill M-312,  and the threat of re-criminalization of abortion.

Frank Delaney, the celebrated Irish author, has produced a series of podcasts called Re: Joyce in which explains Ulysses.  You can access them here.  He was also interviewed on the CBC show IDEAS on the topic of Mad Ideas and Sweet Dreams for a Better World.

We mentioned several movies worth looking for:  The Queen of Versailles, Incendies, Hope Springs, The Intouchables,  Searching for Sugar Man, Inside Job and the Live at the Met series.

And my sister's choir. 

Books mentioned last night:

• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
• The End of Men: and the Rise of Women by Hanna Rosin   
• Vagina by Naomi Wolf
• The Age of Hope by David Bergen
• Pay Back: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood
• Canada by Richard Ford
• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Our next book club meeting will be at Wanda's house on Thursday, October 25th and the book will be The Absolutist by John Boyne.

Maureen's Fruit Cocktail Cake

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 cups four

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

14 oz. can fruit cocktail with juice

Beat eggs slightly.  Add all ingredients except flour.  Add flour and bake in 9 x 13 pan (greased) for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Icing

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1 teaspoon brandy)

Boil all ingredients except vanilla.  Add vanilla and pour over hot cake.  It makes a lot, but use all of it.