Last evening at Maureen's

Thank you for everything, Maureen. Your home and hospitality are awesome with that little extra grace: an alphabetized bookshelf.  And thank you for providing Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing inspired some enthusiastic conversation about an obscure bit of history.

    

Books we mentioned: 

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
• The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien
• The Break by Katherina Vermette
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
• The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
• Purity by Jonathan Franzen
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 

Recommended movies: 

• The Founder
• A United Kingdom

All Our Names

February thaw - Yes!

Thank you to Susan for a special evening. It was perfect as usual.

Thank you also to the groundhog for this amazing weather.

All Our Names has an unusual structure, and most of us found it a little disconnected because of the two narratives and the various locations.  I wish I'd heard Mengestu talk about the book in advance but here he is now talking about his intentions:



There were no changes in the dates or locations for the next few book club evenings.

• March 23 will be at Maureen's and the book title is Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
• On April 20 we'll go to Saara's for a discussion of Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall.
• The May 11 meeting will be at Lynda's where we'll talk about 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad.

We are resolved to consult with everyone about future dates to avoid conflicts if possible.

Books mentioned at our meeting: 

• His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay
• The Hunter and the Wild Girl by Pauline Holdstock
• The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Son of a Certain Woman by Wayne Johnston
• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

With Oscar night nearly upon us, we came up with this list of memorable films: 

• Hell and High Water
• Hacksaw Ridge
• La La Land
• Lion
• Manchester by the Sea
• Hidden Figures
• Fences
• Jackie
• Moonlight
• Arrival 

General Interest: 

• Learning Unlimited Etobicoke will resume again in the fall
• Hot Docs usually lists something interesting, including their festival
• Lifelong Learning Mississauga has spring series on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Netflix Pix:

• Line of Duty
• Rectify
• The Fall
• Paranoid
• Santa Clarita Diet  

Don't miss these (not on Netflix yet): 

• This is Us
• Pure

Evening at Mai Bistro

Last evening, we celebrated our 20th anniversary by dining at Mai Bistro where the food and service were delightful.  Thanks again, Sue, for not only suggesting this cozy spot, but also for selecting the wonderful sharing plates.

It has been 20 years since Wanda got us started and some 200 books later, we are still opining away. A very big thank you, Wanda.

The damper on last night's celebration was that Marian was ill with the flu and could not attend. We toasted you, Marian, with thanks to instituting and maintaining our blog.  Get well soon.

We changed our plans for some of our future meetings:

• The February 22 meeting will now be at Sue's where we'll talk about All Our Names by Dinau Mengestu.
• March 23 (no change) will be at Maureen's and the book title is Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
• On April 20 we'll go to Saara's for a discussion of The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall.
• The May 11 meeting will be at Lynda's where we'll talk about 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad.

Details for January

It appears that the majority of us like the idea of celebrating our anniversary at Mai Bistro on Dundas Street West near Burnhamthorpe.  The date is still Thursday the 5th. A big thanks to Susan for making the arrangements. See you there at the usual time. 

Remember Me Like This

Remember Me Like This was controversial and stirred up quite a lot of comment.  Like it or hate it, you have to admit that the conversation about this novel was fun.

Somehow we discovered that we had reached a milestone: it's twenty years since our book club began! This is cause for celebration and so we've ditched our plan to go to Lynda's next month. Instead we'll meet at a restaurant. Probably we'll stick with the same date: January 5th. The location hasn't been decided yet.  I'll post the information here as soon as we finalize our plan.

This change means that the date for book club at Lynda's has moved up to February 22nd. The book will be All our Names by Dinaw Mengestu.  And following that change, we'll go to Maureen's on March 23rd for Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.

April 20th will be at Sue's.  We'll talk about The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall.
On May 11th the book will be 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad and we'll be at Saara's.

Books that were mentioned:

• A Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
• The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux
• Sweetland by Michael Crummey

Movie recommendations:

• Arrival
• Moonlight
• Manchester by the Sea
• Mustang

And Netflix:

• Longmire
• Dicte
• 30 Degrees in February
• Case
• Rams
• Midnight Diner

Almond Cheddar Appetizers 

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup chopped almonds
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 baguette

Preparation:

Combine mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce.  Stir in cheese, onion, almonds and bacon.
Cut bread into 1/2 in. slices.  Spread with cheese mixture.  Cut each in half.  (or cut in half before spreading with cheese). Bake at 400 for 10 minutes or until bubbly. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Unbaked appetizers may be frozen. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet; freeze for 1 hour. Remove from the baking sheet and store in an airtight container for up to 2 months. When ready to use, place unthawed appetizers on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until bubbly.

Toblerone Shortbread

Ingredients:

2 cups room temperature butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
3 1/2 cups flour
2 bars (100g) toblerone chocolate (I used one big bar, around 300 g in all)
3 tbsp. icing sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and superfine sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Mix flour and corn starch. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate.

Drop by heaping tablespoons 1 inch apart on baking sheet.  Bake until lightly browned. When cool sprinkle with icing sugar. 

Apple Cheesecake

Crust

•  1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour

Cream the butter and sugar and then add the flour.  Press into a 9 inch springform pan.

 Middle

•  1 package cream cheese (250 grams)
•  1 cup plain Greek yogourt
•  2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Beat cream cheese and yogourt until smooth. Add rest of ingredients and beat until mixed.  Pour over the crust.

 Topping

•  3 or 4 apples
•  1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

 Peel and slice the apples and place them on top of the cream cheese mixture in a spiral pattern.
 Mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle on top of the apples.

 Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

About three babies and a book

Traditional horimono

It was a marvelous evening at Jan's house, sharing the stories of the births that made first-time grandmothers of three of us.  Understandably the talk about the book was a secondary priority in the circumstances.  Still, the beautifully crafted Garden of Evening Mists also deserved and won some of our attention.  Thank you to Jan for a perfect evening.  See cheesecake recipe above.

We made some plans for future evenings.  On December 1st we will be at Lynda's and the book we settled on last night is Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston.
On January 5th book club will be at my house (Marian) and the book will be All Our Names by by Dinaw Mengestu. 
On February 15th we'll meet at Maureen's to talk about Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
We decided to meet at Susan's in March but the book and the precise date are up for grabs.

Books that were mentioned last night:

• The Night Stages by Jane Urquart
• Nujeen by Nujeen Mustafa and Christina Lamb
• The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 
• The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner
• Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
• The Sellout by Paul Beatty  
• All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld

Recommended on Netflix: The 13th

Below, plucky Nujeen Mustafa on her way to Germany.