Doesn't Everyone Belong to a Book Club?

I love to read.  And it has always been that way.  Some of my fondest memories of childhood involve trading Nancy Drew mysteries with my friends or curling up to start a new book after the book mobile visited our neighborhood.  I took my love of reading with me throughout my life journey.  There is no doubt about it, books have taken me to places I could never have gone without them.

Several years ago, my daughter and I decided gather a few friends each month for a book discussion. We each invited a few friends who liked to read and soon we had a book club.  Our members range in age from 35 to 73.

Now, almost seven years later, we number 15.  We meet once a month, rotate houses, and, we actually DO discuss the book!

All but two of the original twelve members are still active in the group and we have a good turn-out each month.

Here are some  of our secrets to success if you are thinking about starting a book club.

** Invite people of different generations to join.  Having women from several different age groups has added an interesting element to our discussions and stimulated conversations we would not have had without the age diversity.

** Decide on a time and date for meetings and keep to the schedule.  For example, we meet on the second Tuesday of each month - no exceptions.  This eliminates the need to constantly decide on a day and time when everyone is free.

**Wine.

** Allow for socializing at the beginning of the meeting, followed by the book discussion, followed by more socializing and then a wrap-up (about the book) Our meetings run about two and one half to three hours.

** We meet in someone's house, and with 12 or more members the task of entertaining comes once a year or less. The hostess chooses the book(and the wine)

** Choose books that stimulate discussion and provoke opinion.

** Use email to communicate. I send out a reminder about two weeks before the meeting, with the name of the book, and the place where we are meeting.

** Wine.

** We have our December 'meeting' in a restaurant to celebrate  Christmas and another year of reading.  At the Christmas dinner, we discuss our favorites from the previous year and vote on the top book of the year.  We begin to plan the coming year and some years we do a book exchange.  Everyone who wants to participate brings a book that they have read and liked for a grab bag.

Some of our favorite books and the discussions that resulted were:

'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand

'One Thousand White Women' by Jim Fergus

'Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini

'Room' by Emma Donoghue

'Still Alice' by Lisa Genova

'Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' by Rebecca Skoot

'Book Thief' by Markus Zusak

'The Secrets of Mary Bowser' by Lois Leveen

'Poisonwood Bible'  by Barbara Kingsolver

'The Paris Wife' by Paula McLain

 At our next meeting, we are discussing a book called 'What Alice Forgot,' a story about a young woman who forgets the previous ten years of her life.  I can hardly wait to talk about it!

Do you belong to a book club?

Lazy Days of August

  I love August! 

  My days are lazy and my 'to-do' list is a joy to behold!

 1) It begins and ends with wandering around in the garden chasing butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, with camera in hand, of course.  

  2)Pinching the flower tips off the basil is another important 'job' for this month.  It promotes more leaf growth which, in turn, makes more pesto!  Making pesto is a late summer ritual for me.  I make enough to freeze it in ice cube trays for use all winter. (I add those pinched flowers to my salad.....ummm good)

3) Next on the list is watching the veggies and herbs grow so I can 

4) Harvest herbs and veggies, a few at a time.  Hot peppers, mint for winter tea, fennel seeds, rosemary and sage and of course, oregano are some of my favorites.  This job also requires spending a leisurely morning, wandering around outdoors in the garden. 

   5) Every day or so, I venture out, scissors in hand, to pick a few flowers.  Bouquet-making is a relaxing job, collecting scents and bursts of color to brighten up a corner of the house.

   6) There is no better time than August to catch up on one's reading!  My selections for the next few weeks include 'Defending Jacob' by William Landay,  'The Round House' by Louise Erdrich, 'The Principles of Uncertainty' by Maira Kalman and 'Turn My Mourning into Dancing' by Henri Nouwen.

   7) Oh, and did I mention chasing butterflies?

A Favorite Winter Pastime

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 my heart's delight

curling up with a good book

carries me away

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  I don't argue with winter anymore.  I've made peace with her barrenness, her frigid kisses and her anemic sunlight.  There are other gifts to be unwrapped once  one embraces the coziness of indoor life.

    Burrowing into my warren, I find rest and rejuvenation.  I venture out but not as often, preferring to  enjoy nature from my window.

 Our list of hobbies and pastimes which are on hiatus in winter seems long at times.  However, there is one thing I  have always LOVED doing, and winter is perfect for it.

   I can get transported almost anywhere by a good author!  So, when the wind howls and the snow bites, I  snuggle up with my afghan and a stack of books.  Now that I have a Nook, I don't even have to venture out to the library, the books come to me.

    In my pile of  'recently finished', there are  several good books  I  recommend including Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, a harrowing novel that tells the  tale of one family experiencing the devastation of hurricane Katrina.  The author's rich writing transports the reader right to the oppressive heat and ominous tension in the air just prior to and during the storm.  I  loved the wonderful characters the author created  and I cheered for them every step of the way.

  One of my favorite authors is Michael Ondaatje, the author of The English Patient.   His recent novel, The Cat's Table, is up to his usual standards of mysteriously intoxicating  use of language coupled with a dream-like mesmerizing story.  I adore his style.  This slender book is the story of a young teenage boy's voyage from his home in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to the UK in the early 50's.  It is at once an adventure story and a coming of age novel.  I loved it.

Other recent titles I have enjoyed include Wild by Cheryl Strayed and  Digging to America by Anne Tyler.

  Now..... a list of what I hope to read in the next few months.

           **   The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen

           **    Flight Pattern by Barbara Kingsolver

           **   The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich

           **   Canada by Richard Ford

           **  Behind the Beautiful Forevers : Life, Death and Hope in a             
                 Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo


What books are you reading or do you hope to read in the coming months?  I'm always adding to my TBR list and would welcome suggestions. However,  I do hope there will be reading rooms in the afterlife, otherwise I'll never finish!

   Sharing my heart's delight with Recuerda Mi Corazon Haiku My Heart          



   

   

Still Alice

     I read 'Still Alice' a few weeks ago and  am still feeling its impact.  It was a book club choice for August's meeting and I have not yet been able to put this book to sleep and move on to another story.
   
    'Still Alice'  is a novel about a fifty year old Harvard professor who is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease.  She is in the prime of her life, at the peak of her academic career, happily married, with three grown children.

   An avid runner, she finds herself in the middle of Harvard Square on a run one afternoon, confused and unable to recall the way home from a place she has known for 25 years.  That is the beginning of her story, a tale of her rather rapid descent into forgetfulness.

  The author, Lisa Genova, herself a Harvard professor, takes a calculated risk in choosing to tell this heart-breaking story from Alice's point of view, but it pays off in dividends for the reader.

  I both loved and hated this book.

  During my nursing career I cared for many people with Alzheimer's but never fully understood what might be going on inside their minds.  This story, in presented from Alice's perspective, gives insight into what it may be like for the person losing her ability to speak, her memory , indeed, her very self.

  As someone who is watching a parent lose large parts of her memory to dementia, I felt this story keenly from the point of view of the spouse and children.  It is truly a painful thing to witness and often there seems to be no way to comfort.

  But....I also loved the book and here is why.  Ultimately, Alice lives only in the present moment, her past is gone and she doesn't understand the future.  Her family, especially her children, have an opportunity to  make each day calm, comfortable and ultimately joyful for Alice.

   Since reading this book,  I look at my own situation in a slightly different way.  I have let go of the sadness that my mother is forgetting things that seem unthinkable for her to forget.

    Instead,  I hold on to the thought that only this day, this moment, filled with laughter or quiet conversation about the family or a new photo of her beloved great grandson, or the anticipation of trying a new recipe, is all that matters.  She doesn't have to recall today ever, because tomorrow will bring it's own moments.

  My book club, with members from thirty-four to seventy-one, agreed this was a terrific read and we gave it one of our higher ratings. The story is compelling and,  at the same time, provides so much information about a little understood illness, without hitting the reader over the head.  It is a gripping page-turner, guaranteed to  give a reader much food for thought.  


  Take-Away for Today -  'Still Alice' is a provocative read. 



 

Hibiscus Zinger , the Porch and a Stack of Books

  The temperature is climbing faster than the pole beans and  I'm ready to settle down for a long summer spell with a pitcher of my favorite herbal iced tea and a stack of books in a nice old-fashioned porch chair, feet up and nothing to do but read.

Hibiscus Zinger

  For me, summer vacation means delicious free time to indulge my passion for a good book.  I used to read voraciously as a child, burning the midnight flashlight to finish 'one more chapter, Mom, one more page.'  Now I read slowly, savoring the language, like sipping  fine wine.  I stop often to daydream about faraway places and distant times.

  My current stack of books includes 'Handling Sin' by Michael Malone, a fat summer read if ever there was one.  So far, it's hilarious and I'm enjoying accompanying Raleigh Hayes as he tries to find his eccentric and possibly senile father who escaped from the local hospital and took off in a yellow Cadillac convertible.  Dad is leading his son on a wild , if irreverent , chase across the South.

The Porch

  I will start 'Still Alice'  by Lisa Genova for my August book club meeting in a week or two, a novel about a professor who is diagnosed with early Alzheimers.

  Next is 'Tree Smoke', by Denis Johnson,  a novel about Vietnam, which I've been wanting to read for a while.  It's another chubby book, my favorite kind for the long days of summer.

 I am also working my way through 'An Interior Castle', by St Teresa of Avila.   I came across a reference to this book in 'The Marriage Plot,'  which I just finished for July's book club meeting , and I am interested in learning more about St. Teresa, so I downloaded it onto my Nook.  

  If it stays too hot to weed , I may finish all of these books by August!

      My favorite iced tea, 'Hibiscus Zinger', contains equal amounts of  the following herbs:

                                      * Lemon Verbena
                                      * Lemon Grass
                                      * Lemon Balm
                                      * Peppermint
                                         Raspberry Leaves
                                         Rose Hips
                                         Hibiscus Flowers
                                         Juice of one half of a  lemon or a lime
                                         Stevia to sweeten

The * herbs are the ones I  grow. The others I  purchase in bulk, although I have collected rose hips in the wild.

I blend the teas in large quantities and store them in Mason jars.    To make a pitcher of tea, I  use  8 heaping teaspoonfuls(in a muslin tea bag) to 4 cups of boiling water, steep for 15 minutes, then add the warm tea to 4 or 5 cups of ice. This makes about 8 glasses of iced tea.

Dried, blended teas

Summer Bliss - a cool spot, a frosty drink and a good book.





 
     

So Many Books, So Little Time

    Reading is one of the high pleasures of my life.  I was a bookworm as a child, first  waiting for the bookmobile to arrive on our street, then  losing myself in one wild adventure after  another, traveling to foreign lands and time tripping across the centuries.

     Novels, mysteries, biographies, all were enthralling to me. I sped through an entire series of biographies of famous people, all the series books, like Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames.  When I had exhausted everything I could find, I moved on to young adult books.

   I recall one story still so vivid in my mind.  It was  a novel about a boy who walked across Europe during World War ll to escape from the Nazis.  I wish I knew the title of that book.  It taught me more about the horror of World War II than any history lesson ever did.

    By the time I was twelve or thirteen, I was reading  adult novels like Gone With the Wind , Diary of Anne Frank, Rebecca, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird and so many others.

    Later I discovered the pleasures of non-fiction and still later, poetry.

One of the saddest moments in my life was the day I realized that I would never be able to read ALL the books in the world!

  Summer presents the best excuse to find a cool spot and bury myself in a good yarn.  When it's too hot to weed the garden or go hiking or biking, it's a perfect  day for reading.  All I need is a tall glass of herbal iced tea and  a good book and I'm ready to be transported on a mini-vacation.

 My  current book list  for this summer includes :

            * The Marriage Plot  by Jeffrey  Eugenides

            * In The Garden of  Beasts: A Tale of Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Eric Larson(currently reading)

            * Wild Blood  by Flannery O'Connor

            * The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach
        
            * The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
     
            * The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
      
  I also have a list of non-fiction books I'm working my way through for fun and perhaps to learn a little something.  They include:

             * In the Palm of Your Hand by Steve Kowit

             * Pilgrim at Tinker Creek  by Annie Dilliard

             * Urgings of the Heart by Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon

   I'm always looking for book recommendations.  What have you read recently that you enjoyed?  What are you planning to read this summer? Is the summer a time to read mindless fluff or to tackle something challenging?  I've heard arguments for both.  Leave suggestions in the comment section at the end of this post.

Take away -  I'm planning a trip around the world this summer through the portals of my book shelves.