October 2014 Bookclub Recap

Dear Bookclub,
I was so disappointed to miss last week's meeting at Karen's. I knew she'd put on a beautiful gathering - I still have her last year's October meeting in my memory bank of charming evenings. It's all those pumpkins!




In the spirit of literary letters, I thought I'd share verbatim Karen's response to my request for a report on the evening. Emails are the new quill and pen- so here it is in the original format:

Hi Lynn-

Sorry it has taken awhile for me to send this but it was a busy weekend! We had a great turn out for Book Club and a very lively discussion (even if most of it was not regarding the book).

We all enjoyed the book as it was a heartwarming break from some of our more gruesome reads of late.  What  a wonderful book to theme with food too! We had all things Irish. I served homemade Baked Potato Soup, pumpkin bread, Reuben spread on rye & caraway crackers, and Irish almond cake with Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey in it! I have included a couple of pictures for the Blog too.

The books suggested were:

Factory Man by Beth Macy

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr  (revisited)

After voting and discussion we chose All the Light We Cannot See. It had been suggested earlier but we felt it was worth revisiting.

We missed you and I hope your migraine is gone. If it is any solace, I have been getting less frequent migraines of late.

We also discussed the Christmas party. We will have a cash bar at the gathering and appetizers will be served. We will figure out a dollar amount per person as to the cost by next meeting.

Hope to see you soon!

Karen


And just to add to our literary weight, this will be a collection of letters. My request for information yielded this nice note from Julie:

Karen beautifully connected the evening from "book to table" with an Irish theme that dazzled all.  From her potato soup to a delicious Irish pound cake, we enjoyed it all sprinkled with conversation tidbits about the lovely story.

Karen briefed us on the holiday party (Karen has those details, Lynnie) and we selected a book (Karen has the winner... not sure... I Voted for The Interestings by Meg W. (again see Karen).

It was a fun night catching up in the glow of carved pumpkins!  A  great turnout of 9, I think, was well accommodated by Karen's comfortable seating area.

js



Thank you so very much Karen and Julie!

Finally, a collection of Whiskeys: 

Happy Reading!
LK

October 2014 Bookclub News

Dear Bookclub,
Just to finish a few items about our last meeting; an explanation about the "Lyn(n)(e)"'s is due, as well as the list of books considered for our next selection. For those of you not present at Lynn T's last month, you did not get to meet Diane's old friend, Lyn, from Chicago. Visiting San Diego for a conference, to see Diane and of course, to attend our meeting, Lyn was absolutely delightful and a fun addition into the Lyn(n)(e) lineup of the night.

Considered for February:

"One Plus One"  JoJo Moyes *chosen
"The Dovekeepers" Alice Hoffman
"I am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's
                               Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage" Mary-Ann Kirby


Next up:

Patrick Taylor

From Taylor's website (www.patricktaylor.ca): Born in 1941, Taylor was brought up in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and received his medical education in Ulster. He initially practiced in a rural Ulster village akin to Ballybucklebo before taking specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. After living in Belfast through the first two years of the recent Irish Troubles (1969-1994) he and his family emigrated to Canada where he pursued a career in medical research and teaching in the field of human infertility. His contributions have been honoured with three lifetime achievement awards including the Lifetime Award of Excellence of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.

for more:http://www.patricktaylor.ca/ptaylor_bio.html

I think you will find Taylor's book wee buns to enjoy and have it read in a doodle. Apologies to the Ulster-Scots if this sounds glipe.

Please RSVP to Karen for our October 16th meeting. 

Read on!

LK