October 2014 Host:  Jaci

 

Delicious by Ruth Reichl

 

Summary

 

This novel is set in New York City and centers around a young woman named Billie who takes a job at a foodie magazine called Delicious.  The magazine offices are located in a historic mansion and when Delicious eventually closes down, Billie takes on the job of minding the house.  She discovers a hidden room in the library which contains letters written from a young girl named Lulu to James Beard during World War II.  Some of the letters include cooking questions and allude to the mistreatment of Italian-Americans during this era.  This book contains everything most of us enjoy such as food, mystery, history and personable characters.  Although we all enjoyed the book, we wished there were a little more about food.  We are teased with a main character that has an infallible palate and is supposed to be a brilliant cook along with the depiction of a New York cheese shop, yet we are left wanting more of the foodie aspect in this novel.   

 

Menu

 

Artichoke Dip

 

Venison, Vegetarian, and as pictured - White Chicken Chili

 

Evan

 

 

 

September 2014 Host:  Jenny

 

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

 

Summary
 

This novel revolves around Carrie McClelland who is a present day successful author of historical fiction.  She travels to Scotland to research the little known Jacobite uprising in 1708 when the movement to return the exiled King James to the Scottish throne occurred.   For her research, she comes to reside near Slains, an ancient castle of interest as her original main character, Colonel Nathanial Hook, visited there just before the uprising.  She feels an unexpected connection towards Slains, which she feels may be a result of her family’s past history in the area.   She has strange memories which she writes about and then finds out that those memories prove to be true in past history, which the author describes as genetic memories.  Soon a young orphaned 18^th century woman named Sophie replaces Colonel Hook as the main character in McClelland’s novel.  There is further intrigue as McClelland meets her landlord’s two sons.  Kearsley successfully intertwines parallel plots, mirror characters, intrigue and romance in The Winter Sea.  The historical aspects of this novel are especially fascinating (go ahead, google Cruden Bay, Slains Castle, and doric dialect, we did), and we highly recommend this historical novel.

 

Menu

 

Beer

 

Salad

 

Pizza

 

Brownies

 

 

 

 

August 2014 Host:  Colleen

 

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

 

Summary

 

Tom Sherbourne, a World War 1 veteran, returns to his home in Australia and takes on a job as a light keeper on Janus Rock, which is a half day trip from the shores of Western Australia.  It is a job of isolation as shore leave is granted every other year and the supply boat comes to the island just four times a year.   Tom eventually brings a wife, Isabel, to the island and she desperately wants to start a family; but she suffers through two miscarriages and a stillbirth.  While tending their graves one day, Isabel hears a baby’s cry and they discover a shipwrecked boat containing a baby and a dead man.  Isabel begs Tom to keep the baby and they rear the child as their own, against Tom’s strong conviction that they should report the incident and try to find the baby’s real parents.  Three years later, they go on furlough to the main land and learn of the baby’s mother, who has been driven half mad from the disappearance long ago of her husband and child.  Tom and Isabel’s moral dilemma affects all the other characters in the novel in terms of heartache, loss, and grief.  Stedman illustrates very well the descriptions of the island, the time period (early 1900s), and the life of a light keeper.  Although this book has a sad theme, it is beautifully written and we recommend it, especially for book clubs as there are a number of moral issues that can be discussed.

 

Menu

 

Fruit and Cheese Plate

 

Salad

 

Seafood Broil

 

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake (courtesy of Tony's Market)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2014 Host:  Nancy

 

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett

 

Summary

 

This a powerful memoir detailing Lindhout’s fifteen month long captivity in Somalia.  Lindhout is passionate about travel and the first third of the book details some of her travels around the world to places such as Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.  Eventually, she utilizes journalism to finance her travel bug and she travels to Somalia with Nigel, her boyfriend/photographer.  After only four days in Somalia, they are kidnapped by Somali bandits and held for four hundred and sixty days.  The rest of the book details the sad result of her plan to break into journalism.  The kidnappers demand outrageous ransoms and the hostages are moved from one grimy building to another while Lindhout is treated with increasing brutality.  She is beaten, tortured, starved, raped, chained up and kept in the dark.  This is an amazing story of how one woman survived and forgave.  This is a book that will stay with you for a long time and is highly recommended.  It won the CBC Bookie award for best Canadian nonfiction and was recently optioned to create a screen adaptation of the work.   

 

Menu

 

White Sangria

 

Fruit and Cheese Plate

 

Dates and Figs/Cream Cheese and Crackers

 

Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna)

 

Lemon Tart

 

 

 

 

  

May 2014 Host:  Stephanie

 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 

Summary

 

This classic novel is a story of a plain-faced, passionate, and intelligent English orphan.  Growing up, Jane is abused by her aunt and her cousins and then is sent to a very strict boarding school (where she is also abused).  She survives her relatives and the boarding school and takes a governess position.  Her employer is an aristocrat and despite their different stations, they are drawn into a powerful love.  Strange things then begin happening at the estate such as mysterious laughter, stabbings, and fires.  Her employer’s dark past eventually comes to light, even so, Jane is almost obsessed by her intense love for him.  This must-read novel is brilliant, dark, at times funny, and hauntingly eerie. 

 

Menu

 

Baked Potatoes

 

Chile

 

Cheese Topping

 

Salad

 

Carrot Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2014 Host:  Karen

 

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

 

Summary

 

This novel is about a manuscript that survives a flood and the Holocaust and is told from the viewpoints of several narrators. The first main narrator is Leo Gursky, an octogenarian, who lives by himself in New York. He was born in Poland and fell in love with a girl there named Alma and they were supposed to spend their lives together, however, the war separated them and Leo spends his lonely life pining after Alma. The second main narrator is a young girl named Alma. She has lost her father to pancreatic cancer and lives with her mother and younger brother. Alma does her best to help alleviate her mother's depression and save her brother (who thinks he may be the Messiah) from becoming a social pariah. The History of Love, the novel within this novel, was given away then stolen, conceived in Yiddish then translated to Spanish, published in Argentina, found by a Jewish traveler, given to his wife, secretly translated to English, discovered by a girl in New York, and more. As the connection between Leo and Alma becomes unmasked, we become privy to a number of offbeat characters and quirky behaviors. We enjoyed this novel, however, on occasion were confused with the constant shifting of narration.

Menu

Ginger Beer

 

Cucumber Salad

 

Red Cabbage

 

Potato Pancakes

 

Schnitzel

 

Chocolate Pie

 

Candies

 

 

 

 

 

February 2014 Host:  Stephanie

 

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

 

Summary

In this book Will Schwalbe shares his memories of his mother and discusses the books they shared during her last year suffering from pancreatic cancer.  Mary Ann Schwalbe was a committed humanitarian who had been a director of admissions at Harvard and was the prime force behind building the first public library in Afghanistan.  She was also an avid reader and formed a two person book club with her son, they read and discussed many books while in waiting rooms.  The book reveals how a mother and child shared meaningful reading and bonded later in life.  Some of the books they discuss are well-known but others not as well known (e.g., The Elegance of the Hedgehog).  At the end of the book Schwalbe includes a list of the books and authors of the books they mentioned or discussed, and most readers will add some of those books to their own reading lists.  You will probably find some of her favorites are your own such as I did (e.g. John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany).  The book redefines reading; from a passive venture to an active pursuit.  This is a wonderful read although very sad at times, but well worth finishing.

 

Menu

 

Appetizers

 

Bean and Corn Salad

 

Avocado Salad

 

Tacos and Refried Beans

 

Jennie's Homemade Sugar Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

January 2014 Host:  Sarah

 

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Summary

 

This piece of historical fiction is based on the life of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, who is mentioned briefly in Genesis.  The lives of Dinah’s friends, mothers, and aunts are described with the ‘red tent’ serving as the structure women would retire to during menstruation.  It was here where they would rest/recuperate, share stories, and celebrate lives, births, and deaths.  The structure was considered sacred as only women of child bearing age could enter and the red tent provided many women with joy and strength.  It is a place where women can pass stories down from generation to generation and talk freely about themselves, and it is also a place where births and deaths are witnessed by the women.  Dinah becomes a midwife and the author describes giving birth in biblical times, the joy, the pain, and the sorrow of babies born dead and mothers who die in childbirth.  We all enjoyed this book and anyone will definitely learn something about this time and place.

 

Menu

 

I forgot to take pictures and wish I hadn't since we had an awesome spread of Mediterranian food which included chicken and beef, tabbouleh salad, baba ganoush, and bakery cookies.  I did take a picture earlier of the greek meatballs and tzatziki sauce I made so I will include them here.

 

Greek Meatballs with Tzatziki Sauce

(recipe adapted from Rachael Ray's recipes at foodnetwork.com)

 

For the meatballs I combined one pound of ground beef with one pound of ground lamb, 1/2 cup feta cheese, one egg, 1 teaspoon ground mint, 1/2 grated red onion, 1 tbsp. oregano, one pinch cinnamon, 2 grated garlic cloves, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 1/3 cup bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste.  Form into meatballs (makes about 30).  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. 

 

For the tzatziki sauce I combined in a food processor 1 grated seedless cucumber (after pressing into a strainer to remove excess water), 1.5 cups of greek yogurt, 2 tbsp. dill, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 clove garlic, 2 tsp lemon juice, salt to taste.  Chill for at least one hour before serving.  

 

 

 

 

November 2013 Host:  Jennie

 

  Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea by
                                  Barbara Demick

 

Summary

 

This book follows six North Koreans through their lives in the 1990s and gives the reader insight into what it is like to live there on a daily basis.  We become privy to details such as their modest housing, the lack of heat in the wintertime, the many ways they came up with to avoid starvation (such as milling bark and grasses), and how they had to watch what they said around government officials or else be sent to a work camp.  When the Korean peninsula was split after WWII, Stalin installed a like-minded leader in North Korea, Kim ll-Sung, who eradicates religion and replaces it by his own cult of personality and achieves a god status in his country through constant propaganda.   Upon his death, many North Koreans committed suicide.  When the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off their aid of food and oil to North Korea, they were unable to maintain their electrical grid (on the first page we see a picture of the Korean peninsula at night, South Korea has thousands of twinkling lights and North Korea is pitch black) and millions starved to death (the army took for themselves the aid sent by the US and UN).  The majority of the country still suffers malnutrition, evident in their physical attributes such as being shorter than their relatives in South Korea and having heads disproportionately large to their body size.  This book is informative and will fill the reader with disbelief and a renewed gratefulness for their circumstances; we highly recommend it.

 

Menu

 

Hot Toddies

 

Appetizers

 

San Francisco Salad

 

Mashed Potatoes

 

Barbecued Pork, Chicken, and Sausage

 

Pumpkin Pie

 

Chocolate Cake