March 2015 Host:  Stephanie

Pig's Foot:  A Novel by Carlos Acosta

Summary

One day Oscar Kortico wakes to find himself utterly alone in the world. As the sole descendant of his family line he is not sure what to do or where he should go, but in the midst of this uncertainty, he holds fast to what his grandfather always told him: 'No man knows who he is until he knows his past, the history of his country.  As he sets out to find the lost village of Pata de Puerco and the meaning of the magical pig's-foot amulet he has inherited, the search for his country's hidden history becomes entangled with his search for the truth about himself.  Through a vivid, if not entirely reliable, retelling of the stories of his ancestors we live the tumultuous history of Cuba through Oscar's eyes, from the arrival of slaves through the wars of independence, to Bacardi rum, dictatorship, revolution and, finally, to a freedom of sorts. (this review was taken from goodreads.com) Only a few of us actually finished the book, it was very unusual and although funny at times, a bit of a letdown in the historical development of Cuba.  The characters were very unusual, and the ending was hackneyed

Menu

Mojitos

Crostini w/Goat Cheese, Fig Jam, Prosciutto, & Basil

Cuban Salad

Cuban Seasoned Pork

Baked Cinnamon Apples

Vanilla Ice Cream w/Cinnamon Churro Chips

February 2015 Host:  Karen

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

This is the story of 10-year old Rachel whose mother is Danish and father is an African American GI.  After the family moves to America, tragedy strikes and Rachel moves in with her paternal grandmother.  Rachel feels alienated from her family and is unable to put herself into a black or white category.  She feels she does not fit in with the white girls because of her dark skin and does not fit in with the black girls because of her blue eyes and over achiever status.  She also struggles with the memories of the tragedy that had befallen her family and misses the Danish-American culture in which she was raised. The second half of the novel covers the nuances of Rachel’s development, her conflicts with her judgmental but well-meaning grandmother, and her relationship with a liberal white college boy.  From each of the main characters, we get an alternating view of Rachel’s past through a climactic build until the end, where we learn the most profound incident of Rachel’s life.  The novel explores the complexities of racial relationships and identities and the reader is compelled to read to the end to understand the mystery of the horrific tragedy that befell Rachel.   

 January 2015  Host:  Stephanie

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Summary

This is the story of a jinni, a magical being of fire, and a golem, a Jewish creature made of clay brought to life to do another’s bidding, and is set in turn of the century New York City.  The jinni was freed from a 1,000 year imprisonment in a flask. The golem was created to be a rich merchant’s wife, however, the merchant dies en route to America and the golem arrives at Ellis Island alone. They must separately find their way in circumstances that they are unprepared for while concealing their essential natures (e.g. the golem has to ‘pretend’ to eat food). They eventually meet and their growing friendship is tested by their inherent nature and another who seeks to control death.  The side characters that the golem and the jinni interact with are also richly developed.  Two such characters are Mahmoud Saleh, a Jewish doctor down on his luck, and Fadwa, a Bedouin girl from 1,000 years before the story was set.  The author has done a lot of research creating her settings from 1900 New York City to Syria in the 1800s and life in the desert one thousand years before.  The reader is transported into another realm of existence through her attention to detail and magical realism.  We had mixed reactions to this book, some of us loved it, and some of us did not bother to finish it (the book was very long at over 500 pages).  If you enjoy mythology or descriptive stories about early 1900s New York, then this is a must read. 

November 2014 Host:  Sara

Orange is the New
Black by Piper Kerman

Summary

Piper Kerman carried drug money in Brussels in the early nineteen nineties and this catches up to her a decade later when someone names her for the crime.   The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, well-educated Piper must begin a fourteen month sentence in the women’s correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut.  She chronicles her prison experiences in this candid memoir.  Piper describes prison life in detail such as good prison guards versus bad, earning phone privileges, smuggling food in one’s underwear for cooking later, warding off sexual advances, and learning the plethora of protocols and rules to avoid trouble or having privileges revoked.  She eventually makes close friends on the inside, avidly reads the large assortment of books her family and friends send her, and runs six mile a day on the prison track to relieve her stress.   Piper touches on many subjects such as the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders (e.g. a Dominican woman in her seventies is serving four years for a wire charge which involved taking messages for a drug dealing relative) and restorative justice.  If you have watched the show, the book is a ‘safe’ read and not as graphic (e.g. no pregnancy drama, brutal beatings, overt sex, drug running, etc.)  This memoir is about women from different backgrounds bonding despite their terrible situation and we recommend it.

Menu

Green Beans

Macaroni and Cheese

Berry Cobbler

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)