Saturday

Who needs the address for this weekend? Maybe I'll remember it this time!

Happy Holidays!

                     I hope everyone has a great Christmas and stays safe.

 

More changes

Hopefully no one is too mad but we are going to wait and meet on Jan. 4th. Scheduling conflicts and family obligations are just too much for December.  This will give everyone time to finish the book and since more people are free next month, we may have a bigger turnout. Maybe my 'new boyfriend' will show up!

Let me know if the 4th works - I think it's a Sunday. Who wants to host. Steve? Katherine? Ellyn?

Heart Clogging Yumminess

Before I forget, the next date will be Dec 13 at 4:00, Ellyn's house again (thanks for hosting at your lovely residence, by the way!) Too bad Evan wasn't there. Just kidding-don't kill me. The pick is Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. 

Here's the recipe for the Bacon and Onion Bread Pudding (taken from Cook's Illustrated Best Slow and Easy Recipes - just in case they are reading our blog and sue me for copyright infringement or something).

1 6-10 inch French baguette, torn into inch pieces (about 5-6 cups)

butter for greasing the pan

4 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup grated cheese - I used Parmesan but a mix is fine too.

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves - I used a teaspoon dried and crushed - use to taste b/c it can be overpowering

1 minced garlic clove - about 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

4 slices of bacon

half medium onion - sliced or chopped thinly

1. Heat oven to 450 and brown the bread (in single layer) for 12 minutes until nice and crunchy. Turn once during cycle.

2. Meanwhile cook the bacon until well-browned and crisp but not burnt - just so it will crumble easily. Works just at well in the microwave. Let cool. (These people seem to like to do things the slowwwww way)

3. Cover and cook the onion in some of the bacon oil for about 10 minutes -  medium high until they begin to sweat and  brown (seeing a pattern here?)

4. Reduce heat to 350. Grease the pan. 

5.  Whisk the yolks, cream, milk, 1/4 cup parm., thyme, garlic, s&p together in a bowl. Add the toasted bread and toss to coat evenly. Let sit in fridge for 20-30 minutes until liquid is well absorbed. Toss occasionally. 

6. Pour half the mixture into pan - layer with bacon and onions and more cheese. Then put rest of bread mixture on top and but the rest of the cheese on top of that. Bake about 45 minutes or an hour if you like it dryer. 

Enjoy!

P.S. Can I just say that Luke Honeythunder is the best screen name ever?

Ch-ch-changes

There has been a change of plans - we are going to meet at Ellyn's this month. I'm sending you all the google map because I don't want any stranger sicko-pervs to stalk her. D, if you need a ride, let me know. Please bring food and drink, as usual. 

Green Apple Books

Last weekend Toshi finally bought a GPS, which in my opinion is one of the greatest things ever. No more using me as a map, no more screaming at each other because he has to make a u-turn! We took it to San Francisco to 'test' it out and ended up on Clement St. and 6th looking for a Japanese restaurant he'd heard about. Killing some time before it opened, we decided to go into Green Apple Books.

Why has no one ever told me about this place? Why am I dating someone who doesn't read and won't let me linger in the stacks for a couple of days?

It's the type of independent bookstore that Borders and B&N kills- a huge labyrinth of shelves with new and used books, magazines, and music, a knowledgeable staff that reviews everything (!), and awesome sales. We had to call each other to find our way back to each other.

If you've never been, go. If anyone is up for a field trip, I'm in.

VOTE 2008

Everyone please remember to vote today.  Now, more than ever, every vote counts.

What we've read

The Road- Cormac McCarthy

Bartimaeus #1 Amulet of Samarkand - J. Stroud

I Am Legend- Richard Matthieson

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosignski

The Kite Runner

In Cold Blood-Capote

Portrait of Dorian Gray -Oscar Wilde

Siddhartha- Herman Hesse

Am I forgetting any?

November meeting

The winner is The Gathering by Anne Enright, the winner of the 2007 Booker Prize. We are switching to Katherine's place on Saturday the 22nd. If you've got kittie allergies, I'll bring the Zyrtec. I'll send a separate email to all of you in a few weeks with the address and her phone number. Someone be sure to remind me.

ELD HELL

Help! I'm trapped in ELD HELL.  Training started today, Stevie Nicks (Rice) won't leave me alone and Finucane is in my group.  Just three questions:  How long can I ignore his incessant yammering? How many of those skirts does she own? And how can I retain my sanity? I hope to get some reading in during training; it's my only hope.  Right now it's The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank (she wrote The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing) Pretty good so far (chap.2).  Happy belated Bday, Steve. The "friendship" cake was great...I hope it's not still sitting on my desk!  I went to the library and checked out a bunch of possible book club reads.  I'm bringing them all on Saturday so be prepared.

next meeting

although I am celebrating steve's birthday all day today (without his knowledge and, well, without him) I thought i would take the time out to ask what time we are meeting on saturday. anyone?

Happy Birthday, Steve. Or is it in March or maybe November...?

Leave me alone. I'm listening to my iPod.

Or I would if it was working. I don't have anything to do with books to post, since I've been spending all day avoiding reading. Instead, the other obsession - music. A guy from work told me about Pandora.com - it's a site that allows you to make radio stations based on your musical preferences. If you hate the song, you give it the hands down and it's never played again. If you like it, thumbs up and the magical little bunnies at Pandora 'learn' and add other artists and songs based on your opinions. It's one of my new favorite things. 

And the other, which is courtesy of the same guy: Kings of Leon. Who said sexy young things never come from Tennessee? These guys apparently lived in my hometown for five years. They, of course, got smart and moved away. Watch the video for Sex on Fire, which they performed on SNL.

Bookishness

Don't know if I would make one of these but the idea is pretty cool.

Or how about a chair made from recycled books?

Ramblings

I had a lot of time off this summer - a lot. I knitted, I bowled, I drank quite a few dirty martinis, and I watched too many episodes of daytime COPS looking for my relatives back in the South, but other than the Harry Potter series  and a couple of smutty romance novels, I read very little. I'd rather reread a good book 10 times over than pick up a new one and be disappointed, which I frequently am. Plus, I'm cheap, have the attention span of a gnat and still owe a fine at the library from two years ago. 

Now suddenly, there are about 20 I want to read and somehow they are all in hardback or are 500+ pages long. Go figure. 

First, though, I'll start with Susan's suggestions:

The next pick is The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski for our October 25th meeting. Kosinski's biography is just as interesting and controversial as I'm sure the book will be. 

The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

Shoeless Joe Jackson by W.P. Kinsella which is the novel Field of Dreams is based on. 

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a collection of short stories. If you only read one work of 'fiction' about the Vietnam War, this is the most critically acclaimed. 

The Giver by Lois Lowry, which is probably on every required reading list, with good reason. I highly recommend it - harrowing and thought provoking. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I remember devouring this book when I was just out of high school and it remains one of my all time favorites. Throw away Catcher in the Rye and read this slim, spare novel about coming of age. 

On my list:

Well, I just finished H.P. #7 and Midnight's Children is in the mail, but I've got my eye on two books about books.  

The first is The Book Thief by Mark Zukas, a novel set in Germany during WWII and told from the point of view of Death, a reluctant collector of souls and his encounters with Leisel Meminger, the title character, as she steals the books and shares them with the people around her while trying to deal with the encroaching threat of Nazism. 

The other is a  translation, Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon. Here's the blurb from Wikipedia:

"The novel, set in post- Spanish Civil War Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel. Just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it, and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. That night he takes the book home and reads it, completely engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author, but can find none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man - calling himself Laín Coubert, after a character in the book who happens to be the Devil - who has been seeking out Carax' books for decades, buying them all and burning them. In time this mysterious figure confronts and threatens Daniel. Terrified, Daniel returns the book to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books but continues to seek out the story of the elusive author. In doing so Daniel becomes entangled in an age old conflict that began with the author himself. Many parallels are found to exist between the author's life and Daniel's and he takes it upon himself to make sure history does not repeat."

So, how to feed this addiction without going broke?  Here's a solution: Booksfree.com is like Netflix for books, it's that simple. The books are shipped to your house and there are different payment plans. 

And just for fun, because tonight may be a bloodbath, here's a Sarah Palin quote generator.

Who cares about books...

food is the most important thing. Since we are having the meeting at Steve's place, everyone is welcome to bring something to nosh on. Ellyn has something in the works but I can't decide whether to make Strawberry Marzipan Muffins or Sour Cream Apple Pie.  Any votes? I will be bringing sangria to officially say good-bye to summer. 

Sweet on Geeks

Finally: an online dating site for geeks lookin' for love! Oscar would approve.

Silliness

Click here for link to author Junot Diaz getting the Colbert treatment. 

It's magic

I used to be ashamed of reading mostly romance novels. Even when I worked in a bookstore, I'd sneak my stack up to the counter like a druggie with a secret stash. I'd cover the covers with the inserts from magazines. I'd avoid questions about what I was reading, mostly because my male friends would snatch the books and read the sex scenes aloud (ask D. about his horrifying experience with 'thickets').

It wasn't until I read One Hundred Years of Solitude that I really understood what I'd been missing and/or ignoring. The end was stunning, when the Buendias' journey ends and the whole fantastic scope of the novel is revealed. First published in 1967, it is still considered the preeminent example of Magical Realism, which, to steal some quotes from Wikipedia is "an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even 'normal' setting." For instance, one character, Remedios the Beauty, floats away to the heavens while folding the laundry. The blood of another, Jose Arcadio, winds its way out the door and around the corner to find his mother and tell her of his death. 

If you want to delve further into Magical Realism, Margin is an online magazine with a huge list of novels, poetry, and non-fiction resources on the subject. Some I've read and loved like Bel Canto by Anne Patchett, and The Onion Girl by Charles De Lint. Others I've read and enjoyed: The Little Prince and Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquival and then there were some surprising choices (neither of which I've read yet) such as Heart Of Darkness,  and As I Lay Dying.

Another exhaustive website, The Modern Word, is an amazing journey into the worlds created by Marquez, Borges, and Joyce, among others, each occupying their own 'corner' much like you might find in your favorite independent bookstore. It is a also a resource to discover new and experimental writers and small publishing houses. 

All this brings me to another book that I want to read, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, a modern day retelling of The Prince and the Pauper. It is the fictional autobiography of Saleem Sinai who is born on August 15, 1947, just as India declares its independence from Great Britain. As he grows, and witnesses the birth of modern India, he realizes that he and the other 1000 children born between 12 and 1 on the same night have been invested with supernatural powers. For Saleem, it is a 'wildly sensitive sense of smell' and the presence of inner voices that connect him to the other children. 

Is anyone up for a 450 page selection?

September

We set the next meeting for Saturday September 27th @4:00. Since everyone agreed to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao I will bring baked goods to Steve's house. Anybody need directions, just let me know. 

Totally not book related...

...but I loves me some  Alan Rickman and he plays Snape in the Harry Potter films, so this counts, right? It's the music video for In Demand by Texas. Corny, cheesy, sexy- say what you will, I don't care because Alan does the tango.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be August 24th at True Love @ 5:00, unless someone has a different suggestion for the place. 

And for Nicole and Christine (since we were talking about Harry Potter) click here for the link to Charmed Knits - Projects for Fans of Harry Potter. We'll make a knitter out of Christine yet.

Bribery and baked goods

I've been not so quietly lobbying for us to read, for September, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the Pulitzer Prize Winner of 2007.  It's getting rave reviews for being sweet, funny, and tragic, plus I'm a sucker for family sagas. 

The title character is a sweet but overweight "GhettoNerd" living in New Jersey with his mother and sister who's obsessed with D&D, anime, and comics. He dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and experiencing his first kiss and/or losing his virginity but the 'fuku', a curse that has haunted his Dominican-American family for generations, stands in the way. It is also the story of Oscar's grandfather, who lived under the brutal reign of Trujillo, while shifting back and forth in time and narration. 

 

If you are not convinced, then I'm all set to bribe you with homemade baked goods. 

The paperback will be released on September 2nd but there are plenty of used hardbacks at half.com. 

Helloooo...

I'm going to be needy for a moment. Everybody that I invited and accepted the invite can post here. Please post something book related.  For the peeps that haven't accepted, your email stays hidden from outsiders and I haven't gotten any spam from blogger.com, if that is a worry (Marcus!).

I'm not insecure, am I? Am I?

Has anyone started reading Return of the Native? I cracked it open and it looked...dense, so this may be another one I don't read. I don't guess watching the movie really counts. 

I  finished Breaking Dawn. I won't post any spoilers, since I know Jen is probably deep into her copy right know. What a colossal failure/disappointment that book was, devoid of any romance or coherence. After 3000+  pages there's not even one sex scene. Can I get my $13 back, Mrs. Meyer?

This is the book I'm eyeing now: The Outlander by Gil Adamson. Arrgh. It won't be in paperback until next year, so I guess I might trek over to the library. Here's the blurb:

"In 1903 a mysterious young woman flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow - and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding tho little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness  - and into the wilds of her own mind- encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way."

It is being compared to the works of Cormac McCarthy, whom I love, love, love, even if Oprah-Satan thinks she discovered him. Jen and I went to a used book store last week and I was commenting to the owner/manager about the upcoming movie for the Road. What did I get in return? Total blankness. Hello? Pulitzer Prize winner?  

What is everybody else reading at the moment?

August meeting

For our August meeting we decided on Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Here's a link from Project Gutenberg to download it free: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/122

 Now we need to decide on a place and time. The old stand-by, True Love Coffee House, is not really an option anymore. When we met last we found a Greek restaurant in its place and True Love moved upstairs, which I suspect will sink the business quickly. The whole charm of the downstairs location was that it was large enough and quiet enough to house all of us when we actually showed up. Really, I'll miss their addictive peanut butter mochas the most. 

Other odds and ends:

I finally joined the pack and read the first two Harry Potter books! They were light and enjoyable and the movies are almost identical, as far as following the events. I'm going to try to read to number four and take a break. Thanks, Marcus. 

Well, not really a break, because what comes out August 2nd? Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment in Stephanie Meyers Twilight series, that's what. I won't be staying up until midnight and sneaking over to Borders for the Edward and Bella parties, but darn close.  I can't remember the last time I was so invested in characters or that I had to clear off chunks of time - no food, no tv, don't talk to me- to finish the book. So what if the books are for teenage girls and Edward and Bella's romance is totally unhealthy and obsessive? 

I'm going to be presumptuous because I think having your words published (by other people, of course) is something to be proud of - so here's  a link to one of Christine's X-Files articles on IGN: http://tv.ign.com/articles/893/893502p1.html

Read them all and comment on how awesome Christine is. 

Reading with my eyes closed.

"Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some to be chewed and digested."

Thanks, Sir Francis Bacon, for making me seriously contemplate (all of thirty seconds) naming this blog "Chewed and Digested." Thankfully, I snickered and moved on, saving myself/all of us tons of double entendres.