March book club was held at Denise's. We missed Darby and Terry. As always the food was stupendous. I think we may be running out of words to describe all of our wonderful meals. The food is always as varied as the books we read. For appetizers we had a shrimp cocktail and Diana brought two cheeses, the Pecoroni Truffaleto and an aged Gouda with walnuts whose pungent flavors melded wonderly with her olives. For the main course, Denise made a tasty pasta and white bean dish drizzled with olive oil and rosemary. Garlic bread, two salads (one by Lis and one by me) rounded out the meal. Carla and Pam brought the chocolate mousse cake made famous by La Baguette, Janie brought gorgeous chocolate covered strawberries, there were also brownies and cookies. As always, Arnora brought the floral arrangment. The usual assorted wines and coffee topped it all off.
The book, Interpreter of Maladies received somewhat mixed reviews. This was a Pulitzer Prize winning book and is a collection of 9 short stories. The title put a few of us off initially after reading, or attempting to read The Hour I First Believed. And, with short stories you have to put on the brakes and adapt your reading style as well as your expectations. There isn't time for much character development and often the stories seemed to end abruptly. Some of the girls felt they wanted more closure. The stories were little snapshots of immigrants from India living in Amercia. Stories of how they were adapting, or not, to American life but they were also stories of people going through painful circumstances that anyone in any culture would be faced with. Lou pointed out that the stories were about how, in spite of cultural differences, we are more alike than different. Some thought the stories too sad and others were satisfied with how well written they were.
Our local authors have a conflict with our April meeting so Twin Motives has been moved to May and we opted for a book we hope will be humorous; A Girl Called Zippy.
