May 2022 Book Club

 

Arnora hosted or book club for May. She made the most delicious meatballs I have ever had. And, that is saying something as I generally don't like them. She used a recipe from the Pioneer Woman, who coincidentally, we will be visiting at the end of the month for our 20th Anniversary Retreat. 

This month's book was West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. The premise of the story was based on true life events that took place in 1938 when the director of the San Diego Zoo paid for two giraffes and a rhino to be shipped from Africa to NY. Once they were in NY she had paid to have them transported over land to San Diego. The director, Belle Benchley, was the first woman director of a zoo in the world. Giraffes were not unknown in the U.S. the first ones were seen at Central Park in 1872. However, they were difficult to transport and the climate did not always agree with them. By 1925 there were only five in the country. 

The trip across the ocean did not go well. The ship encountered the deadliest hurricane to ever hit the East Coast. In fact, it remained so until 2012 when Hurricane Sandy hit. The boat made it some of the passengers did not and the rhino was swept overboard. 

The book opens with our main character Woodrow "Woody" Wilson Nickel living in a nursing home at the end of his life. He is reliving the time in his life when he went to meet his cousin who was a passenger on the ship. He arrives to find his cousin was one of the storm's victims. But, he becomes entangled with the giraffes and the zoo employ who is to drive them to San Diego. Woody wants to tag along but is denied so he stows away and ends up driving the make shift crates and truck. They followed by a young redheaded woman in a green Packard who says she is a photo journalist trying to break into the biz. 

This story had everything and reminded me of how I felt reading The Elephant Whisperer. It was action packed from near the first page. It had adventure, romance, danger and the connection of man with animals. 

I won't recount the full story here but the book was so well loved that we decided we had to have 21 favorite books for our 20 year anniversary. The book rated a 4.9 

April 2022 Book Club

Pam hosted April's Book Club and we read Time after Time by Lisa Grunwald. On our arrival, we were greeted by music from the 1940's to set the mood.  Our main dishes were sandwiches and salads. Lis brought sandwiches from Jersye Mikes and Carla A brought, what I call "tailgate sandwiches." Don't ever eat one because they are addictive!  There was a lot of food including two delicious desserts.  I have included photos of the food and flowers. 

Time after Time is a combination time travel and ghost story set mostly in Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal. 

The author was inspired to write this book while doing research on another. She stumbled onto a book about Grand Central Station and in it was a story of a young man who stumbles upon a young woman who is lost and confused. The young man offers to walk her home but she disappears. He has her address but when he reaches her aunts house he is told the woman had died years ago but that she reappears every year on the same day. 

In the novel, Joe Reynolds is a hardworking railroad man from Queens who works in the terminal. One day he comes upon a mysterious young woman, Nora, who seems out of place and confused. She is dressed like a 1920's flapper but the current day is 1937.  Joe wants to help her out and tries to walk her home but she disappears.  Over time, Nora continues to appear and disappear in Joe's life and they eventually determine that Nora had been killed in a train accident in the terminal in the 1920's. But, she keeps appearing in the present time. Joe and Nora fall in love and with his help, they figure out why she disappears when she leaves the train station. She reappears every year on the day of "Manhattanhenge." A phenomenon of the equivalent of the equinox at Stonehenge. However, Nora's permanent existence is threatened when the new United Nations Building goes up and the sun is blocked from the station. 

I thought the author did a great job putting the reader in Grand Central Station. It was built by Commodore Vanderbilt and acted like a city within the terminal. There was a bar, a hotel, shops and restaurants. It would be easy enough for someone to live inside the terminal. 

The story starts in 1937 during the depression and continues through WWII. Everyone enjoyed the read and the book rated a 4. 

 

March 2022 Book Club

 

Lis hosted our March Book Club. We read Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 

This story takes place in Malibu, California and is about the family of a famous singer. The story is fiction, of course, but the group could see similarities with famous crooners like Frank Sinatra. The family comes together for an annual summer party hosted by the daughter, Nina and her three siblings. The full story takes place over the course of this one day event where the siblings confront their childhood growing up with a mostly absent famous father whose fame they are forced to reckon with. 

Several of us were a bit surprised as the book summary mentions Malibu fires but, they did not play a part in the story. 

The book rated a 3.5 for those who finished. it. 

February Book Club 2022

 

As the weather took another frigid turn and the Omnicron is still raging, we met on Zoom this month. Unfortunately, as we met on a Sunday afternoon, about half our group was unable to attend. But, those who did enjoyed the discussion.  As we on Zoom, we were on our own for food and drink.

Actually, it's a bit of a shame that we ended up on Zoom with this particular book as it was all about food! 

Our protagonist is a Filipino-American named Lila Macapagal who has been living in Chicago. After a bad break up with her boyfriend she moves back to the small town of Shady Palms to nurse her wounds and help in her families restaurant. The catalyst for the story begins when an old, hometown boyfriend and now food critic ends eating in the restaurant with his stepfather. Then ends up have a fatal allergic reaction the Adobo dish he is eating. 

This sends Lila on a vengeance to clear her families name and reopen the restaurant that is their only income. Lila, though spunky and determined, is also very naive. She apparently, hasn't watched many police procedural dramas. I've never been in law enforcement, but even I know you don't talk to the cops without a lawyer present when you are being accused of murder. Her spunky, well-meaning, naivete consistently complicates the investigation and continually leads to more trouble for everyone until they stumble onto the real murderer. I guess all of her bumbling adds to the humor of the story but I had issue with it. 

Everyone like the story well enough. We all agreed it was a fun, light read and just what we needed for this time of year. The book rated a 3. 

January Book Club 2022

 

As we are now two months into 2022 it seems that the Corona Virus is still with us. In its third (I think, I'm losing count) mutation, the Omnicron is more contagious than the earlier viruses and numbers are rising again. With that consideration, half of us met at Carla Gibbs' for the meal and the other half joined us on Zoom. It was our first time to try a Hybrid meeting. 

Carla made a Sweet Potato Chicken Chili and cornbread as our main dish. Rather than just wine, I actually contributed a warm Brie with a caramelized apple topping. 

This month, we were thrilled to see Diana who has been recovering from a heart attack and stints. We're just so happy that she listened to her body, got quick and stellar care. 

Our book for January was written by the author of another book club favorite, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. 

The novel opens with our protagonist as a small child enjoying the company of her father during WWII. He is showing her a book of magical creatures including a golden beetle that may, or may not, reside in New Caldonia. There's a knock on the Library door, he is handed a telegram. He exclaims, "Not all of the?" Then proceeds to leave the room and shoots himself. Quite dramatic and certainly traumatic for his little daughter. We find out later that he has three soldier sons who have all been killed on the same day. 

The story jumps ahead to 1950 where Margery is living a very unfulfilled life as a science teacher. One day, walks out of the job and books a ticket to New Caldonia where she intends the find the golden beetle. She hires an assistant and the adventure begins. Throughout the book the twin themes of trauma and obsession drive the story. 

The book was well received and rated a 4. 

December Book Club 2021

 

In keeping with our Christmas tradition, Laura had us at her home for a High Tea. It was a beautiful afternoon! Of course, there was too much wonderful food and we had our exchange of gifts and cards. 

Our book this month was Anxious People was written by Fredrik Bachman who also wrote A Man Called Ove. 

The catalyst for the story is a failed bank robbery which turns into a farcical hostage situation. The bank robber, whose identity is not revealed until the end of the story, tries to rob a cashless bank in Stockholm. They end up hiding out in an apartment where eight prospective buyers are being the shown around. These people inadvertently find themselves in a siege situation. Add to this confusion a rather inept father/son police duo and it sets the stage for confusion, humor, irony and pathos. 

The book was well received and rated a 4.1 

November Book Club 2021

 

Blog # 177 Book #239

November's Book Club was hosted by Lis. We missed Barb, Laura, Denise, Tammy, Leslie and Pam.

The rest of us enjoyed Lis' Sweet Potato Chili and Mayan Hot Chocolate. Carla Anderson brought Chicken Tortilla Soup. Carl Gibbs brought bread, cheese and wine. Janie brought Peach Cobbler and Ice Cream. 

Our book was recommend by Barb who counts it among one of her favorites. West with the Night is the memoir of Beryl Markham. Born in England in 1902 she was raised by her father in Africa where she became a pilot and horse trainer. 

 she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to West. Her contemporary, Amelia Earhart, and American born 5 years earlier. was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from West to East in 1932. Beryl was also a contemporary of Isak Dinesen, Dynis Finch Hatton and Ernest Hemingway. 

Upon reading Beryl's manuscript he remarked, "She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. She can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers. It is really a bloody wonderful book." 

I wouldn't say that our book club rating of a 3.4 reflects Hemingway's praise. However, I think that reading the book 80's after its publication may account for the difference in our appraisal. Some liked it better than others. I really enjoyed her descriptive writing. I thought it beautiful prose and she led a remarkable life. However, it being written in 1942, I thought she did a good job of being discreet about the more sensational parts of her love life. That said, the story was told with a lack of emotion that I think colored the story. She married three times and had one son. However, she had affairs, among others, two sons of King George V, Princes Harry and Edward. Edward later abdicated the throne. She also acquainted and friends with the author Isak Dinesen of Out of Africa fame. Isak had been having an affair with Denys Finch Hatton while he was also seeing Beryl. Of her relationships Beryl mentions only Finch Hatton (that I recall) but does not give details and never mentions Dineson. 

Beryl was born in England but was taken to Kenya at age 4. She grew up there with her father. Her mother and a brother stayed behind in England. Beryl grew up with a Zebra as a pet and was around horses all of her life as well all the wild life in Africa. She learned to fly at a young age and initially earned money by scouting elephants for hunters.  In 1920, at age 18, she became the first woman in Kenya to be given a horse trainers license. 

I won't give the full bio here but among her many accomplishments, she did become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to West in 1936. Her contemporary, Amelia Earhart, an American born 5 years earlier, was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from West to East in 1932. 

I was happy to have read the book and to have learned more about this woman.