August 17, 2013 Meeting
Saturday at Lonnie's, we engaged in some quite interesting discussions of our books for this meeting, The Orchardist and The Kitchen House.
Six of us read and loved The Orchardist. It was described as quiet, layered and complex. As we discussed significant scenes and chapters, we were reminded of how interesting and well developed the characters were and how the story drew us in and carried us along. Some questions created by the story were answered and others were left unanswered through the beautiful writing and some of the author’s unusual ideas. Our overall score was a 4+ (but not a 5).
9 of us read The Kitchen House and the average review was about 2.75. Our group described it as predictable. Some thought it was written in a way to make it translatable into a screenplay. Some of the plot lines seemed manipulative and the writing style was unremarkable.
In my view, though, the common theme of both books is that families are the key to surviving this human existence and the people who make a family may be as varied as any of those we found in these books or who make up the human race. Orphans, sisters, feral girls, friends, named mamas, papas, and lonely old men stirred together becoming a delicious family soup.
And speaking of soup, Nancy made a wonderful cantaloupe soup appetizer to share as we began our gathering on the deck this past Saturday. I think the recipe has been shared. The weather cooperated and we enjoyed Helene’s homemade bread with goat cheese as an appetizer, too.
We cozied up in the corner under the plum tree, which was originally planted as a privacy screen but has recently begun to produce more fruit than my family’s almond orchard. Chatting and drinking wine, we caught up with each other’s news since the last meeting.
After a while, we moved back into the kitchen and dining room, everyone lending a hand to finish laying things out, grilling asparagus and setting up to eat. Hil finished the asparagus. She’d brought a lovely purple cabbage and mint slaw that we all loved.
For once, this hostess’ table was set up so we passed around and dug into Lu’s exquisite potato and string bean salad, yum! We really loved Maggie’s baked beans, there were hardly any left. There were corn nibblets, chicken, ribs, sausage and 2 kinds of barbeque sauce.
The piece de resistance, and believe me, no one resisted, were the two types of homemade pie that Carol made. I limited myself to the apple ala mode.
We had some more engaging discussions, though, as one of us offered, I’m just “too pooped to elaborate”. J
Our two books for the next meeting are: · #1 - The Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers · #2 – Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan
I’m the lucky book selector for next time, so stay tuned for my offerings.
