November 14 Meeting at Grace's

With the  snow and ice forecast for Thursday, it was good we moved our meeting to Wednesday night.  Thank you to everyone who was able to make it on such short notice.  Roe we missed you.

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary and still going strong. Kathy updated our blog with some of our changes for the coming year, i.e., lunch meeting in January and February.

After reorganizing we  got down to our discussion.  Book this month was "The Silent Wife"  by Kerry Fischer.  Apparently, there were several books with this same title, different authors.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the book.   We had a very good discussion about the characters and how deceptive appearances could be in the case of Massimo and Lara's relationship.  Lara seemed to have it all but her husband was very abusive mentally and had many secrets.  Basically, in my opinion he was a creep.

When Massimo's younger brother Nico gets married and he introduces Maggie into the family so many dark secrets start to surface. Maggie tried so hard to fit in and be accepted by the family.  Everyone thought she was a gold digger but in reality she was a very hard worker and very independent. She was also a good mother and a good daughter. At the end of the book, the truth comes out about all the characters.

One of the questions we discussed was "Would you risk everything for the man you love, even if you knew he did something terrible?"  General consensus was it depended on how many other people it
could hurt.

Grace

October 18 Meeting at Carol's

"The Memory Painter" was the book for October. This was not my usual style of book, but I did enjoy it and most of you agreed. In a search for a cure for Alzheimer's, 4 scientists discover a drug which when used allows you to have flashbacks to previous lives. The story dealt with the 4 main characters and how their lives intertwined over the previous centuries. Their lives started with Hermese an Egyptian Goddess and showed a trail of love, hate, murder and destruction throughout time. 
Everybody was asked to come in costume again this year, since it was the Halloween season. Please excuse my racey costume, but I wanted to come as Hermese. I have always felt that I was a Goddess or Queen in a previous life. We enjoyed a truly delicious meal, graciously prepared by my personal chef, Dusty. I hope everyone enjoyed the evening as much as I did.Carol

September 27 Meeting at Pat's

Bookclub was great fun. We missed you, Pam. 

Treats from Ireland and discussion about that beautiful land. I wanted to share one of my favorite authors, Robyn Carr, so chose "The Family Gathering". It is the third in a series of three, the first two being "What We Find" and "Any Day Now". Carr has a Virgin River series that I have enjoyed over the years. Her characters feel like family and friends. I somehow appreciate her predictability. Therese Plummer records Carr's books and is amazing!! 

We talked about the Great American Read, airing on Tuesday evenings on PBS. Link is pbs.org/greatamericanread

Carol has knee surgery October 3. We are already praying and keeping you close in thought. All will be well. 

Thanks, Pat

August 16 Meeting at Sharon's

A lively discussion centered around the definition and practice of racism addressed in Jodi Picoult’s novel, small great things. We also “centered” around (we missed you, Pat) an array of food, which included chicken tenders with various sauces, a zucchini/tomato/cheese casserole, and a blackberry cobbler, along with goodies provided by others. We never go hungry! The title of the book and the heart of the story were taken from a Martin Luther King quote: “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” The thoughts and actions of a white supremacist character were disturbing enough for at least one member that she couldn’t read the chapters attributed to him (Turk). The concept of equality vs. equity was also discussed in relation to the book and in the world today. We welcomed Edna’s English cousin, Pat, who had also read the book and shared with us the issues surrounding race in England.

Sharon

July 19 Meeting at Pam's

Pam

June 20 Meeting at Louisa's

The girls showed up in a terrible rainstorm. Alice, Grace, Kathy, Pam, and Pat couldn't join us. We missed you.

      Elizabeth made stuffed green pepper soup and we had Italian bread with it. After dinner we discussed the book. Everyone enjoyed "The Heist". I chose it because I thought it would be a fun summer read. We decided Nick was really smart to be able to devise such elaborate cons. Edna and Carol are reading the other books in the series. We talked about how we like Janet Evanovich books. She usually makes you laugh.

     We had dessert of vanilla butter nut cake, candy that Dricka brought, and  Rosemary's lemon bars. I surprised the girls with a box of small Toblerone in honor of Nick who always leaves one on Kate's pillow.

Recipe for Crockpot Green Pepper Soup

Louisa

May 24 Meeting at Kathy's

Thank you everyone for coming to my book club. It was wonderful as usual. The high light of the night for Grace, Pam, Edna, Dricka and of course Rosemary, was visiting with the "twins" - our newest neighbors and Rosemary's grand babies - Ada and Conner.

Before during and after, we gathered around to catch up on all the happenings over the past month: trips, illneses, surgeries and everything else. I think we need a chart of who has what!
We then ajourned to the dinning room to partake of pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans and corn. After dinner, I gave a brief history of the typewriter since the book didn't go in to any detail. My old Smith Corona was passed around for everyone to practice on and reminisce about the good old days before computers and internet.

Sharon, Pam and myself really enjoyed "The Blind Contessa's New Machine", a novel based on the true story of a nineteenth-century inventor and his innovative contraption. I thought Carey Wallace did a amazing job describing the process of going blind and how well Carolina adapted to her new condition with imagination and total recall of her surroundings. Others weren’t thrilled with the choppiness of the story and how it went from one converstion to another. Edna didn’t care for her having an affair and ruining her and Turri’s marriage. I found it interesting that her mother said “"A girl does not have many choices. This is the most important one. There must be no whisper against your name until you are married." ...... "After you are married," her mother continued, "many things may happen. You will not speak of them. Neither will your husband, if he is a gentleman." …….. "Do you understand?" ; as if it’s OK to take on a lover but only after you are married. We all agreed that the ending was not satisfactory, perhaps this was because it was the author’s first novel. I really enjoy historic fiction and although I generally do not like books with a lot of detail, I thought this was essential to visualize ( dare I say this) what this blind Contessa was experiencing.

Next month on June 21, we will meet at Louisa’s and read “The Heist” by Janet Evanovich. I have the ebook which will be emailed soon.

Pat, Alice and Carol, we missed you guys.

Arrivederci,
KAthy G

April 19 Meeting at Rosemary's

GTG book club met at Rosemary's home on Thursday, April 19, 2018.

We enjoyed a dinner of chicken parmigiana, salad, spaghetti (made with my recipe and not the one mentioned in the book).   Somehow nutmeg in my Italian sauce was beyond my culinary exploration.   I am sure it is good in some parts of Italy.   After dinner we discussed the book chosen, "Kiss Carlo" written by Adriana Trigiani.  The story was primarily set in South Philly in an Italian neighborhood post WW II, early 1950s, and focused on family conflicts, dreams, and emotional vendetta's.

The storyline centered around the main character "Nicky Castone", with his many conflicts within himself, romantically, as well as trying to discover the meaning of his life and his identity within "la famiglia".

Most of us agreed that the book was well written but had too many spinoff plots and the writer may have gotten  three books out of the over 500 page novel.   Having read several of Adriana Trigiani's books and the fact it was written around  an Italian family theme and background was the reason I chose the book.    I enjoyed reading about the many characters and family situations, I just didn't like it as much as others I've read by her.  

We missed Pat,Pam, Alice and Grace.  

See you ladies at the next bookclub meeting at Kathy's.

Thanks for coming,

Rosemary

March 15 Meeting at Alice's

THE GTG Book club selection for March 2018 was ONCE UPON A TOWN by Bob Greene, a short non-fiction selection told by the people of North Platte, NE about their having a "whistle stop" on the east-west train line during WWII for troop trains.

I learned about the North Platte Canteen appropriately last Veteran's Day at the South Jefferson Library in Summit Point where a celebration took place to re-create the NP Canteen with invited guests and the community.  It was very lively with music of the era, food, and lots of photos -- which I borrowed to hang up at my house for book club night.

The style of writing in OUAT was repetitive and dragged in places (lots of the same story but it was the local people remembering and telling it) Bob Greene is a newspaper columnist so it was very much along that model - who, what , when, where, why. and how.  And we all liked a good story about FOOD! :)

Never the less, a heartening story!  Dedicated they were in many central Nebraska towns and villages to make it happen for every single train (so impressive with rationing and food shortages) It gave the community such a morale boost. Double that for the troops.

I came to realize after reading the book and talking to my mom, that my dad went through North Platte during the war on his way from California to Paris Island, North Carolina for Marine Corp boot camp.

We enjoyed fried chicken, salad, fresh veggies, angle food cake and many desserts == thanks everyone for coming over.  VICTORY!   ALL ABOARD!!

Alice

February 15 Meeting at Edna's

February bookclub took place on February 15th at my house on  Paynes Ford Road.   I had one week to arrive home from England and get my act together!!  Don't know if I succeeded on "the act together" part but we gathered anyway!!

   Since the book was set during World War 2 in  Germany and Poland; I decided to try to stick with German food.  I did a German cucumber salad for a start and served a German pork roasted with potatoes, onions and sauerkraut.  It was tasty but it is not a specialty of mine.  I had never fixed it before.  I just went to Pinterest, looked up "German Food" and then picked the recipes I liked.  I also did a German Chocolate Cake.  Of course we had other delicious desserts brought in and candy too.  Oh yes, I almost forgot the stupid chocolate-dipped vodka strawberries which were a pain to make, didn't look anything like the pictures and have sworn to never fix again!!

    Now the book!!  Everyone seemed to really like the book even though it was sad!!  I didn't realize that we were doing a book about World War 2 right before this one but they were different enough that we had no trouble getting through it. 

     The story tantalized us a bit with the young boy mispronouncing words so that you had to figure out what he was talking about : "The Furor" and "Austwitzch".  ( I know that is wrong but close enough)!!   Like I said earlier, it had a sad ending but all felt that the whole thing was sad because he ended up the same way as the other young prisoners;  (the Jews in the stripped uniforms).  I know when I saw the movie years ago, it had a profound effect on me so I wanted to share that.  All in all, it was a great evening with a wonderful group of ladies that I had really missed over the last months!!  Sorry you were unable to make it, Sharon, but we talked about you and we couldn't have done that if you had been there!!  lol. 

See you in April for the next one because I am going to be in Florida for the March one!!

Love, Edna

January 18 2018 Meeting at Dricka's

Author, Kristen Hannah, presented an account of France during World War II when Germany invaded. It brought to light the struggles of the French people with emphasis on sisters, Isabelle and Vianne.

Much of the story told how different they were.  Isabelle was strong, rebellious and impulsive. Vianne was nurturing, cautious and always protective of her family. Both sisters needed to be loved because they felt rejected by their father when he lost his wife and had changed in personality after he returned from the Great War.

Isabelle known as the "nightingale" was patriotic by helping airmen to safety by traveling to the British consulate thru hazardous conditions. Vianne was protective of children who were Jewish and separated from their family by changing their identity and finding shelter for them with a Catholic orphanage. She took her best friend, Rachel's son into her home and pretended he was adopted from a member of her family who had died.

In the ending of the story, they both found the love they both were searching for was always there. In memories: wounds heal - love remains.

Our meeting was only 6 members, so we missed Alice, Edna, Grace, Pam and Pat. We had a supper of chicken franchaise and pork chops with various sides. After our discussion, we had tea and an array of desserts: peach cobbler, rice pudding, coconut brownie and apple cake. Everyone at the meeting concluded that the book was very good!!

"Till we meet again",
love to all, 

Dricka