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
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
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
