Holiday Cookie Party Dec 2022

Good friend and Good food to wrap up a wild and crazy year.

So long 2022 Hello 2023 and Happy Reading!!!

Betsy hosted our Holiday Cookie exchange. 

 

Oct 2022 Book and Gathering

Sept 2022 Book and Gathering

July 2022 Book Choice

For our summer read we selected another book by Swedish author Fredrik Backman,

 this one is called "Anxious People"  

Here is a brief overview by the Washington Independent 2020: 

"How do you follow up a sensational international bestseller like A Man Called Ove? Fredrik Backman does it spectacularly with the entertaining conundrum Anxious People. As equally idiosyncratic and iconoclastic as his debut, it is an outrageously hilarious, flawless novel about “how a bank robber failed to rob a bank but instead managed to spark a hostage drama.”

It is the most bizarre heist story since Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon,” with narrative nods to Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto and O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief.”

The dominoes start falling quickly when a bungled robbery turns into a mordantly serious situation. In many ways, it can be read as a locked-apartment mystery bonded with a unique variation on the police procedural.

Backman is sly. Nothing is as random nor as obvious as it appears. While he focuses on the current series of curious events in the apartment, he buttresses the character-driven plot with numerous backstories that link a bridge, suicides, and a peculiar drawing of a frog, a monkey, and an elk.

A good portion of the novel consists of exuberant recorded transcripts of witness interviews with the visitors to the apartment. That includes Zara, a condescending bank manager in therapy for depression; Julia and Ro, a pregnant lesbian couple struggling with the possibilities of parenthood; Estelle, a flummoxed looky-loo neighbor; Anna-Lena and Roger, a long-married couple of property flippers who know IKEA furniture when they see it; Lennart, a rabbit (don’t ask — just accept him in his underwear and socks and go with it) who had his own motives for being there; and the real estate broker, who frequently refers to her cleverly named firm, House Tricks.

Backman juggles all of this with exquisite ease and his usual mellifluous style and grace. In the midst of the humor, he manages to inject poignant observations about life and death; love and marriage; parenting and divorce; and social and economic stress."

Sally hosted the dinner at her lovely poolside abode a perfect summer evening with great people! 

June 2022 Book Choice

Our June book choice was the debut novel by author Abi Dare, "The Girl with the Louding Voice"

Here is a selection of the NY Times 2020 book review: 

"Abi Daré’s debut novel, “The Girl With the Louding Voice,” is told in a prose style that will sound unfamiliar to many readers, particularly Western ones. But the effect is as vivid as the sassy, strong-willed narrator’s pidgin. Though occasionally challenging, Adunni’s brave, fresh voice powerfully articulates a resounding anger toward Africa’s toxic patriarchy.

Fourteen-year-old Adunni lives in a Nigerian village with her lay about, alcoholic father and two brothers. The novel opens on the morning her father informs her she is to become the local taxi driver’s third wife in order to support the family. Adunni’s is a poverty-stricken world where girls kneel to their fathers and address them as “Sah” without looking them in the eye, where a paternal summons portends nothing but heartache. The subjugation and sexual objectification of girls and women are recurrent, ably handled themes throughout the novel. Throughout her harrowing coming-of-age journey, told with verve and compassion, Adunni never loses the “louding voice” that makes Daré’s story, and her protagonist, so unforgettable."

Alayna hosted the dinner at her charming home we ate inside then sat outside for the Zoom component 

Voting for our next series of books 2022-2024

 

25 Books were nominated these are the top 14 picks 

With 7 votes each 

- All the Secrets of the World  - Steve Almond 

- Final Revival of Opal & Nev – Dawnie Walton 

- Your House will Pay – Steph Cha 

- The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs – Leslie Kirk Campbell –  short stories 

- You’re leaving When?- Annabelle Gurwitch - pages essays non fiction 

With 6 votes each 

- Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen – Annabel Abbs – 

- Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak -

- While Justice Sleeps-  Stacey Abrams - Mystery 

- Faithful – Alice Hoffman 

- Why Fish Don’t Exist- Lulu Miller –  Non Fiction 

- Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walters- 

- Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt 

- Unlikely Animals – Annie Hartnett 

- Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus  

Radium Girls Trailer #1 (2020) | Movieclips Indie

We read this book several years ago, here is a clip from the 2018  movie based on the novel which was based on stage play.

It was a hard read mainly because it is a true story. 

May 2022 Book Choice

 For May we chose the novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue written by V.E. Schwab 

Here is how Publishers Weekly summarized the story: 

Schwab crafts the tale of one woman’s desperate drive to be remembered into a triumphant exploration of love and loss. The story hops across time as it follows the life of Adeline “Addie” LaRue from the French country side in the early 1700s to New York City in 2014. As a young woman, Addie makes a deal with the devil to save herself from the tedium of an arranged marriage, asking for “a chance to live and be free.” The devil grants her immortality but curses her to a life of horrible isolation: no one she meets will be able to remember her. The first half of the book––as Addie learns the limits and loneliness of her curse––is as devastating as it is prescient in these self-isolating times. Which makes Addie’s eventual meeting with Henry, the first person to remember her in some 300 years, all the more joyous. This sweeping fantasy is as much a love story as it is a tribute to storytelling, art, and inspiration. Schwab’s diverse cast is beautifully rendered, and the view of human connection on offer is biting and bitter, yet introspective and sweet. This ambitious and hopeful work is a knockout.

Molly hosted the dinner at her lovely home and we had so many delicious food choices it made for an exceptionally delightful gathering.

What does the coffee tell you about your future?

The Very Hungry Reader: The Giver of Stars served with Pinto Beans and Cor...

See what the Very Hungry Reader thought of the book The Giver of Stars. 

The Very Hungry Reader: The Giver of Stars served with Pinto Beans and Cor...:  The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes served with Pinto Beans and Cornbread.    This was for my book group discussion planned for April.  It is ...

March April 2022 Book Choice

 The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes was our March/April book choice. 

Here is part of the Washington Post 2019 Book Review:

" An impulsive British woman, her band of librarians on horseback, a punishing winter in Southern Appalachia, moonshiners with itchy trigger fingers and the town’s coal tycoon just begging them to shoot: What could possibly go wrong?

Thus sets the stage for “The Giver of Stars,” by “Me Before You” author Jojo Moyes. Based on the true story of the Pack Horse Library initiative — a Works Progress Administration project that ran from 1935 to 1943 and turned women and their steeds into bookmobiles — Moyes’s characters travel into the remote Eastern Kentucky mountains to deliver learning to the most isolated residents."

This book had a lot of characters and some very interesting plot twists and turns. It made for a very enjoyable book discussion. Betsy hosted our dinner at her lovely home and we had a special guest too! 

So Happy to be together,
MIA: Sally is in hiding and Alayna had to leave early 

Author Charles Yu on "Interior Chinatown"

 

Meet the author- he gives a great summary of his book "Interior Chinatown" 

March 2022 Book Group Field Trip

Steph Cha, "All the Luck"

performed by Larry Lew

Mary Camarillo, THE LOCKHART WOMEN excerpt

performed by Ruby Sketchley

Ruby and the Beehive Ladies 

The Very Hungry Reader: interior Chinatown served with Chinese Chicken sal...

Check out the blog site by our very own Beehive member and see what she thought of Interior Chinatown. 

The Very Hungry Reader: interior Chinatown served with Chinese Chicken sal...: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu served with Chinese Chicken salad and Egg Drop soup .  This is an interesting read.  It didn't hit the ...

Feb 2022 Book Choice

 Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu was our late winter book club choice.

Here is part of the NYT book club review 2020: 

“Interior Chinatown” posits that we are reading a teleplay about Chinatown — specifically the Golden Palace restaurant, which is the setting for a cop show called “Black and White.” Through his protagonist, Willis Wu — who has a small part on the show — Yu explores in devastating (and darkly hilarious) fashion Hollywood’s penchant for promoting clichés about Asians and Asian-Americans. Wu has worked his way from “Background Oriental Male” to “Dead Asian Man” to “Generic Asian Man Number Three/Delivery Guy” — a long way from “Kung Fu Guy,” which is where he wants to be.

Although the lacerating humor in “Interior Chinatown” never skips a beat, what makes the novel so compelling is its strong commitment to characterization, without which the pointed commentary would be less potent.  Early on, we are given a meticulous portrait of Wu’s father, Sifu, once “a young dragon” and martial arts expert but now an “Old Asian Man” who would “always be your Father, but somehow was no longer your dad.” An undercurrent of anger and sadness fuels these scenes. It’s not so much that Wu is passive but that the author is so good at integrating his character’s point of view into what would be, in lesser hands, little more than scene description.

January 2022 Book Choice

 We started the year with Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Meet the author:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfaQS3beOQ

Here is a section of the NPR 2020 book review:

"James McBride's Deacon King Kong is a feverish love letter to New York City, people, and writing. The prose is relentless and McBride's storytelling skills shine as he drags readers at breakneck speed trough a plethora of lives, times, events, and conversations. The novel is 370 pages, but McBride has packed enough in there for a dozen novellas, and reading them all mashed together is a pleasure.

The year is 1969, and Sportcoat is the hard-drinking deacon of an old church in the Cause Houses projects in south Brooklyn. Sportcoat, also known as Deacon Cuffy, lost his wife a while ago, and his life has been on a downward spiral since. He argues with her ghost almost constantly and is obsessed with the money from the Christmas Club, which was in a secret place she didn't tell anyone about before dying.

Deacon King Kong is fast, deep, complex, and hilarious. McBride's prose is shimmering and moving, a living thing that has its own rhythm, pulls you in from the first page and never lets go. His story focuses on the people that make the Big Apple what it is: the strange, the poor, the insane, the mobsters. He also showcases the city's wonderful diversity, filling his pages with Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Italians, and Irish folks.

Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion. It contains page-long sentences that sing and individual lines that stick to your brain like literary taffy. This is a narrative about flawed, poor people navigating an ugly, racist world and trying their best with the help of God, each other, or the bottle; their stories are unique, but the struggles are universal — and that makes this a novel about all of us. In Deacon King Kong, McBride entertains us, and shows us both the beauty and the ugliness of humanity. I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good."

Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas.

The Very Hungry Reader: Deacon King Kong served with a Rosemary Maple Whis...

Start the New Year with a book review by the The Very Hungry Reader: Deacon King Kong served with a Rosemary Maple Whis...:  Deacon King Kong by James McBride  This is a book I probably would have never picked up if it weren't for my book group.  Boy am I glad...

November December 2021 Book Choice

 Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner was our pre Holiday read

Here is part of the NYT book review July 2019:

“Mrs. Everything” tells the story of two sisters, Jo and Bethie Kaufman, who grow up in Detroit in the 1950s and find their way to Ann Arbor in its hippie heyday, then to stifling suburban Connecticut and finally to a feminist collective in Atlanta. Balancing her signature sense of humor with a new (to her novels) political voice, Weiner tells the story of the women’s rights movement and the sexual awakening of a woman coming of age at a time when being attracted to women would keep her at the fringes of the world she was raised to join. She opts for the safe route, making unimaginable sacrifices along the way, especially on behalf of her sister, who finds the freedom to live the life they both wanted.

Weiner has always been a gifted novelist and a powerful essayist. In “Mrs. Everything,” she brings the best of both worlds to the page, holding up the prism of choice and letting the light shine through from every angle."

Betsy hosted our Holiday Celebration and Cookie exchange at her lovely home and we all celebrated being together in person!

 Cheers to A New Year!