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 

July 2021 Book Choice and Dinner

 Circe by Madeline Miller was our July book choice, and Sally was our lovely hostess for our summer dinner party. 

Here is a brief summary from Goodreads: 

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.

And for a little something extra you might find this of interest: 

Her Voice, At Last: Authors Madeline Miller and Victoria Schwab Discuss Miller’s New Novel, Circe

/https://parnassusmusing.net/2018/04/07/victoria-schwab-interviews-madeline-miller/

June Summer Reading 2021

 First in person beehive gathering since February 2020 

The Book Choice: Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui. 

Here is part of an overview by Kirkus Reviews 2020: 

A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.

For Bay Area writer Tsui  swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. 

Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.”

Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).

An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.

Gathering was hosted by Lori at her lovely home with an inviting swimming pool.

Perfect way to kick off Summer! 

June/July 2017 Book choice

Our first summer read was a historic foodie book Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee by Thomas J. Craughwell 

Here is a brief overview by Goodreads:

This culinary biography recounts the 1784 deal that Thomas Jefferson struck with his slaves, James Hemings. The founding father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose”— to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom. 

Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in United States history. As Hemings apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, Champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative history tells the story of their remarkable adventure—and even includes a few of their favorite recipes! 


Sally hosted the dinner party 

Optional August Book Choice

We usually take August off but this year a few of us decided to journey up to Seattle to visit with Beehive founder Beth...so we picked a Seattle centered novel
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

 San Jose Mercury News Review-

"Where'd You Go, Bernadette," a novel by Maria Semple, is a challenging book to review -- or describe. It can be referred to as an epistolary novel (the story is told through e-mails, letters and notes); it can be described as a window into Seattle, where Microsoft, rain, coffee and obligation of community involvement permeate lives like the fog above Mount Rainer. But neither of those descriptions captures the delightful cleverness of the story.

The simple version of the plotline is: Bernadette Fox is missing. She is the mother of Balakrishna, "Bee" Branch and the wife of Elgin Branch, a Microsoft rock star. Bernadette is also an eccentric, creative genius who neither fits in with the Seattle vibe, nor the parents of her daughter's classmates. When Bee learns of her mother's disappearance, she reviews all documentation relating to Bernadette for clues. The novel is a compilation of those letters, e-mails, and reports unfolding the story of events which led to Bernadette fleeing Seattle. Any more detail divulges too much.

July Book Choice

Our July Book Choice is the Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian.

Here is a brief overview of this novel:

The Armenian genocide during World War I is the subject of Chris Bohjalian’s 14th novel, “The Sandcastle Girls.” Inspired by his grandparents’ background, the author explores the suffering and atrocities of that time with astounding precision, compassion and grace.

“How do a million and a half people die with nobody knowing?” ponders Laura Petrosian, the book’s modern-day narrator. The answer, she will discover, is really very simple: “You kill them in the middle of nowhere.”
The novel covers several decades...

Bohjalian deftly weaves the many threads of this story back and forth from past to present, from abuse to humanity, from devastation to redemption. His ability to add irony and wit makes the contrasting horrors even more intense. And his unblinking descriptions of atrocities are staggering: Nevart “has heard stories of . . . women who were impaled on sharp stakes and swords, the pommel and grip planted into the ground so the blade rose like an exotic but lethal plant.” Rather than repelling the reader, Bohjalian’s account makes the gruesome truth utterly riveting.

April 24, 2015, will mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Yet in some circles, controversy over the nature of this crime still rages. Just this month, relations between France and Turkey were tested again by President Francois Hollande’s commitment to making it illegal to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide. Bohjalian’s “The Sandcastle Girls” may be a novel, but, based on his family history, it is a valuable and powerful piece of evidence pointing to the undeniable.



Washington Post

June 2015 Book Dinner

Simone hosted the first book group meeting for the summer of 2015 in her charming Cottage Garden.
We had a San Francisco inspired feast and lots of great discussions. The night was still but the group was sparking. I went home and watched the classic Bogart movie of the book and found it to be very true to the text.