Book Club

In January of 2002, I started a book and wine tasting club. The premise -- to read interesting books, to taste interesting wines, and engage in lively discussion about the books while drinking the wine with a group of diverse, intelligent women. I asked five of my friends who came from different parts of my own life to bring one of their friends to the first get together. We have now been meeting monthly, reading approximately 12 books a year, with no signs of abating. Two of our members have moved to France (one fell in love with a Parisian sculptor and has moved to Paris), the other has purchased a 15-acre farm somewhere in the countryside. Several others have dropped out (it's a big commitment) and others have replaced them, so the discussions have remained interesting and the book selections diverse.

The way it works is that everyone has a turn to choose a book and a venue (generally a restaurant or someone's home -- because one of our members scouts restaurants for the Book and Cook series, we eat at some great restaurants). My last book club book was A Man Without A Country, Kurt Vonnegut's last book. To prepare, I read House of Bush, House of Saud, which Vonnegut suggests people read and several others he mentions in the book. The book is terse and thought provoking.

My next selection will be The Lazarus Project, by Aleksandar Hemon. Peter (Gaffney) was introduced to Hemon by his friends and had dinner with him in New York after a book reading. Peter left this book behind and I read it. Pete has read two other books by him since and is really impressed by his writing. As Peter is publishing his first book soon (?) and is heading for Prague in a few weeks to co-write another book (with an economics professor who teaches in Turkey), I trust his opinion and recommend the author to anyone reading this blog.

Apparently Hemon was in Seattle recently for a book reading at Elliot Bay Books as I was able to pick up an autographed copy, which I sent to Peter to replace the now tattered book he left behind. (I'm hard on books.)

I read a lot these days. Often in search of my next book club recommendation. Right now I am reading Lush Life by Richard Price. It got great reviews and after that, Bad Money -- Reckless finance, failed politics, and the global crisis of American capitalism, by Kevin Phillips.

If you are interested in learning more about our own mortgage meltdown, Ira Glass's This American Life devotes an hour to the subject. You can download the program from the NPR website -- The Giant Pool of Money -- 5/11/08.

For some light reading -- really fluffy stuff -- read The Ungarnished Truth, by Ellie Matthews on how this Seattle native won $1 million in the Pillsbury Bake-Off with an embarrassingly simple recipe. I bought all the ingredients to make it myself. I'm thinking it would be fun to do this myself.