March 2012 Selection

Carol selected Hotel by Arthur Hailey as the March 2012 selection. Hotel is copyrighted 1965 and was a bestseller. This selection is part of our year of choosing a bestseller from the year of the hostess' birth.

From the cover of Hotel by Arthur Hailey:

Conflict and desire, secrets and tumultuous destinies, are part of the fascinating world of the famous St. Gregory, a New Orleans luxury hotel. For five sultry days of a hot Louisiana summer the lives of strangers intimately touch, sizzle, and explode in round-the-clock excitement as the St. Gregory becomes the state for private and public dramas -- and for the stunning, heart stopping climax awaiting them all.

The Book Snobs Gathering

The Snobs gathered at Carol's home on Monday, March 26, 2012 for dinner and discussion.Our hostess served homemade chili with corn souffle and salad.

All The Snobs who were present agreed that Hotel was an enjoyable book. There were a lot a characters with good development of many of them. We the end of this book with quite a bit of enthusiasm. We talked about how each character ended op and how some of their ends seemed justified, but some did not.


Recipes from The Book Snobs

Corn Souffle

(from Kraft Foods)

2 tablespoons butter
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed
1 can (15 1/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (14.75 ounces) cream-style corn
1 package (8.5 ounces) corn muffin mix
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray.

Microwave butter in medium microwaveable bowl on high for 30 seconds or until melted. Stir in cream cheese. Microwave 15 seconds until cream cheese is softened; stir until cream cheese is completely melted and mix is well blended. Add next 4 ingredients; mix well.

Pour into prepared pan; top with shredded cheddar.

Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown.

VARIATIONS
You may substitute Neufchatel cheese for the cream cheese.
Add 2 sliced green onions to batter before pouring into pan.
Prepare as directed, substituting 1 can (11 ounces) whole kernel corn with chopped red and green peppers for whole kernel corn.

February 2012 Selection

Theresa has selected The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs as the February selection. Theresa was given the option of making a hostess choice selection this month, because she has never had a hostess choice.

From Good Reads:

A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together-even when we least expect it.

Walker and Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat-and occasionally clash-over their stories of love, life, and everything in between.

Georgia has her hands full, juggling the demands of running the store and raising her spunky teen daughter, Dakota, by herself. Thank goodness for Anita, her mentor and dear friend, and the rest of the members of the knitting club-who are just as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins. There's Peri, a prelaw student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a somewhat aloof feminist grad student; and Lucie, a petite, quiet woman who's harboring some secrets of her own.

However, unexpected changes soon throw these women's lives into disarray, and the shop's comfortable world gets shaken up like a snow globe. James, Georgia's ex, decides that he wants to play a larger role in Dakota's life-and possibly Georgia's as well. Cat, a former friend from high school, returns to New York as a rich Park Avenue wife and uneasily renews her old bond with Georgia. Meanwhile, Anita must confront her growing (and reciprocated) feelings for Marty, the kind neighborhood deli owner. And when the unthinkable happens, they realize what they've created: not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood.

The Book Snobs Gathering

6:30 p.m., Monday, February 27, 2012, at Theresa's Home.

Theresa served two delicious soups including Tomato-Florentine and Lentil Curry. As usual, we started with wine and appetizers.

This book was not universally popular. A couple of members liked it so much they've already started reading the second book in the series. But there were a couple of us who did not care for it. Overall the club felt like there were too many characters and not enough character development. More than one member expressed that we didn't know the characters enough to care what happened to them.

December Christmas Dinner

The Book Snobs met on Monday, December 12, for our annual Christmas dinner at Yoshi Zushi.

From Left to Right - Lisa, Theresa, Marta, Janna, Vicki, Carol, Sandra, Claudia (Not pictured - Charlene, Jennifer, Becky)

We had a great time. Check out our fabulous shoes.

Merry Christmas from The Book Snobs.

January 2012 Selection

This month The Book Snobs begin a year of reading a bestselling book from the year of the hostess's birth. This is a switch from selecting books by genre. Vicki has selected Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer for the Book Snobs' January reading pleasure. Seven Years in Tibet was a bestseller in the year 1954.


From The Open Critic:

Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and Tibet’s impending invasion by China, Harrer pens an evocative account of a country suspended in time. Medieval in many ways, it is a place none-the-less, readers will deeply regret having missed.

Lhasa was not Shangrila. The capital city of Tibet was dirty and lacked sanitation; books and recreation were hard to come by; the diet was limited; medicine was more shamanistic than practical; and technology (even the wheel) was looked upon with suspicion. Even so, it was a city easy for the Western imagination to fall in love with; laughter was a constant; curiosity and pleasure were valued beyond industry; and inspite of a rigorous religiosity, the Tibetans were perhaps the least moralizing people of the modern era.

It’s with a great breath of mountain air that Harrer references the guilelessness of his hosts; how for instance laughter was a constant and jokes, retold century after century, never failed to solicit mirth. Curiousity, religion, and pleasure were all valued beyond industry. An earthworm in a shovel of dirt would stop the construction of a ditch, the departure of a friend would require elaborate farewells, and the changing of a season would require the performance of one ritual or another. Festivals, parties, and social interactions kept Lhasans engaged — modernity’s harried pace most emphatically did not.

I mention this at the outset as a way of explaining why Seven Years in Tibet has endured as an adventurer’s tale. Apart from the power of its narrative and quality of Harrar’s prose, it proves exactly what every wanderer wants to believe; that he or she can stumble away from the complexities of today (a British POW camp) into the simplicity of yesterday (Lhasa circa 1940). It’s escapist literature writ large. And more-over, its literal.

The Book Snobs Gathering

The Snobs met at Vicki's home on Monday, January 30, 2012. The theme of the dinner was 1950's style comfort food. The Snobs enjoyed a dinner of Caesar Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, and Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy.

Seven Years in Tibet was a challenging read. Reviews were mixed. Som of the members liked it and some didn't. We discussed the book in two parts. Some preferred the story of the adventurers traveling through Tibet and some preferred the story of Henrich Harrer living in Tibet. We discussed the Dali Lama and the selection process. Generally, the book was well received and made for good discussion.

Recipes from the Book Snobs

Crockpot Meat Loaf Like The Nuns Made

 

1 package Lipton Onion Soup mix

1 cup of panko

1 cup of water

2 pounds of ground meat (any combination of beef, pork, or turkey)

1 package Pioneer Nonfat Brown Gravy

1 can mushrooms

Red Wine

Mix soup mix, panko, water. and ground meat together and form into a loaf that will fit into your Crockpot. Cut a strip of foil and place it in the bottom of your Crockpot. Cut it long enough to cover the bottom and sides of meatloaf. (You’ll use it to lift the meatloaf out of the Crockpot after cooking.) Place meatloaf on top of foil. Cover and cook on low for approximately 8 hours.

Prepare gravy according the package directions. Add mushrooms and a splash of red wine. Simmer a few minutes and serve over meatloaf.

November 2011 Selection

Sandra has chosen A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick as the November reading selection for The Book Snobs.

From the Workman Publishing web site:

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.

With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

The Book Snobs Gathering:

The Snobs gathered for dinner and discussion on Monday, November 28, 2011. Our hostess served a delicious meal of salad, soup, and a crescent ring.

The discussion of A Reliable Wife was interesting. We talked about about which characters knew what and when they knew it. We also discussed the twisted nature of all the relationships, even including some of the more minor characters like the housekeeper. The role of the long, lonely, cold Wisconsin also figured into the discussion.

October 2011 Selection

Lisa's hostess choice selection is for October 2011 is Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese.

From Abraham Verghese's web site:

The story is a riveting saga of twin brothers, Marion and Shiva Stone, born of a tragic union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and their father's disappearance, and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. But it's love, not politics -- their passion for the same woman -- that will tear them apart and force Marion to flee his homeland and make his way to America, finding refuge in his work at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him, wreaking havoc and destruction, Marion has to entrust his life to the two men he has trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

The Book Snobs Gathering:

Monday
October 24
6:30 p.m. 
Watch your email for details.

September 2011 Selection

Marta selected Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz as the September selection for the Book Snobs.

From the author's web site:

With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Dean Koontz returns with an emotional roller coaster of a tale filled with enough twists, turns, shocks, and surprises for ten ordinary novels. Here is the story of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy—a story that will challenge the way you look at good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.

Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers’ waiting room and his dying father’s bedside. It’s a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm’s fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke.

What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson—five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twenty-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth.

Rudy is all too ready to discount his father’s last words as a dying man’s delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson’s birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly—the unexplained anomaly of fused digits—on his left foot. Suddenly the old man’s predictions take on a chilling significance.

What terrifying events await Jimmy on these five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy’s story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous—a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through.

The Book Snobs Gathering:

Marta hosted the Book Snobs Gathering at her home on Monday, September 26. She served delicious stuffed chicken breasts for dinner. The highlight of the meal was definitely the array of desserts. She  served creme puffs, cupcakes, and pan de polvo. All were homemade and delicious in keeping with the book's main character's career as a pastry chef.

We discussed what it would be like to know when something bad was about to happen in your life. We also discussed how at times the premise of this book seemed somewhat contrived and how sometimes it was the days leading up to the "bad days" that seemed worse. Everyone expressed frustration with how things just seemed to go on and on with one bad thing after another.

Everyone agreed that this book was one we would not ordinarily have read, but enjoyed mostly because it was different form our usual choices.