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An Edible Book Club Holiday

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Well, we are half way through April and heading towards longer days, sunshine and vacation time. That means that 97 Orchard is going to be our last book for now but not for good.

Christina and I will be bringing The Edible Book Club back in October when there is a chill in the air and we are ready to get tucked up in front of the fire with a good book and great conversation.

But that doesn’t mean to say you won’t be hearing from us. We will keep you posted with what we are currently reading and hope that you will do the same via the blog and on Twitter @ediblebookclub

Have a great summer everyone!

~Natalie and Christina

p.s you can keep up with our travel and food adventures and allotment escapades at Rowdy Chow Girl and Girl Gardening. 

Calling for April Book Nominations

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We’re still enjoying our confectionary filled discussion of Chocolat by Joanne Harris but it’s time to think ahead to next month and begin nominating and voting on what book you would like to read and discuss with the group in April.

Take a moment to leave your nominations in comments here on the website, after this post.  Nominate as many books as you want to, then lobby as hard as you like, here or on twitter (don’t forget to use the #ediblebooks hashtag!).

Nominations are open from now until Tuesday, March 19th at midnight.  We’ll start voting on Thursday, March 21st, and the polls will stay open until Monday, March 25th.  We’ll announce the book, then the reading/discussion will start on April 1st.

~Natalie & Christina

New to Edible Books?  Welcome to the club!  If you need more information about how Edible Books works, please read the participation guidelines here.

Guest Post: A Reflection on The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

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It is our great pleasure to introduce our first ever guest contributor on Edible Books, Rose McAvoy. Some of you may already know Rose from her wonderful blog Our Lady of Second Helpings which chronicles her journey towards a healthier mind, body and spirit. We are delighted that she has agreed to share her thoughts on a book that changed her life -The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells.
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I was so flattered when Natalie and Christina invited me to contribute to the Edible Books blog. They suggested my post be a few paragraphs on “the book that changed my life.” I happily replied with something to the effect of, “sure no problem, I can totally do that!” The process of choosing a book to write about was harder than I anticipated. After a lot of reflection and conferring with friends I have chosen to share my reflection on The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. If you have only seen the film, let me assure you that much of what enchants me about the book was not captured on the screen. Although it has been about a decade since my last visit with the Ya-Ya’s I have read the book several times. Please forgive me if I muddle some of the details.
Louisiana-born Siddalee Walker grew up and made her way North to New York City.  Leaving her often aloof father’s plantation and her socially charming but bourbon marinated mother Vivian (Vivi). Siddalee, or Sidda for short, becomes a theatrical director. Her most recent production sparks a candid interview with the New York Times that results in her mother dramatically disowning her eldest child.
The angry and hurt reaction of her mother pushes Sidda into a sort of midlife crisis. In a desperate attempt to find herself, she flees across the country to the quiet shores of Lake Quinault on the fringes of Washington State’s lush temperate rainforest. In the hope of finding that one great thing that will make sense of it all, she hides herself away indefinitely as only the protagonist in a novel is able.
Unbeknownst to Sidda, she already possessed the very thing she was longing for.  Against her better judgement, her mother Vivi packed up her own scrapbook and shipped it to Sidda. The book is a visual chronicle of the deep and unwavering friendship of four lifelong friends, the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Their story of sisterly love transcends everything life throws at the girls. Specifically Vivi’s own cold mother, restrictive social constructs of Southern plantation life, young love gone to war, and mental illness that lays sinisterly in the shadows.
It is the method of story telling that continues to give this book a place in my heart. Layer upon layer of life experience are unfolded for the reader. Vivi’s childhood blends into Sidda’s childhood with scenes of sweltering summers spent swimming and sleeping in screened in porches. There are also dark moments. Vivi spends her life trying to stay one step ahead of the darkness of mental illness. More than once she looses her battle and has to leaver her children to seek respite and healing. Modern-day Sidda only remembers her mother leaving. She feels her childhood upheavals left her unprepared for the love showered on her by her new fiancé. All the while the world around them comes to life through the beautiful pictures painted by Wells’s words. The story is sweet, often laugh out loud funny and there are a whole cast of characters to fall in love with.
I personally connected with the characters’ Creole-influenced Catholicism. I enjoy the little ways their almost mystic devotion to God and Holy Mother Mary are woven into their daily lives. The book contains many quotable lines. The one that has stayed with me most was said by Caro, one of the other Ya-Ya’s. “Lent is a long stretch, Pal, a long desert of a stretch” (pg. 300). This rings true for me. Lent is a 40 day period of fasting, austerity, prayer, and penitence in the Christian calendar. It always falls at the end of winter, the longest and dreariest part of the year, and it can feel very very long. Lent ends with the celebration of Easter and the arrival of spring. I think about this quote in the midst of unpleasantness. I remind myself that struggle is what makes the days of brightness so wonderful.
After reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, I concluded that our life story begins long before we are born. It inspired me step back and think about the lives of my mother and grandmothers, and their mothers and grandmothers. I imagined the thousands of experiences that shaped the vibrant women they became and are still becoming. Pondering how their experiences have shaped who I have become, and now who my son will become, is empowering. This book has inspired me to find the stories in those tiny experiences and focus on them in my own writing.

Happy New Year 2013!

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The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time to look back and to look forward, and that’s what we’re doing.

Edible Books just started in October 2012.  We’ve already had some great book discussions over the last several months in this growing community.  Connections are being forged, 140 characters at a time.

We have high hopes that this community of book lovers will continue to grow steadily in 2013.  We are cooking up exciting plans for the coming year, including some guest posts here on the blog that we think you’ll really enjoy.

And since this really is a community, we are asking for your input and participation.  Here is your two-step call to action:

1. Are there any particular topics you would like us to cover on the blog this year?  Please leave a comment with your suggestions.

2. We love you, so we just know we’ll love your friends too!  Please invite your book loving/food loving friends to join the Edible Books discussion. 

Thank you!  We truly appreciate all of you.

Wishing you a peaceful, prosperous New Year filled with good books, warm hugs, and everything your heart desires.

 

Final Roundup: Toast by Nigel Slater

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My final thoughts on Toast by Nigel Slater?  The conclusion I’m left with as we finish this book is that memoir is a very tricky business.

There’s the issue of truthfulness–a memoir is meant to be a true account of a part of the writer’s life, but truth is a very subjective matter and an author writing his or her own story necessarily has a biased point of view.

Then there’s the matter of kindness.  Decisions about what to write, what to leave out, how to portray family members–these are all choices that have to be made, and they can destroy relationships.

And finally, I’ve been musing over what it means to be the narrator and protagonist of one’s own story.

Toast was ultimately a very sad book, at times infuriating, occasionally sweet and funny–but I guess real life is like that–we can tweak the details here and there in our own retelling of events, but none of us gets to be the hero of every scene of our own story.

Our Next Book

January’s book choice is My Life in France. Start the New Year with Julia Child and Edible Books!

January 1st-7th: Discuss Intro-Chapter 2

Find us on Twitter @ediblebookclub and don’t forget to use the #ediblebooks hashtag.

If you need more information about Edible Books, please read the participation guidelines here.

What (else) We’re Reading

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what we're reading now

Natalie and I are both deep in the midst of our current Edible Books selection, Toast by Nigel Slater.  But I always have at least two or three books going at any given time, switching back and forth amongst them based on my current mood.  So I thought I’d share what else we’re both reading right now:

Natalie is also reading Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.  And she’s reading Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan—very appropriate during the holiday season!

In keeping with the Christmas theme, I am reading (re-reading, actually) Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I find myself drawn to this lovely book every year at about this time. Another re-read: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, in anticipation of the new movie.

And my other book club is currently reading Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez.

Books are such satisfying and constant companions; I think I’d feel a bit lonely without several in progress.

What about you?  Do you read one book at a time or more?  What’s on your bed-side table right now?

~Christina

New to Edible Books?  Welcome to the club!  If you need more information about how Edible Books works, please read the participation guidelines here.

Weekly Roundup: White Truffles in Winter by N.M. Kelby, Chapters 9-16

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We’re just finishing our second week of discussion on White Truffles in Winter by N.M. Kelby.  The plot begins to thicken, and we are getting to know the characters better. Sabine, the cook in the Escoffier household, is clearly a favorite. The relationships are complex, but the food is simply mouthwatering.

The Twitter conversation has included references to James Bond villians and Silence of the Lambs, some interesting historical tidbits, and a few humorous gross-outs (liver ice cream, anyone?).  A real community is forming, and it’s exciting to be a part of it.

Also this week, we posted the second part of our interview with the author, and we will begin taking nominations for our December book starting tomorrow, November 15th.

And now we’re moving on to discuss the next part of the book.

November 15th-21st: Discuss Chapters 17-24.

Happy Thanksgiving! ~Christina

Find us on Twitter @ediblebookclub #ediblebooks

If you need more information about Edible Books, please read the participation guidelines here.

Final Round Up: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese

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It is a really good feeling when you learn a new skill and produce something from it that people actually want to eat. I can remember when I first mastered making a chocolate cake so gooey and delicious that it beat my favourite shop bought one hands down. It makes you feel really proud and, for foodies and cooks at least, there is nothing more pleasing than serving friends and family and seeing the looks on their faces as they tuck into food you have prepared from scratch. I can only imagine what Jennifer Reese’s guests must have thought the first time she presented them with home aged cheeses and cured bacon. I wonder if they have come to expect it?

She is keen to point out in the afterword that, in her opinion, food companies flatter us by telling us how busy we are and while convincing us that we are helpless. You only have to look at the array of processed, ready-made meals in the supermarkets to see that she is right. I am busy, I know I am not helpless but from time to time I do enjoy the convenience of a ready-made pizza or lasagne even if I do know, in my heart of hearts, that I could do better myself but this book never set out to make anyone of its readers feel guilty about doing that. Its agenda was to show that you can, if you want, make almost anything you like from scratch at home.

She [the author] is happy to admit that this project didn’t save her any money. The cooking part did but any savings were eaten up by the husbandry involved in keeping chickens, goats and other living things. Incidentally, they also ate up most of the garden.

Her final recipe is Skippy’ Apricot Cake. A cake beloved by the family, made by her mother and name sake of a great-aunt. I loved this final recipe because, while great-aunt Skippy got the credit Reese is fairly confident it was created by the Duncan Hines company and actually does involve a bought mix to make it.! Sometimes the best loved foods are not strictly home-made after all.

What will we remember from this book?

Natalie: Aside from “weiner bean pot” which is still making me laugh, I personally enjoyed her tales of keeping chickens and ducks. For years I have wanted my own chickens and had romantic ideas of popping out in the garden each morning for fresh eggs, then sitting down to breakfast at my kitchen table watching them peck up worms and be free. Now I don’t. I don’t think that I could deal with the distruction of my garden and as for ducks; I never knew they could be so vicious. I think I will stick to cats (as pets, not for breakfast). I loved the last recipe as it reminded me of Pheobes (Friends) grandmothers recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies that turned out to be made by Nestle Tollhouse.

Christina: I have to agree, the duck section was also the most memorable for me–for a few reasons.  First, it was hilarious.  The entire book was well spiced with humor, but this section made me laugh out loud–literally, and more than once:“…the ducks waddled in lock-step formation around the yard, wing to wing, all day, every day, muttering.  They were like Hare Krishnas, always chanting in a gang.”  Priceless!  The other reason I appreciated this section is that the Duck Egg Ravioli recipe gave me the final piece to my ricotta, spinach, and egg ravioli recipe I had been puzzling over–how long to simmer the ravioli in order to cook the pasta without hardcooking the eggs.

Tweets and Interactions

Natalie: Our hashtag (#ediblebooks) got tangled up in another discussion between some college kids who were messing around with book names (I assume as part of a prank) and giving them edible ones. Some of which were really good – Perks of Being a Wall Flour for one, Lord of the Onion Rings and Big MacBeth – they really made me giggle. But all of the interaction has been lovely and much appreciated. I hope it increases with our next book.

Christina: I’m just so pleased with the first month of Edible Books and how interactive it already is.  In the last thirty days, we went from two followers (that would be ourselves!) to many really thoughtful, funny, and interesting tweets and comments from readers around the world.  To me, one of the most interesting twitter debates of the last month was about slaughtering one’s own meat.  Can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

Our Next Book

November’s book choice White Truffles in Winter by N.M. Kelby is, we hope, going to provoke some interesting discussion topics and interactions, some being provided by the author herself.

If you are new to book club and want to know more then take a look at our participation guidelines. Join our delicious discussion next month on Twitter, don’t forget to use the #ediblebooks hashtag.