The Parkside Book Club in Coeur d'Alene met yesterday and we had a good discussion about Breaking Blue by Timothy Egan.  It was chosen partly because of CdA's close proximity to the settings in the book and also because Timothy Egan is a favorite author of many of the members including me.  I know WWBers also like him.  However, this particular book was not a favorite of mine.  I was in the minority - most of the other gals really liked it which is why I'm mentioning it.  The story is about an unsolved murder that happened in the 1930's.  The killer was a cop and cops don't rat out cops.  Eventually the truth came out due to a modern-day sheriff's graduate thesis work.

Two books were mentioned at the end of our meeting:  

Healing Wounds:  A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington D.C. by Diane Carlson Evans

Mika in Real Life:  A Good Morning America Book Club Pick  by Emiko Jean

Happy Reading!  I miss you.

Deb

 Ken and I have been on the road for a few weeks, so lots of time for reading.  I am working my way through Harry Potter again—grandkids are reading it and I wanted to share with them.  I am currently on book 4, “The Goblet of Fire”.  It is so fun to re-read all of these.  I have forgotten lots of the story and now I am getting refamiliar with old friends.  I have also read our book club books, “My Dear Hamilton” and am waiting for “Sold on a Monday”.  I read “Cemetery Road” which had been recommended by a friend of mine.  It was a page turner novel full of interesting dysfunctional people interspersed with enough normal people that it was compelling.  Long, but satisfying.  I also just finished “Everything I Never Told You”, by Celeste No (author of the later “Little Fires Everywhere”).  A difficult topic of suicide is deftly told with insight and compassion.  I’m not sure that I would recommend it...by the nature of its subject it is difficult emotionally, but the characters—while not necessarily likable—were consistent in their inconsistencies.  

Test blog

 Deb—thanks for the guidance.  It took me a minute, but looks like I have access again.  Please let me know if you can see this...

BB

 I might be late coming to the party but was just nosing around on the Internet and found an interesting website - Colorado Virtual Library.

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org

I also noticed they have a list of books with links to discussion questions if interested.

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/co-book-clubs/discussion-questions/

I managed to read two books outside of book club – a remarkable feat given that I can barely read two pages without falling asleep.  Both books were at some time recommended by readinggroupguides

#1. Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane –  Lisa See,

 Rich and incredibly well researched look at the tea culture of Yunnan province in China and the Akha people who cultivate this remarkable product.   The story revolves around Li-yan, born into the ritualistic culture of the Akha who is able to use her limited education to move forward into the 20^th century. Along the way she has a baby with a man her parents deem unsuitable. Forced by the mores of the village, Li-yan leaves her baby on the steps of a government orphanage.  Over the years she aches to know what happened to her daughter and, in California, her daughter, adopted by loving and sensitive parents,  yearns to know who her birth mother was and why she was abandoned.

Great read covering the Akha people (I promise you will want to Google them) and the culture of tea, serving as the background for Li-yan’s journey from village to city to the United States and her daughter’s search for her birth mother, both using Pu’er tea as the vehicle of discovery.

 

#2. Girl on the Block – Jessica Wragg

Memoir based on Wragg’s life in the business of butchery.  Her career began as a teen in central England, working weekends and learning the trade sometimes begrudgingly, from butchers, most all of whom were men. Wragg pursues her passion as a butcher, developing skill in the many cuts of beef, lamb and pork that foodies require, while attending college to prepare herself as a writer.  Wragg includes some recipes, especially one for creamed spinach, that sounds wonderful, along with her life story from partying teenager to partying college student, to staff at the “Ginger Pig” one of London’s top butchers.  Very interesting peek into an industry that is tough, messy, sexist and elite.

Wine Women & Books December 2019 Luncheon

Group started in 2002 and still going strong!

OUR DECEMBER LUNCHEON
2018

The Dragon Behind the Glass

Our March meeting was brightened up by the centerpiece Marsha created to go with the book we were discussing, The Dragon Behind the Glass.  The arowana fish was the star of the book and of Marsha's table.

Bill Bryson - 
Newest book - The Road to Little Dribbling
Sunday, March 6, 2016 in Fort Collins at CSU Lory Student Center
Grand Ballrooms
Tickets:  only at CSUtix.com or (970) 491-4849
Limited Tickets:
$55 General Admission, $25 CSU Students, $110 Gold Reserved.
Gold Reserved tickets include one signed copy of The Road to Little Dribbling
and a reception following the public presentation.
Benefitting CSU's Morgan Library

WW and Bers-- Anyone interested in going?



Thursday, Feb 27^th, Lecture: Katherine Boo: "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" — In 25 years as a journalist, Katherine Boo has established herself as a fearless, honest writer dedicated to telling the stories of the poor and disadvantaged on the pages of our most esteemed publications. Writing for The New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper and The Washington Monthly, Boo has profiled marginalized populations in the United States and abroad: from Denver to the Gulf of Mexico to Mumbai. On the purpose of her writing, Boo has written, "Very little journalism is world changing. But if change is to happen, it will be because people with power have a better sense of what's happening to people who have none." Boo continues her quest to give voice to those without one in her New York Times bestselling book “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the world's great, unequal cities: Mumbai, India. In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.
6 p.m., Shove Memorial Chapel, 1010 N. Nevada Ave., free

Thanks, Deb

The new blog looks great. Thanks for keeping it up-to-date.
Marsha

House of God stinker

It seems I have done it again...out of all the books in the world I picked one that perhaps could rival Frankenstien as the group's worst book. I will learn not to recommend books I have not read. "House of God" is terrible. I am sorry to subject all of you to it. We will have our discussion, but then I suggest we spend time reviewing other good books we have been reading. Sorry ladies. Beth B.

Thank heaven for little girls! without Emily's help, it would have taken me hours to figure this out! But, look! Here I am! Finished Garden and am looking forward to a great discussion next week.

Meeting tonight

Tonight we meet at Ava's to discuss The Cat's Table.  I hear we're having some interesting food to go along with book.
I'll show the club this new blog site and see how they feel about it.

Testing

And Deb said this was easy!  Seems I have a long way to go.

History of Wine, Women & Books

Our book club has been in existence since the Fall of 2002.  Four long time friends who share a love of reading, Linda, Sug, Candy and Deb, had an organizational meeting in September and decided to each invite another friend to join.  We now have 11 members and meet every month, except in the summer, on the 3rd Tuesday.  We gather at 7:00 PM to drink wine, eat good food and then settle down for a lively discussion of our book for the month.

Beginnings

This is a test.  Will this blog replace our book club's current website?  Not sure.