Steve Jobs

After peppering us with questions about what we thought about 5 or 6 possible book choices, Jackie went a completely different route and pulled a book she had not even mentioned from thin air.  Jackie's tricky like that.  She likes to keep us on our toes.

We agreed the biography of Steve Jobs was a (thankfully) easy read despite its massive length.  However, it would have been nice if Isaacson had been slightly more parsimonious.  (Look it up...Greta taught us this new word.)

But before we got deep into discussion, we enjoyed a super healthy meal cooked up by Jackie's friend and neighbor.  Jean described how we could cut our margaritas from 750 to 100 calories, survive on plates of dinner food that are only 75 calories, and get more protein and less fat from peanut butter.  After she left we ate chocolate lava cakes that were four million calories each.  Shhhhhhh, please don't tell her.

Points of discussion:

• How each of us could personally relate to the times Apple released new computers, devices, stores, etc. and how we felt about reading biographies.  Jessica's connection with her mom was especially touching.


• The Reality Distortion Field and how it affected Jobs' relationships, decisions, and life.


• The idea of "Genius" and the dysfunction that usually accompanies it.


• The objectivity of Isaacson's writing and the motivations behind Jobs choosing him to write this work.


• The intersection of Technology and Art.


• The ways Jobs reinvented not only technology but animation, music, retail, fashion, the business environment, etc...


• The intensity, narcissism, vision, drive, abandonment (to him and by him), and personality issues that intrigued us about Jobs.

Fun Facts:

We had a fun book exchange during which Dune was actually served up on a silver platter.
We wished we had never asked Paul to "choose a number."
Erin shared a seemingly normal catalog that turned out to be more naughty than nice.
Nancy surprised us with a Christmas treat.  Thanks!

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is a doozy of a book. Erin created a fabulous fall feast at Nancy's house and we got down to some serious discussion after we competed against each other in a little "Cloud Atlas SAT Prep" session Greta prepared.  The author David Mitchell is quite a show off when it comes to vocabulary.  He used about a thousand words none of us knew throughout the book and Greta rounded up 30 or so of them into a game of match the definition with the word.  It wasn't pretty.  The competition was fierce, and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a winner.  But I was too busy drinking champagne to really mind.

open that champagne, Nancy!

We were pretty evenly split as far as "liking" or "not liking" this book, but we all agreed it was a hard read to get into (or even stay into in some cases.)  It's not a book one breezes through.

The topics and themes in this book are incredibly complex and intense, so our discussion was reflective of that.  We laughed a lot, but we also talked about some weighty, serious concepts, like:

• The author's incredible talent in writing different genres and using creative language


• The interconnectedness of people throughout time and history


• Racism, oppression, and uprising (The rise and fall of civilizations)


• The nature of people, (Nature vs. Nurture) and our own ability to do good or evil


• The definitions of intellectual property, craftsmanship, and art.  "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." -Einstein


• Life, love, selfishness, making the world a better place, and of course, sharing the candlenut tree

Fun Facts:

Erin has a connection at Brianna's...can you tell?

Erin is also incredibly crafty.  We all had cute little wrapped presents waiting on our plates...

with beautiful hand-made crocheted bookmarks inside.  Too adorable!

The table was gorgeous.  The pumpkin soup (served from a real pumpkin!) was like a dessert.

But the real dessert was the best pecan pie I've ever tasted.  And Erin has shared her recipe with us!

Perfect Pie crust
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/p-p-p-pie_crust_and_its_p-p-p-perfect/

Pecan Pie

This is pretty much your basic Pecan pie recipe and  my Ma Ellen taught me a couple of tweaks she uses to make her pie the best Pecan Pie I've ever had.  So here is the recipe according to Ma Ellen.

1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 c light karo syrup
1/2 c pecans chopped for filling ( I usually chop some in a food processor to get the pecans finely chopped)
and additional to lay on top of pie
1 tbsp vanilla

preheat oven to 400*
Melt butter in a pan to a simmer and mix well with sugar*
Remove from heat
Add eggs, syrup, chopped pecans and vanilla.

Pour into unbaked pie crust

Bake 45 min or until golden
cover edges of pie with foil if edges get to brown before pie is baked

-Melting the butter adds a caramelized taste.
-Chopping the pecans finely before adding to the filling.

These are the tweaks my Ma Ellen taught me.  -Erin

One last fun fact, and it's just two words: Bombshell Bra

The Paris Wife

We met at Jessica's house and enjoyed a Parisian themed meal while discussing Paula McLain's book The Paris Wife.  We had an amazingly deep and thoughtful discussion about Hemingway's life, marriage, relationships in general, and the historical significance of Paris in the 1920's.

Here are some of the points of discussion:

• The overall feel of the book was sad and somewhat depressing because of the lack of fulfillment, disillusionment, alcoholism, hedonistic tendencies of the artistic movement during this time. 


• The book gave a glimpse of the onset of the feminist movement and how that affected the thoughts, desires, roles, dreams of the various woman characters.  We noticed that Hadley's desires seemed fairly traditional.


• In Hemingway's defense, he did have a traumatic childhood and war experience.  We talked about his pattern of falling in love, then leaving to fall in love with someone new.  This led to much discussion about identity, relationship, and love.  Some quotes from our discussion are:  "Be committed to the relationship, not the person because we all change."  "The foundation of your life can't be based on a relationship."  "Let the good be good and the bad be bad without letting it become the idol of your heart."  "Identity- we use other people to tell us who we are, or we use them to distract us from even asking the question."  "Income and satisfaction levels have zero correlation."  


• We were somewhat divided about the level of detail in the author's writing style.  Jackie especially liked the detail because she loves biographies.  Some felt it was too slow at times.  We all enjoyed the historical setting of the book.  The author also used a lot of foreshadowing especially at the ends of each chapter.

Fun Facts

The debate over deckle edge books continues.  Jackie adores them, Becky hates them.  Most likely, we will resort to giving passionate persuasive speeches in order to sway the other ladies (who have no strong opinion on deckle edging) to one side or the other.  (Since I am writing this summary of the evening I will go ahead and use this opportunity to say "Booooooo, Deckle!")

Little known fact: Jackie is a humbug when it comes to decorating for Christmas.

Although Hemingway is one of the best authors of all time, none of us had read any of his books!  Jessica has started one, A Moveable Feast, that is based on his time in Paris in the 20's.

Now, which button do I push?  - Greta

Maisie Dobbs

Greta prepared a fabulous meal of pork tenderloin, spinach salad with agave honey goat cheese, mashed sweet potato and butternut squash puree, and cake with berries for dessert.  Each of these dishes paired perfectly with the Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc she brought.  We met at Becky's house and discussed Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.

Points of discussion included:

• The character development and historic setting were top-rate, as were the inner psychological workings of the main character which though occasionally overdone (in some opinions) were meaningful and resonated with many of us.


• The book had a modern feel despite it's post WWI setting.  The war is an important part of the book, touching everyone in some way.  We all agreed the parts of the story that centered around the war were  rich in revelation about the history, emotion, and impact of the war on the people who lived then.


• The journey of Maisie Dobbs which was told via flashback was compelling for most of us, though it did have that familiar rags to riches tinge.


• Class issues came up, both the past and present day struggles people face by belonging to a certain class and perhaps trying to rise above it.  Relationships between different classes can be difficult to navigate.


• We all admired the author's portrayal of a heroine who has a holistic approach to truth.  The way she used her entire body, careful observation, quietness, meditation, etc to discern truth was intriguing and sparked much discussion for us.


• Most of us loved the book and plan to continue the series...though we'll never catch up with Nancy who has been off and running and has practically read all the Maisie Dobbs books available.

Fun Facts:

One not fun thing...it was Jenni's last meeting with us because she is moving.  We will miss her!!

Jessica joined us for the first time and it was great to have her with us!  She fit right in as if she had been meeting with us all along and had some good book recommendations as we grilled her about what kinds of books she likes most.

Some of our personal book mantras were revealed...

"Read, Enjoy, Move On" -Jenni   "Never watch the movie first." -Becky

and one that Jessica hopes to embrace one day..."Read, Don't Enjoy, STOP, Move On."

And a slight miracle occurred when Jessica mentioned one of her favorite books and, I can barely type it because it seems so unbelievable, Greta had read it!  Greta got to experience the feeling of having read a book that someone mentioned in casual conversation and frankly, she was overjoyed.

The Veil

We gathered at Nancy's house for our second meeting to discuss Jenni's book choice The Veil by Cory Putman Oakes.

Points of discussion:

• None of us regretted reading the book, but it was definitely aimed at a teenage audience and lacked some substance and quality.  


• Some faults included lack of elaboration, obvious foreshadowing, unrevealed inner thought processes, and little character development.  Erin compared it to a "B" movie.


• We answered the questions for discussion the author had written for book clubs.  Strangely, they did not lead to discussion about the book, rather they gave an example of something from the book and asked us to relate a personal story that is similar.  Awkward!  (Inside joke...)

We felt the author was definitely setting up for a series.  Some of us would continue with the series if and when it became available but others would not.  It was pretty obvious this was a first time author and the story lacked the depth that causes some teenage books to appeal to wider audiences (like Harry Potter)

Fun Facts:
We had a feast from Nancy's garden!  Fresh cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumber...amazing food!
(See recipe after the photos!)
The two main male characters in the book are "Nate" and "Lucas" which was fun for Becky because those are her boys' names.
Never before has deodorant been so thoroughly discussed at a book club meeting.
I'll leave you with one word: Frenemies

Here it is: from an old recipe card:

Cucumber Dip

8 oz cream cheese, softened 
2-3 green onions tops and all, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped 
1Tbsp lemon juice
Dash of garlic salt
2 dashes of celery salt
3-4 shakes Tabasco sauce
1/2 - 3/4 cup Miracle Whip
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash cream cheese with fork, add cucumbers and onions and blend. Add other ingredients and refrigerate. 

*You can tell this is an old recipe with all the "dashes", "shakes", etc., but you get the idea. I did not put onions in the recipe last night since I was serving onions with the tomatoes and thought that was enough onions.

Mrs. Kennedy and Me

For our first meeting ever, we discussed Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill.

Points of discussion:

• The effects of Mr. Hill's job on his wife and family (he was extremely absent from them)
• Mr. Hill's (and the country's) adoration of Mrs. Kennedy
• Mrs. Kennedy's warm, cultured persona that captured the hearts of other countries and their leaders
• Mrs. Kennedy's aristocratic status and disconnect with the reality of everyday life for most women
• The tension of a beautiful, wealthy family with tragedy that seems to draw interest from people
• Mr. Hill's depressed, guilty-conscience existence that was healed in some ways by writing the book
• The lack of privacy in Mrs. Kennedy's life and how that bothered and affected her
• Mrs. Kennedy's possible motives for marrying Onassis after JKF's death
• General views of women, pregnancy, and life in the late 50's, early 60's

We felt the ghostwriter Lisa McCubbin did an excellent job of forming the material into a book that flowed well and held the reader's interest.  We were thankful for Nancy's insight into the 60's (even though she was quite young at the time.)  Most of the group would recommend this book as an interesting insight into the life of Mrs. Kennedy and how the Secret Service agency works. 

Fun Facts:

We just happened to meet on JFK's birthday!  He would have been 95.

Jackie's father named her after Jacqueline Kennedy because he loved JFK (for sending troops to Vietnam.)  If Jackie had been a boy, her name would have been Kennedy.

Recipes:

Spicy Black Bean Empanadas

Mexican Green Bean Salad

Sopapilla Cheesecake

Oh no!  No pics with Erin because she was holding the camera...we will remedy that next time!