When only sitting in a toy box will do ... Almost 22-month-old grandson Capt. Adorable finds the best seat in the house for perusing his favorite read.
Books
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Category Archives: books
Food and Books
This past week, my four-woman book club had our November meeting at my house with the book “The Space Between us” by India-native Thrity Umrigar. We had just finished “The Help,” about black maids and the white women they worked for in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s Civil Rights movement, and “The Space Between Us” is much the same story — privileged upper class women and lower-class servants. However, “Space” focuses more on the relationship between two individual women and what happens when that relationship is tested. We all loved this book for the insight into Indian culture and the stories of struggle, love and loss the two women main-characters endured. Highly recommended. And because book club is just us four friends, whoever is hosting usually tries to find some favors and cook a 
dinner that goes along with the theme of the book we read that month. Luckily, for my turn I found three oh-so-cute enameled trinket boxes from India at the World Market in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. And for cooking, I turned to Indian chef Madhur Jaffrey’s “Easy East/West Menus for Family and Friends.” Okay, I didn’t actually cook anything from that cookbook — you know me better than that — but I did get some good quick and easy menu ideas (thank you, grocery stores!): Roasted onion and garlic jam on toasted strips of nan bread, sauteed chicken breasts in a garlic and ginger sauce, turmeric rice with onions and golden raisins, roasted asparagus, a couple ready-made heat-and-eat curry dishes (hot, hot, hot — but tasty, in a hot mouth-burning sort of way) and English tea cookies for dessert. Good friends, good books, good discussion, not-so-bad food — and my three friends don’t mind the bonus cat hair they get at my house, at all.
Books
You have got to put The Help, a debut novel by Kathryn Stockett, on your must-read list. Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, this book is about the black women who work as maids, housekeepers and nannies for the town’s well-off white families. It’s narrated by two of those women, Aibileen and Minny, as well as a Skeeter, an Ole Miss graduate who comes home to her family’s cotton farm and begins to see the injustices in the white-woman-boss and black-woman-employee system she’d previously accepted unquestioningly. As the book unfolds and we learn more about how the white female bosses treated their black employees, you’ll be surprised, shocked and stunned — and never look at a Junior-League bake sale the same way again. But this isn’t a grim or humorless book. Stockett respects her characters and allows them to gently tell their stories in their own voices as we discover and examine along with (most of) them our own feelings about race and skin color. In fact, this book led to one of the most spirited discussions my four-woman book club has ever had as we each talked about our experiences growing up Southern during the Civil Rights ’60s and how those experiences affect our relationships with those who look different from ourselves. We talked about what exactly it means to be “racist” and were so grateful we’d read a book that made us examine prejudices we maybe didn’t even realize we had. But The Help is more than a chronicle of the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. It’s a delightful and uplifting story of the power of friendship, the strength of maternal love and the power of women’s determination to make a difference. Go to a bookstore, buy this book and then pass it on. You cannot miss out on one of the best books I’ve read this year.
Haunted Houses — and History
I do not like scary, bloody or gory stuff. I can barely sit through a CSI or Shark Week episode. Okay, that’s a lie — I cannot sit through a CSI or Shark Week episode. This is why I stay away from the “haunted houses” that open up during October around here. Other folks love to pay good money to scream and run away from axe-wielding zombies and come-to-life mummies, but not me, thank you very much. So when a haunted house opened up in Florence, Alabama, with the promise of only slightly spooky stories and a tramp around the grounds of a historic mansion, I was in. This is the 
Sweetwater Mansion, home to Robert M. Patton, who completed the home in 1835 (his father-in-law had started it a few years earlier). Patton was Alabama’s governor from 1865 to 1868. Sweetwater was a showplace that once included 3,800 acres of land and played host to many Civil War politicians and officers. Today, it’s neglected and deteriorating and surrounded by traffic and development — there’s a convenience store practically in the front yard. Owned by Susan Smithson, a former Shoals resident now living in Atlanta, Sweetwater and its remaining 22 acres are for sale, priced at several million dollars. Volunteers have banded together to raise money for historic repairs and renovation and are sponsoring a haunted house this month. Some friends and I bundled up, fortified ourselves with a thermos of hot coffee and paid our $20 each. Our tour guide took us to five storytelling stations around the house and grounds (including the family graveyard), where we heard creepy ghost stories that scared us just enough and got close-up views of the house, the kitchen and the repair work that was underway. One of my friends took photos that showed spooky sort of orbs floating around. I didn’t get any of those on my photos — but losing this historic gem is scary enough. Learn more about the Sweetwater mansion at http://sweetwatermansion.com/
Books and Fudge
If you have time to squeeze in one more summer read, make it “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” a delightful history lesson, love story and entertaining read all in one. Did you have any idea that the British island of Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during World War II? It was news to me. In a gentle peeling away of layers of secrets, this book chronicles the occupation and its aftermath and the island residents’ courage and human spirit to endure. Plus, it’s written in one of my favorite literary styles: A series of letters. I love reading books that make me feel as if I’m peeking into the characters’ real lives — that all this is really happening and we readers get to watch it unfold naturally. Plus, who doesn’t love the vicarious thrill of reading other people’s letters? The story of the writing of this book also will move you. I won’t spoil it for you, but the authors were passionate about their subject and about getting the book written and in readers’ hands.
And there’s still more to this story. My four-woman book club chose this a couple months ago. In this group, the hostess chooses the book, leads the discussion and usually gives out favors related to the month’s read. My friend Cheryl was hosting for “Guernsey,” and she went online to find out more about the island and get some ideas for favors. Jackpot! She found Guernsey Cream Fudge from Channel Island Confectionery Ltd. and ordered a variety of flavors for 
us. I’m telling you that this is the best fudge I’ve ever had. It’s different, probably, from what you think fudge should taste like — this is smooth and creamy (but not soft) and literally melts in your mouth. It’s rich without that too-much-sugar-and-butter aftertaste. Plus, Cheryl struck up an e-mail correspondence with the fudge folks, who sent us much more information about the German occupation and their own family’s experiences during the war. They even invited our book club to Guernsey for a visit! Since the four of us have a hard enough time organizing our monthly meetings, that probably won’t happen, but it was nice to be asked — and, when you read the book, you’ll see that that’s exactly how things unfolded in the story. Anyway, order some fudge at http://www.guernseycreamfudge.com/ — and read the book.
Reading
The only thing my 16-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable, sits still for is "reading."
Books
Have you all heard about the Jane Austin zombie book? (It is so much fun to say “Jane Austen zombie book.”) My husband just finished it and agreed to write a review of it for you all. Prepare to have some fun:
My wife and I have developed a shorthand to describe certain kinds of restaurants we encounter: “It’s better than it 
needed to be.” That’s my hearty endorsement of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” a clever and careful reworking of the classic Jane Austen novel by Simon Grahame-Smith, “with ultraviolent zombie mayhem.” A crafty publisher came up with the concept to marry a great novel in the public domain (no copyright infringement) with a classic horror movie antagonist. Grahame-Smith takes the existing story – and all of its memorable characters, especially headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and the proud Mr. Darcy – and looses a plague of “unmentionables” onto the English countryside. From a writer’s perspective – which is the way I read most books – it’s a dazzling experiment. In lesser hands, it could have been a mess, a one-note parody that would grow tiresome after a few pages. Give a lot of credit to Austen. She wrote such a sturdy tale that it easily bears up under the weight. After all, Elizabeth Bennet is surely the literary ancestor of those strong-willed heroines who survive their cinematic battles with Jason or Freddy or the aliens. Mr. Darcy – and, yes, it’s impossible to avoid picturing Colin Firth wielding a sword as you read along – fits in nicely alongside misunderstood antiheroes like Han Solo. Austen’s story chugs along toward an inevitable happy ending as the zombie corpses pile up. After I was through, I had to go find an online copy of the original, so I could marvel at how Grahame-Smith pulled it off. Of course they’re going to make a movie of this. And of course there will be more literary mash-ups after this one was a best-seller. Sense and Sensibility and Werewolves? Cathy and Heathcliff and Dracula? Little Women and The Robots From Mars? Why not?
Books
My mom, "Grommy," reads to my almost 14-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable. I love that they both are holding their mouths the exact same way.
Arrggghhhh! No, it’s not Talk Like A Pirate Day. That is me being aggravated at myself for forgetting things. Like today. I was hanging out with family all day — including grandson Capt. Adorable, my parents and both daughters — and then came home to more computer problems so I spent an hour on the phone getting my wireless router reconfigured and then completely forgot I had an AAUW book-club meeting tonight. I love my American Association of University Women group because those ladies are so dang smart — I just sort of soak up wisdom whenever I’m around them — and it aggravated the 
bejebbers out of me for forgetting it was meeting tonight. Also: I was looking forward to hearing more about our book. “The Golden Child” by Penelope Fitzgerald. Written in 1977, this novel is a delightful poke at pretentious high-museum politics as a world-famous archaeological exhibit opens in London — and murder and mayhem ensues. With proper English decorum, of course. I had never heard of this book or this author, who wrote her first book at 69 so that means there is hope for the rest of us, and I wanted to learn more. Oh, well. Plus, this week I also have forgotten three water bottles and left them at various places: 1) My parents’ refrigerator, 2) the local library board room (which doesn’t sound as impressive when you know I was there only for a Harry Potter book-club meeting) and 3) well … I now have forgotten the third place where I left a water bottle. I think it’s time to go to bed.
Books
Hmm … a friend on Facebook posts about going to dinner at Christ Church in Oxford, England, where Harry Potter scenes were filmed. I, on the other hand, take a Facebook quiz about which Harry Potter character I am, although the typos and misspellings in those quizzes drive me so crazy that I WANT TO MAKE A QUIZ ABOUT WHY CAN’T YOU 
PEOPLE SPELL AND PUT APOSTROPHES IN THE RIGHT PLACES???? And then that puts me in such a contrary mood that I think I’ll write about other things that make me crazy — things that other people absolutely adore … such as the book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Many, many friends whose opinions I respect and recommendations I follow love this book. Love, love, love it. They think it’s a powerfully female story about one woman’s journey to discover and accept who she is. They kind of get all starry-eyed when they talk about it. And listen, I’m all for everybody having their own opinions and liking what they like for their own reasons. So with all due respect to everybody who puts this book in the you-gotta-read-this pile, I think that instead of a classic, it actually is a powerfully narcissistic story about one woman’s self-indulgent justifications and her ability to come up with something that validated her $200,000 book advance. I despise books in which everybody loves the narrator/main character and thinks the narrator/main character is the best thing since sliced white bread for no discernible reason whatsoever. Such as in this book. Such as in the fan club that Ms. Gilbert gathers around her everywhere she goes with no effort on her part. Such as everyone who meets her falls in love with her and wants to do things for her. Or so she says, as she journeys around the world and dabbles in other cultures to erase the pain of a failed marriage and love affair. Look, when faced with broken relationships, most of the rest of us women learn about our submerged talents and unknown strengths and authentic selves by going to work and getting the kids ready for school and fixing the leaky toilet every day on our own all by ourselves. I’m just saying.
And which Harry Potter character am I? Harry! According to the quiz (corrected for spelling and grammar), I’m “destined to do great things and highly ambitious. Sometimes, in order to go after your dreams, you seem to disregard rules — there is a slight haze (?) in your sense of right or wrong but in the end, you’re a good person.” Phew! That’s a relief.
Books
Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore or computer and buy Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge,” the 2009 Pulitzer Prize fiction winner. I first heard about this book on NPR and I’ve since read it three times and recommended it to all readers I know. This has it all: Lovely and lyrical writing, subtle details that stay with you, stories you can’t forget and powerfully ordinary characters. The book is a series of short stories that follow the lives of folks in a coastal Maine village over several years — some people we get to know well and others just sort of pass through, leaving more questions than answers behind. This is the sort of read that makes you think. And want to reread it so you can think some more. If swine flu-closings furlough you from work, pick this book up and take it home. And even if your workplace remains blissfully swine flu-free, pick it up, anyway. You’ll be glad you did.
Coffee with Cathy 