Where does the time go?
We are pretty sure a few of our picks are missing from the lists (because someone, who shall not be named, has not kept up with the blog). But it’s still an impressive array of books.
In fact, we are still sitting here talking and reminiscing. How the book club started in 2007 with my Grandma when I (Julia) was still living in Vermont. We’d meet when I came home to visit for holidays and birthdays. The first pick was The Brothers Karamozov.
We’re reminiscing about some of our favorite nights. The whole pigs head we ate with Democracy in America. The bullet hole Judith taped to the window for Alan Furst. Picks we all loved, like The River of Doubt. Picks we all… struggled through like The Ginger Man.
Tonight we gathered to discuss Everyman Dies Alone, my latest pick. We ate a delicious, and mostly unrelated meal, of squash (from the cookbook Plenty, really get it if you don’t have it) and a delicious potato dish and salad. Though we did have German beer and chocolate German cake. And now, like usual, we are talking about other books. Like Kite Runner and Secondhand Time and Sapiens and Orenda. And how when Judith was on an arctic island for months she brought Finnegan’s Wake to read. Then promptly read every other book on the island.
Tonight also marks Cherie’s official joining of the book club. While she has joined us for meals and discussions since at least the Banana book, she had her first pick tonight. Purity, by Jonathan Franzen. A few in the group really didn’t like Corrections, and others liked Freedom. But we’re all game to read Purity. The hope is to meet mid-February before a batch of us head out on travels.