Next 3 book choices: July to September 2012

Many of you have requested to have a list of books beforehand to have more time in advance to read the books that we'll be discussing in the next three months. Here are the choices:

July 2012: Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton - Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: from the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand to the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey. This is what I would consider a light read for our book club that involves traveling and food!

August 2012: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller - A story of survival and war, love and madness, loyalty and forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is an intimate exploration of the author’s family and of the price of being possessed by this uncompromising, fertile, death-dealing land (Zimbabwe). This book is a sequel to the book "Don't Let go to the Dogs Tonight" which I highly recommend, if you want to try reading it before this book.

September 2012: Honor Lost: Love And Death In Modern Day Jordan by Norma Khouri - Norma Khouri's book is a gift to the memory of her friend, in which she recounts a powerful love story that ends in an appalling tragedy, and also attempts to bring to the world's attention the continuing practice of honor killing in Jordan -- an ancient tradition that encourages the murder of women considered to have dishonored their families. 

Feel free to share your book suggestions in the comments of this blog posting. See you all soon!

June Book: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

After a stop in the Middle East, we are heading over to China, as we'll be discussing our next book "The Woman Warrior; Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts" by Maxine Hong Kingston.

Here's a book summary:

The Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men) distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward.

The author's America is a landscape of confounding white "ghosts"--the policeman ghost, the social worker ghost--with equally rigid, but very different rules. Like the woman warrior of the title, Kingston carries the crimes against her family carved into her back by her parents in testimony to and defiance of the pain.

We will be meeting on Sunday June 3rd at 2pm.

Stay posted for next book to read in July!