Literary Brunch

Every year a group of friends meet to share and discuss books which have had an impact on them sometime during the past year. Along with a description of the book and the reading of favourite passages each person prepares a dish which represents their book. Lots of discussion, laughter and side conversations develop as the books evoke memories, kindle ideas and encourage more sharing.

Below is an overview of the books presented, the food prepared and the reason why each individual chose to present their book.

Liam B-D
Book: Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
Food: Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

The family is Italian whose father is mob boss. The son Vince doesn’t want to have anything to do with the mob. The mother cooks for the members of the mob — usually spaghetti so Liam made spaghetti and meat sauce. Liam liked this book because of the humour. It was fast paced and a laugh-out loud book.

Annika
Book: Kiki Strike Inside the Shadow City by Kirstin Miller
Food: Cafe Latte
Annika said this book was her favourite book and she shared a passage with the group. She liked the book because it was a spy/science fiction novel that kept you in suspense while discovering a world under New York City.
Awesome Kiki Strike Web site

Amy commented that she liked the book because the girls were quirky and didn’t have many friends but came together as a group.

Micah
Book: Pond Scum by Alan Silberberg
Food: Chocolate pudding cake with gummie worms

We were all impressed with the details that Micah remembered about the book. He told us that Oliver was a boy without many friends and he pulled the wings off flies. He discovers a way to change into different insects and animals and in doing so comes to empathize with them.
Lots of animal/insect/human transformation

He said the book was adventurous and exciting — a page turner! His dad was reading the book to him but he enjoyed the book so much he finished it on his own.

Sam told us that his current favourite was The Golden Compass, a modern fantasy by Philip Pullman. He said it was fantasy because there are polar bears with opposable thumbs and who walk on their hind legs.

Liam B told us that he was also a Philip Pullman fan and that the Subtle Knife was currently his favourite. He is now reading Amber Spyglass, the third book in the Trilogy.

Liam, Sam and Annika also recommended Eragon by Christopher Paolini and Dragonrider by Cornelia Funke

Brian
Book: Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
Food: Vegetable Tagine

Follows a woman’s life which begins in Morocco. When her parents die she is cared for by an Iman and becomes a devout Muslim. She travels to Ethiopia and then to London as a refugee.

Brian enjoyed the book because it evoked memories of the time he had spent in Morocco and because he was intrigued by her refugee experience as a white, non-English speaking Muslim in London.

Cousin Barb – Unfortunately due to the very cold weather Cousin Barb could not be with us. Last year she tantalized us with her romantic story of Dirk and this year she sent us this:

“After ditching Dirk for his delectable dessert last year, I decided to move on to more delicious adventures – adventures of finding more mouth-watering edibles.

Across the crowded room, I noticed him. Who could not? For he was tall, so tall, with shiny black hair that cascaded down to his broad muscular shoulders, and he had an alluring way of flicking his head back to move his hair off his brow. And, oh what eyes, so dark and smoldering. I had to meet him.

And meet him, I did. We’d finally untangled ourselves at dawn, just as streaks in the sky were turning from salmon to hot pink. It had taken me less than a minute to throw on my clothes, after which I watched him get dressed. He was more muscular than I had imagined, his body sleek and well defined. Good pecs, good biceps, good abs. He was so beautifully built, golden tanned skin as smooth as leather, pulled taut over an armature of stone.

If that isn’t “Sex in a Pan”, I don’t know what is.”

Laird
Book: Replay by Ken Grimwood – This is the story of a man who lives life till 1988 when he dies of a heart attack and get transported back to 1963 – lives again to 1988 dies again and then gets transplanted back each time goes back he uses the knowledge to try and change the way things worked it out do it differently better and find out if there are other replayers out there. A fascinating read – a page-turner. (Lost Books review)

Reminded Amy of the BBC series Life on Mars. Bob mentioned the TV series Quantum Leap.

Food: Spanish Rice – because a scene in the book takes place in Majorca. Also, when trying to decide what to make his daughter suggested that he think back 25 years which reminded him of the Spanish rice his Mom always made. Sherron had also loved this book and said it had lots to do with fate… this is your life and you can’t do much about it… therefore, live for today. If you could go back it won’t necessarily be better. Laird agreed – that was his philosophy “live for today”.

Birgit
Book: White Masai by Corine Hofmann
The real story of a Swiss business woman who goes on a holiday to Kenya and falls in love with a Masai warrior who lives in a hut in the bush.
Food: Swiss Quiche – because she would have missed the food of her homeland.
A great deal of conversation followed as the group tried to understand the author’s motivation to live in complete poverty because of an obsession with a man. Bob shared stories of his trip to Kenya.

Transcripts from a Sixty Minutes interview.

Lecia
Book: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky and Sandra Smith– a novel from time of the Second World War – set in Paris. This novel was written by a woman in the camps during the holocaust. Her children assumed it was a diary and had not read it so it did not get published until 2006. Lecia came stylishly dressed in clothes that could pass for 1940’s fashion and complete with hat read passages from the book.
Food: Sausages, French bread and espresso.

Bob
Book: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (author of Dirt Music – Booker nominee) chronicles the lives of two working families from 1944 – 1964 in an Australian urban environment. Reminded Bob of Pat Barker’s Union street (Britain in the 50’s about working class families). An epic novel of Western Australia.

American equivalent would be A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Gabriel Roy’s the Tin Flute. These two novels were written in a more fluid manner while Coudstreet is written in a more modern sporadic style.
Food: beetroot and parsnips

Bev
Book: Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
Food: Bean Tacos
This is the story of a man an young boy both held prisoner in a Burmese jail. There is very little to eat and often the main character survives by eating the lizards on the walls of his cell. Made tortillas w/beans because that was the food in the house. Did not buy anything. This is Bev’s most favourite book ever…. because it was a page turner and because she became deeply attached to the characters. She was emotionally attached to the characters and laughed and cried along with them and was disappointed when the book was over and the characters gone. She likes stories about hardships.

Donna also read the book and while it was well-written found it very dark and a difficult book to read.

Donna
Book: The World is Flat by Thomas L Friedman. This is a book about how new communication technologies are creating a ‘flat’ world. Thomas Friedman identifies 10 flatners and describes how they are impacting the way we do business in the world. Donna has been very involved in learning about Web 2.0 in her job, in her university life and in her committee work which is why she chose the book. She has also been following the Flat Classroom project tin which two teachers from Dakka, Bangladesh and Camila, Georgia have brought their classes together to work jointly on projects about the 10 flatners.
Food: Chicken Makhani and Georgia Corn Bread. She wanted two dishes that could stand on their own or come together to support each other.

Donna read a section from the that describes how individuals should works towards becoming ‘untouchable’ in a vastly and quickly changing world.

Excellent video from MIT in which Thomas Friedman given an entertaining lecture on the 10 flatners.

Amy
Book: Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield
Food: Roast beef with horseradish and cocoa
This is a book about a woman trying to uncover the mystery of her birth. Amy modeled text-to-text connection and talked about how the book reminded of two other novels that she had read this year, The Girls by Lori Lanzen and The Memory Keeper’s Daugher by Kim Edwards. Both of these books were also about twins and a mystery shrouded their births as well.

Thirteenth Tale Web Site

Sherron
Book: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Food: Dolmades with tomatoes, pepper and a lemon sauce.
Margaret Atwood was one of several well-known authors who were asked to re-write a myth. Margaret Atwood chose to write the story of Odysseus from Penelope’s point of view. Sherron enjoys novels that provide an alternative voice in history. She mentioned Alice Walker in The Temple of My Familiar who talks about Medusa who has been made to be monstrous is actually the mother goddess of Africa.

A wonderful afternoon of great books and delicious food!