March Book

Julia Child's My Life in France

Amazon.com Review

Book Description

Julia Child single handedly awakened America to the pleasures of good cooking with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she didn't know the first thing about cooking when she landed in France.

Indeed, when she first arrived in 1948 with her husband, Paul, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever. Julia's unforgettable story unfolds with the spirit so key to her success as a cook and teacher and writer, brilliantly capturing one of the most endearing American personalities of the last fifty years.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-France-Julia-Child/dp/1400043468

February's Book

Tragedy in Tin Can Holler

I can't do this book justice in a synopsis so here's the text from Rozetta's website:

Hello, my name is Rozetta Mowery. The horrors of my childhood, 12 years in abusive foster homes and two abusive marriages never darkened my spirits. My life and my destiny is to share my story with the world as a warning to the dangers of domestic violence and how it destroys lives and families. Please read my book, "Tragedy in Tin Can Holler" and share it with everyone you love and hold dear to your heart.

My story is true horror that spans six generations; murder, domestic violence, child abuse, (including foster care abuse) incest, illegal adoptions, lies and family secrets that were buried for decades! Discovering the truth about my family changed my life drastically and has taken me on a journey I never envisioned.


You can order my book through Paypal below for a personally autographed copy of my book.


http://www.tragedyintincanholler.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Tin-Holler-Rozetta-Mowery/dp/0977968065

January's Book

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

After discovering in the early 1980s that a super-saver fare to Savannah, Ga., cost the same as an entree in a nouvelle Manhattan restaurant, Esquire columnist Berendt spent the next eight years flitting between Savannah and New York City. The result is this collection of smart, sympathetic observations about his colorful Southern neighbors, including a jazz-playing real estate shark; a sexually adventurous art student; the Lady Chablis (' "What was your name before that?" I asked. "Frank," she said.' "); the gossipy Married Woman's Card Club; and an assortment of aging Southern belles. The book is also about the wealthy international antiques dealer Jim Williams, who played an active role in the historic city's restoration--and would also be tried four times for the 1981 shooting death of 21-year-old Danny Handsford, his high-energy, self-destructive house helper. The Williams trials--he died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 59--are lively matches between dueling attorneys fought with shifting evidence, and they serve as both theme and anchor to Berendt's illuminating and captivating travelogue.

Meeting Dates

Hi ladies,

Here is the schedule for the next six meetings:

October 18 10 am at Crystal's house
November 15th at Diane's house
December 13th at Marcela's apartment - Cookie Exchange
January 10th
February 7th
March 7th

December's Book

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This inspirational fable by Brazilian author and translator Coelho has been a runaway bestseller throughout Latin America and seems poised to achieve the same prominence here. The charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, is compelling in its own right, but gains resonance through the many lessons Santiago learns during his adventures. He journeys from Spain to Morocco in search of worldly success, and eventually to Egypt, where a fateful encounter with an alchemist brings him at last to self-understanding and spiritual enlightenment. The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it's full of specific wisdom as well, about becoming self-empowered, overcoming depression, and believing in dreams. The cumulative effect is like hearing a wonderful bedtime story from an inspirational psychiatrist. Comparisons to The Little Prince are appropriate; this is a sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBmkEuxLd4

November's Book

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."

Here is a link to the promotional video for the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQhwAvW2nWA

October's Book

This month's book is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Their fates were linked by the magical Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, nicknamed the “White City” for its majestic beauty. Architect Daniel Burnham built it; serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes used it to lure victims to his World’s Fair Hotel, designed for murder. Both men left behind them a powerful legacy, one of brilliance and energy, the other of sorrow and darkness.
Here, then, is your ticket to the greatest fair in history—a place where incredible dreams came to life alongside darkest nightmares.

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html