This month's book club selection was "A Gate at the Stairs" by Lorrie Moore. It was my pick; Kelly gave it to me as a gift, so I thought the whole club should read it. I, like Kelly, thought it was amazing. The plot was pretty small in scope for characters, time and action, but exploded with huge themes. These covers illustrate this: The cover above was the one I had
depicting a rural house, domestic setting with something a miss from the car parked askew and dark characters entering the home. Look at the other! This one blew my mind just now when I found the image. The old saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover" is for is for brainless,
unimaginative people. Who can
refrain from judging? Who would want to? If I had seen this cover, my reading would have been so different. Maybe I wouldn't have been so blow away by the huge themes in the end. I would have seen them coming.
For next month's club we're reading "Let's Take the Long Way Home" by Gail Caldwell. Look at this cover, a little marketing trickery. "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" Well, she did. For Criticism. Not this memoir.
It's ok. It's average. It's only 186 pages so whatever it is, it's over quickly. Basically, this is a book for people who: 1. Love dogs. 2. Were once alcoholics and are now dry. 3. Love rowing on lakes. 4. Have had a best friend who died and they can't articulate how the grief felt. The whole time I was reading it, I just kept thinking the four parts would be better divided into magazine articles for publications devoted to those topics. Anyway, here was my favorite line, "Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived."
Yum! I was craving this chocolate, pudding, strawberry combination all week when I was not eating any carbs except for grapefruit. This cake hit the spot! It tasted as good as it looks. Lyman made an incredible meal of roast pork, mac and cheese, cornbread, salad and apple and butternut squash compote. All this with three great friends, and a birthday baby made it a wonderful holiday.
The Easter bunny was very good to Milo this year. He got two movies and Chutes & Ladders from Mommy and Daddy. Nice candies from Auntie Kelly, and lots of goodies from Nonna: coloring book, pez, t shirt, and socks. He was in heaven.
