Hi Everyone,
What a dynamic September meeting we enjoyed, if you missed it! Although, most all of our members and a few new ones were present for our first meeting ever held at Mama Rosa’s Restaurant. We had seven regular members in attendance, Ginnie, Cheryl, Becky, Lori, Sharon, Jody, and me. Also, adjunct member Nancy Lendyak joined us along with her mother and aunt. It was an evening of robust conversation accompanied by flavorful Italian cuisine. Our book, A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi, did not meet the mark as one of our most memorable reads; however, small vignettes describing the Tuscan people and their customs gave us ample dinner dialogue.
Reading A Thousand Days in Tuscany for me was like walking through a fog, in some places it was dense and gray, and then I would turn a page and a clear blue sky would open up. My attention was drawn to the seasonal activities of the Tuscans, their seemingly simple and wholesome lifestyle. On page 34, De Blasi writes that the Tuscan’s are only interested in three things: the weather, birth and death, and food. It makes sense to me!
The accounts of weather changes are my favorite parts of the book. The seasons brought on the changes in weather, and with each new season, Marlena became actively involved in the harvesting and preserving of nature’s bounty. From gathering eggs, picking grapes, and uprooting truffles to boiling chestnuts, pressing olives, and canning peaches, Marlena participated in all of the Tuscan rituals.
My favorite of all the seasonal gleanings, however, was the winter olive harvest. Anecdotes such as the history of the olive, a Greek myth, tell how Athena grew the olive from the stones of Acropolis as a fruit of civility. Symbolic for “life,” the olive became sacred. Its oils have been used for over 8000 years for sacraments and anointing from birth to death. To this day, the Tuscans wash their newborn babies in the oils. The book even says, and Jody can be our expert on this fact, that “the medical community advises the consumption of extra virgin olive oil to help lower the evil side of blood cholesterol.” Most interesting, finally, is the use of olive oils as a facial moisturizer. Marlena shares that ever since she was a teenager, she has washed her face with it! A much cheaper remedy than my Estee Lauder beauty regimen.
Although A Thousand Days in Tuscany did not offer a suspenseful plot, it did contain many valuable quotes and words of wisdom. If I can remember just a few, one would certainly be “… simplicity is the last thing a person considers as he’s madly searching for the secret to life,” and another “When choosing a mate, be certain it’s the one with whom you want to share your dying as much as your living.” I would love to spend a year with the Tuscan people and learn how to simplify my life. 24 hours in a day seem to contract more and more as I get older. Why is that? I should be enjoying the freedom that comes with the empty nest, but I haven’t had the time! Maybe it is as De Blasi says, “Like so many other things we used to do to survive, canning just doesn’t make all that much sense now.” I just need to eliminate the things in my life that “don’t make sense” anymore, like cleaning!
In moving on, as a result of our extremely vigorous discussion, we neglected to pick a vocabulary word of the month for September. Marlena’s book is over-abundant with rich word choices and figurative language like raconteur (a narrator, chronicler, story teller) on p 17 or febrile (feverish, flushed, hot, red) on p 111. While reading, though, I was focusing mostly on Italian words making translations by using my meager Spanish background. How about these Italian phrases “I love the dolce e salata (sweet and salty) taste of kettle corn,” or “I am a lupo solitario (a lone wolf)!” For your homework, then, bring a word with you to our next meeting from the book A Thousand Days in Tuscany and a word from our next book Twilight, so we can decide on our words for both September and October.
This book really calls out for us to reschedule our long postponed trip to the wine country. I am willing to resurrect my itinerary and tweak it to fit a more casual weekend excursion! Let’s make it happen, girls! We can talk at our next book club meeting. I would like to change our meeting place from Panera Bread to my house if that is okay with all of you. Remember, our book is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and our meeting is on Tuesday, October 20 at 6 P.M. at my house. It will be a special occasion, the 6th anniversary of our book club!
Happy Fall Foliage,
Tammy
