Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone enjoyed the much needed Thanksgiving break. It has been a crazy November with Makenzie home from Italy for my niece Allene’s wedding and then the multitude of wedding festivities. Now I need to concentrate on updating all of you on our November meeting and the next book club, our yearly Christmas dinner.
Only three of us attended the meeting on Saturday, November 13 - Becky, Ginnie, and me. It was a gorgeous blue sky Saturday, perfect for enjoying the outdoors and the remaining fall leaves. In response to our book Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, we spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon in the Mennonite community of Harmony. There we browsed through the town’s quaint shops during their annual German Christmas Market. In every store we oohed and awed over the most unique treasures – art, antiques, German pastries, colonial crafts, and toys. For our book club discussion, we dined on the patio of the local “haunted” Harmony Inn, a rare treat for a November day. The menu featured German fare, of course, so our dinner included Bavarian pretzels and bratwurst cradled in sauerkraut sandwiches. Needless to say, after lunch we continued our shopping excursion as there was so much more to see and do. By the time we left at 4:00 P.M., our arms were loaded down with precious packages of collectibles and edibles to remember our trip.
Our meeting was actually held in the car on the way to Harmony and all through the day as we made connections between Mennonite Harmony and the memoirs of our Mennonite author Rhoda Janzen. For instance, an old lunch tin reminded us of Rhoda carrying her borscht to school while other kids enjoyed packaged treats like Twinkies and Ho-Ho’s; and a store filled with hippy paraphernalia called to mind Rhoda’s knit pants on which her mother kept adding rings of fabric to the legs to accommodate her growth spurts. In fact, Becky was so caught up in the German immersion, she broke out into a chorus of “Auf den Hugel,” a song she remembered from childhood which was also a ditty sung by Rhoda’s mother.
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, we decided, is now on the list as one of our favorite book club reads. It is comparable to other book club favorites like The Glass Castle and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where the writer recalls a deprived childhood. Also, as we all love a flare of sarcasm in our reading, Janzen filled that requirement effortlessly. The anecdotes she shares of her struggles with her Mennonite heritage leave the reader both chuckling and reflecting on Janzen’s cathartic revelations. This book is brimming with insightful passages as Janzen returns to her past:
• Janzen realizes that higher education teaches us only that we don’t have all the answers. “Socrates summed it up very well: ‘I know only that I know nothing at all.’”
• In Janzen’s uphill trail to becoming a scholar she writes, “There was a time in my life - sadly - when quickness of mind seemed more important that kindness.”
• Janzen’s wise sister Hannah comments on middle age, “It’s about finally developing the resolve to reject ambiguity and embrace simplicity.”
• Janzen on virtue: “There are many paths to virtue, many ways of creating the patterns of behavior that result in habitual resistance to human badness.” “What I can control is my own responses to life’s challenges.”
This book deserves further discussion, and I would love to share more of its topics such as the Chaco, uberdorks, Kartoffelsalat, or the Russian wagon verses the Mennonite wagon at our Christmas dinner. There is just so much more for us to explore, even the vocabulary is stimulating. For example, on page 60 alone, words such as jejune meaning boring or childish; quixotic meaning excessively romantic or impractical; hubris meaning pride; and the French word, raison d'être, meaning “reason for existence,” all add spice to a single passage.
Finally, our next book club meeting will be for our annual Christmas dinner. The date for this event is Friday, December 10. We can gather at the “Smith Haus” on Old Plank Road at 5:30 P.M. before driving to Wexford’s Ichiban Restaurant. We have dinner reservations at 7:30. As before, husbands join us for this fun evening with no books attached! Just bring some book ideas for the new year; our book for January has already been slated. We will be reading Barbara Hambley’s book A Free Man of Color.
Please, let me know if you plan to attend the Christmas dinner on Friday, December 10, so I can give Ichiban the correct number of dinner guests. I hope to see all of you then.
Yours in reading,
Tammy
Hope everyone enjoyed the much needed Thanksgiving break. It has been a crazy November with Makenzie home from Italy for my niece Allene’s wedding and then the multitude of wedding festivities. Now I need to concentrate on updating all of you on our November meeting and the next book club, our yearly Christmas dinner.
Only three of us attended the meeting on Saturday, November 13 - Becky, Ginnie, and me. It was a gorgeous blue sky Saturday, perfect for enjoying the outdoors and the remaining fall leaves. In response to our book Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, we spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon in the Mennonite community of Harmony. There we browsed through the town’s quaint shops during their annual German Christmas Market. In every store we oohed and awed over the most unique treasures – art, antiques, German pastries, colonial crafts, and toys. For our book club discussion, we dined on the patio of the local “haunted” Harmony Inn, a rare treat for a November day. The menu featured German fare, of course, so our dinner included Bavarian pretzels and bratwurst cradled in sauerkraut sandwiches. Needless to say, after lunch we continued our shopping excursion as there was so much more to see and do. By the time we left at 4:00 P.M., our arms were loaded down with precious packages of collectibles and edibles to remember our trip.
Our meeting was actually held in the car on the way to Harmony and all through the day as we made connections between Mennonite Harmony and the memoirs of our Mennonite author Rhoda Janzen. For instance, an old lunch tin reminded us of Rhoda carrying her borscht to school while other kids enjoyed packaged treats like Twinkies and Ho-Ho’s; and a store filled with hippy paraphernalia called to mind Rhoda’s knit pants on which her mother kept adding rings of fabric to the legs to accommodate her growth spurts. In fact, Becky was so caught up in the German immersion, she broke out into a chorus of “Auf den Hugel,” a song she remembered from childhood which was also a ditty sung by Rhoda’s mother.
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, we decided, is now on the list as one of our favorite book club reads. It is comparable to other book club favorites like The Glass Castle and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where the writer recalls a deprived childhood. Also, as we all love a flare of sarcasm in our reading, Janzen filled that requirement effortlessly. The anecdotes she shares of her struggles with her Mennonite heritage leave the reader both chuckling and reflecting on Janzen’s cathartic revelations. This book is brimming with insightful passages as Janzen returns to her past:
• Janzen realizes that higher education teaches us only that we don’t have all the answers. “Socrates summed it up very well: ‘I know only that I know nothing at all.’”
• In Janzen’s uphill trail to becoming a scholar she writes, “There was a time in my life - sadly - when quickness of mind seemed more important that kindness.”
• Janzen’s wise sister Hannah comments on middle age, “It’s about finally developing the resolve to reject ambiguity and embrace simplicity.”
• Janzen on virtue: “There are many paths to virtue, many ways of creating the patterns of behavior that result in habitual resistance to human badness.” “What I can control is my own responses to life’s challenges.”
This book deserves further discussion, and I would love to share more of its topics such as the Chaco, uberdorks, Kartoffelsalat, or the Russian wagon verses the Mennonite wagon at our Christmas dinner. There is just so much more for us to explore, even the vocabulary is stimulating. For example, on page 60 alone, words such as jejune meaning boring or childish; quixotic meaning excessively romantic or impractical; hubris meaning pride; and the French word, raison d'être, meaning “reason for existence,” all add spice to a single passage.
Finally, our next book club meeting will be for our annual Christmas dinner. The date for this event is Friday, December 10. We can gather at the “Smith Haus” on Old Plank Road at 5:30 P.M. before driving to Wexford’s Ichiban Restaurant. We have dinner reservations at 7:30. As before, husbands join us for this fun evening with no books attached! Just bring some book ideas for the new year; our book for January has already been slated. We will be reading Barbara Hambley’s book A Free Man of Color.
Please, let me know if you plan to attend the Christmas dinner on Friday, December 10, so I can give Ichiban the correct number of dinner guests. I hope to see all of you then.
Yours in reading,
Tammy
