December 2012 Book Club Christmas Party at the Hartwood Restaurant in Glenshaw

Merry Christmas Book Club,

Yes! I love executive decisions; they save me from unnecessary stress! Woo-hoo! The Language of Flowers is one of the books I wrote down that Janet Black recommended. The other 2 books are The Housekeeper and the Professor and My Life in France: Julia Child. Hysteria was not on my list of notes. January’s book then is The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I would like to change the meeting to my house on January 29, 2013 at 6:30 PM instead of Natilie’s Pizzeria.

We had a wonderful turnout for our 8^th Annual Christmas Party. Yes, ladies, the Butler Women of Wisdom Book Club has been reading books together for over 8 years. (Historical fact: Our club held its first meeting at my house in October of 2004. Trivia question: What was our first book?) At this year’s party held at the Hartwood Restaurant in Glenshaw, those who attended including myself and Tim were Becky and Jim, Cheryl and Greg, Christine G., Ginnie and Lee, Lori and Doug, Barb and Jim D., and Barb and Mike K.

I reveled in the food and the atmosphere to say the least. We started our evening with drinks at the Hardwood Café on Route 8 where I ordered a “strawberry basil martini.”  It was a delectable sweet and sour mix of holiday and spice, so nice! But mindful of our dinner reservations set for 6:30 PM at Hartwood, we designated drivers and carpooled to Glenshaw.

At the Hartwood Restaurant, we were all very pleased with our private seating arrangements. We were served in what I call the “confessional” room. The façade of a Catholic confessional on one wall forged our conversation for the evening. Greg Ramsey revived his memories of his holiday at St. Fidelis Seminary, Tim and I recalled our own Lady of Guadalupe anecdotes, while Jim Direnzo advised Tim on the certification requirements of becoming a deacon.

Despite the daunting holy thresholds, a few of us preferred to postpone our penance until later and quickly began our celebration at Hartwood with their special “Poinsettia” drink. Served in a snow globe stemmed glass, I soon had visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.

As for our feast, Cheryl and Greg, friends of our waitress, may have been partly responsible for our superb dining experience. My whole meal was indescribable, but I’ll try. It started with a small slice of sweet nut bread. Just the yummy filler I needed to soften the effects of my “Poinsettia.” I was then served a spring salad with fresh basil and vinaigrette dressing. Nothing could have prepared me for the burst of flavor that transpired; the fusion of greens with the freshly chopped herbs was a much appreciated winter surprise. My main course, Caribbean seared salmon topped with caramelized pineapple salsa cooked to juicy fork flake flawlessness was, as the Italian’s say, fantastico! A side of Jasmine rice and a carrot pineapple mix complimented the ambiance of tropical flavors. Dessert was no less an adventure of the palette. In the clutches of celebration, I ordered myself a piece of pecan bourbon pie. Served with a topping of French vanilla ice cream and accompanied with a hot cup of coffee, my evening couldn’t have been sweeter…set the mood with good friends and add a feast of fine food, always a perfect combination!

For January’s book club, I would like to attempt to serve our book character Victoria Jones’s favorite foods she would want to eat for the rest of her life http://butterybooks.com/bookclubpartyideas/the-language-of-flowers-by-vanessa-diffenbaugh/ : 

1.      Donuts, assorted, with an emphasis on maple

2. Roasted chicken
3. Cheesecake
4. Butternut squash soup
5. Grapes

If any of you can assist me in this feat of culinary creativity, let me know what you can contribute. Read The Language of Flowers and learn about their romantic potential. As a book club assignment, bring a picture, an artificially designed, or a fresh pick of your favorite flower. Be prepared to explain its romantic qualities. Hope to see you all at next month’s book club at my house and any of our book club events throughout the year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Your friend in reading,

Tammy

November 2012 Book Club "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce

Merry Christmas Book Club!

Our November meeting, the Butler Symphony Christmas home tour, was a beautiful day of sunshine, mild temperatures, and fun for all who attended. Members present including me were Ginnie, Lori, Becky, Barb K., Cheryl, and Jody. We had several guests with us as well: my sister Theresa Beck, Jody’s Daughter Drew, and Becky’s friend and mine Karen Doran. We hope that each of our guests enjoyed their day with us and all are welcome to join our club for any future meetings and events.

Our home tour began just a little on the shaky side with a bad choice of restaurants in Saxonburg for breakfast. Although it would have been an ideal location for discussing our November book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, the kitchen was basically out of all of the food on their menu. We ended up leaving the restaurant and were, luckily, quickly accommodated at Kelly’s Diner, just a few blocks down Saxonburg’s Main Street. Although, our group was seated at different tables, we were close enough to interact with a few opinions on our book.

Joyce’s first novel is a winner. The main character Harold Fry is a likable senior citizen with the common humorous nature of an Englishman. As Joyce writes his story, it is obvious she is using him as a medium for her own perspective on the world and a confessional for her own transgressions. Harold Fry is from a typically ordinary world, a place where all journeys of heroes must begin. One ordinary morning, Harold sets out for the post office to mail a card to his friend, Queenie Hennessy, who is dying of cancer. This is where the ordinary for Harold ends, he steps out of his safe world and answers “the call to adventure” the second step of a hero’s journey. Impulsively, he decides to walk in the hopes of keeping his friend alive. His journey is wrought with misgivings, cathartic moments, and purgative experiences. On several occasions, walking in unsuitably soled boat shoes and scant walking apparel, Harold almost gives up, but along the way, he finds renewed motivation through the people he meets and the places he travels.

I found Harold’s epiphanies on his life familiar. When Harold reflects on his son David’s pushing away as he grew up; he thinks of it as a natural process. He and his wife Maureen dealt with their son’s rejection in different ways, mostly in silence, “an energy and violence of its own.” However lonely Harold and Maureen felt, both knew the world would be even more desolate without each other. Their coming to terms with all of their mistakes and finding the true value of their relationship is the essence of this story. Harold’s journey also has a resurrection moment as there is with all hero journeys, and Harold learns that he really knows nothing and that is the biggest truth of all. I think of Odysseus who admits this to Poseidon, “I am nothing, I know nothing,” the summation of his knowledge after a twenty year journey, a valuable lesson for us all.

As no book was yet decided for January, please join us for the Christmas dinner with your ideas for future titles and for an always entertaining evening with friends. We will meet with our husbands and guests at the Butler Day’s Inn at 5 PM for a cocktail, and then drive to Glenshaw for our dinner reservations at the Hartwood Restaurant http://www.hartwoodrestaurant.com/menu.html  for Saturday, December 8, at 6:30 PM. We can leave a few cars parked at the Day’s Inn and then carpool to the restaurant. Please let me know if you plan to attend but have not emailed me your RSVP; all are welcome, past, present, and possible future members!  Also, be festive and break out your holiday glitz! 

Looking forward to our night out,

Tammy

P.S. At the party, we need to finalize our donation to the Chicora Medical Center Library. I would like to make our donation in memory of Gin Ramsey for the fun and laughter she gave to all who knew her.

October 2012 Book Club (8th Anniversary) "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Hi Everyone,

This email will be a short one. I just wanted to notify all of you right away of important dates decided upon at our October meeting and information you may want to have especially when planning your schedule for the upcoming holiday season. Later, I’ll be sending another email just to share my thoughts on October’s book Gone Girl (as soon as I finish reading it!)

Besides myself, those in attendance at October’s “Frankenmonster”  meeting at Mama Rosa’s Restaurant were Barb D., Cheryl, Christine, Lori, and Mary Beth. Thanks to all who braved the storm to join our discussion; I hope all of you were spared any storm damage. Oddly, Tim and I had a  huge pine tree fall in our back yard as a result of the high winds. We didn’t discover it until tonight when a neighbor knocked on our door and told us. Since we leave so early in the morning before daylight, and  we don’t return home until dark, we were unaware of our own micro disaster area.

For November’s book title, we have chosen The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. This novel, a first by the author, reads like Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (one of our book club’s favorite titles), full of English humor and wit but filled with sensitivity and insight. We will meet to discuss this book on Saturday, November 17 as part of our yearly tradition of attending Butler Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Home Tour. Visit their website http://butlersymphony.org/tag/house-tour/  to read descriptions of the homes on the tour and to learn where to purchase your ticket.

Let’s meet at my house; we can park cars then ride together to our tour destinations. We’ll meet at 9 A.M. then travel first to Main Street in Saxonburg where we can have breakfast at a quaint Café and tour our first home, The Mainstay Bed and Breakfast Inn right in Saxonburg. From there, we’ll head to the following addresses to continue our exciting day:

Jim and Joy Mulkern, 1258 Evans City Road, Evans City, PA 16033 

Ken and Sue Leader, 251 Ridge Road, Zelienople, PA 16063

Applebutter Inn, 666 Centreville Pike, Slippery Rock, PA 16057

The Old Stone House, (Slippery Rock University), 2865 William Flynn Hwy., Slippery Rock, PA 16057

 David Hill and Cynthia McKnight, 152 Haverford Drive, Butler, PA 

Another date to jot on your calendar is Saturday, December 8. This will be our annual Christmas dinner where we include our spouses/dates. We had planned to make reservations for dinner at the Italian restaurant Two Tomatoes in New Castle, but apparently they do not seat large parties,  and they are already booked for December 8. We now have to choose a new location for our dinner, so if you have any ideas, let me or Cheryl know. We want to confirm our reservations as early as possible, so we also need to know if you plan to attend. Remember, too, as always, December is our bookless month relieving us of any added pressure during the holiday season. 

The last item I want to address is the charitable donation our book club plans to make this year. After November’s donations, we will have collected around $150. At the meeting, we discussed keeping the donation local, so the idea of donating the sum to Chicora Medical Center’s new library was decided. If anyone has another beneficiary in mind who might have a more immediate need for our donation, it’s not too late for us to reconsider our gift’s recipient at the November meeting.

I’ll keep everyone up to date on any changes as they come. Meanwhile, keep the above dates open and join us for our club’s annual holiday rituals.

Yours in reading,
Tammy

September 2012 Book Club "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles

Hello Everyone, 

Our September book club was well attended. It was a fun time at Natilie’s Pizzaria. Those in attendance including myself were Becky, new Barb, old Barb, Cheryl, Christine, Ginnie, Lori, and Mary Beth. 

As all of us read our September book Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, we all were affected by its story in a different way. For me, I was affected by the title. I wanted to learn more about The Rules of Civility rather than the story of the book’s main character Katey Content.  This book presents the era of the 1930’s when reading was clearly still a vital form of entertainment and education. The main character Katey Content is an avid reader and her wit and intellect are obviously a testament of the time she has spent in the pages of books. The 1930’s was the heyday of public education when the schools saw tremendous growth rates in student enrollment and the amount of public funding.  It was an era when reading “Great Books” the classics, was still in vogue. These were the books that taught students the valuable, timeless lessons of life. The books that merit re-reading as their messages are for all ages, they are eternal. 

Katey’s mention of The Rules of Civility by George Washington, for instance, led me on another path away from the story. I wanted to know more about the rules, so I found a book I had shelved, a modern version of The Rules of Civility. I really wish these rules were purposely taught in schools today; as they once were in many classrooms during the early history of public education, before the 60’s and the elimination of the most important character building activity, prayer. I believe my elementary class was one of the last to receive a Bible from the school district, and one of the last to recite The Lord’s Prayer. The breakdown of manners, I believe, is largely due to the breakdown of religious faith which is no longer a failing confined to low socio-economic groups (and in that group is our largest number of deficient readers) but it is also apparent in those of the middle and upper class. 

I wish my students could understand the importance of literacy. The ability to read is such a powerful asset that whole governments have been known to fear it. For example, in Pakistani, a recent news story reported about Malala Yousafzai, a young school student who in standing up for her freedom to read was shot by the Taliban government. As we prepare to choose our future government leaders here in the U.S., we should remember our freedoms and how blessed we are to have them. This is a time that basic rights are being taken away, and it is harder today than ever to peruse and expose the real story on the political candidates.  Considering the slanted reporting of various newspapers, online, and broadcasting sources, uncovering the truth isn’t an easy task even for the most proficient reader. 

Last Sunday, our priest Father Kevin gave a powerful homily, he shared a story of his recent visit to Gettysburg and read a document he found most enlightening. It was written by President Lincoln on March 30, 1863. This document a Proclamation Appointing a National Feast Day (read the full document) brought tears to my eyes. Father explained the importance for all of us to choose wisely in this upcoming election. Choose the leaders who are steadfast in following God’s laws, who still want a nation under God, who will consider and protect our civil rights. Father Kevin challenged us to find leaders, or to become leaders, like Abraham Lincoln who will not be afraid to write and stand by such a document today, or to say to a nation as Lincoln so bravely proclaimed,

 “And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

I know I have used this book club email as a voice for this election, but our freedoms are clearly at stake in this nation today. Not only are George Washington’s “Rules of Civility” still necessary for today, but the laws of God also still apply if we expect to continue to reap the great bounties for which we have been so blessed as citizens of this country, The United States of America. 

Yes, book club is tomorrow night at 6:30 PM. The book we selected is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Let’s meet at Mama Rosa’s, near my house, at 6:30 PM. We have much to discuss during this meeting, the home tour, the Christmas dinner, our Christmas charity, and our next book.  

Yours in reading,

Tammy