Brewed Bohemian: Bookclub Update

I know, I know. The word you are looking for is S.L.A.C.K.E.R. I admit it, I have just fallen victim to my own laziness. I spent most of the day trying to think up cute, funny little quips about why I haven't posted in several weeks. Yeah, you can see the comedic genius of my material... <queue the crickets>

So even though I failed to post it this past weekend, we did meet for bookclub. It was a small crowd. It seems the upcoming holidays have everyone busy. But it was still a good conversation with yummy food. We'll start with the food. ^_^

We either read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain or A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (or both). This means we tried French style food again. Our two ambitious cooks were absent so the main dish food was limited to an assortment of meats and cheeses along with an artichoke dip. Think aperitifs without the cocktails.

All items were very tasty, though. We also had a pear tart,

and a beautiful pound cake.

All this food posting makes me wish there was another club meeting this week. Ah well.

Our main discussion was around The Paris Wife.

This was everyone's favorite book so far. The writing was smooth and the story was captivating. The best part of this book was its ability to seem real; it was easy to forget this was a fictional story. And those who read A Moveable Feast felt Hemingway's story lent credibility to McLain's story.

Hadley was very relatable even though she was very different from the women of the age. One comment about her character was how she didn't seem to have her own self or know what to do without Hemingway. She wasn't a classically strong female lead but in the end her strength was more visible than his.

Another interesting section of the story was the loss of Hemingway's manuscripts. His reaction was calmer than expected but he did seem to carry the loss for a while. It was fun to muse on how things might have turned out for him and modern literature if Hadley hadn't lost everything. Starting over brings change whether it is intentional or not.

We were all glad to see names and characters in both reads that had been presented in last month's book. It made things a little more real and kindled the desire to read more from this time in history. All in all, both McLain and Hemingway were considered good reads.

We are going to skip a December meeting due to the holidays. And since it will be two months until we meet again, we chose TWO books. ^_^