late, late, late!!

*let's talk about it begun this week! don't worry or despair... there are book sets left and 4 more discussions to attend. come join us...

*monday night book club... is on a little hiatus while we all participate in let's talk about it

*thursday night book club... with let's talk about it starting this month, i've pushed back the start of this group until december 16 @ 7pm (thursday and tuesday nights were a tie on the voting, btw). the book is yet to be decided upon...

*the 2011 book-club-in-a-box ballot will be ready today! please get a ballot at the 3rd floor desk, or vote over <- there on the left of this screen. i will take the top 10 most voted for books, so make sure you vote!!

any other book club news? hmm... i don't think so.
if you have any questions, email {jhentzen@ifpl.org} or call me {612.4862} at the library!

see you in the library,
jenniffer

climbing the mango tree... and food memories

Climbing the Mango Tree is a delightful memoir of the author’s childhood in mid-twentieth-century Delhi, India. Madhur Jaffrey’s wealthy family lived in an extended-family compound, and her life was rich in cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was also rich in food, and this book links specific memories with lovingly-described meals, from street food to picnic snacks to full-course dinners that boggle the imagination. Because Jaffrey’s family was of the professional class, their lifestyle blended Hindu traditions (their heritage, to which the family’s women gave primary allegiance), Muslim culture (which the men absorbed in their work), and English customs (again from the men, but also from the children, who attended English schools). This blend worked itself seamlessly into their food, dress, and family culture–until the partition of India in the 1940s disrupted their lives. The book provides a fascinating look at a way of life that will be exotic to many Americans, full of memorable characters and delicious recipes.

* * * * *
Madhur Jaffrey was born in 1937 into a well-off family in Delhi, India. When she was 19, she went to London to pursue her interest in acting, studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. While there, she missed the food of her youth (she had never done any cooking as a girl), so she wrote to her mother, requesting recipes, and taught herself to cook. After graduating from the RADA, she acted in film, television, and radio productions, marrying an Indian actor. After a move to New York, she began to write food articles, then to host a television program about Indian cooking. She has been the host of three BBC series on Indian food and has published numerous cookbooks. All of her work seeks to put food into the context of regional cultures, educating Westerners about life in India and beyond as she teaches them to cook.

* * * * *

Discussion Questions
1. How does food help Jaffrey’s family negotiate their mixing of cultures? Does it help create an independent identity for the family?

2. The family’s structure is overtly patriarchal, but the women still seem to inspire strong memories in Jaffrey, and she herself is a strong, independent girl who grows into a distinguished woman. What kind of role models does she see among the women in her family that help her? How do these women function in the family? Does food play a role in their roles?

3. What aspects of the elite Delhi culture that she describes surprise you the most? Which would you find most difficult to negotiate? Why?

4. The family seems to have strong unwritten rules about which foods belong in which settings–what it is appropriate, in other words, to eat at particular times and places. Consider your own unwritten rules about such things, and compare them with others in the group, if you’d like. Why do you think that people develop such customs?

5. Jaffrey seems to have a strong sense of her own family and its identity, even within the extended family living situation. What distinguishes her family, in her mind?

6. How does Jaffrey herself blend cultures into her attitudes and personality?

7. At the book’s end, Jaffrey talks about how the “innocent honey” put on her tongue came as she aged to be “mixed with the pungencies of Indian spices.” What does she mean by that? Do you have a parallel food metaphor, from your own cultural setting, to describe the progress and growing complexity of your life?

there is just ONE book left for the IFPL Book Club...

Kindred by Octavia Butler

join us for the meeting on December 14 @ 7pm

see me if you're interested in the last book!!

thoughts on chocolat...

about... Joanne Harris was born in 1964 to an English father and French mother and has lived her whole life in England. Trained as a linguist at Cambridge, she worked as an elementary school teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels. The last of these was Chocolat, which catapulted her in 1999 to international fame. She then became a full-time writer and has produced five more novels (several of which also use food motifs, including Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange) and a collection of short stories, and she has collaborated on two cookbooks (The French Kitchen and The French Market). Her fiction has been termed “gastromance” for the way that it merges exuberant description of food with the conventions of romantic fiction. She lives with her husband and daughter near where she was born, and is a musician as well as an award-winning writer.

Harris’ extensive website includes biographical information, notes on her books, links to interviews with her, and an excellent informal essay entitled “How I Write,” which will interest readers who are themselves aspiring writers.

* * * * *

1. Why do you think that Vianne sets up her chocolate shop in this town? Why has she chosen chocolate in the first place as a means for expressing herself, since her mother wasn’t interested in the craft of cooking? Is luxury chocolate appropriate, given her personality? Her psychic gifts?

2. Why (besides the chocolate’s delicious taste) are the townspeople drawn to Vianne’s shop? What is Vianne expressing through her chocolate, and why do the townspeople need that?

3. In what ways are Vianne and Father Reynaud moral opposites? Harris has said that there are no real heroes or villains in the work–do you agree? Can you see drawbacks to living with Vianne’s values, as well as with Reynaud’s? Can you find pity for him, as well as for her?

4. What does the character of Anouk add to the book? How would your sense of Vianne, or of the symbolism of the chocolate itself, be different if she weren’t there? Does knowing that Harris based the character on her own young daughter influence your take on the novel? Knowing that the character of Armande was based on Harris’ beloved great grandmother, a fine cook and powerful matriarch?

5. The battle over chocolate in Lansquenet takes place during Lent, a time when people traditionally deny themselves things to focus their spiritual energy. Harris seems to be suggesting that such self-denial is inevitably repressive–do you agree? Or, do you think that there is a time and place for such discipline?

6. Chocolat has a great deal to say about insiders and outsiders (in both social terms and in terms of institutionalized religion). What do you think that Harris is ultimately suggesting about the costs and benefits of being one or the other?

7. Do you think that the ending (both what happens to Reynaud and what happens to Vianne) is plausible? Why or why not?

8. Harris has suggested that the book demonstrates that “love, not faith is the key to salvation.” How does this theme play out in Chocolat? Why might Harris have chosen chocolate, per se (vs., say, garlic or cheese or lobster) as the central metaphor, given this thematic intention?

choice cuts... thoughts to ponder

about... Mark Kurlansky wrote the best-selling books Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changes the World, Salt: A World History, and The Basque History of the World. He worked as a professional chef and pastry maker in New York and New England and writes a column about food history for the magazine Food and Wine. He has won the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing. He has also written for 25 years about international affairs, particularly European and Latin American subjects, and has recently written a collection of short stories and a novel based on his experiences in the Caribbean. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter.

* * * * *

1. How do the approaches and attitudes toward specific foods (chocolate, spices, meat) voiced by writers in this collection compare/contrast to those put forth in other books that you’ve read in this series?

2. Within any given chapter in this book, you’ll see a range of ideas about the properties of a particular food group, the best way to prepare it, and what it symbolizes culturally. Look at some of the writers who voice attitudes less familiar to you. What can you learn about their culture/time period from what they say about food?

3. Many of the writers in this book are extremely opinionated. What is it about food, in particular, that tends to bring out such strong feelings? Choose a few writers for your discussion.
4. Can you identify historical changes overall in the way that people think about food? What are those? Are the more recent writers necessarily more “right” than the earlier ones? Why or why not?

5. Can you identify any constants in the way that people think about food that transcend the historical and cultural contrasts chronicled in this book? What are they?

6. Which selections here do you particularly like? Why? Do those writers express attitudes toward food that you share?

The Wind in the Willows

1. Why is Mole lucky to have met Rat on his first trip out into the world? What might have happened to Mole if Rat hadn’t found him?

2. What was Mole’s first impression of Toad? How did it change after the trip in the gypsy caravan?

3. Do you think it was brave or foolish of Mole to go off into the Wild Wood by himself? Explain your answer.

4. How did Rat show his friendship to Mole when they both got lost in the wild Wood?
5. What problems do you think Toad, Mole and Rat may have with their friendship in the future?

6. If Mr. Toad lived today, what new craze or fad would he take up?

7. Whose house do you find most appealing – that of Badger, Mole, Rat, or Toad – and why?

8. Do you think friendship was the same in 1908 as it is today?

9. Would you have liked to live in the English countryside in 1908, in the setting of this book? Why or why not? How does the time period influence the way the four main characters speak.

10. What secret message do you think Rat and Mole heard in the wind in the willows?

11. How does Toad’s strong sense of dignity create a serious danger for him?

12. Do you think Toad will return to Toad Hall without being found by the police? Why or why not?

13. If Rat and the Sea Rat were humans, would this part of the story still be a fantasy?

14. How does the way Toad acts with the barge-woman show that prison didn’t change him?

15. How did the battle for Toad Hall help unite Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad and make them forget their conflicts with each other?

16. What conflict did Toad have with himself after Toad Hall was regained?

17. Do you think the four friends will continue to live peacefully together? IF not, what might happen?

18. What lessons about friendship did you learn from this book?

Charlotte's Web...

(please forgive me for the fact that i missed posting the discussion questions for The Bridge to Teribithia... i apologize)

Tonight we discussed Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. What do you think about:

1. In what way does White adapt the animals' fictional personalities to the way those animals act in real life?

2. The threat of death is a very serious part of everyone's life. Is it surprising to find that threat central to such a charming story as this?

3. When the message "some pig" appears in Charlotte's web, everyone except Mrs. Zuckerman is immediately impressed with Wilbur, not Charlotte. What might White be trying to say about human nature?

4. What do you think about the doctor's lack of concern over Fern's apparent delusions about animals and spiders talking?

5. A fable is a simple narrative in which talking animals are used to represent human characteristics. Usually, the fable ends with an explicit moral, or lesson. What moral, or morals, might be drawn from Charlotte's Web?

6. Part of White's reason for writing this novel was his own sense of the unfairness of raising an animal simply to kill it for food later. How does that basic sense of barnyard injustice help you to understand the book?

7. Templeton the rat acts solely out of self-interest, yet he is in many ways the hero of the story, next to Charlotte. How does Templeton's role in the book contribute to the impression that the story is real?

8. Think about the words Charlotte chooses to write in her web. What are the reasons she gives for choosing those words? Why are they particularly appropriate for Wilbur?

9. In the early drafts of Charlotte's Web, Fern and the other humans played a much smaller role. In fact, the book began with Wilbur already living in Zuckerman's barn, and Fern did not appear until several chapters had passed. Why did White decide to begin the book with Fern's saving Wilbur from her father's ax? What is Fern's role in the story?

don't be afraid to leave us a comment... we'd love to hear what you think!

discussion questions from: http://kids.aol.com/homework-help/language-arts/book-notes/charlottes-web

Let's Talk About It

Okay, ready to get started after our summer break?

We are excited and all set to jump into a new Let's Talk About It series!

Join us this Fall while we revisit some childhood classics in the theme of Not Only for Children, and we will start discussing Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson on September 23 right here or at the library at 7pm.