We are seven handsome and charming* guys who meet at a different restaurant every month or so, having read a book in common, and discuss whatever we want--generally the assigned book, but usually many other timely topics as well. We rotate the responsibility to suggest titles, but the group has the final say. Our book club rules: 1) Anything goes, fiction or nonfiction; 2) paperbacks are preferred; and 3) staying under 300 pages is desirable (N.B., we violate this one all the time). We rate all books and restaurants on a 5-point scale.

* All other adjectives were vetoed.

September 25, 2013

Beloved by Toni Morrison (Nico's Taco and Tequila Bar)

The club (minus Roger who was traveling in Denmark) had a great discussion regarding Morrison’s intense portrayal of the slave experience and the lingering nightmares even after emancipation. Some registered difficulty in always knowing if the narrator was speaking in the present, reliving scenes from the past or moving in some intense and mystical dream world. The book received a very high group score and deserved the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The restaurant, Nico’s Taco and Tequila Bar, didn’t fare nearly as well. This new venue, occupying an old 3 story house and formerly operated as Birdhouse, was thought to be without much charm, the service slow and the food mediocre.

Jim suggested several books for next time: Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by Tom Gjelton; World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender; and American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. The group decided on Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba.  Roger suggests the next book.  Meeting is set for November 4.
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