This was our second visit to Rinata and it ranked a little lower than last time, close to our overall average (fun fact: they get their wild boar from Texas). Two of our compatriots were missing in action, actually out of state, but we had a lively conversation about politics, the governor's race, Trump, North Korea, and travel to Fiji. The book by Cather was well received although it was variously described as "a little slow with minimal action" or "elegiac". Everyone agreed that Cather was a wonderful writer.
The next book is the Pulitzer winning novel, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (We also considered a couple of nonfiction books: Helene Cooper's Madam President and Matthew Desmond's Evicted). The next meeting is scheduled for May 23; the wayward Don is on deck to suggest the following book.
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.