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.

March 5, 2020

Northland by Porter Fox (Barbette)

Still short several sun-tanning colleagues, a reduced contingent of us--four, to be exact--decided to meet over lunch instead of dinner this month.  We gathered at Barbette, a friendly Uptown standby which offers a menu of French-inspired soups, salads, and sandwiches. Although we missed our pals, our small group enjoyed the intimacy of the occasion and the fact that we could hear one another.

The book is a series of vignettes of life along the US-Canada border, generously dishing out gobs of historical detail and brief analyses of the family ties, commercial transactions, and everyday activities that make up one of the closest international partnerships in the world.  We found the stories interesting and appreciated Fox's punchy writing style.

Our next book is John McPhee's Control of Nature.  We also considered a few other McPhee books, including Looking for a Ship, Pine Barrens, and A Sense of Where You Are, John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope, and Jill Ker Conway's True North.  The next meeting was set for April 16, when Roger will suggest the following book.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)