Our Very Unique Book Club

In all honesty, I can't remember how long we've had our Shiloh Book Club, officially called "Book Bliss," but I was involved from day one. A new "Anglo" moved to Shiloh and felt the need for a book club to help make friends and talk BOOKS.

We've survived COVID lockdown and now a war... Here's more of the story...

Our Book Club started run like most others. We'd meet monthly, late in the evening, and we all had to read the same book. Then came... complaints...

There were two subjects for complaints. One was that the meetings was too late, and another was that it was too early, some members were hungry, because they hadn't had time to eat dinner.

So we came up with a great idea, Potluck Dinner! We started meeting a couple of hours earlier, and each brought something delicious to eat for all. Usually we'd end up with a healthy and balanced meal, though on occasion it may have been too heavy on the desserts, but who's complaining... As time went on we've ended up bringing the same sorts of food each month. My specialty is baked vegetables, including a special version for a neighbor who needs it cooked differently.

The second problem was the logistics of finding and sharing around the assigned book each month. In addition not all members manage to read a book a month.

We're all different ages, including some over a decade older than I am. Everyone is welcome, so we decided that it would be better to have a more flexible "book." We choose a genre or author, and we are very happy with that. For example, these children's books on the left were what I read for poetry. 

Another change we made was that each month a member is in charge of choosing the genre and facilitating the meeting. It's working for us.

We began by meeting in different homes, but, since some members can't walk up and down stairs, that limited the amount of suitable homes. Luckily there's a Women's Center* in my neighborhood, which is very easily accessible. Now that our numbers have grown, it's better than our homes. Plus the hostess's husband doesn't have to hide out.

Friends in nearby communities who've heard about our book club joined us. In Shiloh we have a nice group of English speakers and were happy to welcome them.

If you'd like more information, please feel free to contact me via the comments.

*It's officially called: The Inner Circle Women's Center Shilo and funded by donations from here and abroad.

The Last Words We Said, A Book Review

The Last Words We Said by Leah Scheier was written for teenagers, but I must admit that I enjoyed it. It's not a childish book. It deals with issues that aren't exclusive to teenagers. 

The dynamics between good friends change over the years, but nothing puts friendship under more stress than the disappearance and probable death of one of them. In this case, no body has been discovered. 

Leah Scheier succeeds in a difficult format, telling the story from two timelines, alternating between after Danny's disappearance and before he disappeared. This format could be disastrous from a less talented writer, but Scheier makes it seem like the only sensible way to write the story.

Danny was Ellie's boyfriend, so most everyone is focused on her difficulties in accepting his most certain death in an accident. But her two best friends, Rae and Deenie, are also seriously affected by his disappearance. The three surviving friends must help each other to fully heal.

The Last Words We Said can also be considered a mystery, because only at the end do we discover what really happened the night of the accident.

Danny, Ellie, Rae and Deenie aren't just regular American suburban teenagers. They are from Modern Orthodox Jewish families and study in Jewish Day School, one with mixed- boys and girls together- classes. So besides the regular teenage issues, we're dealing with families that keep Shabbat, Kashrut and expect the girls and boys to keep their hands off of each other. 

Scheier does an excellent job writing about realistic characters and universal issues. I highly recommend the book. To paraphrase an old ad: 

"You don't have to be Jewish to read The Last Words We Said."

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (August 31, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1534469397
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1534469396
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 years and up

Happy Ending With The Help of Social Media and Friends

Happy lost & found story 

When I was sitting in my "Parshat Shavua," Weekly Torah/Bible Portion class, I realized that one of my earrings was missing. Walking back home I tried to remember exactly how I had gone and looked for it. Couldn't find it, nor at home either.

So I sent out notices with a photo to local email and Whatsapp groups. About an hour later a neighbor called. She said that it looked familiar. She thought she had seen it while walking home and even apologized for not picking it up.

I went to where she said she though she had seen it, and there it was.

When I thanked her, I said that obviously I was in need of those extra 200 or so steps.

Baruch Hashem

Surprised Moi, Birthday Fun

I haven't been all that shy about telling friends and family that this year's birthday is to be celebrated. Hard to believe I'm seventy 70 and not seventeen 17. But somehow a bunch of my buddies, the ones in my Walking Anyone👍🏼 whatsapp group, totally surprised me yesterday morning. I really thought we were getting together for a nice morning walk.

All the "Where are we going to meet?" and "Which neighborhood will we walk in?" questions/answers made sense, were perfectly normal. Even when some of us were standing and waiting in front of Merlot, the lovely dairy restaurant across from the supermarket and mailboxes, and I saw two friends approaching, I didn't  think it more than just coincidence.

I really was surprised when they said that we were going to a surprise party for breakfast, rather than take a walk!

We all had Merlot Breakfasts, eggs, salads, spreads, whole wheat rolls and coffee. Totally delicious. Then we shared their special dessert, waffle with ice cream, whipped cream the works! All of this was flavored with friendship, the most heavenly flavoring in the world. Thank Gd, I am truly blessed.

Sparkling New French Press!

Reflecting on my new French Press, because unlike the others, which were mostly glass and one small plastic one, this new one is stainless steel, yes, UNBREAKABLE. 

Over the years, ole Murphy's Law seems to have a special category for French Presses, which generally have a glass carafe. The more you like that French Press, the better the plunger/filter and more suitable its size, the more quickly the carafe will shatter.

After my 1.5 liter French Press, with the fantastically made plunger/filter shattered, my fault entirely, I pulled out the too small "6 cup" with the awful bent plunger/filter that always allowed coffee grounds to invade my mugs and spoil my mornings. I had no choice. Around once a week, I'd perk Israeli Elite Turkish coffee in my classic stove-top stainless steel peculator.

Rumor got to me that it's possible to buy an unbreakable stainless steel French Press. I asked in some Israeli stores, but nobody sold them. So I went "modern" and checked on the internet. I found a few on Amazon, but I don't buy online.

Now that I had a solution, I patiently awaited my savior. My good friend who has been supplying me with American coffee has an Amazon account. She finally came for a visit.  We put in the order, and I paid her to cover costs. At first we were going to have it delivered to one of my Jerusalem kids, but that would double the price. Instead it was delivered to her home, and last week I was able to pick it up in Jerusalem.

This morning I had my first coffee from my new AMORA stainless steel French Press! What a pleasure to use. And the coffee was great. It'll be such a relief not to worry about breaking, thank Gd.

Celebrating at Tereza & Seeing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This week some of my friends took me out for a pre-Birthday Lunch at Tereza, Cinema City Jerusalem. Afterwards we saw The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, because we had read the book for our book club.

At first we had trouble choosing a restaurant in Cinema City; there are so many. But despite the fact that Tereza bills itself as a "Pasta Bar," we chose it. It looked more interesting, and was relatively quiet. Apparently it's a chain, and I couldn't find a phone number for the branch itself, 1-700-700-338. 

Tereza offers those popular lunch specials in which for the price of just the main course you get a starter and juice, bottled water or soda. We all chose different menu items, breakfast, fish and pasta.

My first course of grilled eggplant, which included salad and white cheese, was so large and filling, I had them pack it up for me to eat the following day for breakfast. I chose a fish which was delicious. The bones had all been removed, so it was easy to eat. As you can see, there was also a large green salad, which I chose from the side dish options. The others were all carbohydrates.

My friends ordered us a celebratory waffle with ice cream and whipped cream for my upcoming birthday. It was the perfect end to a birthday lunch with close friends. And for me, eating a quarter of such a treat was enough to satisfy my sugar cravings. On that we were split. Half of us said that we were glad to share it, while the other half would have been happier eating an entire portion.

We all agreed that Tereza was a great choice. We loved the food and the atmosphere. Service could have been a bit swifter, but we made it to the movie on time.

Being that it was a Tuesday afternoon, the senior tickets were reduced to NS14, if I remember correctly. We also enjoyed the movie and agreed that the screenwriter did a pretty good job adapting it. With the exception of the non-American actor playing the fiance, who had an awful fake accent, casting was on target. I love the fact that British actors have real faces, unlike Americans who look like they've come off an assembly line in a toy factory.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a movie suitable for all ages.

Toothpaste as Silver Polish?

When I first saw that someone had suggested that one can use toothpaste instead of specially made/produced/marketed silver polish, I thought it a dangerous joke. I had already ruined some good silver by using a cheap silver polish, Hepi instead of the Silvo.

toothpaste to the left and 
Silvo to the right

The other morning a friend came over to help me polish my silver. She is better at it than I am and really enjoys the chore. I could only find an almost empty Silvo, so when it got really empty, I asked her about the chances of using toothpaste. She said yes, so I first started to experiment on some less expensive items. Believe it or not, it worked! So we both worked on polishing. Then I washed everything, and she dried.

Then I replaced the cloth on the table/cabinet, and put everything back. B"H, that was easy.