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.

Book Club Update, Monthly Genres, Successful

Last night was the monthly meeting of our Book Club, which we also turned into a Surprise Belated Birthday Party for the member who started this wonderful group.

I'm not quite sure how long we've been following this program. After a very rocky start, we added a potluck dinner to the evening, which seems to be the magic ingredient, at least for us. In the beginning we got together around 8:30pm, which meant that some members hadn't quite had dinner and were hungry, while others were tired and ready for bed.  As a creative solution we decided to meet earlier and eat dinner together before getting to the business of books. Potluck dinner in different homes made everyone happy, except for the hostess's husband, but later on we found a solution to that, too.

Another problem was the logistics of getting enough copies of the chosen book...

After the forced COVID break, which we unsuccessfully tried to compensate for via zoom, we changed the program even further. Instead of everyone reading the same book, we choose a genre/author and give each other the freedom for what we'll call individuality. One of the members told me that she had been a member of conventional book clubs and found it boring, listening to repetitive opinions from members at each meeting.

Last week the genre was "animals," which, when suggested, elicited a groan from me. I don't like animals; reading about animal lovers/stories isn't my thing. The only "animal book" I've ever enjoyed was Seabiscuit, because it's more about the people, but I couldn't find my copy.  Instead I saw the movie on DVD, but then I realized that the title of the book I had just read is At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf which does mention two animals. The title is a metaphor, and the book is fantastic. It belongs in the genre of Holocaust (which we have done) and coming of age. So, I decided to present it and recommend it highly. I still have to review it, but I'll say right here that it's definitely a book that can be the subject for a conventional book club that chooses one book to discuss. It's a novel by Tara Ison, and if you're looking for a great book, it has my vote. I hope to get the review done before Passover, if not...

Genre Focused Book Club

 A few months ago, as I've already posted, our Book Club came  back to life in a new format. Each monthly meeting is a different genre or author instead of struggling with the logistics of everyone reading, and first finding in one form or another, the same book. 

We all read something by Herman Wouk, then children/youth classics, inspiring books, inspiring people/biographies/memoirs and most recently detective books.

Genre focused meetings are lots of fun and allow us book-lovers to really enjoy and share our love of literature. Another change is that we're taking turns as facilitators. Quite often the facilitator is the member who suggested the genre.

Our detective mysteries ranged from Agatha Christie to Michael Connelly, which really are very different. It's always interesting to see which books have been chosen. I spoke about Michael Connelly, and I was rather shocked to discover that not all of my friends were familiar with any of his many, many series of books and characters.

A few years ago we added a potluck dinner to the meeting's festivities, and now that we're vaccinated it has fully resumed. The only change is NO FINGER FOOD or DOUBLE-DIPPING. 

If you're part of a book club, please tell me about it in the comments, thanks. And if you'd like more information on how we run our club, please fell free to ask.

Book Club, Awful Book But Great Cake and Meeting

The other night Book Bliss, our Shiloh Bloc book club had a meeting. For the very first time in the history of our book club, not a single solitary one of us had managed to read the entire book. I managed to get half-way though, which may have been the record. It was unanimously considered the worst book ever. We're all "clean-speaking" ladies and had trouble finding words in our pristine lady-like vocabularies to accurately describe Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow.

We just couldn't figure out the rationale for its winning of the Pulitzer Prize. You can call it the Barack Hussein Obama Nobel Peace Prize of Literature.

Even though the book was awful, it did inspire a fantastic discussion about what good literature really is and the difference in how men and women think. From now on we won't be choosing books according to prizes.

The awful book didn't ruin our meeting. We hold our meetings over potluck dinners, and we try to gear the menus to the books. But this time we refused to let the book spoil our appetites. We had a big fresh salad, salmon, deviled eggs, a cauliflower kugel, cheeses and pasta salads. I hope I didn't leave anything out. The best part was the dessert, though a few members had to leave before it was served.

Considering how few of us remained when the cake was finally served, we ate an awful lot of it.

Bli neder, no promises, I'll try to get the recipe. It was absolutely irresistible!

Book Club, "City Boy"

Homemade pickles and bagels  

After a much too long summer hiatus, the local Shiloh Bloq "Book Bliss" Book Club met at my house last night. We had read City Boy by Herman Wouk quite a while ago, but due to the usual events and personal plans of summer and then Jewish Holiday seasons, it took us much too long to set a date to meet.

We always have a "potluck" dinner as part of the meeting. This time, besides the homemade pickles and bagels show above, we ate orange soup, salad, cheeses, flavored butters and totally irresistible eclairs. There was also some fantastic wine for the drinkers among us.

I feel extremely blessed to live near such a wonderful group of women. The conversation and social aspect of the group rivals the intellectual stimulation of the book discussion. Adding an early dinner to our meetings has enriched them enormously.  Some of us read the books from paper, while others use their kindles or audio versions. And sometimes for various reasons, we just can't get to or through the entire book, so cheat and google it.

Our next book is Humboldt's Gift. I must get a copy somehow.

Brought "Coney Island" Quiches for Pot Luck Dinner

Some friends and I decided to get together for an impromptu "potluck" dinner the other night in Jerusalem. I wanted to contribute, even though I couldn't bring anything from home. So I decided to call the Coney Island Bakery on Jaffa Road and order a quiche. Since I couldn't decide between the irresistible sounding spinach and dried tomato ones, I ended up with both. Since they were baked to order, I had them hold the cheese, because I had remembered that some of my friends have been avoiding dairy.

When I got to the bakery, it took all of my self-control to resist buying some of their beautifully decorated baked goods. These, too, can be baked and decorated to order.

Actually, they do catering and also have a meat kitchen at a different location. Call them at 029400008 for more information and orders. They deliver, too.

You must be wondering how the quiches were, since I ordered without having tasted them. They were delicious, and as you can see from the pictures above, we all started serving ourselves before I managed to take my camera out and shoot.

Spinach and Dried Tomato Quiches from Coney Island, plus one of their "signature" knishes. The coleslaw is from a friend's kitchen. 

I'm glad I decided to order the quiches. Everyone loved them and the knish, too.