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Showing posts with label Gifts from the Sea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gifts from the Sea. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Typical Book Club Meeting

As of four hours ago, I had nothing to post.  I would have posted something, according to my personal philosophy.  But nothing inspired me, then.  I also knew something would happen at Book Club.  It usually does.

The book club has been going on for years and years.  It's beyond ten years.  The name is Argonauta, because the first book we ever read was Anne Murrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea, and in it she talked about the seashells, Argonaut.  They travel the seas, and that, to us, conveys adventure.  Hence, we chose Argonauta as our Book Club's name.

Hors D'oeuvres
Tonight, we discussed The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  Keeping with the flower theme, our hostess had flowers around her living room and dining room.  Her dining table was beautifully set with hydrangeas.  We all love hydrangeas, but in The Language of Flowers, they meant dispassion.

For hors d'oeuvres we had shrimp with two kinds of dips, a couple of cheeses, chili, etc.  Of course, the wine was whatever your little heart desired: white, red, or rose.

Desserts
We discussed the book and relished the food and wine.  We all loved the book.  We also planned to go to Nantucket or Block Island to see the daffodil festivals; but of course, we won't.  The fun is the planning.  "Getting our act together" is difficult.

Boston Cream and Carrot Cake
After the book discussion, we adjourned to the dining room.  Here our hostess outdid herself.  A big bouquet of hydrangeas was the centerpiece, with candles.  At each table setting was a little gift, for each of us--a ladybug planter.  In the ladybug was a tea rose.  The beverage was decaffeinated tea or coffee.  The wine was still available.  We had cupcakes to accompany our drinks.  We had two kinds of cupcakes.  One choice was Boston cream cupcakes.  The other was carrot cake with cream cheese.  I had both.  Don't think I'm a pig; I cut each one in half.  So it was really only one cupcake.

Ladybug Planters
Something happened while we were departing that made tonight different from all other book club nights.  As I was leaving, I heard "help," "help."  I looked at the direction the cries were coming from.  I thought I saw an animal running up and down beside the driveway.  One of us ran over to the "animal" and was talking to it.  Then the scene became clearer.  It wasn't an animal running back and forth; it was a hand waving help.  Someone, somehow, had fallen in the snow, right beside the driveway.  Then the one who was helping, got pulled down into the snow, trying to pull the other one out.  Now there were two in the snow.

Others ran to help and pull them out.

Not me; I was taking pictures to post on Facebook.  I only had my phone.  It was dark and the driveway didn't have enough light.  So what you are seeing is the backside of the one, trying to pull up the other.  I wish the picture had come out better.  They will never live this down.

As I said before, Argonauta conveys adventure.



What you are looking at is Monique trying to pull Linda out of the snow.
Don't ask how she fell into the snow bank.
What happens to Argonauta, stays with Argonauta.

My turn to host, next month.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Book Club

The Argonauta Book Club met at Jayne's house for Brunch and book selection.  As usual, Jayne out did herself with her selection of food: quiche, fruit, mimosa, pancakes, and I'm afraid I don't remember what else.  Fantastic!  Jayne is a gourmet cook.

The book club received its name from the very first book we ever read, Anne Murrow Lindberg's Gifts from the Sea.  In Gifts from the Sea,


The Argonauta is an unusual creature that is not attached to itsshell at all. It is a cradle for the young, held in the mother Argonaut's arms until the egg hatches and swims away. The shellis then left behind while the mother sets out to seek a new life. The author sheds any melancholy and allows herself to be entranced by the concept of the Argonauta shell. It is freer than the other shells and is the best representation of the middle years of life. The children have gone and the mother is left to venture out to sea in search of the unknown next step.


We felt that we had reached this point in our lives, as the sea shell, Argonauta, searching for adventure.  Also, we remembered the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts and felt that being Argonauts was a noble thing to be.  Hence, the name.


We didn't have any rhyme or reason for choosing our books.  They're just books we wanted to read.  We didn't pick out 12 books for each month, however.  We left room for us to decide later.


Our list:


Sept:    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Oct:     The Help by Kathryn Stocket
Nov:     Still Alice by Lisa Genove
Dec:     The Swan by Mary Oliver
Jan:     The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson
Feb:     Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Mar:     The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
Apr:     Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
May:    What is the What by Dane Eggers


Any suggestions?

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