Our Mission

Respect others, enjoy our journey together, find the good in each book selection, enjoy and enhance our fellowship while we sharpen our intellects.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

We met at my (Louis Hemmi’s) Westchase home on the 19th of November, 2013 to discuss Drew’s selection “Waterloo” by Karen Olsson.  Regrettably, Barbara B was not able to attend due to business obligations.

I finally figured out how to serve hot food without stressing out over the tiny kitchen that I have. For appetizers I had 50 fresh boiled shrimp and sharp cheddar cheese and crackers. I had the dinner catered by Jenny’s Chinese on Walnut Bend (713/783-9440) who delivered the food at 7:30 Pm. Shrimp in lobster sauce and Cashew Chicken, chicken fried rice, boneless and traditional pork ribs, spicy chicken wings,  crab puffs, eggrolls, etc. with wine and Voss Norwegian water, all combined to make sure each member was satisfied.

In our discussion of Waterloo, I think it’s fair to say it was no one’s favorite selection. Drew sagely observed that it was a faithful representation of an Austin that no longer exists, but more as it was in the seventies. Drew said that when you talk about Austin, that people often respond with a longing for how it was in whatever decade that they became familiar with the capital city, whether it was the sixties, seventies, eighties, etc.

I did not get a sense that any of the characters were deserving of remembering or being sympathetic with. I personally thought that the story would have been much better if it had had a clear plot, rather than just a jumble of people and their own small stories, but that’s just me.
At the end of the evening, we each drew a name of a member for whom to buy a gift for our next meeting, to be held at John R's house on December 17th. I passed out the new book, “Gone with the Night” by Beryl Markham. I’m pretty excited about this first selection on the topic of “The Sky.” 

Beryl Markham was born to a British family that emigrated  to British East Africa (Kenya). Her family owned and operated a large farm and bred race horses. Fame came to her for being not only a pioneer aviator - but especially  first woman to cross the Atlantic, from East to West. Her love of horses and of Africa are two  defining characteristics of Beryl Markham.
I hope everyone enjoys it!
=-Louis-=
                               Click here for: Amazon's information about "West with the Night"

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