Upcoming books

March 8th

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding

A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? -An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? -Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?

Coffee Lodge Finch- 7 pm.

Helen Fielding says about 'Pride and Prejudice'- "This is my favorite book of all time. I pinched the plot for my novel Bridget Jones's Diary. I also came as near as I could to stealing its hero, Mr. Darcy, by turning him into Bridget's Mark Darcy. (I thought both plot and leading man had been well market-researched over a number of centuries, and that Jane Austen wouldn't mind. Anyway, she's dead.) Austen wrote about the minutiae of women's lives in a way that is funny and dazzlingly accurate, giving you insights into what was going on in the social world without your even realizing you're getting an incredible history lesson."

I watched a very silly movie a while back, called "St. Trinians" something or other. It was a remake of the old British movies about a girl's boarding school. Anyway I watched it as Colin Firth was in it. Stupid movie but found some bits which were interesting. They played up Colin Firth's part somewhat. The dog in the movie was called Mr. Darcy. In a trivia contest, one of the questions was 'What was the title of the book originally called 'First Impressions"? There was a scene in which Colin Firth falls into a fountain and walks toward the camera soaking wet exactly like the scene in Pride and Prejudice. ..........


April 12th

"Roots" by Alex Haley

"My fondest hope is that `Roots` may start black, white, brown, red,
yellow people digging back for their own roots." -Alex Haley

@John's Restaurant, 6 pm. for dinner, 7 pm. for discussion.


Totally unrelated info which may or may not be of interest.
Ravishing Reds:
-Most red wines do best in a glass with a big bowl that concentrates the aroma as you swirl the wine.
-That old advice about serving reds at 'room temp' was born in the days of drafty medieval castles, not today's centrally heated homes. You should serve red wine at about 17 C(63F).
What to buy:
-2007 Inniskillin Wines Cabernet Merlot-Ontario
-2007 Rosemount Estate Diamond Label Shiraz - Australia
-2007 Wente Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon -California
-2007 Catena Malbec -Argentina
-2008 Flat Rock Cellars Pinot Noir-Ontario

Pride and Prejudice anyone?

*



Hi all,

Below is the info that I sent a while ago re the production of Pride and Prejudice showing at the Grand in London on Sunday March 14,at 2:00pm. I would like to go and Carol is interested as well. Poor Catherine will be away at her beach house in the sunny south so won't be able to accompany us.

If you are interested, please bring a cheque to the meeting on January 11th and I will sort out ordering tickets for us.

We will be meeting at Coffee Lodge Finch at 7 pm. to discuss 'Peyton Place". See you then.

Reading list:
January- Peyton Place
February- For Whom the Bell Tolls

Tentative:
March- Bridget Jones Diary (this book will be like those little bowls of coffee beans in a perfume store, to clear our senses before diving into...)
April- Roots
May- The Count of Monte Christo





Hi Susan:
All the details are the same and we have room. I will reserve spaces for you - is it for you and two friends? It will be nice to have you join us!
Maureen


Hi Maureen,
Are your plans for the Pride and Prejudice tickets still on? As far as I know, at least 2 people from our book group are interested. We are meeting on the 11th of this month and I will collect cheques to send to you. Just wanted to know if there had been any changes.
Regards, Susan Hall



Dear Jane Austen fans:

As you may be aware, the Grand Theatre will be mounting a production of Pride & Prejudice in 2010 and we thought it would be fun to go as a group. I have made inquiries and here is our proposal.

Sunday March 14, 2009 at 2:00pm
If we can round up at least 15 people we can receive a group discount of 20%. The price will be $44.00 for "A" seating. We will need to know by the middle of January if we have enough people interested in attending. Feel free to include family or friends.

What you need to do:
Make out a cheque to "JASNA - London Region" in the amount of $44.00 each for the number of tickets you would like.

Upcoming

Hey Lodge Book Lovers,

I'm home and well and looking forward to three weeks of uninterrupted reading. Actually all the lying around is already starting to get old.

I thought our last meeting went really well. Welcome to Bill, Margaret and Heather, always nice to have new opinions and voices.

If you haven't seen the letter from Susanna Kearsley, take a minute and scroll down to the last blog. So nice of her to write back.

Just wanted to remind everyone of our upcoming schedule. I may have things wrong, if so please let me know.

December 14th

- The Wife's Tale- Lori Lansens
- Ups and Downs- 6 pm. for dinner - 7 pm. for discussion

I'll make the reservations, please let me know if you will be coming. I think we are continuing on for a Christmas celebratory drink elsewhere afterwords.

Carol you're taking care of getting copies of Peyton Place? I can't remember.

Merry Christmas- Happy New Year

January 11th-

-Peyton Place- Grace Metallious
-Coffee Lodge Finch- 7 pm.

Movie Night at Carol's, details unknown.

February 8th

-For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
-John's Restaurant- 6 pm. for dinner, 7 pm. for discussion



Book suggestions for future discussions
-Count of Monte Christo, Dumas?
-Roots, Alex Haley
-Memoirs of a Geisha



That's all folks, see you on the 14th at Ups and Downs.

Email from Susanna Kearsley

Hi Susan,

Thanks so much for your email -- I'm really so honoured your club chose my book to discuss this month. Sorry it's taken me so long to answer you, but it's been a Very Hectic year and I'm still struggling to catch up to my emails...

I was actually born in Brantford, but now live east of Toronto. I don't do a lot of on-the-road travelling in the winter, while my kids are in school, but if I do make it out your way I'll try to remember to let you know (and failing that, will post it on the web site for sure). My book The Shadowy Horses is being reissued this spring, so there's a good chance that I'll end up puttering around a bit to promote it.

I see from your blog post that I'm too late to be of any real use to you for your book club's discussion, but if anyone has any questions about the book please let them know I'll be happy to answer them, either by email or on your blog, whichever's easiest.

In the meantime, thank you so much again for your choice of my book, and for taking the time to write and let me know. It's much appreciated.

With my very best,
Susanna



--- On Tue, 9/22/09, Susan Hall wrote:


From: Susan Hall
Subject: Interested book club ladies
To: susanna_kearsley@yahoo.ca
Received: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 8:29 PM


Dear Ms. Kearsley,

I've been a fan since I read Mariana years ago and have enjoyed every book of yours since then.

We have a book discussion group at the coffee house I manage. We have been together for over three years and have read many wonderful books. I was delighted to learn that "Mariana" was being reprinted and have put it on our list for our November discussion. The bookstore who ordered the books for us also ordered another 10 for their other customers.

I read somewhere that you live near Brantford and I was wondering if you plan on doing any book signings or talks further west than the greater Toronto area? We are in Sarnia and would be very interested in a road trip if you have anything on the go a bit closer than TO......I'll keep checking the website in case you post something there.

Just wanted you to know that you have a fan in Sarnia and will have another 5 in November. How wonderful to have such an accomplished author right here in Southwestern Ontario!

Regards,

Susan Hall

Coffee Lodge Book Discussion Group
http://lodgebooklovers.blogspot.com/

www.coffeelodge.ca

'Mariana' in Petrolia

Just a quickie to remind you that we are meeting at the Petrolia Coffee Lodge this month. This Monday, the 9th. The Petrolia store is on the west side of town, new strip mall on the right hand side across from the hardware store.

Some of us are carpooling, meet us at Finch at 6.30 if you are interested.

See you then.

Book's detractors miss the point

by Peter Epp, Sun Media

Harper Lee's classic 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is the not best book I've read, but sure ranks up there with my all -time favourites-John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath', and Ken Follett's 'Pillars of the Earth'.

With that said, that trustees with the Toronto District School Board would consider banning Mockingbird because of Lee's use of the N word shows just how little we've learned since her novel was published almost 50 years ago.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of reading the novel, Mockingbird is the semi-fictional tale of a small town in the American South, circa 1936. One of the town's lawyers, Atticus Finch, is asked to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, against charges of raping a white woman.

Finch provides an extraordinary case, not only proving Robinson's innocence but also exposing the deep-seated bigotry that exists in the Amercan South. Yet Robinson is found guilty by an all -white jury. While being transported to prison, he escapes and is shot dead.

The novel became a literary sensation when first published and won a Pulitzer Prize, along with numerous prizes and honours. Mockingbird is thought to be one the best known and most widely read novels that deal with racism and intolerance. In 1999, it was voted Best Novel of the Century in a poll by Library Journal.

Most people would be moved to tears reading its pages. The fictional Finch is shown to hold the best of human qualities, particularly as a defender of justice and human rights. Harper's use of the language, filtered through the eyes of a six-year -old girl, exhibits the kind of raw ugliness of racism that children often recognize before adults do.

And yet Lee's use of that awful perjorative for the American South's most visible minority continues to offend. She uses the N word 48 times. And the word IS offensive, perhaps more so today than in 1960 when Mockingbird was published, and far more so than in 1936, when the fictional Atticus Finch is asked to defend a black man and is vilified for exposing a deep-seated injustice that haunts the South.

But to ban this book would also be an injustice...to literature, education, to the cause of racial tolerance.

What could the Toronto District School Board possibly gain by banning an Amercan classic that attemps to uphold the virtues of civil rights and universal brotherhood?

The school board earlier this month received a complaint from a parent about the Lee novel, and if the complaint proceeds under the board's policy for learning resource complaints, a review committe would issue a written report recommending whether the book is appropriate.

Let's hope that the controversy over Mockingbird will be enough to pique the natural interest of those Toronto students who might be denied access to this fine piec of modern literature through their schools.

After all, Lee's novel (she only wrote one) continues to sell well and can be found in most public libraries.

Book list

This is our whole book list, the best I can put together. There are a few boo boos in spring 2007, (missing a book) and Gullivers' Travels is misplaced I believe. Everything else is accurate.

For newer members, who are not interested in what happened 3 years ago, the book choices for this November, December, January and February are listed at the bottom.

Cheers

2006

September-'Pride and Prejudice'- Jane Austen
October-'The Picture of Dorian Grey'- Oscar Wilde
November-'Rebecca'-Daphne DuMaurier
December- 'Tom Jones'- Henry Fielding


2007

January- 'Gone with the Wind'-Margaret Mitchell
February- 'Turn of the Screw'- Henry James
March-'Scarlett Pimpernel'-Baroness Orczy
April-'Gulliver's Travels'-Jonathan Swift
May-
June- 'Jane Eyre'-Charlotte Bronte
July-'My Family and Other Animals'-Gerald Durrell
August-'Birds, Beasts and Relatives', 'Garden of the Gods'-Gerald Durrell
September- 'Emma'-Jane Austen
October-'The Moonstone'-Wilkie Collins
November-'The Rice Mother'-Rani Manicka
December-'A Christmas Carol'-Charles Dickens

2008

January-'Anne of Green Gables'-Lucy Maud Montgomery
February-'The Dwelling Place'-Catherine Cookson
March-'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'-Victor Hugo
April-'To Kill a Mockingbird'-Harper Lee
May-Reading Circle
June-'Watership Down'-Richard Adams
July-'Mamma Mia', the movie
August-'All Creatures Great and Small'-James Herriot
September-'Persuasion'-Jane Austen
October-'The Secret Life of Bees'-Sue Monk Kidd
November-'Clan of the Cave Bear'-Jean Auel
December-'Pillars of the Earth'-Ken Follett

2009

January-'Bootjack Mary, Ahead of her Time'-Bonnie Brantom Stevenson
February-'The Burning Shore'- Wilbur Smith
March- 'Les Miserables'- Victor Hugo
April-'My Sister's Keeper'- Jodi Picoult
May- 'Angels and Demons'- Dan Brown
June-'Water for Elephants'-Sarah Gruen
July- 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'- Khaled Hosseini
August- 'Tuesdays with Morrie'- (watched at the Imperial)-Mitch Albom
September- 'Sense and Sensibility'- Jane Austen
October- 'The Crucible'- Arthur Miller
November-'Mariana'-Susanna Kearsley
December-The Wife's Tale- Lori Lansens

2010

January-Peyton Place- Grace Metalious-
February- For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway