Where Men Win Glory

My latest book selection for the Bolgia Book Club was Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer. 

Our book club is a little different than most.  It has been around for eight years.  It is equal parts men and women.  The books are selected by the host.  Our order of rotation and basic rules are contained in a pickle.  The pickle is passed when the next book is revealed at the end of the meeting.  There is always food and wine (we live in Napa, after all.)

I heard about a new local book club called the "Commando Book Club" - which does not allow food or beverages.  Our group would not long survive with such austerity.



The last book we read was The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason.   I thought the Pat Tillman story might be a fitting follow up to a rather fey attempt to re-write the story of Odysseus.  There was almost universal acclaim for this book, and it is a hard crowd to please.  Don't they look hard to please, critical and picky?  In this photo they are sipping a small glass of homemade limoncello.  Do I need to provide the recipe?  The big jar on the table is the new batch - about 35 days into the first stage prior to addition of the simple syrup.  The rose is our latest Leap of Faith bottling - 2010 Merlot Rose.

We had a wonderful conversation about war, kleos, what is a justified war, heroism, epic poetry, and of course the life of a remarkable man told by one of our great story tellers.

We also had spring lamb stew:



...and a luscious savory mushroom (and chanterelle) bread pudding.



We ended with two kinds of homemade cookies and lemon milk sherbet made two ways, one with Meyer lemons, and one with Felicia's sour lemons.  After the side by side tasting, sour lemons are better for lemon sherbet.  Meyer lemons are too sweet and lack the tang of the Eureka lemons.

Bolgia Book Club

At long last my turn to host the Bolgia Book Club rolled around once again. The club is a coed group, 16 strong, comprised of equal numbers of men and women. After a suitable period of time agonizing about my next selection, I finally went with "pleasure" - as in - a pleasure to read, and a narrator recounting the pleasure of discovering her passion in life - Julia Child. The book selection was "My Life in France".

The food was particularly outstanding, as everyone worked to live up to the standards set by Julia herself.



I prepared Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child, and John prepared creme brulee a la John Poole. A salmon mousse appeared, vegetable side dishes, figs and tiny tomatoes from our garden, wines, bread and new Syrah Port from our home winery.





It turns out that several of our members have been professional chefs - working at such famous locations as the Diner in Yountville (now closed) and the French Laundry. Thumbs up all around for "My Life in France" - and a rollicking good time discussing food, passions, life's work, and memories of Julia and how her magnum opus affected our lives. It's the best beef stew in the world, by the way. Highly recommended!

What would Julia do?

Cover of My Life in France

I discovered even before my recent marriage that my husband was an excellent chef. I did not realize the significance of the first meal he cooked for me, though.

That meal was a tour de force featuring sole meuniere and a souffle. I discovered that his batterie de cuisine was extensive, and that he had mastered eggs, butter and puff pastry. His well worn and appropriately spotted cookbook collection included the entire works of - Julia Child.

After marriage my walk partner loaned me a book she was sure my husband would appreciate. It was the Julia Child memoir "My Life in France". The Pasadena connection was only one degree of separation - as his step mother had visited Julia and Paul Child when they lived in Paris.

I read the book also - and thought about it quite a bit. My turn to select the book for the Bolgia Book Club was approaching, and I dithered for two months. What book to choose? History (Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson on the current list), adventure ("Down the Great Unknown" about John Wesley Powell's trip down the Colorado River), something new ("The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao") - or something dear to both our hearts?

Around here the term WWJD now refers to "What Would Julia Do?" -- so the answer was simple after all.

It is coincidental that the new movie "Julie & Julia" opens this week as the book club reads "My Life in France"... or is it? The first meal in France that awakened the senses of Julia Child was a luncheon featuring sole meuniere...

Bolgia Book Club

Most towns have book clubs. Many of my friends are in book clubs. I found a group that is notable for its size (17), breadth of interests, and gender balance. Many of my women friends seem to be in women only groups. I think it is odd, but they think it is just great.

We have an arbitrary group in that the host picks the book. There is no voting - so we do not end up with mediocre fare. We also have some spirited discussions since books can be wildly idiosyncratic.

The group formed several years before I joined, and an early book was Dante's "Inferno". The Bolgia name comes from the levels of Hell - called "bolgias" or pouches.

Book Club activities have also included field trips for cooking fare, dinners out, concerts, weekends away, art shows, plays and lectures. We always bring food and beverages - but finally had to institute some rules so that socializing does not take over the evening.

"Catfish and Mandala" by Andrew Pham was a selection we read before a beach weekend away in Gualala, CA. I was taken with the purity and precision of the writing and the total lack of references to other works. The author was an engineering student whose family immigrated from Vietnam after the end of the war. He was raised in two cultures, and returned to his homeland to make peace with the past and his roots by bicycling through the countryside. All thumbs up from the whole Bolgia Book Club.