Color: the beginning & the end

Last Tuesday, we had our second to last bookclub of the year; yes we have an off-sort-of schedule.  This means that in addition to our regularly scheduled book discussion, we also picked the books for the upcoming year (which starts in May).  Last March-ish we choose the book we read last night & we really had no idea how things would line up.  So it happened that on Fat Tuesday, we had our discussion for Color: A Natural History of the Palette.

As I may have said before (I cannot recall & I cannot be bothered to look), we have food with our book on the second Tuesday of nine of the twelve months (we rest in July, August, & December).  Sometimes we try to match the food to the book, sometimes we don't, sometimes some of us do & some if us don't.  For whatever reason, last night -with the least accessible book food-wise that I think we have ever had- we all decided to eat-in-theme.  & that theme was color.  I made white bread, white rice & a yogurt spread that was....white.  Others brought pickled beets & carrot soup, chocolate, black beans & so forth.  We also had a dessert of white cake, white creme & a painters palette of fruit.

As for the selection, it is always a surprise to me what people will choose bookwise.  I sat down thinking there was really only one of my candidates I really wanted; less than half-way thru the process I was completely prepared to cut it loose & forget about it but others were now very interested (in what is a I admit a bit of dated dime fiction-that is what I like about it).  We ended up with:

May 10th - Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
June 14th -Waking up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson
September 13th - Palace Walk by Nagib Mahfouz
October  11th - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
November 8th - The Dining Room by A. R. Gurney
January 10th - The Thousand  Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
February 14th - Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
March 13th - Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
April 10th - Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell
  with the extra for the overachiever of  Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout .

We also had a lively discussion about how obsessed a woman has to be with the origins of color to go wandering around Afghanistan looking for a guide who can she her where the lapis lazuli comes from.  These are the kinds of people we love to read about & are mostly glad not to be. 

The meeting ran late & by the time we wrapped up I was ready for bed.  B****** looked ready too; I almost offered her the futon in A's office, but I know she has dogs to get home to.  S**** & L**** were driving M****** home; she was planning to stay up for several more hours packing for a trip to Vancouver.  C****** left us to go on to a Mardi Gras party that was more or less just getting started.

Next month our book is The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle.  This most recent time was the first time anyone came in costume, but I am kinda hoping she does it again...