Totally Booked: Sarah's Key and The Help

Last night we rallied for our "book" club, meeting at Palena in Cleveland Park. I put book in quotes because we really meet for dinner but carve out about 5 minutes to talk about the month's selection - and then it's back to girl talk.

What's neat about Palena is that they've divided the menu up into their pre-fix dinner menu or their a la carte cafe menu for whatever your spending bracket is. Very cool. And although I was craving my Italian go-to gnocchi - I wasn't hungry enough for three courses, so I went with the hand cut Pece with bolognese - a little salty but delicious. Just as good as the food what the atmosphere. Sitting across from the bar in cozy little booths we chatted about Sarah's Key, but ultimately the conversation came back to The Help.

Wahine Take On:
Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay
Although a powerful plot, the writing itself left something to be desired. The book is a compilation of two totally different stories, set sixty years apart that chapter by chapter become related. The first is a story of a little Parisian girl and her family who suffer horrible atrocities during the round up by the French police during the occupation named the Vel d'Hif after the stadium the innocents were locked in before being shipped to Auschwitz . During the police sweep, Sarah, a ten-year-old Jewish girl, hides her baby brother inside a locked cupboard to protect him from the sweeps, not realizing the family would never return.

Fast forward 60 years, we follow an American journalist living in Paris with her husband and daughter, who is assigned to cover the Vel d'Hif anniversary. But her investigations lead her to discover Sarah's story, and just how close to home her story hits. Her discovery changes her completely, and ultimatly becomes a wedge between her and her husband.

I loved Sarah's story, and I thought it was strong enough to stand on it's own as a short story. My major issue was with the second half about Julia. In taking the voice of Julia, the author seems to have completely lost her ability to write. There is nothing more condescending then having a writer try to tell you how you're supposed to feel about conflict. Just tell me what happened and if you've done your job - I will organically feel the same way about it as you do. She waists paragraphs on useless angst and unfortunately that was a deal breaker for me.

Wahine Take on:
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

Now here is some superior writing. I would let you borrow, but I think you need a copy for yourself. This book is going in the Wahine library.

Like Sarah's Key, it is several narratives woven together, only in this case they are contemporary. Set in Mississippi against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, two maids and one young privileged debutant share a common mission - to secretly gather and publish the testimonials of the help. But the larger story here is how life on both sides of the racial divide in Jackson is intertwine.

"Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not much that separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought, " author Kathryn Stockett asks in her acknowledgments.

Unlike Sarah's Key, the words don't get in the way of this powerful story and if you read only one bestseller this year - this should be it.  It lives up to the hype.

Round of Applause

Tis the Season for big congrats! Sam, a good friend and colleague just graduated from film school (ok it's really not film school, but that's what she majored in - so that's what I call it!) She's been working her tail off and it finally payed off! Brace yourself world - expect big things from this chica!


Also a huge kudos to Katie Santo. Lady bug just ran a half marathon! She went from barely running across an airport to jogging 13.1 miles. And get this - Linds and I were there to cheer her across the finish line and the first thing she told us was how EASY it was. I was having a hard enough time staying awake after Tommy's birthday party the night before and let alone fathoming a breezy trek around Annapolis.

Speaking of Tommy's Birthday, that brings in the final congrats. One of my dearest friends Tommy turned 24. You can read what the DC blog chatter had to say about all his accomplishments, but the biggest is that he turned some serious lemons into lemmencello and now is doing fabulously - for any age. Congrats Tommy and Happy Birthday. We celebrated at The District in Adams Morgan with Mix 107.3's Stephanie Flax, Pamela Sorensen of Pamela's Punch, On Tap's Ashley Estill, WTOP's Bob Madigan, Chris Brown, and HOT 99.5's Toby Knapp ......good time was had by all - from what we can peace together of the evening.

Act Like a Lady, Think Like .......seriously?

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment by Steve Harvey


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I love Steve Harvey but this book was written along the same lines as the He's just not that into book. It's 190 pages of "look lady - he's just not that into you - he's into him." If he cheats - it's on you. Either you're doing something wrong - like not putting your foot down - or it's nothing personal. 

Harrumph.

Steve - that's not a man - that's a boy. Let me sum this church bulletin into one line - ladies: don't settle for boys. Look for men. They're in high demand but if you stop dating the boys - maybe they'll try to be men. Fingers crossed - Mr. Harvey "da man" is on wife # 3 - I hope he learned something in the process. As for his "advice" I guess some women need to hear it - but I think the title should have read. Men: Act like a boy, pretend to be a man. Women - bring me my pie.

View all my reviews

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Leave it to our book club to pick THE-MOST-POPULAR book, and thus the hardest to find novel for our discussion. Throw in the fact that the movie based on the book, headlining Rachel McAdams would be opening the same weekend as our meeting?

Regardless we pushed through the high demand and managed to squirrel away a few copies of Audrey Niffenegger’s A Time Traveler’s Wife last month. Keeping with the theme of time traveling, we warped back in time to the Founding Farmers for discussion over brunch.

Brunch was a blast – we had a few new faces and a few old friends. I really love how the book club is become quite the melting pot of generations, Sigmas, and non-Sigmas. Seated at a family style table for 12, the 6 of us naturally attacked the waiter to see if he had any comments about the book. None..ok the movie…also nothing….ok Chick lit in general…still nothing …ok sir do you read? Well that segwayed him into a twenty minute monologue about Russian romance novels…next time Jen: don’t grill the waiter –unless it’s about the menu.

The idea of the restaurant is farm fresh – so everything on the menu is made from locally grown, for the most part organic ingredients. I honestly couldn’t tell the difference – but my Eggs Benedict was still scrumptious. Lizzie’s cornbread and waffles were amazing too.

As far as the book goes – I stood apart from the group. I loved the story. Now there are two types of great novels – those that are written beautifully in the prose, and those that are beautiful stories. This was the latter, not the former.

Although each chapter opened with a poem, Audrey steered clear of flexing any poetic muscles. Written like diary entries the two main characters took turns narrating their love story- which was as sweet as it was confusing. The chronology of the story bounces around like an epileptic with ADD who just discovered crack, but the author tries to ground you with a time frame under each entry. Word of advice – take notes as you’re reading.

The other point I had an issue with was when the husband and wife meet for the first time she is 6 and he is in his late 30s. When the get busy, she’s 18 and he’s still in his late 30s. Sure, when they are in the “now” there is only an 8 year difference, but when his zipping around…it’s a huge time difference. Last point was the whole dream sequence thing the author does – way trippy, I ended up skimming those.

But overall – I’d say it’s a 3 star read. The book tells a universal story – in this case it’s about a partner who has to leave without notice and the effect it has on his spouse, just remove the time-travel aspect – and there’s nothing bizarre about that story.

Fit For A Queen

For our book club read last June, we chose Amanda Foreman’s Duchess, the biography of Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire. Having seen the movie before reading, I was expecting the same seedy love affair between the unhappily wed but wildly popular Georgiana Spencer, great aunt to the late Princess Diana and Whig Party up-and-comer Charles Gray. As in her real life, the affair was hardly a chapter’s worth of material

What started as a dissertation for her graduate studies for the author, quickly developed into an 18 –month, 450 page study on not only the life of Lady G, but an historical briefing on women, power, politics, economics, and society in late 18th century Europe. To be honest – this should be required reading for anyone studying the time period. What I loved was the overarching thesis of the biography – women may not have had the vote, but given the status and opportunity, many had power – real power and in some cases political influence. For Georgiana – she affected public opinion and the vote.

Reading like an historical novel, this was a refreshing account more about the women who changed the Whig party than the aforementioned English tabloid scandal. An account of an inspiring, head-strong woman, forced into an unloving marriage, and given everything, but in reality, had nothing.

For the discussion we had lunch at Dino in Cleveland Park. I was at an Italian restaurant – of course I ordered pasta. Even the spaghetti was delicious. And for us orphans transplants in DC – it was the next best thing to spending Father’s day with our Dads.

Treasure Tavern

Last Sunday was our fourth DC Sigmas Book Club Meeting. I say this as a guilty grandmother, but when I started the club last year, I really didn't expect it to be very popular.

After last Sunday I have to say I'm impressed. We have six new faces around the table at Liberty Tavern in Arlington. It's no coincidence the restaurants we're picking for brunch also happen to be on the 100 best list, so it was no surprise the food here was awesome.

We just missed the brunch but even the bar menu was great.  The Tavern was a great spot (inexpensive, easy to find, and my foodie soul is torn between the Pursuit of Happiness cocktail, hand cut fries, and gourmet grilled cheese.)  

The book we discussed was Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomanical, Self-Centered, Smartass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office. LOVED this book -  It's hilarious and there were about six episodes I swear she stole from my life. I could write a review but this pretty much sums it up."This is the story of how a haughty former sorority gal went from having a household income of almost a quarter-million dollars to being evicted from a ghetto apartment in less than two years.  It's a modern Greek tragedy, as defined by Roger Dunkle in The Classical Origins of Western Culture: a story in which "the central character, called a tragic protagonist or hero, suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected."In other words? The bitch had it coming. "

A Real Page Turner

Last weekend the DC Sigmas met at the new Southern/Belgian Cafe, Marvin,  for the monthly book club.

Being the erudites you would assume a sorority alumnae book club to be, we discussed, My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler. (My thoughts on the book). Nothing like chatting about someones sexcapades and romantic blunders over Bloody Mary's and Belgian waffle bacon egg and cheese sandwiches.

Stay tuned for next month's selection:

The votes are in! This month's DC Sigmas book club selection is  The Duchess.We're gonna switch up the neighborhood this time from U Street to Cleveland Park. Here are the details for the gabfest:

Book Club Meeting:
Sunday June 21st
2 pm at in Cleavland Park
Dino Restaurant (on the patio if weather is nice) .

This is by no means exclusive, if you haven't had a chance to join us yet, make this your first one! Bring a friend. This should be a nice beach read and why not share your thoughts with some awesome ladies?

We took a little vote last week on which book to read and although Duchess was the winner, Bitter is the New Black came in a close second. So I'd like to go ahead and make that the July selection if there are no objections.

Duchess by Amanda Foreman: (link to amazon, if you're buying online its the best price)
Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster (Here's the link to amazon, if you're buying online again its the best price I've found)