First, Happy Solstice! James decided it was a good burger holiday and whipped up some lentil-beet-seitan burgers with sautéed onions, mushrooms, radish from the garden, arugula from the garden, and a tasty vegan ranch dressing sandwiched on whole wheat multigrain sourdough bread that I made. A delicious way to celebrate summer!
Second, Happy Father’s Day to fathers and father-figures!
Book Group
One of the things that has grown out of all the community and neighborhood stuff post Operation Metro Surge is a neighborhood social justice book group. We had our second meeting yesterday on Saturday at a nearby park because the weather was so fine.
Because we are all busy people, the group organizers decided that we would give ourselves two months and two meetings to discuss the book. That way at the first meeting you don’t have to be finished with the book, just far enough along to discuss some salient points. It kind of drags things out, but also I completely understand the reasoning and I am just fine with it.
The first meeting in May had an attendance of about 17 people. Yesterday there were only six of us with a number of folks out of town or having to deal with last minute emergencies of one sort or another.
I have not been involved with a book group in years, but a social justice book group, one in which we read pretty much all nonfiction, lends itself to a broader discussion beyond, “did you like the book?” That is a nice thing. But it turns out there are still people who have not read the book and yet manage to nearly monopolize the entire conversation. This happened yesterday when a person who just found out about the group Thursday turned up without even knowing what the book we were set to discuss was.
The book, One Day Everyone Will Have been Against This by Omar El Akkad, is about the Palestinian genocide and an indictment of the press, writers, and liberals who always have room on their lawns for signs but when it comes down to brass tacks have zero commitment to making any sort of change or even bearing witness to atrocity (too depressing and upsetting!). It is a very good book I read last fall and then skimmed through to refresh my memory. I highly recommend it. I really want to read his novel, American War. Has anyone read it?
So new clueless person joins the group and any time someone says something specific about the book, they start talking, veering off on tangents not related to the book, but to personal thoughts and experiences that were sparked by what someone said about the book. And they talked. And talked. And talked. People were clearly frustrated. I, or someone else, would try and bring the conversation back to the book, and then this person would once again launch the conversation away from the book. So frustrating!
Our book next month is Seize the Time by Bobby Seale about the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. It will be interesting to see what happens with this person next month. The book is sadly out of print so extra grateful for libraries! And also, I just discovered the Internet Archive has the book available to borrow.
The best thing about the meeting was sitting outside on a beautiful morning connecting with neighbors. And also, there were some baby sparrows practicing flying near our picnic table. One of them landed in the basket on the back of James’s bike. Another landed on my shoulder! The parents were frantically trying to keep track of the youngsters and keep them safe. They kept flitting around, calling to the kids, and trying to keep them sort of contained and not succeeding, which raised the pitch of their calls. I’m sure parents everywhere can relate!
Food
James asked me to take the weekend off from sourdough bread baking because we still have most of a loaf of multigrain whole wheat in the freezer. So the magnificent food making goes to James this week with some delicious sweet treats.
Cinnamon rolls:
And for our Beloved Community Circle gathering Friday night, a rhubarb crisp made with fresh picked rhubarb from the garden:
I was off Friday for Juneteenth and we took the opportunity to go grocery shopping. The place we shop has a large serviceberry tree that was covered in ripe and ripening berries and no one eating them except the birds. So we helped ourselves to some and James put them in our Sunday morning sourdough discard waffles. Soo delicious! There is a serviceberry in the garden but it is too small yet to fruit. I look forward to the day when it does so we can enjoy more than one morning’s waffles’ worth.
After our book group meeting Saturday we biked over to a nearby mulberry tree and picked some ripe mulberries. Those will go in our morning porridge Monday or Tuesday. There is a mulberry tree in the garden, but it is still too small to fruit. It has grown to shoulder height, so maybe in a year or two there will be some fruit.
I am on vacation all of this coming week and look forward to spending the entirety of every morning in the garden. I’m sure I will have stories and photos to share.
That bookclub monologuer is a married couple here in central VT… they pretty much blew up our non-fiction book club. And they never seemed to ever read. Why would you bother going!
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Oh, my gosh, I sympathize with the book group. It will be interesting to hear how things develop. I think the concept of the group is such a good one. I will track down a few of the books you mentioned.
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Remember the bookstore that I got kicked out of? Well, back when I was still going there, I noticed that they had a social justice reading group. I hadn’t read the book because I discovered the group at the last minute, so I went, ready to listen. When I got there, I realized that the entire group was a bunch of upper middle class white liberals who are complaining about how anxious they are about how wrong everything is. I got to say, it felt super icky. Not only did it seem like no one read the book, but the conversation absolutely veered into personal experiences and thoughts and concerns that they had, how they couldn’t do more, about how it was so unfair for people who aren’t white, but we’re sitting there as a white group to seeing white. There’s got to be something better than that. One thing that I learned by working with the Deaf community community is that allies are supposed to be arm in arm with the oppressed person and serving in a support function, not leading them to “help,” which is seen as patronizing and ignores the work of the minority community. What did your group look like? I’m hoping it was a diverse mix of folks.
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I hope you had a great vacation! Looks like you guys have been doing some wonderful baking and cooking – yum! I wish I knew of a serviceberry tree available nearby. I’d love to try them. My aim is to plant one someday. That does sound frustrating about the book club discussion monopolizer. Maybe they will forget about the next meeting! 🤞
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I love how organising always leads to other benefits. Hope the book group keeps going strong and navigates the annoying newcomer. As for Omar El Akkad, I haven’t read American War but I have read and can strongly recommend What Strange Paradise.
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I think a lot of people struggle to separate out how they feel about books and what they receive from reading, from what the books themselves are actually offering and how that’s a little bit different for every reader. And it’s so frustrating because these readers feel as though they actually ARE focussed on the book (because had they not read the book, or the AI-gen’d summary of the book, you’d be hearing an entirely different monologue). Saying or suggesting that they are not on topic is empty, because they feel and believe they are on topic! I sympathise with moderators, who have to be comfortable asking one or two people to be silent so that everyone else has a chance to speak. #awkward
So I really liked American War at the time, but I have admired it more since, because I am truly shocked how often I think about one character in particular (and the premise, more generally, which seemed unusual at the time). I remember thinking that it was a little here-and-there in terms of how he balances certain parts of the story (it’s maybe not as polished as the one Andrew mentions, but I also don’t think he was aiming for the same goal with it) but that didn’t impact my interest in the characters or ideas. And it has really stuck with me.
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Heh Marcie, our group has no moderator per se, and the person who monopolized the conversation actually straight up said they had not read the book, and yet they still had plenty to say. It was a group effort to move the conversation back to the book and then every single time, the other person would derail the conversation again, no doubt thinking they were making a contribution. Thankfully, our first meeting on the new book we are reading, this person was not there.
Thank you for telling me about your experience of reading American War. I think a book that still hangs on well after you have read it is a good one!
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I like that the group tried to move the discussion back to the book, but then what else would you expect from a social justice group, but fair behaviour that tries to lead by example and gently work the meeting back to its main object, discussing the book. I’m glad that person wasn’t at the next meeting.
I did wonder though about your comment about nonfiction verses fiction reading groups, re nonfiction, lending itself to a broader discussion beyond, “did you like the book?” I can see how it might be a bit easier because non-fiction is clearly about a subject, whereas fiction can involve all sorts of things – expressing oneself, telling a story, exploring an idea, etc – but a good group will always get beyond “did you like this book” I think?
I love rhubarb crisp, and I love mulberries. On porridge for breakfast sounds perfect.
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I’m glad she wasn’t there too, and she’s not been to any additional ones either!
Oh yes, a book group can definitely go beyond “did you like this book?” and you clearly belong to one of those, for which I have great admiration. My fiction book group experiences though have never managed to make it to the level yours has!
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