Book Clubs may be an alien concept to those of you in the States and Europe who read this blog - never mind the rest of the world (amazingly we have regular readers from Ukraine, Russia, China and Norway! How do you think that happens? In fact, BlogSpot.com tells me that in my 'audience' statistics, after USA, UK, Zimbabwe, SA etc, positions 8 and 9 of most frequent page-views are 8 - Russia and 9 - Latvia. Latvia?? I can't even point that out on a map! If you are Latvian, and love this Blog - please email me at larochellezim@gmail.com and tell who you are), so here is how a book club works....
A group of ladies (and here I use the word in the loosest possible sense) form a club - to swap books. Each member contributes new books on a regular basis, and every month they get together and return the books they have read, and take new ones. Because there are not that many bookshops in Zim, and certainly a very small offering in Mutare, this is a great way for the girls to get books, and it also provides for a 'social' once a month. Every December they have a Christmas dinner, and we have had the privilege of hosting this at La Rochelle for the past few years. Obviously with our forthcoming closure, this will be the last one we host. Sadly.
So here is evidence of this year's dinner. The one regular feature of the evening is that the ladies all wear the most beautiful eyelashes. And when they fall off, because they are occasionally a little heavy, they are replaced immediately...
So it was that we had some very well-made-up ladies gracing our hotel:
The meal was decent enough, starting with a pate from Oak-smoked Haddock with Herb Mayonnaise, followed by Tomato Soup with Gin, then a Baked Ham with Sherry glaze or Roast Rolled Chicken with Herb Stuffing served with Hollandaise, then Christmas Pudding or Belgian Chocolate Ice-cream, all rounded off with Mince Pies and Coffee. Here is the pate about to leave the kitchen...
The highlight of the evening (apart from the jokes about the wooden 'thingy' given as a gift in the Chinese Auction) was the selection of the 'Book Club Book of the Year', and for the first time ever, the vote was unanimous. Last year, in a very divided ballot, the winner was 'Fifty Shades of Grey', and this year it was...
Then I asked them to tell me who was the author of the book they all loved so much, and everyone knew the answer to that one....
What a Book Club of distinction this is!!!!
If you haven't read this fantastic book yet, please go to Amazon.com, look for the print version of 'Sorry for that!', and order your copy now!
Have a great day!
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