Lessons for life - Chemistry and Sanity

On the first day of Autumn 2023 (yee haa, end of summer) we gathered at Cherilyn's place for our first meeting of the year - apart from Megan who was golfing her way around New Zealand, and McLassie who we all missed too.

Our heartfelt conversation began on the subject of pacemakers - that is, the internal ones for Cherrie and Kathy and not Gerry's mob - and agreed that medicine can be a marvel in the 21st century but what a pity some of the medical practitioners aren't so much.  All hoping for a better next day for Cherrie.

Cherilyn sat us down and introduced us to Bonnie Garmus, author of her book 'Lessons in Chemistry' giving us an overview of the author's story and the book's story.   (There are quite a few interviews with Bonnie on Youtube - this one is only 3 minutes but you can get other longer ones by searching Youtube.  And here is the link to the book review in the Guardian if you missed Julie's earlier email - theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/25/bonnie-garmus-so-few-of-us-havent-been-pushed-aside-lessons-in-chemistry?utm_term=63fb1185ad3100e51db7a477ca939672&utm_campaign=Bookmarks&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=bookmarks_email

The book was started after a work meeting during which Bonnie's voice wasn't heard, so she went home and wrote the first chapter starring Elizabeth Zott as the woman who wouldn't be dismissed.  Five years later, the book combining "feminism, history, science, and television in an engaging and thought provoking way" (review by ChatGPT) emerged and hit the no 1 bestseller list.  We were all highly engaged with this book, mostly because it resonated so much with our varied experiences.  Becoming Elizabeth Zott became an aspiration.  

We learnt the voice of Six Thirty was inspired by the author's dog, Friday, who apparently recognised many words, including some German words (did I just make that up or did I remember it from the discussion?).  Six Thirty was highly intelligent too (with over 900 words) and had a key role in the book - as a companion, guardian and importantly a truth teller. We didn't get to talk about many other characters (including the good ones like Mad and Calvin, the not so good ones, and the ones that came good in the end) but did chat about the wonders of the television cooking show 'Supper at Six', and possibly its model, Julia Childs 'The French Chef' (who, if you watch the clip, amazingly sounds just like Meryl Streep).  While the fairy tale ending was a bit of a downer for some, (not everyone has a fairy godmother), we all agreed it was a great read and a great choice - a very engaging story reflecting the social milieu of the 60's (and sadly beyond), but laced with humour and charged with positivity. 

It was then on to Barb's book 'How to stay sane in an age of division', by Elif Shafak.  This was a little book with a BIG message, and has, we learnt, kept Barb awake at night.  Barb told us about Elif Shafak who is well known as a celebrated writer  - coming from a cross cultural background (Turkish; German; English), with a sexual orientation that also crosses over.  The book covered issues such as social dislocation, the decline of democracy, the role of technology and social media and extremism - and Barb referred to the collective narcissism that this can create. We talked about the anger in those who dive down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and/or anti-vaccination and/or extremism, and Kathy reminded us how important it is to stay calm and rational in the face of such anger.    This brought us to a discussion on the limitations of the book, where practical solutions were not so easy to find.  Story telling is offered as one solution but for some of us it was hard to get to grips with how this was going to resolve the seemingly intractable challenges of the 21st century.    And for some the book's messages were equally applicable for people who don't want us to stay sane in an age of division - aka right wing promoter Jordan Peterson (a Canadian psychologist and media commentator according to Wikipedia - think child of Steve Bannon and Sidney Powell - boy has Trump got a lot to answer for!)).  But then, the book's title assumes the reader is already sane, so perhaps we're OK after all.   

No one was sure whether Barb would get a good nights sleep that evening - but it was an interesting conversation about an important little book by a writer whose time has come.  Whatever the sleep quality was, Barb's hair looked great and it sounded like an interesting conversation in the hairdressing salon about book clubs and guts (see below).   We all enjoyed Cherilyn's fabulous Plum cake and apres livre conversation, which included many torrid tales of Hissing Sid - then some of us drove homewards through the CBD without headlights switched on (OMG - who could that be!).  

Cherilyn's yum plum cake 

And here is the Cake recipe: Slice 4 large nectarines, 3 large peaches, or 5/6 plums in basin/colander and sprinkle with 2.5 teaspoons of sugar and toss (Cherilyn added a good teaspoon of cinnamon as well).  Set aside to drain.

Cream together 320gm butter with 300gm sugar.  Add 3 eggs and grated zest of 2 lemons.  Add 250 mls milk, 400gm self raising flour and 1.5 teaspoons baking powder.  

Divide the batter between 2 x 30 cm torte tins.  Cover one with the drained fruit and place the other into the freezer for later.  Sprinkle over the fruit a further good tablespoon sugar, and bake at 180C for around 55 minutes for nectarine/peaches, and 60-65 minutes for plums.  Remove when skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.  Serve with whipped cream.  

To serve the second cake, thaw, cover with more drained sugared sliced fruit (ie another lot as above), add the tablespoon of sugar and cook.  (Or you could just halve the batter quantity and make one cake).  

Other books mentioned were

• Hitlers girl by Lauren Young (about one of the Mitford's dalliance) - NOT Mog's selection for a number of post-meeting reasons (difficult to find; reviews not flattering; historical errors; and do we really need to know?)
• The glass castle, by Jeanette Walls (this is the book Mog was trying to remember that was similar to Education). 
• Against the loveless world, by Susan Abulhawa (go see her at Writer's week if you dare)
• Diary of a Tuscan bookshop, by Alba Donati - probably Cherrie's selection for next meeting
• Gut - the inside story, by Gulia Enders (from Barb's hairdressing salon somewhere on Goodwood Road)
• All the broken places (follow on from The boy in the striped pyjamas), by John Boyne

And for something different - 

• watch - The extraordinary Attorney Woo (on Netflix)
• listen to - the podcast, Pongsu https://www.theage.com.au/pong-su and also on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-last-voyage-of-the-pong-su/id1481166968
• watch - The Outfit, a must see film with Mark Rylance that has just come on to Netflix

Next meeting at Mog's place on Wednesday 3rd May 2023 - books are:

Diary of a Tuscan bookshop, by Alba Donato (Cherrie)

All that's left unsaid, by Tracey Lien (Mog)