Our bi-monthly zoom book club continues this month and – as is usual for us – we have the theme (however loosely applied) and choices ahead of time.

Our 2023 Choices Theme – Delicious Reads

This year we will mostly be reading books – fictional and non – that feature or are about food.

• 21 Jan – Heartburn – Nora Ephron
• 18 March – Recipes for Love & Murder – Sally Andrews
• 20th May – Kitchen – Banana Yoshimoto
• 15th July – One Hundred Foot Journey – Richard Morais
• 14th October – Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Stout
• 18th Nov – Taste – Stanley Tucci

Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge might be described by some as a battle axe or as brilliantly pushy, by others as the kindest person they had ever met. Olive herself has always been certain that she is 100% correct about everything – although, lately, her certitude has been shaken.

This indomitable character appears at the centre of these narratives that comprise Olive Kitteridge. In each of them, we watch Olive, a retired schoolteacher, as she struggles to make sense of the changes in her life and the lives of those around her – always with brutal honesty, if sometimes painfully.

Olive will make you laugh, nod in recognition, as well as wince in pain or shed a tear or two. We meet her stoic husband, bound to her in a marriage both broken and strong, and her own son, tyrannised by Olive’s overbearing sensitivities.

The reader comes away, amazed by this author’s ability to conjure this formidable heroine and her deep humanity that infiltrates every page.

About the Author

Elizabeth Strout’s tenure as a lawyer (six months) was slightly longer than her career as a stand-up comedian (one night). She has also worked as a bartender, waitress and piano player at bars across the USA. She now teaches literature in New York, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

Amazon

There is also a film: