Thinking of Drinking

So, it’s been a minute since I’ve written about books! The Boozy Book Club continues to meet, but it’s been a heckuva year for me, so I haven’t read all the books, and I stopped making cocktail flights for the books for now. So far this year my mother, my aunt, and my dog have all died. I’ve had RSV, the flu and Covid, and I was in a car accident in May that resulted in a totaled car AND a broken arm, for which I have only just completed physical therapy. My father-in-law has been in the hospital multiple times and is now in hospice, and I have been trying to spend time with my father, who is still grieving the loss of my mother and coping with his own challenges. And, I’m still working full-time plus and running my small business Maybe I’ll write about some of that, we’ll see.

Suffice to say, there have been many cocktails in my world this year, but not as many books as I would have liked. I surely hope things are calming down now, and that I’ll be able to get back to reading more regularly.

AUGUST READ: Snow in August by Pete Hamill

For August, we read Snow in August by Pete Hamill. I listened to it rather than reading it, and it was slow at the start while the story got going. I loved the main characters, and much of this book was truly wonderful. It felt authentic, and I cared about the characters and what happened to them. And, I learned some new-to-me folklore and history. Yet I was frustrated by what happened to the main characters, and that no one would do anything to stop the thugs terrorizing the neighborhood. Witnesses wouldn’t speak up, police were not trusted and not able to stop things, clergy wouldn’t intervene, etc. The main characters wouldn’t “rat” on the perpetrators of horrendous violence, and without anyone speaking up, the police were powerless to stop it. I struggled with the pervasive view that “squealing” or “ratting out” is shameful, while understanding that it is often based on lived experiences in other places where the police and government most certainly cannot be trusted.

It’s a vicious cycle that repeats regularly today in many communities where gangs and crime are a problem – a lack of trust in the authorities and whether they can (will) protect you, as well as a realistic fear that speaking out will put your loved ones (and yourself) in greater danger. When you can’t just pick up and move away, it’s a much tougher decision to speak up about what happens.

Great Discussion

We had a very interesting conversation about the book last night, and a few points were made that I hadn’t considered. The one that stuck out most was, did it really snow in August? Was the ending a fantasy, was Michael dead, or did it really happen? Did everything actually get fixed, or did something else (or nothing else) actually happen? Hmmm.

The last few months have been pretty crazy, and I managed to fall WAY behind in documenting the boozy book club reads & cocktails. Here’s a quick catchup post for what I remember from the ones I missed, to soon be followed by a recap of our latest read & cocktails. Hopefully my life has calmed down enough for me to stay on track going forward!

March 2023: Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel came out over 20 years ago, and was made into a movie — I always meant to read it or see the movie, or both, but hadn’t. So, it was great to read it as part of our boozy book club. It was our first graphic novel, which was a nice change of pace. Of course, this one didn’t work well as an audiobook, and it also didn’t seem like it would work well on an e-reader, so I purchased a hard copy. I found the reading experience to be different in a really interesting way — the drawings helped illuminate the text in my mind in a way I hadn’t experienced before, and I really enjoyed it. Since the main character is a child, and the book is mostly set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, there wasn’t much drinking on which to base our book discussion cocktails. So, I used ingredients that were common in Persian culture, such as pomegranate, cardamom, lime, dates and rose water. Unfortunately, too much time has passed for me to be able to describe exactly what I served.

April 2023: Notes from a Small Island

Then, we read Bill Bryson musings about returning to his beloved England for a reunion tour. I must admit, I did not finish this book — after awhile, it felt a bit like being hammered over the head by the same stuff over and over and I had a lot of family stuff going on. I suppose I am a bit of an Anglophile, and there were some genuinely funny moments and stories in this book, but honestly I can’t remember any of them by now. And, I can’t remember what drinks I served, so they weren’t particularly memorable either, I guess!

May 2023: The Spare Man

Mary Robinette Kowal’s latest novel had a new cocktail for every chapter and the main characters are cocktail aficionados! This whodunit set in a spaceship traveling to Mars was a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. And, it had some good cocktail-oriented descriptions as well, including an adorable dog named Gimlet. For our boozy book club meeting, I chose three cocktails from that book that we have not tried before. Side note – I did try a couple of the other drinks in the book before choosing these, but they were not good (and therefore I did not serve them) – so be aware that not all of them are winners. The ones we enjoyed were:

• The Obituary Cocktail (2 oz gin, .25 oz absinthe, .25 oz dry vermouth, stirred, garnish with lemon peel), which was boozy and delicious – basically a riff on a Martini
  
• Remember the Maine – 2 oz rye (we used high-rye bourbon), .75 oz sweet vermouth, .25 oz cherry heering, 1 dash absinthe – stir with ice, strain and garnish with a cocktail cherry), which was also boozy and delicious – basically a riff on a Manhattan
  
• Tailspin – another boozy winner, with lots of layers of flavors (.75 oz gin, .75 oz sweet vermouth, .75 oz green chartreuse, 1/2 tsp campari, stir with ice, garnish with lemon twist & cocktail cherry), this one was very interesting and also very boozy

June 2023: The Guncle by Steven Rowley

Starting in June, we seem to have embarked on a series of books that involve characters who have suffered tremendous losses, and the books are about them navigating their way to the other side and to connecting with people who care about them. You’ll see what I mean when you read about the July book in my next post, and you’ll see it in the August one too.

I listened to The Guncle, which is read by the author himself. It is one of my favorite audio books to date – Rowley did such a fantastic job of conveying the depth and complexity of the emotions running through this book, and kept me thoroughly engaged throughout the story. Humor, love, sadness and vivid, true-to-life characters – a great book.

There is definitely drinking in this book, but it’s mostly vodka on the rocks or Martinis, with a mimosa or sparkling wine thrown in for good measure. There is an epic scene with Pina Coladas, so we had one of those, of course. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the third drink. The two I remember are:

• Pina Colada (1.5 oz rum, .75 oz coconut syrup, 3 oz pineapple juice, .5 oz lime juice), garnish with lime wedge and pineapple leaf
  
• Summer Tonic – a dressed up G&T, with gin, tonic, rhubarb simple, fresh lemon, blueberries & lemon slices

Thanks for reading, and see you soon with a recap of our July read and cocktails!