Book Club Specials

Now that our yard has finally begun to spring into 'spring' a lot of color is unfolding. Spring in AZ has had a late start but nothing like Minnesota where it snowed again yesterday with several new inches of fresh snow. We will soon feel the pain of a drastic weather change. But for now...rejoice in the day!

This Beaver tail cactus is ready to pop with lots of buds.

One of  the most unusual cactus plants below is called Silver Torch.

Italian Pasta Salad

This recipe is an Ever Ready Special I recently shared with our couples book club.   

The recipe serves 4-6 using a salad bowl or makes 8 appetizers. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box bow tie pasta
• 1-1/2 cups diced mini red and yellow peppers
• 1 cup diced cucumbers
• 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup diced red onions
• 1 cup diced pepperoni
• Crushed croutons
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon each Italian seasoning and parsley flakes 
• Olive Garden Italian Dressing 

Directions:

• The salad should be made early in the day for flavors to meld. 
• Cook pasta according to box directions.
• Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl except the dressing and croutons.  
• Add only as much dressing as needed to moisten the salad ingredients.  Top with crushed croutons and refrigerate. Add more dressing right before serving if needed.

Cook's Notes: I must say this particular dressing is the star of the salad. You'll feel like you just made a trip to the Olive Garden restaurant. It can be found in all major grocery stores. Because the book club was also an appetizer gathering I made individual servings in these plastic containers served with a small fork. You can get these containers at JoAnn or Michaels in the baking section. They also can be reused by washing in the top rack of the dishwasher. 

Mini croissants filled with a choice of either tuna or egg salad rounded out my contributions. 

Now I suppose you might be  wondering what book choice we picked starting for next fall-check out the list we came up with. 

The Line Becomes a River - Cantu

For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Haunted by the landscape of his youth, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. Plagued by nightmares, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the whole story. 4.5 288 pp.

West With Giraffes - Rutledge

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.  Based on historical events.  371 pp.  4.5

Lessons in Chemistry - Grams

 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show. This novel is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” (The New York Times Book Review) and “witty, sometimes hilarious...the Catch-22 of early feminism.” (Stephen King, via Twitter)  400 pp.  4.5

The Diamond Eye - Quinn

The bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.  The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.  4.5.  488 pp.

Book titles running a close second

The Worst Hard Time - Egan

Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, (High Plains - Dust Bowl)  Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect.  4.5.  Award Winner 352 pp. 

Mecca - Straight

In Mecca, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it―and continue to sustain it. 4.0.  Many awards.384 pp.

Up Next