Beers and a Book

Tortilla Flat, Silver Fork style–a recap

derick — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:50:32 +0000

Another fine Mountain Meeting Solitude at Silver Fork Solitude at PZ’s place on Friday night, August 27th. Lots o’rain, lots o’beer (and whisky) and good discussion about the last book, “Tortilla Flat” by John Steinbeck written in 1935. All the paisanos attending enjoyed the camaraderie, even though there wasn’t a gallon of wine in sight! Some clearing in the weather late into the evening allowed for some frisbee in the meadow. Munchies were devistated afterwards. Early morning brought more rain, but breakfast coffee and omelets were fabulous–compliments of Paul. And a warm deck in the sunshine for all the toes once it cleared up again…

Next month it looks like a graphic novel might befall the club. Either a biography of Bertrand Russell or something from R.Crumb (sorry Jason–I don’t recall). My foggy head doesn’t go beyond that, so feel free to fill in the blank spots. Ugh–all I need is a dollar and Torelli…

70s Aficionado Day

mozdy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:24:08 +0000

I take the last Friday of the month and pull out my best thrift store tie in honor of the greatest decade ever.

And I’d like to say a few words on the subject:

Underground Man Recap

Jason — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:45:13 +0000

Who knew that the underground man would literally be underground?

Here are the important details from our last book club. Follow the bullets.

I schooled Michael at darts.
Later, Jaron schooled us all at darts. I now use my blog powers to declare Jaron the reigning champion!
I stayed up way past my bedtime. I’m pretty sure Gary stayed up past his bedtime as well.
Michael, Aaron, and I loved the novel, and we all have fancy, schmancy American Studies degrees. Is this correlation or causation? Discuss.
You all can brew great beer.
I cannot brew beer, but that’s okay because I have many friends who can brew beer. I can also buy beer.
Drinking good beer and discussing good books with you guys is fun. I can’t believe it’s been over two years of Beers and a Book. Pretty cool.

Our next book is Modern Drunkard, and we agreed to meet Friday, April 23rd. The book link is on the right, but you may also want to check out Modern Drunkard Magazine. I think this piece in Modern Drunkard on Andre the Giant is actually pretty good profile piece. Here’s an excerpt.

The big man loved two things: wrestling and booze—mostly booze—and his appetites were of mythic proportion.

First, consider the number 7,000. It’s an important number, and a rather scary one considering its context, which is this—it has been estimated that Andre the Giant drank 7,000 calories worth of booze every day. The figure doesn’t include food. Just booze.

7,000 calories.

Every day.

Poll: Lucky Top 5

mozdy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:54:50 +0000

Top ‘o the mornin. Looking at our list ‘o books, I was wondering how you’d rank them. In honor of St. Patrick and all of the unholy snakes he drove out of Ireland, let’s toast to good reads and share your list ‘o the top 5. Here are mine:

1. The Stars My Destination – the classic, the sleeper, the ringer. It does it all

2. Glasshouse – more aptly, Accelerando (which would be #1 for me, if it was one we read collectively), but opened my eyes to a new generation of scifi

3. Midnight Choir – sparse yet detailed, distantly narrated yet personal, great well-edited detective fiction

4. Wise Blood - I have to give props to the literary genius of Flannery O’Connor, even if the story did make me feel dirty all over (which was the point, I guess)

5. Stolen Child / Lord of Light TIE - SC: another surprise in depth, Grimm’s Fairy Tales all growns up, LoL: crazy, imaginative fun

Wow–that’s tougher than I thought. I loved Perfume, City of Thieves and Blink, but these others were a bit more memorable/impactful for me personally. Love to hear what y’all think.

Perfume: Recap

Jason — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:32:58 +0000

It seems most everyone enjoyed the novel. Perfume seems a very un-beersandabook-like title. But the amoral protagonist with olfactory superpowers was oddly appealing. We discussed the book, my own latent superpowers, and religion.

We also agreed to new rules on choosing books. Now book club members bring one book choice to each meeting if they choose. Ideally, you will bring an actual copy of the book for us to peruse. We’ll then narrow it down and decide.

At long last, I’ve updated the site. Our new book is Ross Macdonald’s The Underground Man. I’m looking forward to some Chandleresque crime fiction.

When: March 26th
Where: the man cove or Michael’s? I can’t remember. Too many PBRs means Alzheimer’s…

meeting this Friday, Feb. 26th

derick — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:45:09 +0000

The last general and totally informal straw poll was to have a book club meeting this Friday night (8pm, Man Cove). Everyone in? Discussion will revolve around Mr. Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded” as well as the new selection from Gary, “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind.

(As it turns out, this weekend is also a full moon which means moonboarding is an option for me, weather permitting of course. I only bring that up because I’ll be getting *very* twitchy if there’s new snow and clear skies that night…not likely but always a chance.)

Rumor has it Michael’s brother is flying in from NYC just for our meeting! And I hear there are other folks’ attending to see if we’re a tolerable enough bunch or not. I’ll have a keg of my latest Belgian Brown Ale on tap, so come one come all!

Derick

Sex!

derick — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:25:38 +0000

Well…did it grab your attention? I just thought I’d take this moment to say a few useless words and post the picture that went around earlier today.

Interview with David Benioff

Jason — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:17:30 +0000

City of Thieves – Meeting Saturday December 12th

derick — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:30:17 +0000

The book: City of Thieves by David Benioff
The time: Saturday December 12th 8PM-ish
The place: Man Cove (unofficially, as Jason hasn’t confirmed)

See you there!

Book Choices for the Next Meeting

Jason — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:57:41 +0000

Enough of this nonfiction I say. We need a novel. We need something fantastic, something thrilling, something to appeal to the beer-sodden souls of our crowd. I chose three different genres: thriller/historical fiction, fantasy/historical fiction, and what I guess we would call good ole literary fiction, though a literary novel about a raging alcoholic sports fan. All three I think will appeal to the beers and a book palette. I list these novels in no particular order of preference. Without further delay, sirs, I give you the novels.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The Somnabulist by Jonathan Barnes

A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exely

Read the reviews and readers’ comments. Comment on your preferences. I’ll bring copies to book club.