A generous serving...

After getting a little lost on the streets of downtown St. Paul in the rain, I was greeted by the bright lights of Trattoria da Vinci, and a beautifully set table with our friends gathered around it. And the smells! Ah, a little bit of heaven. Garlic, mushrooms, pasta, bread.

Marie had just flown in from Shanghai and was able to join us! What a treat to see her. She has so many stories of her adventures, it's fun to hear about her discoveries. She brought each of us a gift of a silk scarf - hand picked for each of us - perfect! - and also a bookmark. So thoughtful!

Jarby brought along her old schoolmate and sorority sister, Laurie (I hope I'm spelling it right). She was fun to talk to and had shared some thoughts about her own book club and how they do things. Hope to see her again at a future book club. It was great to have Sandy with us, seems like it had been a while since we caught up with her.

I think we mentioned the book in about 4 sentences all night. Not that the book didn't deserve praise, I think everyone enjoyed the book. Louise told me she couldn't get much into it - maybe it was too centered on the high school experience for her. I thought the book was charming and had so many quotable quotes. Jarby pointed out the interesting format of the book, the main character having written his story in letters to some unnamed person. I thought that was a good way to present it. You could read it in small chunks by letter and pick up again easily another time. I plan on seeing the movie, which has just come out in October, as well. It's a book I'll remember for quite some time.

We talked a lot about what we'd all been up to until the food came. Wow, what a mountain of food! The ginormous bowls were literally overflowing with pasta and good stuff. We laughed at the amount of food - we could feed several families out of one bowl! So, we continued talking with full mouths and full stomachs with our neverending pasta dishes. I got the Ravioli Di Funghi Crimini. Artichoke hearts, asparagus tips and portobella mushrooms in sun-dried tomato cream sauce. I can tell you that it was even better on day 2 for lunch! Yum! Rachel and I shared the Tiramisu for a delectable finish to the evening.

Rachel recommended a really interesting sounding book called The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Kindle edition only $3.99!).

If anyone has any other recommendations, let us know. I think we were talking about having Book Club next in January at a restaurant that Mike was recommending. In my haze of wine, espresso and tiramisu, I seem to have not registered the name of it.

We've got lots of time to decide on a book and figure out the name of the restaurant, so no worries!

I hope you all enjoyed Halloween and now are on track to a lovely Thanksgiving.

Til next time, Katie