I really enjoy reading. Not as much as my husband perhaps, but I love finding a good book that transports me to another place and time for a little while. My husband always says I was born in the wrong era. I should have been alive during the 50's or even earlier than that when women liked to bake their own bread and greet their husbands by the door when they got home. The only problem with that is that I dont like heels or hairspray, so guess that wouldn't work. I love old music and movies and books that take me back to the "Good ole days". Most grandparents alive during the "Good ole days" will tell you those were not actually the "Good ole' days', the times we are in now are the good ole days.. Anyway, I digress..
So, I started a book club here in the UK. It is called "All that is British Book Club" and we are reading books written by British authors that are set in Britain. The goal for this being that we read a book every month and have an experience in British life/culture related to the book/author. We already have over 30 members of the club (not everyone coming every month as military life is anything but constant, we learn to always be flexible). Having young kids, I sometimes get to the end of my day and realize I didn't have 10 minutes of adult conversation. This happened a lot more when I just got here than now and thankfully, I have a husband who is great for stimulating conversation but I think most stay at home moms can relate to this.
Now that the first month of the book club is over, I will say that it was so great challenging myself with books outside of my normal selection and then meeting with others and working through the book/play on a somewhat intellectual level. As the majority of us have small children, it is going to take a few months to switch our minds to adult thinking mode, but I'm ready for the challenge :) Plus, I think it will make all of us better mom's taking some time for ourselves. I'm incredibly excited about this club and plan to post my thought about the book each month.
The first month was my month to lead, so I chose the play " A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare. To me, you must start a British book club out by reading Shakespeare. He is brilliant and the epitome of British literature. I had read this play several times in the past, but never had to lead a book discussion on it, so this time around I got so much more out of it. It is Shakespeare's easiest and most well loved play and for a reason. The characters are so funny, the relationships so crazy and it is a really great read if you are nervous about taking on a literary giant like Shakespeare.
The activity I chose to go along with the play was dinner at the Cambridge Chop House and a showing of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Cambridge Art Theater afterwards. I found this resturant online, but little did I know what a complete gem it was!! Wow, is all I can say! We had 11 people attend the event, and were given this private room in the back of the restaurant, underground through this little tunnel. It was FANTASTIC! The setting was soo good, even if the food had been bad, I would have been happy..
We had a pre-theater set menu which can be great or totally the opposite, but this was GREAT, I mean really really great! I had potato and leek soup and salmon cakes, yum!!! Bryon had something called "Devils on a horseback" which was dates wrapped in bacon and covered in some sauce, and then he had game cottage pie, both of which were also sooo flavorful and unique. Needless to say, we were stuffed and very satisfied from this restaurant. I highly recommend it to anyone in the Cambridge area. 5 STARS!!!
This is the Cambridge Art Theater where we saw the play. It was a modern interpretation of the play, so it started in an office and portrayed the king as the president of a business and the play within the play portrayed the actors as construction workers. The theater was pretty small and quaint which really made for a great atmosphere. Every seat could see the stage. We had the cheap tickets but I could see the actor's hair blowing from the fan in front of him in one scene and the actress Helena's run in her pantyhose in another scene.
The group who preformed the play was the renound Marlowe Society which gave start to famous actors/actresses such as Tilda Swinton, Ian McKellen, Sam Mendez and Rachel Weitz. And after watching the play, I know why they have such a reputation. Bryon and I were rolling in laughter the majority of the play. For those familiar with the play, the actor who played "Bottom" was the most hysterical play actor I've ever seen. Look him up, he will be famous. Bryon and I saw this play several years ago with my sister Mary, in Greenville, SC on an outdoor stage one summer but this blew the socks off of that performance. The English accents gave it a totally different feel as well. I wasn't keen on the way the fairies were portrayed but you can't like everything. All in all, another 5 Star performance!!!
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