Boston Flora

Tag: book group

  • Wednesday, July 26, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Foodways Book Club: An Exploration of How Food Connects Us Beyond the Table, Online

    The Foodways Book Club, sponsored by the Boston Public Library, will have its next online discussion on Zoom on Wednesday, July 26 at 6:30 pm. The next book to be discussed is Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry. Copies of the book have been set aside at the BPL, and of course it’s available at bookstores and as a Kindle and Audio Book.

    According to family lore, when Rabia Chaudry’s family returned to Pakistan for their first visit since moving to the United States, two-year-old Rabia was more than just a pudgy toddler. Dada Abu, her fit and sprightly grandfather, attempted to pick her up but had to put her straight back down, demanding of Chaudry’s mother: “What have you done to her?” The answer was two full bottles of half-and-half per day, frozen butter sticks to gnaw on, and lots and lots of American processed foods.

    And yet, despite her parents plying her with all the wrong foods as they discovered Burger King and Dairy Queen, they were highly concerned for the future for their large-sized daughter. How would she ever find a suitable husband? There was merciless teasing by uncles, cousins, and kids at school, but Chaudry always loved food too much to hold a grudge against it. Soon she would leave behind fast food and come to love the Pakistani foods of her heritage, learning to cook them with wholesome ingredients and eat them in moderation. At once a love letter (with recipes) to fresh roti, chaat, chicken biryani, ghee, pakoras, shorba, parathay and an often hilarious dissection of life in a Muslim immigrant family, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is also a searingly honest portrait of a woman grappling with a body that gets the job done but that refuses to meet the expectations of others. Chaudry’s memoir offers listeners a relatable and powerful voice on the controversial topic of body image, one that dispenses with the politics and gets to what every woman who has ever struggled with weight will relate to.

    The book discussion is a free event. Registration required at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6451659f65e9014900d433f8. Questions? Contact Alea Stokes at astokes@bpl.org.

  • Tuesday, June 20, 1:30 pm – Mass Hort Book Club – We Are the Ark

    Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On June 20, the book to be discussed is We Are the Ark by Mary Reynolds. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.

  • Tuesday, May 16, 1:30 pm – Mass Hort Book Club – Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History

    Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On May 16, the book to be discussed is Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History by Bill Laws. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.

  • Tuesday, April 18, 1:30 pm – Mass Hort Book Club – A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

    Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden at Elm Bank. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Club meets monthly at 1:30 in the Putnam Building, 900 Washington Street. On April 18, the book to be discussed is A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century, by Witold Rybcznskji. To join the list, visit www.masshort.org.

  • Monday, December 5, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Foodways Book Club: An Exploration of How Food Connects Us Beyond the Table, Online

    Stephanie Chace and Alea Stokes are two librarians interested in foodways. Because food and foodways are multifaceted, we will be reading and listening to material from many disciplines, such as the history and anthropology of food, environmentalism, food justice, artistic expression, sociology and more.

    We will host discussions every six weeks and each meeting will focus on a different book. We will also share reading and listening material for additional understanding and enrichment of foodways.

    Please join us on Monday, December 5th from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM over Zoom as we discuss our first read for the Food Ways Book Club, Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva. Free.

    Books can be picked up at the Central Library in Copley Square at 700 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116, or at the Roxbury Branch at 146 Dudley Street, Roxbury, MA 02119. Additionally, copies are available electronically.

    For questions or comments and links, contact Stephanie Chace (schace@bpl.org) and Alea Stokes (astokes@bpl.org).

  • Tuesdays, August 23, September 20, October 25, November 15, & December 13, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Massachusetts Horticultural Society Book Group

    Join other enthusiasts in great conversation while immersed in the beauty of the Garden. Our Book Club meets at 1:30pm in the Crockett Garden, or in the event of weather, in the Dearborn Room in the Education Center, at the Gardens at Elm Bank in Wellesley. Enjoy the sunshine and discussion with like-minded individuals.

    Tuesday, August 23, 1:30 p.m. –  The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

    · Tuesday September 20, 1:30 p.m. –  Around The World In Eighty Plants by Jonathan Drori.
    For those who have read this one, another option could be Around The World In Eighty Trees and again we might have an interesting discussion comparing the two books. 

    · Tuesday October 25, 1:30 p.m. –  Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkell

    · Tuesday November 15, 1:30 p.m. –  The Gardener’s Bedtime Book by Richardson Wright. 

    · Tuesday December 13, 1:30 p.m. – Hands On The Land, by Jan Albers.  

    Free with Admission to the Garden. To join the list visit www.masshort.org

  • Monday, December 19, 10:30 am – Fair Food: Growing a Sustainable Food System for All

    The Boston Gardeners Council and The Roxbury Community College Service Learning Garden Project sponsor, with Boston Natural Areas Network, The Boston Urban Gardening Book Group on Monday, December 19, from 10:30 – 12 at Roxbury Community College, Academic Building #3, Room 130, discussing Oran B. Hesterman’s Fair Food: Growing a Healthier Sustainable Food System for All.  A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical runoff to soaring rates of diet-related illness to inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to “eat local or “eat organic.” Fair Food is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. Oran B. Hesterman shows how our system’s dysfunctions are unintended consequences of our emphasis on efficiency, centralization, higher yields, profit, and convenience–and defines the new principles, as well as the concrete steps, necessary to restructuring it. Along the way, he introduces people and organizations across the country who are already doing this work in a number of creative ways, from bringing fresh food to inner cities to fighting for farm workers’ rights to putting cows back on the pastures where they belong. He provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved. For more information contact Stephanie Bostic at sb2178@gmail.com, or Karen Chaffee at karen@bostonnatural.org.