Book Club: "Room"

Book Club time!  This month's pick is "Room"

Here's a bit about it:

Five-year-old Jack doesn't know that other children are real. His skin has never been exposed to sunlight and his eyes have never focused on an object more than 11 feet away. He has never worn shoes. Jack was born into a small, windowless room and has lived there his entire life with his mother, who is being held prisoner by an abusive captor. Now that Jack is five and increasingly curious, Ma knows they can't stay there much longer without going crazy, yet escape seems impossible. Besides, what would living in the Outside be like for Jack, whose only home has been within these four walls?


Despite its horrifying premise, Room isn't a scary book. Told from Jack's perspective in a stream-of-consciousness narrative, Room is about Jack -- the similarities he shares with other children his own age but mostly the differences caused by living in almost-solitary confinement, not knowing about the existence of the world and everything it contains. It's about the love between a mother and child regardless of circumstances.  It's a quick, relatively light read about a serious subject. 


After a wonderful discussion, we all sat down to Betsy's beautiful table and wonderful lunch!





In keeping with our book club rules, she planned a meal based on the book.

So we ate what the characters in the story enjoyed!

Mac N Cheese (to die for!)



And a fruit salad...



And berries for dessert.  (But these aren't your ordinary berries - these are covered with Marscarpone-Limoncello Cream!)

And lucky you - she's sharing the recipe:

Mixed Berries with Mascarpone-Limoncello Cream

Yield: Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

3/4 cup chilled whipping cream

1/2 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese

3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons limoncello

8 cups assorted fresh berries (such as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and hulled sliced strawberries; about 2 pounds)

3/4 cup raspberry preserves

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Preparation

Combine whipping cream, mascarpone, 3 tablespoons sugar, and limoncello in large bowl. Beat until soft peaks form.  Combine all berries, raspberry preserves, lemon peel, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in another large bowl; toss gently. Divide berry mixture among 8 coupes. Top with mascarpone cream.

Excerpt from "Room"

"Ma and I have thousands of things to do every morning, like give Plant a cup of water in Sink for no spilling, then put her back on her saucer on Dresser. Plant used to live on Table but God's face [the sun] burned a leaf of her off. She has nine left, they're the wide of my hand with furriness all over, like Ma says dogs are. But dogs are only TV. 

Spider's real. I look for her now but there's only a web. I don't tell Ma about Spider. Ma brushes webs away, she says they're dirty but they look like extra-thin silver to me."