inaugural meeting: tuesday september 30, 201
For our inaugural meeting we have chosen a recent work by Kitchener author, Tasneem Jamal. Her first book, Where the Air is Sweet, tells the story of Raju, an Indian man living in Uganda between 1921 and 1975.
In 1972, dictator Idi Amin expelled 80,000 South Asians from Uganda. Though many had lived in East Africa for generations, they were forced to flee in ninety days as their country descended into a surreal vortex of chaos and murder.
Where the Air Is Sweet tells the story of Raju, a young Indian man drawn to Africa by the human impulse to seek a better life, and three generations of his family, who carve a life for themselves in a racially stratified colonial and post-colonial society. Where the Air Is Sweet is the story of a family: their loves, their griefs and, finally, their sudden expulsion at the hands of one of the world's most terrifying tyrants.
TASNEEM JAMAL was born in Mbarara, Uganda, and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1975. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade as an editor at The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night magazine and the National Post. She has written fiction and non-fiction for the Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad, The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night magazine, the National Post and the Literary Review of Canada. She lives in Kitchener with her husband and two daughters.
date: tuesday september 30
book: "where the air is sweet" by Tasneem Jamal
where: public kitchen at 295 lancaster street west in kitchener
time: we'll start serving dinner around 6:30. Tasneem will begin her talk around 8
“Big of heart and mind, Tasneem Jamal’s powerful debut novel exposes the fragility of belonging and, with its sweeping historical eye, brings home the true meaning of Canada.”
the details are coming into focus!
we have found an author and planned a dinner and a cocktail. We just need to agree on a date for the first meeting of the appetite for reading book club.
in the meantime, here is the general idea. for the price of the ticket, you get a copy of the book and dinner with drinks included. and the author comes to the dinner to talk about her (or his... don't want to give away any secrets just yet!) book. Once you have purchased your ticket, head on down to Wordsworth where your book will be waiting. Then get reading; you will have about a month to read the book before the dinner is scheduled.
on the evening of the book club meeting, drop by the Public Kitchen for the set menu that night and a signature cocktail for the evening. be there around 6:30 but no worries if you are a bit later; they will serve as people arrive. But serving will end around 8:00 when the author begins to speak.
Come with your questions about the book, about the process of writing a book, about the characters, about the research; really, questions on just about anything will be welcome.
We hope to be able to announce the next book and the next meeting date at the end of the evening so those of you who come out to the first meeting will have advance notice of future meetings.
Stay tuned. we hope to announce the date and the book very shortly!!
the beginning of something great
As we settled into our summer reading and compared notes on our books, it struck us: why not combine talking about books with a night out eating great food?
We already had some ideas for the books. Dave and Mandy at Wordsworth had plenty more - and, they knew the authors. We knew we loved the vibe of Public Kitchen, and Ryan and Carly shared our enthusiasm for the idea too! All we needed was a name for our eating and reading group... 'Appetite for Reading' seemed to do the trick.
Now, all we need to do is let our friends know... and maybe make some new ones.
Here it goes!