Cooking with Kary: The Hummingbird, CHICKEN au VIN and Book Club

The Hummingbird, Author Stephen P.Kiernan

Book club questions

Katy was our host this month and we were greeted with a mouthwatering aroma; hmm I was wondering “what is Katy cooking up?” Katy pulled out one of her Mom’s recipes “Chicken au Vin” to prepare for us and served it with a fresh green salad. This is real comfort food and rather fitting for our book this month, and can you say home made cookies! Oh my gosh Katy, I think I am still full!

The Hummingbird shuttles between the past and present day, keeping us wondering if what is written about the past is true. A book that takes us on an emotional ride: World War II secret bombing raids off the Oregon cost, family secrets, pride, warriors, PTSD, history, hospice, forgiveness and a little mystery.

We spent most of the evening laughing our tushes off. Elaine continues to teach all of us a thing or two about southern hospitably and along with Ann their wicked humor keeps us giggling all evening. Ann, we can’t wait to hear more lawn mower stories, cone of silence in-tack.

Oh back to the book, as you know we all love to read but the gathering is also about us spending time together. In the book hospice nurse Deb is struggling with her husband that she loves and is trying to understand the horror that her husband Michael experienced as a sniper after three tours in the Middle East. Deb’s interaction with Barclay, her hospice patient, is a first step in trying to understand what Michael experienced, really just the beginning of their journey to find their way back to each other.

Sometimes it is really challenging to know what path to take, how to even take that first step to relate to someone who is suffering.

I loved the way Stephen Kiernan jumped from past to present day, some of our group did not enjoy that as much as others. One thing we all agreed with is that Michael and Deb refer to each other as “lover”, for some reason we found this rather creepy. We discussed this and thought maybe because Deb and Michael’s relationship was so strained after his third tour and not physical at all, hmmm well just our thoughts.

Having said that we all recommend that you read this book, it truly opened a door to helping us better understand hospice and ptsd, just a crack. But as Leonard Cohen sings in one of my favorite songs Anthem "There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in".

Cheers! Just Cook Something~ Kary

Now here is Katy’s mom’s recipe: Oh and thank you for the beautiful bookmarks!