Second Meeting Featured Title: Bitter Brew

Bitter Brew: the Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's King of Beers
by William Knoedelseder

Reported by Bonnie Enos
Report Highlights:

• The writer grew up in St. Louis.  This book is unique among the many books that have been written about Anheuser-Busch, because the author gained more access to inside people such as family members of the Busches.
• The book focuses as much, if not more, on the family and family legacy than the company. 
• Other information is taken from sources such as The St. Louis Post Dispatch and The St. Louis Globe-Democrat
• The recipe for Budweiser was taken from a Bavarian monastery, and used only natural ingredients from the beginning.  This set it apart from other companies that used additives to speed the fermentation process, which influenced the quality.
• Read about how Clydesdales used to deliver beer during the early era, Busch III forced his father out of the head position of the company, and about all of the turbulence surrounding Busch IV, from an inside look.  
• This book generated lots of discussion and is not to be missed!  

Second Meeting Featured Book: The Hour of Peril

The Hour of Peril by Daniel Stashower

Reported by Donna Cleavelin
Report Highlights:

• Donna reports that this one is truly a page-turner that has the reader in complete suspense, even though it is a historical account for which we know the ending!
• The book relays the story of an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln that took place before he was even inaugurated.
• The story also revolves around the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and how Pinkerton himself had a career path that went from sheriff of a town in Illinois, to the founder of a major detective agency.
• Pinkerton also hired a woman detective, Kate Warne.  He had to be talked into this by her, as this was way ahead of its time.  She convinced him by emphasizing how she, as a woman, could get access to situations and people that a man couldn't.  Particularly, she could talk to and garner information more easily from other women.
• Read more to find out how the Pinkerton Detective Agency intervened, and find out who was planning to assassinate our greatest president who helped end slavery!  Imagine if they hadn't been successful...

Second Meeting Featured Title: Below Stairs



Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

Reported by Clare Richardson Report Highlights:

• This memoir served as part of the inspiration for the hit British television series Downton Abbey and Upstairs/Downstairs.
• This true version of events stands in stark contrast to shows like Downton Abbey.  Her story is one of very hard work and poor living conditions.
• Powell worked for a family in London and was in a much smaller house; in total, the house had about 5 servants
• Powell was raised in a small town in England where she perceived more equality among classes.  In her service as a kitchen maid, she had to serve the other servants as well as the people of the house and was not treated well.
• Many of her experiences were dehumanizing, and they shed light on the class division still evident in England.

Second Meeting Featured Title: Can She Bake a Cherry Pie

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie: American Women and the Kitchen in the 20th Century
by Mary Drake McFeely

Reported by Linda d'Avignon
Report Highlights:

• The book is a social history of women cooking in the 20th Century and documents not only how shifts have occurred in the types of food served, but also in the lives of women preparing the food. 
• Some of the recipes from the 1950s sound completely foreign to us today (an appetizer consisted of shrimp in a mold); others, like green bean casserole, have stood the test of time.
• Primarily, cooking meals has fallen on women, with various improvements in technology greatly improving their lives.  In the 20s and 30s, the radio emerged as a source of companionship as women worked in the kitchen.

First Meeting Featured Book: In Sunlight and Shadow

In Sunlight and Shadow by Mark Helprin

Reported by Donna Cleavelin
Report Highlights:

• This historical fiction title set in Post-WWII New York explores the idea of love at first sight and love amidst class boundaries.
• Features lush descriptions that some readers will love, some will hate.
• Donna would recommend the title to someone who enjoys long descriptions and  has the time to invest in a long, highly descriptive work.

First Meeting Featured Book: Argo

Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled off the Most Audacious Rescue in History

by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio

Reported by Donna Cleavelin
Report Highlights:

• This account was the inspiration for the movie Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
• Gives insight into all of the details involved in changing a person's identity and what goes into training people how to do this, as well as descriptions of the complex task of creating disguises.  
• Makes one think of all of the tricks in James Bond movies and their grounding in reality!
• The book also gives proper credit to the Canadian government that the movie may not have done as well.

First Meeting Featured Book: Proof of Heaven

Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander

Reported by Erin Rauch
 Report Highlights:

• The book describes a neurosurgeon's experience with life after death.  He was in a coma and was pronounced dead at one point, but survived and wrote this book to share what happened after he "died."
• While he was a doubter about the afterlife before he experienced this, he now feels he has proof that there is, indeed, something after this life.
• Alexander talks about feeling an energy that connects all of us together.

First Meeting Featured Book: Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Reported by Ali Taylor

Report Highlights: 

• Gillian Flynn actually has a PCH connection!  Her parents are longtime friends of Cathy Dobkin's parents. 
• The novel presents an inside look at a toxic marriage, with two spouses that both lose their jobs in NYC working in the magazine industry.  They relocate to the fictional town of North Carthage, MO.  Those of you who have been to Northeast Missouri may find some descriptions quite familiar.
• With plenty of plot twists, Gone Girl is a definite page-turner.