A WorkLife Lesson: A Story of a Book Club With a Theme and a Twist
Jasmine welcomed Alessio, Cali, Noah and Selena to the first meeting of the Contemporary and Classic Literature Book Club. All based in Shoreditch, they planned to take turns hosting the club in their homes over supper with a theme or a twist.
The first supper had a little bit of both and was inspired by the book they had read for the meeting: Fictitious Dishes by Dinah Fried - An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals.
The book ‘serves up a delectable assortment of photographic interpretations of culinary moments from contemporary and classic literature.’ That’s where the group got the idea for the name of their book club.
In the book, each dish is paired with ‘text from the book that inspired its creation.’ That’s where the group got the idea for the theme/twist for their first supper and book discussion.
They each chose a book to suggest reading for future meetings and then prepared the accompanying dish to share over their first supper.
Here’s a flavour of the first Contemporary and Classic Literature Book Club. Featuring Fictitious Dishes by Dinah Fried, accompanied by a selection of literature’s most memorable meals as featured in their individual choice of future books to read.
WorkLife Book Club
Jasmine had chosen The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald and had prepared harlequin-designed tomato and beetroot salad and pig-in-a-blanket canapés, which she served with glasses of fizz as an accompaniment to her book choice, which the group delighted in as Jasmine told them why she was drawn to the book.
Jasmine: I enjoy books that capture historical moments, and this book does that vividly - the economic boom of postwar America, the new jazz music, the free-flowing illegal alcohol in a time of prohibition. Fitzgerald, when speaking about the era, said it was ‘a whole race going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure.’
I also enjoy books that present contradictions. It can be read as a pessimistic examination of the American dream, but at its centre is a remarkable rags to riches story. It goes deeper into this by raising awareness of the challenges to break into the secret society of those who were born wealthy, and the tensions in society between “new money” and “old money”, and how those who had inherited their wealth frowned upon people who had made their money during the economic boom.
In this lesson, you will learn about each member’s choice of book and accompanying dish and what they enjoyed about reading the book.
You will learn about the individual and collective learning they took from the experience.
In this lesson’s WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will learn to Develop a Practice of Themed Learning.
In this lesson’s Continuous WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will continue your practice of themed learning.