Book Club - "For Cryin' Out Loud" by Dianne Blaine Hardy

This month, it was my turn to pick the book for book club. I had originally chosen a different book, but then my grandma announced that her book would be coming out in May. Of course I had to choose her book. 1) She's my grandma and I love her and 2) I read a rough draft a few years ago, and loved it!

I could not put the book down. Every time I had even a spare second, my nose was buried in her book. She wrote her memoirs of growing up, as a means to heal from her youth and different things that happened on the inside of her home. Her parents were outstanding members in the community, but inside her home, they were less then ideal parents. For example, my grandma practically grew up on tuna fish sandwiches. Her mother would not cook for her. But to make it worse, when the younger kids were born, she put more effort into feeding them food, but still left my grandma and older sister to fend for them selves. 

In preparing for book club, I thought it would be fun to cook a dinner based on my grandma's favorite foods. I emailed her to ask her what she suggested and this is the email I received back. 

"Thank God  my tastes have grown to include more than the tuna sandwiches I was raised with.  What a creative tribute to me to have you all eating what I like.  Wish I could be with you.  Favorite meal is Clam Chowder with bread sticks, a green salad with the veggies cut up small like your mom makes, and cherry pie or cherry cheesecake.  I also love meatloaf and those funeral potatoes your mom makes.  Asparagus is great.  Hope this gives you a choice.  I love you, Savannah and thank you for all the help you have been in promoting my book.  Grandma".

Because we were out of town the weekend before, time was kind of tight to prepare a meal. I had wanted to make bread sticks, but was at the zoo instead. Monday night, I got a meat loaf put together. Then Tuesday, I got off work an hour early. I raced home to throw the meatloaf in the oven. Then I prepared asparagus and a green salad. I also wanted to do potatoes, but just ran out of time. Dessert was cherry pie (thanks to Marie Calendar). 

I also decided to invite my mother and sister up since they had also read the book. Which was a good thing, because Jessica was the only other person able to come. I knew Jessica loved the book, because a few days before book club, I got this text from her. "Finished reading your grandma's book last night. I liked it! Such a cool genealogy  book for you. Most people don't know much about how their grandparents were raised... including me." 

We had so much fun talking about my grandma's book, made even better with my family adding in other family memories. When I read the rough draft a few years ago, one part reminded me how each summer we would go spend a week at my grandma's house. One of the highlights for us kids was grandma would let us put sugar on our cereal. (Which we of coursed shoveled on!) 

Jessica was shocked to learn that my grandma didn't know what a muffin was until she was in 11th grade! I'm just grateful that after being raised on tuna fish sandwiches, she turned out to be a really good cook. I can remember when she'd come to see us, she would make chicken noodle soup that was to die for! Which I thought about making for book club, but knew I wouldn't have enough time to do. 

Thank you grandma for writing your book and sharing it with family and friends and now every one else. 

You can purchase a copy of her book HERE. After reading it, be sure to leave a review.