The ladies said that around this time last year, we formed the book club. Gabriel Schembri was our third guest so far, and two new members participated.
We tried bajadere (made in Croazia) and bruschette (made by Gabriel, who said that in Malta, it is an everyday Mediterranean dish); we drank wine and tea; we presented not only the works of the visiting author, but also the new members (both are near the end of their latest works); we talked about the difference between irony and sarcasm, and "sympathy" and "empathy", the use of certain vernacular language to express certain feelings and images (e.g. Maltese as "harder" with 70% Arabic), the refugee situation in Malta, first-hand literary recommendations, reading habits, writing from lived experience, corruption, break-ups of romantic relationships... And towards the end of the gathering, we played around with writing "blurbs", summaries, based on three random words for the backs of our own potential, fictionals books (there was some crime, some fantasy; philosophical, introspective, and feminist content), how Gabriel does it as a college professor with his students, supporting them to dream and to elaborate.