Integrating book-related cuisine into meetings will give you and your fellow book club members a chance to connect with the literature, try new recipes, and spice up your discussion.
Here are some ideas for matching food with the books you’re discussing:
Notice foods that stand out. Authors might mention certain foods or ingredients frequently, such as caramel cake in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, honey cake in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, or pumpkin in Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Make note of any foods that play a leading role in the literature.
Explore new foods. Many books with foreign settings or that are set in different time periods include references to interesting dishes and provide excellent opportunities for culinary exploration. Sample Ethiopian doro wot with Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone, Her Majesty’s mujadara with Queen Noor of Jordan’s memoir, Leap of Faith, and scones with Guernsey butter with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
Get creative! Find interesting and unusual ways to link food to your reading selection—and have your club guess the connection. Some of our favorite pairings: homemade Cheerio bars, made with cereal, corn syrup, sugar, and peanut butter for Emma Donoghue’s Room, in which the five-year-old main character ate Cheerios every day; pumpkin biscuits with Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (a book club combined the “biscuit” in Seabiscuit with pumpkin, the name of Seabiscuit’s pony companion); asparagus spears and flat noodles, representing the Point and the Flats, the two neighborhoods depicted in Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River; and savory spinach salad made with two ingredients—spinach and bacon—that together make something special, like the sisters in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper.
No time to cook? Serve simple prepared foods such as circus snacks—popcorn, Cracker Jacks, caramel apples, or cotton candy—with Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Dutch cheeses with Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, alphabet cookies with Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season, clam chowder with Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, or take-out Chinese food with Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
Meet at a restaurant. Explore a book’s cuisine by eating out. Discuss The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón over Spanish tapas, head to a southern-style diner to discuss Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, or sample Japanese food with Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden or The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.
For more ideas, visit The Book Club Cookbook website at: www.bookclubcookbook.com. You’ll find:
Featured Author Recipes: Recipes and insights from authors to enhance your book club meeting
Novel Noshes: Book-and-food-pairing ideas from book clubs across the country
Book Recommendations: Reading ideas from book clubs, some also paired with menus
Newsletters: New books and authors, giveaways, and more
Our book Table of Contents: From Breakfast with Anita Diamant to Dessert with James Patterson—A Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings, and Insights from Today’s Bestselling Authors features recipes drawn from the works of today’s bestselling authors along with insights that help bring their books to life. Visit www.tableofcontentsbook.com.
Our book The Kids’ Book Club Book: Reading Ideas, Recipes, Activities, and Smart Tips for Organizing Terrific Kids’ Book Clubs is a complete guide to creating fun and educational book clubs for kids, and includes recipes paired with fifty favorite book club titles. Visit www.kidsbookclubbook.com.