Okay, my book club is not clandestine or exclusive enough to warrant this decree. This isn’t like Fight Club….no dark basements, fist-fights, or shirtless Brad Pitt. Although a shirtless Brad Pitt at book club would probably make our evenings more interesting. We aren’t that “hardcore,” but we do have some unofficial, easy-to-follow guidelines:
- You must participate in 30-40 minutes of catching up/gossip before actually discussing the book.
- You must complement the hostess on her amazing home decorating skills.
- You must consume a healthy amount of wine or other appropriate seasonal alcoholic beverage.
- You must contribute to the refreshments by bringing a delicious food item and/or alcohol.
Last night's lovely spread
Can you see why I LOVE this book club?? 2 out of 4 rules demand that you eat/drink. During last night’s meeting, our hostess Bianca served grilled bites of steak, succulent shrimp skewers, a colorful, fresh veggie tray, and a crisp salad. Other member contributions— such as spiced pecans and homemade double chocolate cookies—complemented the bountiful spread. We settled in with full bellies to discuss The Glass Room by Simon Mawar. A very interesting book about architecture and modernism, Mawar writes about a well-to-do Jewish family living in Czechoslovakia during WWII. While I really enjoyed The Glass Room (so far – I am 45% complete according to my Kindle. Notice one of our guidelines is you don’t always have to finish the book!), it’s a real treat for me when I get to read about food. In our book club, we have read some great books where food was one of the main characters. We read about Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey through Italy in Eat, Pray, Love. I still think about how she describes her love affair with the pizza in Naples. She writes: “I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza…” We also read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about her family’s one-year vow to eat local, sustainable food. After that book, I vowed to never eat another mealy, tasteless tomato ever again. She taught us that eating locally and seasonally is not only good for the environment and economy, it just plain tastes better! I hope that I can finagle my fellow book club members to read more food-inspired books in the future. Here are some of my recommendations:
- The Sharper the Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. A memoir about one woman’s struggle to make it through the world’s top cooking school.
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen. The author documents the origin of his food—from the farm to the plate. You will never look at a chicken nugget the same way.
- The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. This isn’t really a book club book. But I’d highly recommend that every cook own it. Besides the recipes, she does include notes and lessons that are very interesting.
- Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. You probably have seen the movie with Meryl Streep’s wonderful portrayal of Julia Child, but there is a book too!
- My Life in France by Julia Child. Julia’s memoir about her years in France.
What other books about food do you love? I am always looking for suggestions! ~Missy
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