Food and Book Pairings

Food and book combinations (especially fun for a themed book club get-together)!

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Go for a New Orleans theme with these menu ideas: Jambalaya with Red Beans and Rice - paired with Cajun Cake for dessert!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

My book club just read this last month and the host had the following appetizer menu: "Murdered dogs" (pigs in a blanket with sword skewers for toothpicks...she also used red food dye as blood!), red punch, strawberry chocolate chip cookies, and red hershey kisses (since the MC has an affinity for red).

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

A menu using the recipes from the book - of course!: Northern Style Chorizo, Champandongo (pictured below), and Cream Fritters.

And lastly...for the foodie who avoids their kitchen:  Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

A menu consisting entirely of take-out (Indian and Thai to be specific): Samosas, Pad Thai, Gang Kiew Waan (Green Curry), and Mango Lassies.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Club Picks

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this week's topic: Top Ten Books That Would Make Great Book Club Picks.

1.  We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - my book club is reading this now and I can't wait for our discussion this weekend (nature vs. nurture debate will definitely occur)!

2.  The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman - great discussion possibilities: Western medicine vs. holistic, culture clashes, importance of traditions, etc.

3.  Zeitoun by Dave Eggers - another Btown Booksters pick...we had a really great discussion about Katrina, racism, profiling, Islam, and more!

4.  When She Woke by Hillary Jordan - a dystopian retelling of The Scarlet Letter (also one of my fave books of 2011).  There are great debate possibilities such as: gender roles, religion, government, sexual mores, etc.

5.  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - wonderful writing with all sorts of little tidbits people can mull over together!

6.  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - another Btown Booksters pick, our club had such a fun and bookish time at this meeting.

7.  Room by Emma Donoghue - engrossing, thought-provoking, and disturbing...a recipe for a great book club pick!

8.  Still Alice by Lisa Genova - plenty of emotional scenes and themes that warrant discussion.

9.  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger - Oh!  The writing in this book!  The big questions in life will be up for debate: life, love, family, and faith.

10.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - a really unique novel with extremely realistic characters.  I can already picture a fantastic discussion of people's true selves and the part of themselves they hide from the world.

A Smattering of Christmas Books (and giveaway winner)!

Wow, thanks for the overwhelming response from blog readers (both by comments and email) and from my tumblr followers!  Now, the contest stated that you must leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway.  Sooo, that means all of you that emailed or tumbled your responses are ineligible (I think many of you were just trying to be helpful without regard for the prize - thanks for your kindness)!  Due to the huge response from people, the Bloomington Booksters had all sorts of great books to choose from and surprisingly, only one suggestion from the comments made the final cut!  While we didn't end up choosing this suggestion - it still made it to the final round so I'm deeming this the winner.  And the winner is:

Chris for being the first to suggest Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris!!

Thanks again to everyone for all of your great recommendations!  I thought it only fair to share with y’all a list of our favorite suggestions (the books that made the final round):

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan** This was the winner!

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

 Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

The Box of Delights by John Masefield

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

I'd love to read all of these - and more of the recommended books!

Help! Christmas books? (and giveaway)

Hello loyal readers!  Today's post is a bit out of the ordinary...the Btown Booksters gals need some help.  We were bummed we didn't think to read a Halloweenie book in October so we decided that for December's meeting we would read a Christmas-y novel.  The only problem?  Welp, we're having a bit of trouble thinking of any Christmas-y books.  The only one that comes to my mind is an Agatha Raisin mystery like:

Help!  Does anyone have any Christmas book suggestions for the Btown Booksters?!  I'll sweeten the deal by holding a bit of a contest.  If your book suggestion (feel free to make more than one) gets chosen by the Booksters then you get a $10 Amazon or Book Depository gift card!  I can't wait to see what you folks come up with - just leave your suggestions in the comments (w/your email addy)!  Ends at midnight this Tuesday 11/15.

Having Fun With Book Club - The Hunger Games

The Btown Booksters had yet another awesome meeting!  We got together for some breakfast at a new little joint called Feast and discussed our latest read, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I've already read this one but didn't mind a little review.  I thought that the others would definitely be missing out if they hadn't read the books before the movies come out next year!

As a group, we've decided on a new means of choosing books which I think is super-fun.  The host chooses 3 (or more) options for the group to vote on...one of which must be a book they've read before, one must be a book they've never read, and one must be/will be adapted into a movie.  Neato, right?  Anyways, everyone really enjoyed the book (and some even hurried to finish the entire series over the weekend)!  We had a great discussion (lots of talk about reality TV, people's attraction to violence, and gladiators).  Now I can't wait to see what our options are for next month!