IN THIS ISSUE
*New Titles, Menus, Recipes, and Giveaways
*Novel Noshes
*GalleyMatch Book Clubs Preview
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From limoncello cocktails and roast chicken in an Orvieto villa to a signature spinach dip from a Maryland gourmet shop, North Carolina pulled pork and peach cobbler, and a wintertime staple soup in Minnesota, January brings some mouthwatering and heartwarming literary fare.
You'll also find book-inspired menus for book club favorites from the authors of Two Nights in Lisbon, The Children's Blizzard, and This is Happiness.
Here's to a new year of delicious reading and eating.
Judy Gelman
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Book-inspired menus and giveaways featured on social media |
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Book Club Buzz Feature Titles
Authors' book-inspired recipes, menus, notes and giveaways
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THE VILLA
Rachel Hawkins
(St. Martin's Press)
Fiction / Thriller
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From the author of The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls comes a deliciously wicked new gothic suspense novel, set at an Italian villa with a dark history. |
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THE LAST HOUSE ON THE STREET
Diane Chamberlain
(St. Martin's Press)
Fiction
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A community’s past sins rise to the surface when two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by tragedy and an unsolved, decades-old mystery. |
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Book Club Daily Feature Titles
Authors' book-inspired menus and giveaways
begin on the dates below for one week
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THE GOLDEN COUPLE
Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
(St. Martin's Press)
Fiction / Thriller
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Full of unexpected twists, a thriller that examines the complexities of one perfect marriage...and what happens when a psychologist becomes too closely enmeshed with her clients.
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HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG
Tracey Garvis Graves
(St. Martin's Press)
Fiction
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From the author of The Girl He Used to Know comes a love song of a story about starting over and second chances.
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Novel Noshes: Ask the Author
Authors Share Book-Inspired Fare
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Thanks to authors Chris Pavone, Niall Williams, and Melanie Benjamin who responded to our requests for book club menus. |
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In Chris Pavone's thriller, Two Nights in Lisbon, a woman accompanies her husband on a business trip to Lisbon, only to have him disappear.
From Chris Pavone “Before I was a novelist, I was a book editor, and for a while cookbooks were my specialty. Cooking and restaurants are important to me, and those interests have infected my novels. Two Nights in Lisbon includes food and drink perfect for a book club! White port is not common in America, but in Lisbon it seems to be everywhere, most commonly in Porto Tonico— white port and tonic over ice. Or, mix equal measures of white port and Aperol, and top with club soda for a Port Spritz. In the book, the protagonist drinks a spritz during cocktail hour before her husband disappears. Pastéis de nata, decadent little custard tarts, appear in the novel: I won't tell you how to make them, but any Portuguese bakery should have them. If there's one thing that for me tastes like Portugal, it's a stew with pork and clams— another dish my protagonist enjoys with detectives in a casual taberna after she searches for her missing husband. This stew is complicated but it's essentially a marinated pork shoulder stewed in white wine with garlic, potatoes, greens, and clams. There are lots of sardines in Portugal, and a wonderful snack is a sardine, some of its tinned oil slathered on a thick piece of grilled bread. Sardines on toast is simple, delicious, and perfect. Serve with a salad, and there you have a whole meal.”
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Niall Williams's novel This is Happiness, set in 1958 in a sleepy village in County Clare near Ireland's western coast, is a portrait of a community, its idiosyncrasies and its traditions, and a story about the loves of our lives, and the joys of reminiscing.
From Niall Williams: “In Faha, where the novel is set, strong tea and buttered brown bread are probably the full of the menu. A fruit loaf, or cut of porter cake after, if there’s room, and if you’ve made enough tea for the second cup. There’s no fine dining in Faha, I’m afraid, but if the butter goes on thick and the jam is homemade, it does just fine.”
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Melanie Benjamin's historical novel The Children's Blizzard recounts the devastating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888, threatening the lives of hundreds of Scandinavian immigrant homesteaders.
From Melanie Benjamin: "I'm not Swedish, so I don’t have any family recipes—although the menu at every Ikea restaurant comes to mind! But try stollen a Swedish favorite, not just at Christmas, with the recipe from King Arthur Baking. And then, maybe Swedish meatballs?
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GalleyMatch Book Clubs Suggest |
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Click images for meeting highlights for these titles previewed through GalleyMatch. |
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*Literary Lovelies, Yonkers, New York
*Reckless Readers, East Lyme, Connecticut
*CT Lit Club, Milford, Connecticut
*Thrillers by The Book, Costa Mesa, California
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THE WAYS WE HIDE
Kristina McMorris
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*Book Club Girls, Sparta, New Jersey
*Madame Wood Book Club, Wiscasset, Maine
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A LIGHT IN THE FOREST
Melissa Payne
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*Melanie's Book Club, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
*Riverside Readers, Columbus, Ohio
*Bookish Ladies. Coto de Caza, California
*Amy's Book Club, Boulder Colorado
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