Book Bytes
A Newsletter for Lovers of Books and Food
from the authors of The Book Club Cookbook

Happy spring!

Book clubs from San Francisco to Boston continue to send us their favorite reading and recipe suggestions. We're pleased to share them in this issue of Book Bytes, along with other creative tips--how your club can support a vital literacy program, or raise funds for your school or favorite cause.

We're especially excited to introduce our new program, "Invite an Author", a directory of authors ready to chat with your book club on the phone. Those who have tried it tell us that conversations with authors have sparked some of their liveliest book club meetings. We hope you'll give it a try!

Please take a moment to enter our contest to win subscriptions to “Bookmarks” magazine--a terrific resource for your book club, or just write to tell us about your book club or favorite reads. We’d love to hear what you’re reading--and eating!

--Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp

In this edition of Book Bytes:

INVITE AN AUTHOR
WHAT SHOULD YOUR CLUB READ--AND EAT--NEXT? A Cuban memoir with a pineapple rum cake… and more!
WIN A SUBSCRIPTION TO “BOOKMARKS” MAGAZINE FOR EACH MEMBER OF YOUR BOOK CLUB
HOT PICKS! A classic read and recipe from the South Carolina coast
HELP CHILDREN LEARN TO LOVE READING
A NOVEL APPROACH TO SCHOOL FUNDRAISING: “Meet the Author” Book Club
AND THE WINNER OF OUR LAST CONTEST IS…


INVITE AN AUTHOR TO JOIN YOUR BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION

Many authors have recently signed up for THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK's new "Invite an Author" program. Whether your book club reads fiction, non-fiction, romance, young adult, or children's books, these authors are eager to join your next book club meeting by speakerphone.

Here's your chance to learn the story behind a book or how the characters were created--all in a lively discussion with an author.

We feature a terrific assortment of authors--from best-selling authors to emerging writers--who would be delighted to speak with your group. And new authors are joining our program daily!

Please note that this is not a contest and there is no charge to use "Invite an Author."

Click below to invite an author to one of your book club meetings.
www.bookclubcookbook.com/invite.htm

Click here to receive Invite an Author updates through our newsletter:
www.bookclubcookbook.com/newsletter.htm

Let us know how the discussion goes!

WHAT SHOULD YOUR CLUB READ NEXT?

When it comes to choosing books, nothing beats a recommendation from a book club. We’ve asked book club members about their favorite selections, and we're pleased to share their advice with you, along with some of their food pairing suggestions.

The Unnamed Book Club in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts recommends:
WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA by Carlos Eire
“This is a memoir of a young Cuban boy growing up during Castro's revolution, who was separated from his parents and airlifted out of Cuba to the United States. The book is beautifully written, almost poetic with its dream-like memories and metaphors.”
Paired with: Pineapple rum cake

"Just Here For the Food" Book Club of Goffstown, New Hampshire recommends:
THE MASTER BUTCHER’S SINGING CLUB by Louise Erdrich
“Fidelis Waldvogel grew up during World War I and the war haunted him throughout his life. We liked reading of how he came to America and made a life here, bringing some of the old European traditions with him, including his work as a butcher and memories of the singing clubs of his past. We’re sure that the many twists and turns in this novel will keep you turning the pages into the wee hours of the night as it did our members!”
Paired with: German Chocolate Cake, German Potato Salad, Kielbasa and Sauerkraut, Kielbasa, Potato and Cabbage Stew, and St. Pauli Girl Beer.

The Gourmet Readers of Attleboro, Massachusetts recommends:
LOST HORIZON by James Hilton
“Written in the 1930s, LOST HORIZON foreshadows dire things to come (war and devastation), and explores Eastern philosophy and ideas which seemed so new twenty or thirty years ago. You'll find some interesting thoughts on meditation, aging, the art of "moderation," and of course, a description of Shangri-La.”
Food recommendations: Chinese food, because the book is set in Tibet, especially Pomelos (an Asian grapefruit), which are mentioned in LOST HORIZON.

BBB Book Club of the San Francisco Bay Area recommends:
WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE by Julie Otsuka
"We all felt that Otsuka’s story of local Japanese being taken to internment camps during World War II went right to the heart. She set up the difficult scenario of a mother preparing to be wrenched into the unknown without her husband by her side (he had already been taken prisoner and sent to an unknown location). The descriptions were exquisitely simple and yet full of irony. After reading the book group members researched the period and visited internment sites in the San Francisco Bay Area. We were surprised to find just how wide the hysteria from the bombing of Pearl Harbor had stretched."
Paired with: a traditional Japanese lunch - homemade sushi, fresh fruits, tea.

WIN A SUBSCRIPTION TO “BOOKMARKS” MAGAZINE FOR EACH MEMBER OF YOUR BOOK CLUB!

Has your book club prepared food to match the theme of your reading selection? If so, tell us about it! We're looking for the most creative, compelling pairing of food with a book – fiction, non-fiction, classic, or whatever your book club likes to read. Please send a brief description of your favorite literature/food pairing by May 27 to info@bookclubcookbook.com. Each member of the winning book club will receive a one-year subscription to “Bookmarks” magazine, an excellent resource for helping your club choose titles. (Limit: 15 members)
For more about “Bookmarks”: www.bookmarksmagazine.com
To read about our last contest winner, scroll to bottom of page.

HOT PICKS: A BOOK AND RECIPE TO SAVOR

The Book: THE WATER IS WIDE (Houghton Mifflin, 1972) by Pat Conroy
The Recipe: ISLANDER CRAB SALAD from GULLAH HOME COOKING THE DAUFUSKIE WAY (University of North Carolina Press, 2003) by Sallie Ann Robinson

As a child, Sallie Ann Robinson cast shrimp nets, fished, crabbed, and slopped hogs on South Carolina’s Daufuskie Island, accessible only by boat, where West African-influenced Gullah culture has thrived for centuries. Over the years, she watched the old ways of life slowly disappear as friends and family moved off island. Sallie Ann’s cookbook, GULLAH HOME COOKING THE DAUFUSKIE WAY preserves the recipes of her native Sea Islands – dishes such as Runaway Fried Chicken and Pickin’ Oyster Stew – along with stories of life growing up on Daufuskie.

Recently, we had the pleasure of serving on a “Narrative Cookbooks” panel with Sallie Ann at the Much Ado About Books book festival in Jacksonville, Florida. We also met author Pat Conroy, who first encountered Sallie Ann in 1969, when he spent a year teaching in a two-room schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island. Conroy chronicled this memorable year in THE WATER IS WIDE. When we talked, Sallie Ann proudly revealed that she is “Ethel” in Conroy’s memoir, and that she consulted on the new film version of THE WATER IS WIDE, to be released by Hallmark Hall of Fame later this year. Meeting Sallie Ann and Pat made reading THE WATER IS WIDE especially meaningful, but we recommend it to anyone interested in a page-turning story of a young teacher fighting to educate students that others have all but abandoned, or a peek into the history and rich culture of Daufuskie island.

Crabmeat was a staple for Sallie Ann’s family as it is for most islanders, who crabbed with traps, nets or twine. Conroy says his year on the island was one of the “best-fed” years of his life, and Sallie Ann’s Islander Crab Salad makes a wonderful accompaniment to a discussion of Conroy’s THE WATER IS WIDE.