Jodi Picoult chose a Mississippi Mud Cake to pair with a book club discussion of her novel A Spark of Light, set in Mississippi. Mississippi mud cakes and pies are thought to be named for the rich dark mud lining the banks of the Mississippi River. This cake recipe, adapted from Down Home: Treasured […] Read More

    In Chapter 23 of Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit, Constance and Geraldine go to visit John Ward, a real-life attorney who did actually continue to turn up in the Kopps’ lives over the years. He was, I suspect, a bit of a playboy, and I definitely play up that part of his personality in my version […] Read More

In my latest historical novel, Sold on a Monday, I was thrilled to include a swanky  New York supper club from my previous book, The Edge of Lost—along with a cameo from a certain underworld character. Hence, to celebrate the end of Prohibition, I hope your book club will love the sweet Italian twist of the […] Read More

  We relish the chance to experiment with vintage recipes and Dinner is Served 1972’s #Pieathalon promised a great opportunity to test a pie from the past. Over twenty bloggers swapped pie recipes from pre-1990 cookbooks for the event.  We received “Almost a Pie” from a 1978 Weight Watchers Hot Stuff Recipe pamphlet from Mimi at Once Upon a […]

Served at my book launch, the rum and hibiscus in this cocktail evoke the tropical setting of Monsoon Mansion. Honey brings the sweetness and lemon the bright hope of childhood, but chocolate bitters deepen the drink to represent the darkness of betrayal and bittersweet survival. The drink was created by my friend, cocktail enthusiast Leslie Stroud-Romero. […] Read More

Set in the 1950s, Lady Be Good marks Amber Brock’s mesmerizing return, sweeping readers into the world of Kitty Tessler,  the mischievous, status-obsessed daughter of a hotel magnate, and the electric nightlife of three iconic cities: New York, Miami, and Havana. “This daiquiri was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite Cuban drink, and he tended to prefer doubles. For Kitty […] Read More