Announcement: Our Next Four Selections

It's that time of our virtual book club's cycle when we unveil the next four selections, books selected by the co-hosts to (hopefully) delight and inspire you. Ready? Let's go!

Deb (Kahakai Kitchen) opens the series with Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food and Love by Kim Fay (February 2022) for the August / September 2023 edition

I am so busy lately that picking a short book for our August / September selection seemed like a great idea, and at 240 pages, Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love fits that description. But what really sold me on it was all the great reviews I have been seeing and that it is told in letters. I do love a good epistolary novel!

From the Publisher:

In the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter—as well as a gift of saffron—to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

Food and a good life—they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship—a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other. A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache and that human connection will always be worth creating. 

With inspiration like Creamy risotto alla Milanese. Mussels in a hot, buttery broth. Chicken spiced with cinnamon and cloves. Joan Bergstrom and Imogen Fortier understand the key to a savored life—delicious food.

I look forward to seeing what we can create from this one!

Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

Deadline for contributing your post is Saturday, September 30, 2023

---

For the October / November 2023 edition, Claudia (Honey from Rock) chose The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller (February 2021)

I just heard about this novel so haven't read it yet, but am looking forward to getting into the book along with you all. From the reviews, it sounded the double horn, foodie fiction, with good plot and character driven writing. 

From the Publishers Weekly: 

At the outset of Miller's endearing debut, 32-year-old pastry chef Olivia Rawlings loses her job after she drops a tray of baked Alaska and starts a fire at the prestigious Boston club where she works. In need of comfort, she heads to Guthrie, Vt., to visit her best friend, Hannah Doyle, who lands her a job at the nearby Sugar Maple, a picturesque inn owned by the stern yet protective Margaret Hurley. As Olivia adjusts to her new life, her growing attachment to Margaret's friends, the McCrackens-especially Martin, the fiddle-playing son-prompts her return to banjo and folk music. But even as she settles in and joins a contra dance band, she struggles to navigate the secrets, gossip, and long-held animosities that animate the town. 

Miller, a pastry chef herself, writes about food with vivid detail, but her rhythmic prose is even crisper when her interests converge: "From the stage you could see the lattice pattern the dances made, the couples weaving in and out like fluted strips of piecrust." Miller also excels at characterization, revealing her protagonist's complex pasts in subtle ways. Even minor characters such as Alfred, Olivia's coworker at the Sugar Maple, and Henry, the ailing McCracken patriarch, are sharply drawn and memorable. Throughout, the novel's empathetic spirit and unhurried pace allow it to grapple with grief, family, and belonging, while keeping the focus on Olivia's difficult decisions.

Claudia, Honey From Rock

Deadline for contributing your post is Thursday, November 30, 2023

---

For the December 2023 / January 2024 edition, Debra (Eliot's Eats) has chosen Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That's a Dumb Way to Live by Dan Ahdoot (March 2023)

While I was traveling recently, I heard the “Eating with Funny People” episode of Splendid Table. Comedian Dan Ahdoot and his new book were featured. Ahdoot’s book is a compilation of essays regarding his connection with food and his family and his relationships. In the Splendid Table episode he relates the time he visited a 5-star Michelin restaurant and sent the risotto back. I’ve read everything that was available in the sample preview and have enjoyed it thus far! In the introduction Ahdoot sets the premise:

When most people say they have an unhealthy relationship with food, they mean they eat too much of it or too little. When I say I have an unhealthy relationship with food, I mean it’s what gives my life meaning. That’s a really dumb way to live your life, as the stories in this book will attest to.

I have never heard of Ahdoot, but apparently he is mildly famous. Besides being  a comic headliner, he is a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, and is currently acting on Netflix’s Cobra Kai. Ahdoot also hosted Food Network’s Raid the Fridge.   

Debra, Eliot's Eats

Deadline for contributing your post is Wednesday, January 31, 2024

---

To round up the list of selections, for the February / March 2024 edition Simona (briciole) chose the graphic novel Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley (April 2013)

A recent comment on our Suggested Reading page written by Deb of Readerbuzz included a title that caught my attention. When I checked the details, I saw that it is a graphic novel, so something a bit different. 

From the author's website:

In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions. 

A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a graphic novel for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product. 

I'm looking forward to reading outside my habits' boundaries. 

Simona, briciole

Deadline for contributing your post: Sunday, March 31, 2024.

---

Remember that membership in our book club is open to anyone and we hope you will join us by reading these selections and creating inspired recipes. For more information about participating, click here.  

As always, specific announcement posts can be found at Cook the Books at the beginning of each two-month period and the current selection is always shown on the right side of the homepage.

To recap:

August / September 2023: Love & Saffron by Kim Fay (hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen)

October / November 2023: The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller (hosted by Claudia at Honey from Rock)

December 2023 / January 2024: Undercooked by Dan Ahdoot (hosted by Debra at Eliot's Eats)

February / March 2024 Relish by Lucy Knisley (hosted by Simona at briciole)

Happy reading and cooking!