Hot Dog!

Food from books- what could be more fun?

Check out these pictures and menus from some of our favorites:

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/16/fictitous-dishes-dinah-fried-book/

One of my first writing gigs was a column on BOOK CLUBS for Skirt! 
(a regional magazine, and yes, that exclamation point is in the title.)
Book Clubbers loved to write about the food that complimented their book discussions. 

Like these:

 (You can find a few good ones, HERE.)

And while I'm at it, how about raising a glass to your favorite book and cook with this one?

Now I'm hungry. 
I'm off to eat my semi-annual slaw dog, in honor of July 4th weekend. 

Happy holiday, everybody!

Book Clubs

For a long time I edited a column about book groups for Skirt! Magazine. Made some great cyberfriends and learned a lot about how to have fun with reading, chatting and eating, all at the same time. I also discovered how many variations there were, from a party of two who met in various NYC bars to talk about books they loved, to a large group of women who travel together, and everything in between.

I was actually in two different groups for a long time, and a third that fell apart pretty quickly. Now, even though I'm no longer in a book group, I follow my friends' picks and am always intrigued with what they are reading. Here's an NPR columnist's recommendation of Books for Book Groups, 2009. Check out the comments also, for additional books and a dissent or two.

I visited my friend Anne's group last week, for their discussion of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. If ever a book had the greatest, though most easily forgettable name, this is it. The book chatting at this group, open to the public, sponsored by the American Pen Women was lively. (And I love the Safety Harbor Library where they met. Is that a gigantic banyan tree right outside? I was late and it was too dark to see well!)

A quick non-scientific study turned up these repeat book group choices, including the Potato Pie Book, from my buddies in Book Groups.

Out Stealing Horses

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Book Thief

Olive Kitteridge

The Help

So, what's your group reading these days?

Related post: Skirt! Book Groups

Skirt!

I'm always amazed at how quickly and efficiently word travels on the internet. Just the other day, I lamented on my facebook page that I'd about run out of friends, family, and friends of friends and family to arm twist into writing about their Book Group for my Skirt! Magazine column. So, out went the word and now I have several leads.

But if you're reading this post and you are in a Book Group (and I haven't already twisted your arm), I'd love to know about it. I need a new group every single month, twelve months of the year. And it's fun to write/ tell me about them!

Go ahead, leave me a message in the comment section or an email on my facebook page.

And thanks, Ivy, for the picture of the kiosk in Palm Harbor, Florida. Skirt! Magazine is everywhere!

Skirt Under the Covers

OK. Don't let that title alarm you.
I'm just sharing that some of the Skirt! Magazine book groups I edit are now available online. Click here and here to read a couple. My friend Barbara, who has not only written about her couples group for the magazine but has led me to her cousin Beth's group, her mother-in-law Peg's group and niece Anne's group, found the links.

I'm always looking for new book clubs to feature in my Under the Covers column. Skirt's a lot of fun to read and write for, so send them my way! Contributors receive a small check and your name in print.

It was only after writing this post that I discovered how timely it is. Who knew- October is National Reading Group Month. Whew. Almost missed that one. Happy Reading to all!

Book Groups

My original Book Group lasted 25 years. Can you believe that? We finally fell apart as some of us moved and some of us decided eating and chatting was more fun than talking about books. But a new group quickly rose from those embers and is still going strong.

I was asked to edit the Under the Covers column for Skirt! Magazine a few years ago and have almost never lacked friends, family, friends of friends and complete strangers willing and eager to tell me about their Book Groups.

Although the Book Groups are not on the Skirt! website, there are lots of other reasons to visit the site. Essays, especially. I mostly love the essays and have written a couple for the magazine. One of my favorite pieces was about the time my friend Sandra and I had lunch with Andy Warhol. True story. The lunch was arranged by a friend of my friend's. Southerners are like that. The essay started out about that lunch and ended up being about my friend. Essays can be like that.



But back to Book Groups. How strongly women feel about theirs. The friendships they make and the books they read. The food they eat and the gossip. I've discovered that women will travel back to previous addresses to stay in touch with their group. They move and start a new group, unable to bear the thought of not having that connection. Age doesn't seem to be a common denominator. The groups I hear from are multi-generational. Reading books together is a powerful way to make a connection.

Two submissions actually came from a grandmother and her granddaughter. The grandmother was almost 80 and in a group of retirees that didn't read most of the books but loved hearing about them from a proprietor of an independent bookstore. Her granddaughter works in publishing and lives around books all day. She and her friend make up a Book Group, of sorts, consisting of just the two of them. They meet over drinks and discuss what they are reading.

And isn't that enough? A friend, a glass of wine and a good book?