Reading Envy Readers discussion

For one of the Reading Envy Summer Reading challenges, your reading will help you participate in a picnic.

1. Read a foodie book. It can be a memoir, a mystery (or other genre) with recipes, a cookbook, etc.
2. Bonus points for making a recipe from that book.
3. Come back here and share your picnic read, and Jenny will create a menu at the end of the summer.
4. If you post about it in Instagram or Litsy, please also add #readingenvypicnic

Happy reading!

(When does summer start/end? Well, I'm on an academic calendar that rushes the lunar/solar calendar, so I'm calling summer June through August.)

Love this, Jenny! Great ideas. Can't wait to start!

I'm not good at making food, but perhaps this is chance to get out of my stupor and get in the kitchen and wow my family!

Elizabeth☮ wrote: "I'm not good at making food, but perhaps this is chance to get out of my stupor and get in the kitchen and wow my family!"

There are fun literary drink books too. ;)

Now that I can get on board with Jenny!

Elizabeth☮ wrote: "Now that I can get on board with Jenny!" I'll second that!

Elizabeth☮ wrote: "Now that I can get on board with Jenny!"

Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist
The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks

:D :D :D

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Elizabeth☮ wrote: "Now that I can get on board with Jenny!"

Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist
[book:The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Grea..."

The Drunken Botanist is already on my TBR list! I think I'll track that one down.

I also recommend McIlhenny's Gold by Rothfeder which is a history of Tabasco. My book group had a lot of fun with this one!

That sounds interesting Amy. My dad loves the stuff!

When I was on vacation, I read The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael Twitty. Phew, it is comprehensive and intense, looking at DNA, southern foodways, slavery, the sugar trade, racism, just so many topics. The writing is a bit circular so I read the book between other things, but got a lot out of it. My even longer review is here.

Michael Twitty got a fair amount of press when he wrote an open letter to Paula Deen in response to her racist remarks. That's a good read too and shorter, will give you a sense of his point of view. I live in the south but I am not from the south, and felt I have a lot to learn. Still do, but I'm one step closer.

I also read The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller, which came out today. It is her second novel, which I reviewed here. I would say I didn't love it quite as much as her first novel, The City Baker's Guide to Country Living, but it still has a lot of the same likeable elements. Louise Miller is a pastry chef in her real life, so baking and cooking figure heavily into her novels. They are set in a small town that has a strong Gilmore Girls vibe, usually with some romance storyline. Unlike City Baker's Guide, this book is more about the relationship between two sisters than it is about a romance, although romance is also present. And baking. And food. And town hall meetings. It's a fun summer read. I need to bake something from it still, maybe for our picnic?

Time to wrap it up! Wrap it up! If you read something for this challenge that you want to share, post it here or send me something at readingenvy@gmail.com (this can be a recording of you or just a note that I can read.) If you do this by August 31, I will say something about you in the wrap up episode.