2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone!

Time to nominate books for March! The theme is Food.

~Please remember to state a connection to the theme when you nominate.

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligble. To see which books are not eligble, see this google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

~ Each person can nominate 1 book.

~ Book must be available both as a physical copy and as an ebook.

~ Authors: Please do not nominate your own book.

~ Please do not nominate books that are part of a series, unless it is the first book.

~ You can second someone else's nomination, but that will count as your nomination.


This thread will be closed by January 25th, and we will choose ten books for the poll. If there are more than ten books nominated, we will choose "seconded" books first. If there is still a tie to get into the top ten, we'll go back to the Goodreads average rating to see which is highest.

I'd like to nominate The Rice Mother - the link is in the title.

I'd like to nominate The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Connection to the theme comes from the synopsis :)

"Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries."

I second The Book Eaters

I'd like to nominate Breakfast of Champions - connection to food is Breakfast in the title.

I nominate Supper Club by Lara Williams.

Publisher blurb: "Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They gather after dark and feast until they are sick; they break into private buildings and leave carnage in their wake; they embrace their changing bodies; they stop apologizing. For these women, each extraordinary yet unfulfilled, the club is a way to explore, discover, and push the boundaries of the space they take up in the world. Yet as the club expands, growing in both size and rebellion, Roberta is forced to reconcile herself to the desire and vulnerabilities of the body–and the past she has worked so hard to repress. Devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny, Supper Club is an essential coming-of-age story for our times."

I would like to nominate Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The connection being that fried green tomatoes is food.

I wondered how long it would take before someone nominated this 😄. Love the movie.

I would like to nominate My Favorite Kidnapper by Melanie Moreland. The FMC bakes and decorates cakes which is how she and the MMC first met.

Blurb: "I touched her confectionary creation, and she told me off.
Slapping my hands and cursing in her own unique fashion.
No one talked to me that way.
I liked it.
I liked her cake even more.
So, I took her to Italy to bake for me.
I should have asked her first, but I had a feeling she’d say no.
I brought her cat, though—that should count for something.
Now, I just need to convince her to stay.
And forget that little word.
𝙆𝙞𝙙𝙣𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙧.
I’d prefer lover.
But we’ll wait until she doesn’t want to kill me in my sleep."

The book is EXACTLY how this makes it sound. It's hilarious and unhinged, at times but so good. My sister doesn't read much and I let her borrow my book. I had to buy another copy because she wouldn't give it back, LOL.

I would like to nominateThe Chicken Sisters

Two competitive family restaurants go head to head on reality tv Food Wars.

This book while being funny still showed you a families vulnerability and how they worked through childhood trauma.

Hallmark did make a show based off the book but it went off script a lot.

I second Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

I will nominate The Kamogawa Food Detectives

Feels like it would a really nice and cozy read!

The pumpkin spice cafe!!! So I can finally read it 😀

The link to food is obvious I guess.

I will like to nominate The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell.
Wishes coming true. Secrets baked in a pie.

I second Supper Club by Lara Williams.

I'd like to nominate Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl ... chocolate=food

I will second Fried Green Tomatoes!

I'd like to nominate Love & Saffron. Summary says "...two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all,..."

I'd like to nominate Butter

I'd like to nominate Life, Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair
So two cakes in the title and author!

I'll second Breakfast of Champions.

I nominated Arsenic and Adobo
About protagonist trying to safe her Filipino restaurant but somehow got in murder investigation because food critic and his ex died after a meal.

It's a cozy mystery so I interested with themes

Evy wrote: "The pumpkin spice cafe!!! So I can finally read it 😀

The link to food is obvious I guess."

I’ll second this! Have also been wanting to read it since it’s been everywhere online.

juls.books wrote: "I'd like to nominate Butter"

I'll second Butter.

Sylvia wrote: "I would like to nominate My Favorite Kidnapper by Melanie Moreland. The FMC bakes and decorates cakes which is how she and the MMC first met.

Blurb: "I touched her confectionary c..."

i second this one

I nominate Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford. It's a romcom about an elderly woman on a baking competition TV show.

I want to second: The Chicken Sisters

I nominate The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

So many good nominations, a lot I have already read. I looked at my TBR list and I found several books to choose from.

I would like to nominate The Food of Love by Amanda Prowse. Food is in the title.

"Freya Braithwaite knows she is lucky. Nineteen years of marriage to a man who still warms her soul and two beautiful teenage daughters to show for it: confident Charlotte and thoughtful Lexi. Her home is filled with love and laughter.

But when Lexi’s struggles with weight take control of her life, everything Freya once took for granted falls apart, leaving the whole family with a sense of helplessness that can only be confronted with understanding, unity and, above all, love."

I will second The Midnight Feast

I second The Book Eaters. That sounds interesting!

I will third the Book Eaters. I have not read that one yet.

Muhammad Adib wrote: "I nominated Arsenic and Adobo
About protagonist trying to safe her Filipino restaurant but somehow got in murder investigation because food critic and his ex died after a meal.

It'..."

So many good choices but I will second this one :)

I'll second Love & Saffron. It's been quite a while since I read an epistolary book, and it's got a 4.1 rating. 👍

I'll second The Rice Mother :)

I will second Arsenic and Adobo :)

I nominate Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The connection being that the main character is the host of a cooking show.

Mia wrote: "I nominate Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The connection being that the main character is the host of a cooking show."
This book is on the list for being read in the last 3 years. We read it in May 2023. I actually nominated it. It is good.

Mia wrote: "I nominate Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The connection being that the main character is the host of a cooking show."

Mia, great book, but it is ineligible since it was selected within the last three years. From the first post in this nomination thread:

~Books we have read less than three years ago are not eligible. To see which books are not eligible, see this google sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Is there another book you would like to suggest?

TerryJane wrote: "Mia wrote: "I nominate Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The connection being that the main character is the host of a cooking show."

Mia, great book, but it is ineligible si..."

Oops, sorry! I didn't look at the list closely enough! My other pick would be The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. It's a murder mystery set during a baking competition.

My rec is Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar. The food tie-in is "sugar."

I'll second Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Closing nominations :)

Poll is up 🤗

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...