Q: How will book clubs use your book? Do you have to be in a book club to use it?

Judy: Although The Book Club Cookbook was written with book clubs in mind, you don't have to be in a book club to enjoy it. A brief synopsis of the book, as well as topics of discussion from a book club, will help you select good books for your own enjoyment. We explain the role food plays in the book. One or two recipes accompany each title, along with a variety of other ideas for pairing foods with the reading selections. You will learn how book clubs across the United States came to meet, and what they read, eat, and discuss.

The Book Club Cookbook can be used for selecting books, understanding the role food plays in a book, and trying new recipes and foods you might not have otherwise tasted.

Q: What was the inspiration for The Book Club Cookbook?

Judy: Vicki and I had each explored the connections between books and food in our own book clubs. One day, over coffee, we realized we were both intrigued by the idea of pairing books and food, which we had found to be a fun and interesting part of our own book club meetings. Descriptions of food seemed central to many of our favorite books — and food figured prominently in our book club experiences. Providing recipes to complement great books appealed to us. We thought it would appeal to book club members to have delicious, thematically appropriate recipes at their fingertips, and to be able to savor a book through more than just discussion.

Vicki: As we started interviewing book clubs around the country, the book took shape. At first we were going to include recipes for appetizers, drinks and desserts, foods our own book clubs usually serve. But as we interviewed more book clubs, we learned about the different ways book clubs integrate food into their meetings. We spoke to clubs that serve full meals — often meals that echo the theme of the books they discuss. These groups are lively and engaged in finding ways to enhance their book discussions, and food is an integral part of their experience. We decided to include all kinds of food — appetizers, entrées, side dishes, desserts, drinks — in our cookbook and, most importantly, to make the book clubs themselves a focal point of our book.

Q: How did you identify so many book clubs?

Vicki: First we asked friends and family for contacts around the country. Then we turned to the internet. We sent out thousands of surveys by email, and received hundreds back. We then selected several hundred book club members to interview by phone. What we learned in these surveys and interviews became the basis for the book.

Judy: Our goal was to find as wide a variety of book clubs as possible. We were looking for diversity in race, ethnicity, geography, and reasons for meeting. We found book clubs through bookstores, churches, universities, workplaces, professional organizations, libraries, newspaper articles, as well as recommendations from other groups. We included book clubs that just serve cheese and crackers — as well as those that serve multi-course meals related to the theme of the reading selection.

Q: What surprised you in your research with book clubs?

Judy: The extraordinary variety of clubs and the reasons they meet. We spoke with book clubs of Asian professionals; environmental, political, and multicultural clubs that read only classics or the works of a single author; even a club that reads only works with an American western woman protagonist!

The excitement, passion, and devotion people bring to their book clubs was striking. We found clubs where people dress in costume, decorate their houses, and prepare elaborate foods, all to enhance their book club experience. We spoke with many book clubs where the members travel together for "field trips" or to celebrate club anniversaries.

Q: You also have a diverse list of books. How did you select your list of 100 books?

Vicki: The 100 reading selections in The Book Club Cookbook were based on survey responses and interviews over a five-month period — they are not our personal selections. We asked book club members to name their top 4 or 5 reading selections, and our book list reflects the diversity of the book club members we surveyed: new releases and classics, memoirs, adventure, biography, historical fiction and non-fiction, books that appeal to various ethnic groups, and books set in locations from China, India, and Jordan to all corners of the United States.

Q: Food is your central theme, so you must have included books such as Under the Tuscan Sun and Tender at the Bone?

Judy: Actually, we did not choose books because they had recipes or gastronomic themes, or because certain foods or recipes were referenced. The books featured in The Book Club Cookbook were named as favorites over and over by book clubs, or cited as books that provoked interesting discussion. To be included, a book had to be a top book club choice.

Q: Can you talk about the process of choosing recipes? How did you decide which foods to include? And where did the recipes come from?

Vicki: Our formula for choosing recipes evolved as our research progressed. One book club member commented that our book is full of surprises — and that sums up the process of writing it, too! Once we selected a book, we read — or re-read — it, searching for foods that seemed central to its theme. Sometimes we found that a food played a role in a pivotal scene or was mentioned repeatedly, or we found a dish we had never heard of, but that intrigued us. After we identified the food, we developed a recipe for that dish, or a recipe that incorporated key ingredients.

Judy: We then started asking authors for their ideas. The responses were varied and fascinating. Some contributed recipes, while others guided us in selecting recipes to pair with their books, and many contributed comments about the role of food in their books. Devil in the White City author Erik Larson told us about the Chicago restaurant where he ate dinner each night while researching his book. The restaurant contributed recipes for Larson's nightly staples: lobster bisque and Wild Turkey manhattans. We heard from many book clubs that they had tried to recreate the cinnamon rolls with coffee frosting that author Leif Enger describes in Peace Like a River. We are thrilled to have his family recipe for the rolls, so book club members can taste the author's version. Lalita Tademy, author of Cane River, contributed her family recipe for peach cobbler, which has been handed down for generations and which her sister still makes.

Vicki: In addition to developing our own recipes and receiving recipes from authors, we included recipes from the book clubs we interviewed. We started gathering interesting recipes book clubs had used at their meetings — recipes such as Jan Keshen's Seafood Chowder, which she served when her Florida book club discussed Ahab's Wife, and Stephanie Groves's Spicy Buffalo Wings, which accompany The Coldest Winter Ever. We spoke with culinary historians and chefs and researched historical recipes, too. A favorite is a recipe for angel food cake prepared by the White House chef during FDR's administration, paired with No Ordinary Time, a history of the home front during World War II.

Q: So it sounds like you have a wide variety of foods in the book?

Vicki: Variety is the word. Book clubs are reading many books set in far-flung locations, so our book includes a wide variety of ethnic foods. It was exciting to learn about and taste many exotic foods. Some of these foods are specifically referenced in the books, like Hmong eggrolls in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and rice pudding in Middlesex. Other foods — like Anzac cookies for The Road from Coorain — simply reflect the book's setting. Also, some of our recipes, like hot cocoa or ambrosia, will appeal to novice cooks; others — like doro wat, or Ethiopian chicken stew, paired with My Soul to Keep — will appeal to cooks looking for a challenge.

Judy: Our book clubs were supplying us with so many interesting food ideas, we couldn't include all of them in our short book club profiles or as featured recipes. So we created "More Food For Thought", short sections of the book that offer practical ideas for enhancing a book discussion through food. Sometimes they're simple — like serving Dutch Edam cheese with Girl with a Pearl Earring, which is set in Holland. Others are more elaborate, like Cajun dishes that might accompany the Louisiana-based Cane River. Some groups described restaurant meals which match the book's theme, so we included descriptions of these meals.

Q: What did you do before writing The Book Club Cookbook?

Judy: I worked in public relations for nonprofit organizations, and later as a consultant. I also have done some freelance food writing. I took time off from paid work when my children were younger — which is when I joined my first book club. I have always had a passion for reading and cooking — and reading about cooking.

Vicki: I taught high school history for five years in Hamilton, Massachusetts. After studying educational policy, I worked in school reform and school improvement for several years before taking time off to raise children. I've always loved literature, writing, history — and, of course, food — so The Book Club Cookbook is a natural extension of my lifelong interests.

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