We have been meeting for about two years. I narrow the option down to a few book choices and then the group agrees on the next title based on the description and also, sometimes, the cover. Don't worry, we're not shallow, we've read books with covers we didn't like.

 

When we could be together, I'd host everyone and make a variety of snacks and desserts. With the pandemic, we went virtual, so there is less catering now.

 

Aug 2018: The Wife by Meg Wolitzer 

    One of my all time favorites. We enjoyed the book and no one guessed all of the twists. The movie had come out recently and we all saw it and thought Glenn Close gave an amazing performance.

  

Notable Menu Items: Snoballs, naturally

 

Nov 2018: The Position by Meg Wolitzer

    We all liked this book about siblings dealing with their parents as authors of a sex book and were glad to not be part of this family.

 

Notable Menu Items: 5 Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies (always a winner)

 

Feb 2019: The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

    We had mixed feelings about this book. Some of the characters were hard to relate to or empathize with. We were glad that we were not part of this family, either. 

 

Notable Menu Items: Chocolate Volcano Cookies. The experiment here was to add walnuts. We've concluded these are better without walnuts.

 

Apr 2019: The People We Hate At The Wedding by Grant Ginder

    Great title. Good story. One of the best covers. We enjoyed this entertaining read though some of us were dismayed that there wasn't more wedding in it. 

 

Notable Menu Items: Brazilian Cheese Bread

 

Jul 2019: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

    We liked unpacking the mystery here but some of us had issues with the resolution sequence where she regains her memory. Some of us were surprised by how different she was. The sibling issues were handled well. 

 

Sep 2019: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

    This was another one where the twists were surprising, which is always fun. We then watched the series and discussed the different directions the show went in versus the book. We felt that the show was a natural evolution from the book plot.

 

Notable Menu Items: Hooks Triple Play Cheese and herbed quinoa flatbread crackers (which were better than expected)

 

Dec 2019: The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

    Due to scheduling conflicts, we met for this one weeks after we were supposed to, so everyone had to piece back their memories of the book. The process of reminding each other what had happened was an amusing game. We then had an in depth discussion of the breast feeding scenic and found that most of us felt that was too far to do for someone else's kid. 

 

Notable Menu Items: I was testing out modifications to a Creamy Cranberry Tart recipe, so the Book Club generously agreed to be test subjects. The conclusion was overall positive: delicious chocolate cookie crust, the softer texture didn't bother anyone, and they thought the cranberry flavor was well represented. 

 

Jan 2020: The Heights by Peter Hedges

    Some of us hated the paperback cover and had concerns that the story wouldn't catch our interest, but the book was chosen anyway. Everyone really liked this book and some of us recommend the high quality audio book version. There was a particular scene listing out potential activities that a character is interested in that we read out loud to great hilarity and then discussed if we actually knew what each thing was. We stopped short of talking about whether or not we had done those things because this is not that kind of book club (no judgments).

 

Notable Menu Items: Usingers Summer Sausage, sharp cheddar cheese, and crackers (classic combo)

 

Mar 2020: The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy Reichert

    The cover got us again (cake) and the description (set in Milwaukee, a naked guy, cake) sealed the deal. Some of us have ties to the Milwaukee area and we enjoyed the authenticity of the setting. The scenic and food descriptions made us crave what the characters were eating. Overall we liked this story but we felt the resolution came a little to easily for the heroine. 

 

Notable Menu Items: Cheese curds and then coconut cake. The cake smells astonishing when you are making it. The cake was delicious and I cut giant pieces for everyone. Even the non-coconut lovers liked this cake. This is an easy cake to look elegant as toasted coconut covers all manner of frosting mistakes. The recipe takes some doing but if you want your kitchen to smell almost painfully delicious, I recommend it. Also, learn from my mistakes: coconut cream and cream of coconut are different. Who knew that words matter?

 

May 2020: The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn (First Virtual Meeting)

    We were captured by another great cover. This book was a departure from what we were reading. It struck us as very cinematically written. It did make us question if bodies could survive some of things in this book. We talked about which hit we enjoyed the most. There were many excellently snarky one-liners and creative swearing that we enjoyed but ultimately we passed on the sequel.

    To prepare for the virtual meeting, we had a happy hour about a month earlier for everyone to make sure that they could connect and so we could spend some time catching up since things had changed so much since we last saw each other. The discussion is still the same but there is no catering, which is a shame because there were new recipes I wanted to test out. 

 

Jul 2020: The Dinner by Herman Koch

    Another pretty good cover. We had a long discussion about nature versus nurture and how to not raise psychopaths. We felt like the dinner setting was an interesting choice and gave the story a different energy. The twists all retained their surprises and we were surprised at how far in another direction the story went from where we were expecting it to go.

 

Notable Menu Items: Some of us believe that if we had been able to meet in person, I would have re-created the entire meal. It is entirely possible. 

 

Sep 2020: The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

    This was not intentional after reading The Dinner. It just happened.