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Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I’m back in Portland and have covered myself in the many fleece things I purchased to prepare for the cold. I know temps in the 50s are cake for many, but for a San Diegan? Might as well be in Siberia.
Truth? I love it though, it’s perfect reading weather. And on that note: to the club!
This week the internet is one big Best Of list: best books of the year, best books of the decade. With this in mind, I thought I would go back into time and resurrect some older popular book club books and challenge you all to a re-read. Let’s take it back!
Nibbles and Sips: Meat and Cheese
Pair classic reads with a classic book club staple: a simple cheese and charcuterie set up. My “simple,” I admit, is another person’s “elaborate and overstuffed.” Here’s how I build a bomb.com meat and cheese plate.
- Meats and cheeses: I always serve three meats and at least three cheeses. Suggestions: hard salami or chorizo, regular sliced salami, prosciutto, jamon serrano, and sharp cheddar, manchego, triple-cream brie, goat cheese, smoked gouda. Cheese is life.
- Carbs: I use good crackers, but also toast some crostini. A tip I got from a friend: rub the baguette slices with garlic first and sprinkle them with that umami seasoning blend from Trader Joe’s.
- Add-ins: This is where the plate goes from just good to 100% that b*tch. Add honey, grain mustard, fig jam, roasted garlic, dark chocolate, pickled veggies, apple slices, grapes or other fruit, and olives. My latest fave: the Sweet & Spicy Jalapeños and Chili Crunch from Trader Joe’s. No, this is not sponsored by Trader Joe’s.
Build your platter! Place the ramekins on a large wooden cutting board or other platter, then fill them with olives or spreads, honey, etc. Arrange the cheeses, meats, and other tasty things around them, adding some sprigs of rosemary or basil for some color. Here’s a photo for inspiration!
Book Club Throwbacks: The end of the decade has inspired me to do a re-read of a book I read several years ago; I’d like to see how I feel about it with the passage of time and in today’s social climate. Do this with book club and see how your interpretations have changed.
A note about this endeavor: I am not telling you to un-like your favorite books. I do think it’s important to think about them critically as each of us grows in our social awareness. I have loved some pretty problematic books in the past (looking at you, Junot Diaz); I won’t ever try to lessen what those books did for me at that time, but am able to unpack today what they got wrong back then. That’s progress.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – The Help is still a beloved read for a lot of people, but even Viola Davis has come forward to say she has misgivings about her role in the book’s film adaptation. I’ve never read the book, but from the film can deduce that 2019 me is more woke and more wise than I was in 2010; I might take issue with the white savior complex and sanitization of the black experience depicted in this book.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I was all about this book and all of its WTFery when it took the world by storm, and don’t feel guilty for doing so. When I think back on it though, I wonder if I’d read its portrayal of a women as less feminist and more misogynist, playing into the stereotype of a “crazy” and hysterical woman out to trap a man. Discuss.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – I am one of those people who read, sobbed over, and really loved this book when I read it several years ago, and recommended both it and its sequels to other people for a long time. Looking at it with fresh eyes, I’m pretty sure I’d feel differently about its portrayal of disability. I think I’d still enjoy the story, but a discussion of what it gets wrong is certainly in order.
Suggestion Section
It’s almost time! Yours truly is hosting the next installment of Persist, our feminist book club run entirely on Instagram.
Oprah’s latest book club selection is Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter, get it on the Read Harder podcast, and watch me booktube every Friday too.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa
More Resources:
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page