I picked up The Book Club Cookbook on a whim because I’m fascinated with the intersection of food and literature, and I ended up falling in love with it. It’s not great as a basic cookbook for home because it’s not organized in a typical way: it’s not sorted by type of meals, or types of ingredients, or prep and cooking time. But it is great as an examination of how food and literature intersect. It’s also fun in its comparisons of different kinds of book clubs – it’s like a literary peek across America. And, of course, if you are actually in a book club and want to incorporate food into your meetings, this cookbook is a fantastic resource.

Each chapter has three parts (sometimes with a bonus feature or two). The first part is a description of a book popular with book clubs. Titles include classics, non-fiction, and current books across a variety of genres, with particular attention to books that address various kinds of diversity. The choices aren’t edgy, but they are varied. In this first section, the author briefly summarizes the book, mentions some of the most important themes within it, and talks about what role food plays in the story. For instance, in the chapter on Jane Eyre ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ), authors Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp point out the contrast between Jane’s hungry childhood and the comforting food she is given when she arrives at Thornfield (Mrs. Fairfax, a woman after my own heart, feeds Jane Negus and sandwiches upon Jane’s arrival).

The next section involves a recipe, sometimes several. Jane Eyre gives us Negus and walnut tea sandwiches. In some cases, the author of the book contributed an essay and/or a recipe to the cookbook directly. For instance, Leif Egner, author of Peace Like a River ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), contributed a recipe for cinnamon rolls just like the ones his character make. Gita Mehta, author of A River Sutra ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), contributed a recipe for Ganga-Jamna Dal. Other recipes were contributed by book club members or by Gelman and Krupp.

Finally, there’s a profile of a book club and a discussion of why the club picked that particular book, what their conversation about it was like, and what they ate during their book club meeting. Often two or more book clubs are profiled, which is lovely because you get two different approaches to the same material. For instance, one book club that read Cane River by Lalita Tedmy dined on sweet potato pudding, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese, while another club met at a Cajun restaurant. If you want to cook at home, Tedmy contributed a recipe for Joan and Lalita’s Peach Cobbler.

As some who leads a book club, I loved seeing how different clubs are structured, how they came together, and what their interests are. Here’s a peek at a few of them:

• The OMA Book Club Discussion Group was founded in 1998 by Patricia Coleman-Burns, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Michigan School of Nursing. This club specializes in reading books that will lead them to topics about challenging and sensitive social issues. The club is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion, which brings many perspectives to their discussions. They found The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) to be especially relevant to their work as nurses. As a match for this book, the cookbook includes recipes for Kab Yob with Kua Txob (Hmong egg rolls and dipping sauce).

• The Sino-American Book Discussion Group in Arizona keeps their focus on books by Chinese authors. Food is a critical part of their meetings. They liked The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan because they felt that Tan is able to address similar themes in all her work while keeping each book fresh. The cookbook provides recipes for foods Tan mentions in the novel (Fountain Court Eggplant Sautéed With Fresh Basil and Fountain Court Lion’s Head Clay Pot of Meatballs and Rice Vermicelli).

• The Four Major Food Groups and Literary Society of Anchorage, Alaska, began as a food club and became a food and book club. The four major food groups they represent are fat, salt, sugar, and chocolate, so basically they are my soul mates. For their discussion of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), they had a mystery ingredient dinner – everyone brought something, and the other members had to guess the secret ingredient in each dish. Of course at least one dish contained pumpkin, which shows up in much of the food in the No. 1 Ladies series.

As a final bonus, the book provides a purchasing guide, so if you’re wondering where to find berbere paste or, for that matter, White Castle hamburgers, this book has got you covered.

I loved reading different descriptions of book clubs and I got a lot of ideas for my own. And I loved reading about how food plays an important role in so many books, regardless of genre or time period. Above all I have to say that every single recipe in this cookbook looks totally delicious. If you are serving Wild Mushrooms on Toast to accompany your discussion of Anna Karenina, call me!