Recently I gave away a “My Book Club Only Reads Wine Labels” tote on the blog. I asked people who were interested in winning to not only leave  a comment, but book recommendations as well. It warms my heart to see that so many people who read this blog also read books, possibly ones that are even printed on paper. So I thought I would share all the recommendations given and, if anyone who commented also happened to have a blog, would give them a little link love as well. So in no particular order, here is a list of books (and some with editorial content as well!) worth checking out. If you can’t trust recommendations from wine drinkers, who can you trust?

• Denise from Wasabi Prime: “What better reading material for a wine…er, BOOK club than books that refer heavily to food and drink? The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (marvelous descriptions of Chinese feasts; don’t read on empty stomach). Bubbly on Your Budget by Majorie Hillis (vintage fabulous,originally written in the late 30s). Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (Best read as far away from the actual holiday season, with a cocktail in hand)”
• Kim “The Giveaway Winner” from Washington Beer Blog: “One of my favorite book club books ever was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.”
• Brian from Foreign Friends: “Read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It is a wonderful genre hopping creative work. (There is a movie made about it too I hear that is coming out in October) But it is a must read for fiction.”
• Sara from Eat Food Seattle: “If I were to ever be in a book club, the book I would want to share would be Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Not Waugh’s funniest book, but a lot to talk about. Or Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. Because she’s a badass.”
• Jenn From Jenn Dot Com: “Art of Racing in the Rain. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.”
• Keridwyn from Seattle Pockets: “I absolutely adore The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I haven’t been transported to a different world through a book like that in eons. It definitely bumped something off my Top 10 list.”
• Andrew from Eating Rules: “So I’m currently in the middle of ‘High Performance Web Sites.’ I must say, it’s a thrill a minute. Maybe a better recommendation would be Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.”
• Tasha: “I would have to recommend My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, its Hilarious! I literally laugh out loud…sometimes in public….”
• Jenna from Jenna North: “The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer). I had to read this in high school literature class and as much as I disliked the class, I still think about the book and the class discussions that followed. I would love to revisit the book as an adult; while enjoying a glass of wine.”

• Gretchen from Urban Wine Dweller: “Spinoza’s Ethics (for love); Byatt’s Possession (for intellect); T. S. Eliot’s poems (for money).”
• Jane: “In my book club we totes only read wine labels. & Novels. But I find while tipsy it is better to read short stories, so I’m recommending ‘If I loved you, I would tell you this’ by Robin Black. I enjoyed this collection immensely. A fresh take on the deep emotional wounds of our lives (I may reread it now since I’m currently going through the toughest emotional wound ever in my life). I adored each of the stories in the collection (some much much more than others) but the titular story, The Guide, Pine and Tableau Vivant hit me hardest. Such beautiful, painful stories in the vein of local favorite Raymond Carver. If you haven’t read Raymond Carver’s short stories yet I’d definitely recommend those as well over a bottle of wine. Start with ‘What we talk about when we talk about love’ and then read ‘Cathedral’.”
• Rochelle: “I found Gabrielle Hamilton’s “Blood, Bones & Butter – The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef” hard to put down. And pastry chef David Lebovitz’s “The Sweet Life in Paris” an interesting read on expat life (plus recipes!).”
• Brianne from Ravenna Girls: “Our book club just finished a self published work called Wool Omnibus, and it was quite great. Post-apocalyptic and weird but in a new fresh way.”
• Joe from Wine Weekly: “A ‘wine book’ seems appropriate – Napa, by James Conaway, which is one of those rare non-fiction books that reads like a novel. And then there’s Sideways, of course, which is a novel that reads like a non-fiction book. It’s hard not to reach for a glass of wine while reading those books. As for non-wine books, my favorite of all time is A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. In addition to being a hysterical novel, the story of how that book eventually came to be published is tragically intriguing.”
• Darlin Gray: “Two great story recipe books… One old: Cross Creek Cookery by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and one new: Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. Love!!”
• Whitney: “Bossypants by Tina Fey!!”
• Anna-Lisa from Bottles and Books: “Some favorite fiction this summer: ‘Beautiful Ruins’ by Jess Walter… it’s Italy by the sea in 1962, Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, post-Grunge. Truly fantastic. ‘Gone Girl’ was worth the hype and a total page-turner. ‘The Family Fang’ just came out in paperback; a truly fun read about a family of performance artists and the lines between life and performance, and the negotiating of life and art and the in between. Humorous, memoir-ish essays: ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ by the super-funny Chris Gethard. And if you like graphic novels Michael Kupperman’s ‘The Autobiography of Mark Twain 1910-1920′. Just superb. And hilarious. [Follow-up: “Sorry… ‘A Bad Idea I’m About to Do’ was Chris Gethard’s book… ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ is by Jenny Lawson. The former is a tighter read, I think, but both are very entertaining.”]

• d’Auria from Ham & Swiss: “Sarah Silverman’s ‘Bedwetter’ comes highly recommended. Also, ‘Still Life with Woodpecker’ by Tom Robbins.”
• Bex: ““Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error” by Kathryn Schulz (check out her TED talks, one about being wrong, the other about regret).”
• Patricia: “The Art of Eating, MFK Fisher”
• Charla from Running Haiku: “Game Change for interesting behind the scenes politics. Bijaboji: North to Alaska by Oar – autobiography of a young adventurous woman ahead of her time who rows her beloved canoe from Anacortes to Alaska.”
• Jenny: “Currently in the middle of Bel Canto. Excellent so far!”
• Mary from Vindulge: “My current schedule [read- life with children] does not allow for too many adult books these days (aside from wine books). That being said Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann, is a favorite in my household, read almost daily. Not sure if I gave you the name of the book I was reading in Santorini, but it was The Wines of Greece, by Konstantinos Lazarakis.”
• Toby: “J, I recommend going back to an oldy and reading “Cannery Row” by Steinbeck. You won’t be disappointed.”
• Carrie from Kiss My Whisk: “Once We Were Brothers and Hellhound on His Trail.”
• Ilona from The Terroiriste: “I love The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Just re-reading it now.”
• Anna: “Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution.”
• Susan: “Reading The Secret Daughter ….. highly recommend it.”
• Erin: “My serious comment is ‘The Tipping Point‘ by Malcolm Gladwell, but the book that makes me laugh no matter what is ‘Hippos Go Berserk‘ by Sandra Boynton. Sometimes you just need a children’s book!”
• Jean from Gluten-Free Doctor: “Current book favorites American Diet, $100 Startup, and Linchpin. All are a bit factual but make for lots of lively discussion.”
• Spencer from El Corazon Winery: “revenge of the babysat calvin and hobbes by bill waterson, women by charles bukowski, ask the dust by john fante, me talk pretty one day (and everything else) by david sedaris, how to beat up anybody by judah friedlander”
• Val From Soup and Song: “I have been loving The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler.”
• Grant “I Entered Too Late” Phelps from Casas del Bosque: “Kill Your Friends – John Niven….or if that aint yo thang, The Thought Gang – Tibor Fischer.”

Book images courtesy katerha, Paul Lowry, CCAC North Library.

 

 

Tags: bottles and books, darlin gray, eat food seatle, eating rules, el corazon winery, foreign friends, gluten free doctor, ham and swiss, jenn dot com, jenna north, kiss my whisk, my book club only reads wine labels, ravenna girls, running haiku, seattle pockets, soup and song, the terroirist, urban wine dweller, vindulge, wasabi prime, washington beer blog