2017 October Reading Challenge

[Elizabeth]

While I was looking for a theme for October's Reading Challenge, I stumbled onto the National Day Calendar Website. October has 31 different National Days related to food.* So, your challenge for October, is to read something about food. You could read a cookbook, or a memoir of a chef, or a novel where food is part of the story. Make sure you tell us what you read, and how it's related to food.

*
www.nationaldaycalendar.com/october

I think it'd be particularly fun to celebrate National Pasta Day (10/17).

[Teresa]

I'm reading A Little American Cookbook. I got it last year and forgot about it.

[Audrey]

My birthday is National Chocolate Day, which is quite appropriate.

[Elizabeth]

Teresa - Sounds Yummy.

Audrey - Lucky you!

[Debbie]

In one of the challenges someone read a book with a title that totally intrigued me. This is the perfect time to read it - The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.

[Linda]

I was going to read Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey". I hope it will count.

[Laura]

I'm reading the complete make ahead Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

[Carolyn]

Revisited Ina Garten's "Barefoot in Paris" cookbook, paying much more close attention to it than I usually do with a cookbook. Some of her stuff (both in this book and in general) I would probably never make/eat, but she does have some that I do/would make (or would try if served to me).

[Jackie]

How disappointing to see that my birthday falls on National Nut Day...Bring on the chocolate, people, or at least a good cupcake!!
I will go through my HUGE list of "to-read" books and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the fun challenge, Elizabeth. :D

[Debbie]

I just finished listening to The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender and read by the author. Sometimes listening to an author read their work is an exercise in agony. But Aimee Bender did a good job. Not as good as some pros, but an easy listen with emphases that a pro might miss.It was an odd, but intriguing work. I'll never look at old fashioned brown folding chairs in the same way again. Joseph?

[Alyson]

I finished "The Memory of Lemon" a few days ago, although I started it in September, but I also read "Applesauce Weather" over the last two or three days. The first was the sequel to "The Cake Therapist," the second is a very short verse novel, and I enjoyed them both!

[Lisa]

i'm going to read one of diane mott Davidson's book and a lot of her books have some types of food in the books since one of the characters is a chef. the book is called dark tort

[Elizabeth]

So many different books. Jackie, good luck going through your TBR pile. I hope you find something that fits. Good job to those of you that finished the challenge already. I have read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, it IS an odd book. And I love Applesauce Weather. It totally made me cry. I looked up my birthday, and it's National S'More day, so that's pretty cool.

Good luck with the challenge everyone!

[Audrey]

I'm reading the Reader's Choice nominee The Secret Ingredient of Wishes to kill two birds with one stone.

[Elizabeth]

Nice!

[Britt, Book Habitue]

Does wine count? lol I just finished Pressed to Death, sequel to the Reader's Choice The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and it features lots of wine and a haunted/cursed/sometimes invisible winepress.

[Jackie]

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Does wine count? lol I just finished Pressed to Death, sequel to the Reader's Choice The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and it features lots of wine and a haunted/cursed/sometimes invisible wi..."

I think there are many who would insist that wine is in one of the 5 food groups. :D Definitely counts!

[Elizabeth]

Sure, wine counts. lol. The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum is still on my to be read list. What did you think?

[Britt, Book Habitue]

Elizabeth wrote: "Sure, wine counts. lol. The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum is still on my to be read list. What did you think?"

I liked the first one better than the second, but they're both fun reads. Definitely read in order, though.... you need the character intros from the first book.

[Audrey]

It was cute but nothing special.

[Becky]

I'm trying to use my slow cooker more so I am going to try Fix-It and Forget-It Vegetarian Main Dishes.

[Elizabeth]

Thanks Britt and Audrey. Becky, I'm going to have to try that book out. I love crockpot meals, but I think the only thing I make in it that's vegetarian is soup. So that'll probably be very useful.

[Laura]

I read Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanan. It is a great book about a girl who has 'gone off the rails'. Her family sends her to a wilderness camp in Utah to help her. The book talks about eating and cooking while she is at the wilderness camp - pancakes on tinfoil held with sticks, baking a potato on hot coals, Dutch oven cooking, etc.

[Elizabeth]

Can you guys believe how quickly October is passing by? Only one more week to read a book with food in it!

[Audrey]

I finished The Secret Ingredient of Wishes. The characters eat pie non-stop in that book.

[Susan]

I read Apple Turnover Murder which is about a baker that solves murders with her local policeman and dentist boyfriends.

[Jennie]

I read Hannah's Legacy by Jack Weyland. The characters collect food from various restaurants to distribute to the poor, a key element in the story.

[Linda]

I finished Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" I found it quite interesting. The cooks and Kitchen maids had a hard life.

[Lisa]

I didn't end up finishing the book I chose I just was having a hard time getting into it.

[Elizabeth]

Laura is our prize drawing winner for October 2017’s reading challenge. She read The Complete Make-Ahead Cookbook: From Appetizers to Desserts-500 Recipes You Can Make in Advance by America's Test Kitchen.

Congratulations Laura

[Audrey]

Congrats!

[Linda]

Congrats Laura

[Debbie]

Hooray Laura!