"Whether you’re looking to start a book club, choose your book club’s next reading selection, find a recipe to match with a book or gather fresh food ideas, this volume can help," declare authors Gelman and Krupp, a PR consultant and an educator, respectively. To gather all that material, they contacted members of dozens of book clubs throughout the country—from clubs of Jewish moms in Atlanta to psychotherapists in Connecticut—and quickly discovered that these chatty groups are diverse, passionate and boast an impressive camaraderie. It’s logical, then, that this collaborative project offers all sorts of anecdotes and food ideas from club members and profiles of various clubs, in addition to recipes drawn from favorite books. (Short plot summaries of each suggested title are also included.) The choices range from Anna Karenina’s Wild Mushrooms on Toast and Life of Pi’s Tandoori Shrimp to The Hours’s Crab Casserole and Nickel and Dimed’s Mozzarella Sticks. Part cookbook, part celebration of the written word, the volume illustrates how books and ideas can bring people together. And considering that there’s an estimated seven million people in America involved in book clubs these days, this should prove to be a popular volume.