Judy Gelman

I love cookbooks and obviously I love to read, so when the offer came to review The Book Club Cookbook, I jumped at it. What could be more fun than to have available some of the recipes from the most popular book club books? And if it’s your turn to host your book club, well, this book will make choosing a dish so much easier.

This book covers some of my favourite novels: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie show more Barrows), and The Help (Kathryn Stockett) as well as some I have yet to read but are on the top of my towering TBR list: Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese) and Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen). Actually, the list of books on my own TBR list overlaps quite a bit with the books featured in this cookbook. Each novel’s recipe is preceded by a description of the source book and some are followed by an explanation of the food, thoughts from the author and/or a book club’s take on the book itself and why they chose a particular food for their club.

So far I’ve made two recipes (I’m planning another this weekend). Both are cookies – Chewy Oatmeal from the book Plainsong by Kent Haruf and Chocolate Chip Shortbread from Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. Both turned out great and were gobbled up by my family in no time. It doesn’t just have cookies or sweets – there are savory dishes as well. There is Zaytoon’s Chicken Shwarma from Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn, Britta’s Crab Casserole from The Hours by Michael Cunningham, Greek Rice Pudding and Tzatziki from Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. There are drinks in here too: Glögg from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as well as soups and salads. An ambitious book club could have an entire meal with several courses if they didn’t mind mixing their books!

Another great thing about this book club cookbook is that the featured novels range from contemporary to classic, so that a club is bound to find something of interest. I could see using this book for future club choice ideas as well. It would also make a great gift for an avid reader, book club member or not. I highly recommend it! show less

I never read a cookbook cover to cover. My rationale with cookbooks is to flip through – pictures? Good. Lots of pictures? Great. A variety of recipes? Very good. Lots of caviar and truffles and other ingredients I couldn't bring myself to buy even if I could afford them? No thanks. And then if I buy the book it will go on a shelf until I need a recipe from it; if I agree to review a book (as I did with this from Netgalley) I will page through it to form an intelligent opinion of the show more layout and the clarity, maybe make a couple of the dishes listed, and move on.

But I opened The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook, and started reading the forward, and just kept going. It was just that much fun. Each recipe is fronted by a short piece telling why it's in there – like Betty Draper's Around the World dinner, which prompted the inclusion of the gazpacho. There's also a recipe for a roast chicken like the one Pete Campbell threw out the window. It was like watching a recap of the show from its beginning – did I already use "fun"? Well, and I'll probably use it again.

The simple fact that about the first thirty percent of the book is devoted to cocktails is brilliant. I tend to doubt I'll ever be making any of them, but it was just … sorry, can't help it, it was fun wandering through the stories of the authors' search for a martini fit for Roger Sterling and just the right Old Fashioned to suit Don Draper. And thirty percent – that's just about right.

I also enjoy a book – cookbook or otherwise – with a sense of humor. That there is a wonderful sense of fun about this book should be obvious from that massive cocktail section, but it's all through it. That birthday dinner Peggy's boyfriend arranged for her, which she never made it to? There's a recipe for what she might have been served – along with a lovely little synopsis of the restaurant where the boyfriend (et al) waited for her (and waited). And the warning not to wait dinner for Peggy, because she probably won't show.

The authors include very nice little histories of where they obtained each recipe. As often as possible, they went back to the source - the restaurant where the character ate or might have eaten the dish - or drunk the cocktail. It seems they had a wonderful amount of cooperation from the professionals contacted - and why not? It's a perfect marriage, this union of food and Mad Men. (AMC, you really should get in on this.)

This is a good cookbook: there are lots of fine recipes, some of which are – cleverly – given twice, once just as might have been served to the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce folk in the 60's and once as they would be served today. I can see myself cooking from this. But more – this is a good book. The people who put this together, Judy Gelman & Peter Zheutlin, know food, and they know Mad Men, and they love both – and those are (pardon the metaphor) ingredients for an entertaining, enjoyable (fun) book. show less

I love to read. I love food. I love to cook. So what could be better for someone like me than a book combining all of the above? Table of Contents is a collection of interviews with and recipes from 50 authors, some very well known, others not as familiar, but all of whom have written books eminently well-suited to book clubs. The authors answer the questions most readers ask about their books, they talk about their inspiration, and they offer up recipes oftentimes inspired by their show more characters or settings. The interviews range from the in-depth to the more cursory. The recipes too range from long-time family favorites to new dishes created especially for a character.

Book clubs who enjoy trying to match their fare to their reads will find this a gem. My book clubs don't generally do this but my copy of the book is nevertheless bristling with flags marking recipes to try. A fun concept for a book, this one will feed the stomach as it also feeds the mind, hopefully leading readers to try not only new dishes but new authors as well. show less

If you have ever watched Mad Men and are a fan – this is a great book. It has stories as well as recipes. Every time we watched this show I wanted a martini and my husband wanted an Old fashioned.

We still haven’t seen the final episodes of this series, waiting on Netflicks, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying this book.

There are recipes for so many good drinks: Old Fashions, martinis, Manhattans, Mimosas and more.

Food too! Oysters Rockefeller, crown rib roast, turkey tetrazzini, show more pineapple upside down cake……..you will love just flipping through the pages of this book.

In addition to the many good recipes are stories about the television show and cultural context about the world in the 1960s. It definitely wasn’t a good era to be a woman in the workplace. But as I watched the show I was amazed at how spot on they got the set designs. Everything from the attire to the decorations – lamps, tables, the smoking and drinking in the office, the bar ware…all of it rang true.

I am dating myself because yes, I grew up in the 60s. Well I was a child in the 1960s but I can’t tell you the number of times my husband and I would watch an episode and say, “Hey look, my grandmother had those tumblers or lamp” or whatever. Blast from the past here.

Time to mix up a couple of Manhattans and listen to the Beatles. show less