Literary Elixirs

Joining me for this episode’s online chat is special guest all the way from the UK and the author of one of my favourite books of 2019, Beth O’Leary! Beth is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose debut novel the Flatshare has been translated into more than 30 languages. She wrote The Flatshare on her train journey to and from her job at a children’s publisher and now lives in the Hampshire countryside and writes full time. Beth’s second novel is The Switch and was released in April 2020.

Beth spoke with me about the difficult nature of a second book, especially when the first book is a bestseller, and about how she generates her ideas. She also chose some fabulous books and delicious pairings to share.

The pairings:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." So begins Jane Austen's classic novel of manners and mores in early-nineteenth-century England. As the Bennets prepare their five grown daughters to enter into society, each shows personality traits that illuminate their future prospects as wives. Jane, the oldest, is the most demure and traditional, and Lydia, the youngest, the most headstrong and impulsive. Attention centers on haughty second-born Elizabeth, and her blossoming relationship with the dashing but aloof Fitzwilliam Darcy. Adversaries at first in the endless rounds of balls, parties, and social gatherings, they soon develop a grudging respect for one another that blossoms into romance when each comes to appreciate the tender feelings that course beneath the veneer of their propriety and reserve.

Beth chose a light, yet filling and traditionally English Victoria Sponge with a refreshing Pimms and lemonade to drink to add a fruity sharpness that cuts through the cream.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked 'Where do you see yourself?'  at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future. After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind. That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Beth didn't want to give anything away but thought that a delicious cupcake with a surprise centre would work well given the twist in this book, but then you'd need a glass of white wine too to sip away as you read to the end of this assured, crisp and classy story! 

This episode I am joined by award-winning book reviewer, critic and genre-fiction advocate Kate Cuthbert!

After working for more than a decade in trade publishing, notably initiating the Escape Publishing imprint of Harlequin Australia, and serving as its Managing Editor for almost seven years, as well as working at the Australian Library and Information Association, Kate is currently the Program Manager at Writers Victoria and is also pursuing a PhD examining rural settings in Australian popular fiction.

Kate spoke about her love for genre-fiction, how much fun it is to research a PhD when it's on the topic she's writing it on (!) and just what her favourite, most basic snack and drink combo is ...!

The pairings:

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby

Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. Blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making "adult" budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette--she's "35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something"--detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms--hang in there for the Costco loot--she's as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.

Kate paired this fun, light, life-affirming, dip in and out of read with her most basic snack ... a sweet, sweet, sweet, the sweetest Moscato going around, wheat crackers and a cream cheese dip.

Bluebird, bluebird by Attica Locke

When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.

Kate chose a classic, slow-cooked Texan barbecue and a beer as the perfect pairing for this deeply nuanced, sharp book in which the Texas setting is almost a character of its own.

Joining me this episode for an online chat is Australian author Karen Turner!

Karen is the author of three novels, Torn (2013), Inviolate (2014) and most recently in 2019, Stormbird. Prior to this, Karen published an eclectic compilation of short stories, All That and Everything, many of which have won literary awards, including the Society of Women Writers Vic Biennial Literary Award, and the Free XpressSion Literary Competition.

Stormbird, is a romantic fiction novel set in 1943, and delivers the reader to the once glorious Broughton Hall, where war-widowed young mother, Jessica Barrow, lives with her children in the now dilapidated manor house. It’s here that she discovers a mysterious diary and through the story held within, she finds an independence and passion she’s never known before. This new-found strength will be put to the ultimate test when she encounters a stranger; a German bomber who has been shot down near Broughton Hall. It also has the touch of the paranormal in the form of a ghostly presence!

Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti tour guide by Dario Castagno

A Tuscan guide whose client base is predominantly American, Dario has spent more than a decade taking individuals and small groups on customised tours through the Chianti region of Tuscany. Too Much Tuscan Sun is Dario's account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic. It is also a primer on Tuscany--its charms and its culture.

Structured around a typical Tuscan year, Dario takes us through the sights, smells, and sounds of Chianti during each of the twelve months, including the festivities and pageantry that accord with the season, most notable the Palio-the bareback horse race that consumes the social energies of the people of Siena for all of July and August. Dario also intersperses an account of his own life and times-that of a transplanted British "little lord" who learns to love the wilds of Chianti; of his discovery and adoption of abandoned peasant farmhouses; of his apprenticeship in the wine industry; and of his arduous transformation from bohemian layabout to thriving Tuscan guide.

Karen suggests pairing this funny, charming book with a sharp and sprightly Aperol Spritz, some warm homebaked ciabatta and fresh olive oil for dunking!

The Moon In The Water by Pamela Belle

Thomazine, born heiress to the Heron fortune, is orphaned at the age of ten. She grew to womanhood at the great house of Goldhayes with her cousins. Wild, headstrong Francis, the rebellious cousin, has his heart captured by Thomazine, but the sweep of time and politics was against them. Francis was banished, imprisoned and Thomazine was forced into bleak and loveless wedlock with Dominic, whom she could never love. As the drums and steel of war marched across England, with King against Parliament, their love must meet its test and so Thomazine rides North, forsaking all else for her heart's desire.

This is one of Karen's favourite books, with its meticulously researched account of life during the 17th century English civil war as well as  a delicious forbidden love story. For its British-ness Karen recommends a fresh pot of loose leaf tea on a silver tray holding beautiful china cups and then, because its her favourite, a pack of original Tim Tams, still in their plastic tray, munching away on the whole packet and dunking a few in the tea for good measure.

Joining me for this episode’s online chat is one of my favourite Australian authors, Toni Jordan.

Toni has worked as a molecular biologist, quality control chemist, TAB operator and door-to-door aluminium siding salesperson. She holds a bachelor of science in physiology and a PhD in creative arts and is the author of five novels.

Her debut, the international best-seller Addition, and the first of hers I read, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin award and won the Indie Award for best first book.  This was followed by Fall Girl, Nine Days, Our Tiny, Useless Hearts and most recently The Fragments.

I asked Toni numerous questions about The Fragments, a sumptuous literary mystery (which I wanted so badly to be non fiction) and we discussed her cocktail game, which is strong my friends, very strong!

The pairings:

Exploded View by Carrie Tiffany

In the late 1970s, in the forgotten outer suburbs, a girl has her hands in the engine of a Holden. A sinister new man has joined the family. He works as a mechanic and operates an unlicensed repair shop at the back of their block.

The family is under threat. The girl reads the Holden workshop manual for guidance. She resists the man with silence, then with sabotage. She fights him at the place where she believes his heart lives – in the engine of the car.

Toni paired a favourite classic cocktail, the Negroni, which she makes in batches and uses the good vermouth but the less good gin (!) with this sparse, bitter and intense story.

The Dictionary Of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Toni chose to pair this beautiful, feminist re-telling of history with another classic cocktail, an Old Fashioned. Although she loves good whiskey she doesn't use the good whiskey here, any old whiskey will do!

Joining me this episode for an online is journalist and author Dan Kaufman!

Dan is a former newspaper journo and editor - who still occasionally writes columns for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He launched, ran and wrote the very popular Bar Zine before starting his own media training, writing and editing consultancy business.

This year he has released his first novel, Drowning In The Shallows, a social satire poking fun at love, sex and masculinity set in the Sydney bar and nightlife scene.

The pairings:

A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Ignatius J. Reilly is a 30-year-old medievalist who lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, penning his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relaying to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job.

This is Dan's favourite book of all time and so he felt that he should pair it with his favourite cocktail of all time - the Sazerac. Invented in New Orleans, where the book is set, this cocktail is complex and bitter, just like Ignatius. A perfect pairing indeed!

Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

In the small town of Martirio, Texas, fifteen-year-old Vernon Little finds himself in deep trouble after his best friend Jesus kills sixteen of his classmates before committing suicide as he becomes the target of both vengeful townspeople in search of vengeance and justice and the media's thirst for sensation. His mother, endlessly awaiting the delivery of a new refrigerator, seems to exist only to twist an emotional knife in his back; her friend, Palmyra, structures her life around the next meal at the Bar-B-Chew Barn; officer Vaine Gurie has Vernon convicted of the crime before she's begun the investigation; reporter Eulalio Ledesma hovers between a comforting father-figure and a sadistic Bond villain; and Jesus, his best friend in the world, is dead. As his life explodes before him, Vernon flees his home in pursuit of a tropical fantasy: a cabin on a beach in Mexico he once saw in the movie Against All Odds. But the police--and TV crews--are in hot pursuit.

Dan would pair this story of escape to Mexico with a classic Margarita cocktail. Salty, tart and strong this drink definitely reflects its pair!

Adele began blogging as Persnickety Snark in 2008 focussing on championing youth literature and its intended teen audience. She has been Program Coordinator for the State Library of Victoria’s Centre for Youth Literature, founding co-host of the literary podcast, Unladylike and co-host of the podcast What Would Danbury Do? about the Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn.

Adele is currently Senior Coordinator, Community Outreach & Engagement at La Trobe University Our conversation ranged all over from what exactly is snarkiness to creating podcasts around things we love and starting book blogs and getting reading hangovers ... and of course, to the books and just what would we pair them with!

The pairings:

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs—the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.

And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother—who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.

This is Adele's favourite Young Adult book of all time, it feels like home to her and she would pair it with a bowl of Mac N Cheese and/or a glass of the dry, delightful and refreshing Steels Gate Rose.

The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn

Hugh Prentice has never had patience for dramatic females, and if Lady Sarah Pleinsworth has ever been acquainted with the words shy or retiring, she's long since tossed them out the window. Besides, a reckless duel has left this brilliant mathematician with a ruined leg, and now he could never court a woman like Sarah, much less dream of marrying her.

Adele suggested a Gin & Tonic would be the perfect pairing for this tart, dry and effervescent romance!

I Capture The Castle by Dodi Smith

Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. Cassandra's father was once a famous writer, but now he mainly reads detective novels while his family slide into genteel poverty. Her sister Rose is bored and beautiful, and desperate to marry riche. Their step-mother Topaz has a habit of striding through the countryside wearing only her wellington boots. But all their lives will be soon be transformed by the arrival of rich new neighbours from America, and Cassandra finds herself falling in love.

This is a lovely, gentle read with a great voice in Cassandra. It is a book which feels quite nostalgic, with a longing for a happier past, yet it is hopeful for the future.

I would want to have something wholesome and calming whilst reading this book, perhaps a delicious chicken soup or a chamomile tea for the perfect rainy day comfort read!

Joining me virtually for this episode all the way from New Zealand is librarian Justin Hoenke!

Justin has worked in public libraries all over the United States in various roles such as Coordinator of Tween/Teen Services at the Chatanooga Public Library and Executive Director of the Benson Memorial Library in Pennsylvania and has recently moved to New Zealand to take up the role of  Team Leader at Wellington City Library.

We talk about moving to New Zealand, lockdown and creating a tween/teen space at Chatanooga Public Library, working at a hub in Wellington as well as Justin's favourite reads and just what he would pair with them for that wonderful reading experience.

The pairings:

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970 by Mark Lewishon and PAul McCartney

This is EMI Records' official diary-format history of every Beatles recording session. Over 350 colour black & white photographs and illustrations, including rare photos by Linda McCartney and the first facsimile reproductions of Abbey Road recording sheets, tape boxes, album sleeve roughs, memos, contracts, press releases and much more.

A coffee table book which has been in Justin's hands for a very long time. His best friend through his teenage years this is one of his go-to comfort reads. Justin paired this book with a very specific Ice Tea ...  a lemon-flavoured, generic Ice Tea available at gas stations across America.

Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! by Dominic Priore

This book is a pastiche of magazine articles, newspaper clippings, session sheets, essays, interviews, pictures, reviews, and other miscellany related to the beach Boys and their legendary unreleased (at the time of the book's publication) masterpiece Smile. Its modus operandi was to collect virtually all of the known writings about the album. Not for the casual "Beach Boys' Greatest Hits" type of listener, but for hard core Beach Boys fans with a particular obsession with Smile, this book is a treasure trove. Due to the scrapbook format and frequently very small print with many of its 300 pages divided into 3,4, and sometimes even 5 columns, it's a daunting, but ultimately very rewarding read. The book was compiled from the perspective of Smile being still unreleased, but is all the more enjoyable with the benefit of having heard the Smile Sessions (released in 2011).

Justin paired this book with his favourite milky, sweet tea - it reminds him of love and being loved and is a cosy pairing if ever there was!

Joining me virtually for this episode is academic and Young Adult romance author Jodi McAlister!

Jodi is the author of the Valentine series, a young adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series about smart girls, small towns, and scary fairies. There are three books in the series so far: Valentine, Ironheart, and Misrule , all published by Penguin Teen Australia.

Jodi is also currently a lecturer in Writing and Literature at Deakin University in Melbourne. Her academic work focuses on the history of love, sex, women and girls, popular culture and fiction.

The pairings:

Pretty Face (London Celebrities #2) by Lucy Parker

It's not actress Lily Lamprey's fault that she's all curves and has the kind of voice that can fog up a camera lens. She wants to prove where her real talents lie—and that's not on a casting couch, thank you. When she hears esteemed director Luc Savage is renovating a legendary West End theater for a lofty new production, she knows it could be her chance—if only Luc wasn't so dictatorial, so bad-tempered and so incredibly sexy.

Luc Savage has respect, integrity and experience. He also has it bad for Lily. He'd be willing to dismiss it as a midlife crisis, but this exasperating, irresistible woman is actually a very talented actress. Unfortunately, their romance is not only raising questions about Lily's suddenly rising career, it's threatening Luc's professional reputation. The course of true love never did run smooth. But if they're not careful, it could bring down the curtain on both their careers…

Jodi suggested two wines, one to pair with each main character:

For Lily Lamprey Jodi recommends the Clem Blanc field blend from Sinapius winery in the Tamar Valley as it is dry, light, floral and refreshing!

For Luc Savage Jodi recommends the mature, dry and juicy (but not heavy) Julius Shiraz from Z Winery in the Barossa Valley.

Bittersweet (#1 True North) by Sarina Bowen

The last person Griffin Shipley expects to find stuck in a ditch on his Vermont country road is his ex-hookup. Five years ago they’d shared a couple of steamy nights together. But that was a lifetime ago. At twenty-seven, Griff is now the accidental patriarch of his family farm. Even his enormous shoulders feel the strain of supporting his mother, three siblings and a dotty grandfather. He doesn’t have time for the sorority girl who’s shown up expecting to buy his harvest at half price.

Vermont was never in Audrey Kidder’s travel plans. Neither was Griff Shipley. But she needs a second chance with the restaurant conglomerate employing her. Okay—a fifth chance. And no self-righteous lumbersexual farmer will stand in her way.

They’re adversaries. They want entirely different things from life. Too bad their sexual chemistry is as hot as Audrey’s top secret enchilada sauce, and then some

Jodi suggests that only a cider will do for this funky, sweet and delicious read, specifically Willie Smith's Wild Apple Cider as it is spicy, savoury and a little bit different!

Joining me for this episode via online chat is the lovely speculative fiction author Samantha Marshall!

Samantha has written three books across two series, Aislinn’s Shadow and Tobias’ Spark in The Kin Chronicles and Sorcery and Stardust is the first in The Weaver’s War series.

If you love action packed, shape-shifting, strong characters in an Australian (and space in The Weaver's War) setting then do yourself a favour and check out Samantha's books!

Samantha chatted with me about writing believable characters, our mutual love of hard SF and also chose two of her favourite books to pair with delicious elixirs!

The pairings:

Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh (#13 in the Psy-Changeling series)

Vasic is an assassin and a soldier. His soul is drenched in blood, his conscience heavy with the weight of all he’s done, he exists in the shadows, far from the hope his people can almost touch—if only they do not first drown in the murderous insanity of a lethal contagion. To stop the wave of death, Vasic must complete the simplest and most difficult mission of his life.

Having rebuilt her life after medical “treatment” that violated her mind and sought to stifle her abilities, Ivy should have run from the black-clad Vasic. But Ivy Jane has never done what she should. Now, she'll fight for her people, and for Vasic who stands as her living shield, yet believes he is beyond redemption. But as the world turns to screaming crimson, even Ivy’s fierce will may not be enough to save Vasic from the cold darkness…

Samantha says this is a meaty plot, layered, with a lovely romantic storyline, a good comfort read which would go well with a hot chocolate with a dash of caramel syrup and a chocolate mud cake as it is warm and snuggly.

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #24)

They say that diplomacy is a gentle art. That its finest practitioners are subtle, sophisticated individuals for whom nuance and subtext are meat and drink. And that mastering it is a lifetime's work. But you do need a certain inclination in that direction. It's not something you can just pick up on the job. Sam Vimes is a man on the run. Yesterday he was a Duke, a Chief of Police and the Ambassador to the mysterious, fat-rich county of Uberwald.  Now he has nothing but his native wit and the gloomy trousers of Uncle Vanya (don’t ask). It’s snowing. It’s freezing. And if he can’t make it through the forest to civilisation there’s going to be a terrible war. But there are monsters on his trail. They’re bright. They’re fast. They’re werewolves - and they’re catching up.

Samantha would pair this fun, dry, layered and salty read with a sweet moscato and antipasto platter to cut through the bitey-ness!