Slow Food Russian River Book Group

The first gathering of the Slow Food Russian River Book Group was on Thursday, June 27, 2013.  We said: This should be fun, and help us deepen our commitment to food that is Good, Clean, and Fair, for All, and help us to clarify our vision for the future of food and agriculture in Sonoma County. 

In the beginning we met every other week (!), and ate only after finishing our conversation aboThe Book Group session with author Jonah Raskinut the reading (!!). But even then the food and drinks we brought – often a creative response to the reading – as a gift to our companions was important and an essential component of our conviviality.

Nowadays, we first gather in the kitchen and enjoy a glass of wine or beer or kombucha and some appetizers before we move to the large table in the dining room to have a dinner conversation.

Come, join us. You may get hooked.

The Slow Food Russian River Book Group is open to anyone who is a reader, likes cooking a dish, and loves a good conversation.  You don’t need to be a “card-carrying” member of Slow Food, although – of course – we hope that with time you will become one. A strong membership keeps our worldwide organization vibrant, through volunteering, ideas and initiatives, and financially strong through modest dues.

The Book Group meets the first Thursday of most months, from 7 – 9pm in Sebastopol, but not in January, June, July or August.

You can contact the Book Group at Slow Food Russian River Book Group. We are also on meetup

Past and upcoming readings of the Slow Food Russian River Book Group

2019

The Slow Food Russian River Book Group will reformat itself for 2019. Locations will rotate. Rather than mostly being at the Top of Swain Wood in Sebastopol we will meet at homes of members of the book group with the reading selected by the host, or at another location of the host’s choice, like a bar or restaurant, park or meadow, or a public library or square. To contact the book group please write the Slow Food Russian Book Group Coordinator.

2018

American Cookie: The Snaps, Drops, Jumbles, Tea Cakes, Bars & Brownies That We Have Loved for Generations, by Anne Byrn

American Cookie: The Snaps, Drops, Jumbles, Tea Cakes, Bars & Brownies That We Have Loved for Generations, by Anne Byrn (Rodale Books, 2018)

Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods, by Gary Paul Nabhan (ed.),

Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods, by Gary Paul Nabhan (ed.), with a foreword by Deborah Madison (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008)

The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action, by Alison Alkon and Julie Guthman (eds.) (University of California Press, 2017).

The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action, by Alison Alkon and Julie Guthman (eds.) (University of California Press, 2017).

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain

Commemoration of Anthony Bourdain, 1956–2018, author of, among other, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food, by David Downie (St. Martin’s Press, September 26, 2017)

A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food, by David Downie (St. Martin’s Press, 2017)

2017

Coming to My Senses THE MAKING OF A COUNTERCULTURE COOK By ALICE WATERS

Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, by Alice Waters (Clarkson Potter, 2017)

Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez

Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez

The Perfect Egg: And Other Secrets, by Aldo Buzzi

The Perfect Egg: And Other Secrets, by Aldo Buzzi (Bloomsbury, 2005)

Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, by Martha Hodgkins (ed.)

Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, by Martha Hodgkins (ed.) (Princeton Architectural Press, 2017)

somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs, by Questlove and Ben Greenman

somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs, by Questlove and Ben Greenman (Clarkson Potter, 2016)

Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years That Changed Our Culinary Consciousness (Univerity of California Press, 2013), by Joyce Goldstein

Inside the California Food Revolution: Thirty Years That Changed Our Culinary Consciousness, by Joyce Goldstein (Univerity of California Press, 2013)

Insatiable: Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess,

Insatiable: Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess, by Gael Greene (Warner, 2006)

The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World (New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 2015) by Joel K. Bourne Jr.

The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World, by Joel K. Bourne Jr. (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015)

Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, by John Dickie

Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, by John Dickie (Free Press, 2008)

2016

Apple: a global history, by Erika Janik

Apple: a global history, by Erika Janik (Reaktion Books, 2011)

The True History of Chocolate (Thames & Hudson, 3rd edition, 2013) by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe

The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe (Thames & Hudson, 3rd edition, 2013)

Best Food Writing 2014, edited by Holly Hughes

Best Food Writing 2014, edited by Holly Hughes (Da Capo Life Long, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2014)

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg (The Penguin Press, 2010)

Dirt, a Love Story.

Dirt: A Love Story, by Barbara Richardson (ed.) (ForeEdge, 2015)

2015

2014

Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter, by David Buchanan

Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter, by David Buchanan (White River Junction, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012)

2013

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, by Michael Pollan

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, by Michael Pollan (New York, The Penguin Press, 2013)

The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution, by David Kamp

The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution, by David Kamp (New York, Broadway Books, 2006)

The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lancaster

The Debt to Pleasure – A Novel, by John Lancaster (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1996)

Slow Food Nation. Why Our Food Should be Good. Clean, and Fair, by Carlo Petrini

Slow Food Nation. Why Our Food Should be Good. Clean, and Fair, by Carlo Petrini (New York, Rizzoli, 2007)