The Book Trotter’s met Monday night at Times Ten Cellar to discuss their November book selection, “A Place at the Table,” by Susan Rebecca White. 

The story follows three very different characters from very different backgrounds who make their way to New York City, the melting pot of America, in an attempt to find a new life, putting behind  them the loneliness and isolation of their past.

Alice had lived through a difficult childhood of racial prejudice in 1920s North Carolina.  In New York she becomes a culinary star to the city’s literary elite and the author of a grass roots cookbook.

Bobby endured the heartbreaking childhood of an outcast; bullied by an older brother and unaccepted by his parents because he was gay.  In New York he finds the love and acceptance that he had previously only known from his grandmother.

Amelia, plagued by family secrets and a debilitating marriage, struggled as wife and socialite.  In New York she finds a job and self-worth utilizing those very same talents frittered away on her husband.

The novel’s fictitious chic Manhattan eatery was fashioned after New York’s Café Nicholson, a real café famous for southern influenced cuisine and literary regulars like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams.  Through the café, the three main characters of the book meet and meld harmoniously with food the common culture.

“A Place at the Table” makes your mouth water and your eyes tear as you live through the joys and sorrows that people often endure before finding where they belong.

While they discussed the book, the club members enjoyed novel-inspired foods like southern fried chicken, pound cake, pea salad, pimento cheese and crab dip. 

Next month the group will meet at Toulouse for dessert and after dinner drinks and they will reveal to each other their all- time favorite books.  The completed list will be compiled and shared on BubbleLife, just in time for Christmas shopping ideas.