Making Book Clubs Fun…With Food

With summer’s arrival, it’s a great time to break out the stack of unread books for pool time or beach lounging. At least we always think that’s what will happen. Often, the summer ends and our reading list has barely budged.

A great way to ensure you get to some of those great reads is to create (either for yourself or your kids) a summertime book club. Rather than picturing you and your friends curled up next to a fire discussing your most recent reads of a hot cup of coffee, a summertime club begs for a summertime solution.

Some ideas:

1) Pick books with a setting near you that you can visit with a group.
2) Pick books with action in the plot that you and your friends can try. Choose a book with sailing in it and then have your book club take a sailing lesson together.
3) Hold your meetings on the beach or by a pool.
4) Play games related to the book.
5) Base your meetings around food related to the book.

The last is my favorite (and the easiest to do.) I’ve included my wife Nicole’s super-secret recipe for Monster Cookies below that we serve at Jack Templar Monster Hunter events. They get more accolades than the books. If you try them, you’ll see why!

Enjoy and have a great summer.

MONSTER COOKIES

Ingredients:

Combine:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

Stir in:
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350
Bake for 13-15 minutes
Do not over bake…or the monsters with strike!

Enjoy with a copy of Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy.

Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy (Book 2)

After barely surviving the onslaught of monsters that tried to kill him the day before his fourteenth

birthday, Jack Templar leaves his hometown on a quest to rescue his father and discover the truth

about his past. Joined by his friends Will and T-Rex, and led by Eva, the mysterious one-handed monster

hunter, Jack sets out for the Monster Hunter Academy where he hopes to find answers to his questions.

Little does he suspect that the Academy is filled with dangers of its own, many of them more terrifying

than anything he’s faced so far.

Jack Templar: Monster Hunter

Orphan Jack Templar has no memory of his parents and only the smallest details from his Aunt Sophie

about how they died. The day before Jack’s fourteenth birthday, things start to change for him. At first

it’s great: A sudden new strength helps him defend his nose-picking friend “T-Rex” from the school bully,

and even his crush, Cindy Adams, takes notice. But then a mysterious girl named Eva arrives and tells

him two facts that will change his life forever. First, that he’s the descendant of a long line of monster

hunters and he’s destined to be in the family business. Second, that there’s a truce between man and

monster that children are off-limits…until their fourteenth birthday! Jack has only one day before

hundreds of monsters will descend on his little town of Sunnyvale and try to kill him.

As if that weren’t enough, things get even more complicated when Jack discovers that the Lord of

the Creach (as the monsters are collectively known) holds a personal grudge against him and will do

anything to see that Jack has a slow and painful death. To stay alive and save his friends, Jack will have

to battle werewolves, vampires, harpies, trolls, zombies and more. But perhaps the most dangerous

thing he must face is the truth about his past. Why do the other hunters call him the last Templar? Why

do they whisper that he may be the “One?” Why do the monsters want him dead so badly? Even as

these questions plague him, he quickly discovers survival is his new full-time job and that in the world of

monster hunters, nothing is really what it seems.

Awards for Jack Templar Monster Hunter

Book of the Year Finalist by Forward Magazine

Next Generation Indie Book Finalist

Author Jeff Gunhus

Jeff Gunhus grew up in Cyprus, Greece, and Saudi Arabia where there was a distinct lack of television.

He quickly found books were the gateway to incredible adventures, fascinating characters and

unbelievable discoveries. Now, with five children of his own (all who watch too much television, in his

opinion), he has enjoyed revisiting his old books and reliving those adventures all over again.