Kayla and Taylor discuss the themes and major beats of Lily King’s 2020 novel Writers & Lovers. Topics include geese, insufferable writers, and the trials and tribulations of being in your early thirties.

This week’s cocktail: Burning History via Whisky Advocate

INGREDIENTS

½ oz. Nikka Coffey grain whisky (or other Japanese whisky)

½ oz. Lagavulin (or other Islay single malt)

½ oz. ginger syrup (recipe below)

½ oz. honey water (1:1 honey and water)

½ oz. yuzu juice

1 egg white

2 dashes plum bitters

Garnish: American white oak chips and dried orange wheel

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and dry shake for 30 seconds. Add ice and shake again. Place wood chips on a plate and light with a torch. Cover with a snifter for about 20 seconds to trap the smoke inside. Strain the cocktail into the glass and garnish with an orange wheel.

Current Reads and Recommendations

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast by Marie Iannotti

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

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Join us next week as we discuss Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy.

Here is the cocktail recipe for next week’s episode if you want to drink along with us!

The Grey Wolf via Punch

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces Japanese whisky, preferably Hibiki Harmony

1/4 ounce demerara syrup (2:1, sugar:water)

1/2 teaspoon Benedictine

1/2 teaspoon plum vinegar

1 dash Angostura bitters

Garnish: express grapefruit peel

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass over ice and stir until chilled.

Strain into a rocks glass over an ice block chipped into a gumdrop shape.

Express the grapefruit peel and discard.