Tonight, what's on my mind is all the ways literature can inspire and feed us, sometimes literally. Shouldn't a pleasurable reading experience invoke all of our senses, including smell and taste? First, Gustavus Adolfus College down in St. Peter, Minnesota, recently featured a Books and Blooms fundraising event that my press, Soho Press, helped sponsor. The event featured many books, including my two novels. I was impressed by how well the florist captured themes and plotlines with these floral arrangements. Here's the floral arrangement for The Night Birds:
And here's the arrangement for Little Wolves:
And on a lighter, punnier note, one of my favorite librarians, LeAnn Suchy, who just finished teaching a class at St. Kate's in St. Paul, challenged her students to create baked goods that played with the titles of books they'd read during the semester. I love what they did with The Night Birds:
Credit for the cake goes to: Katelyn Buechler, Emily Buechler, Ali Wysopal, and Lauren Peck. I love it!