If you are a bookworm with a particular love for classics and you also enjoy cooking and/or baking, this cookbook is for you! It is very rare that I find a new book and read it in the same day. I have a bad habit of buying great books and then sitting on them for months (or even years!) before actually reading them. But when I came across A Literary Tea Party, I could not get it onto my Kindle fast enough. I read through all 50+ recipes in one afternoon and felt so inspired to host a tea party, or just spend an entire weekend baking. 

Honestly, the fact that these recipes are inspired by several of my favorite literary stories and characters was enough to get me to read it. But I also found a lot of enjoyment in making a few of these delicious recipes. I like to bake, but I am in no way a talented baker. It's just something I enjoy doing. So I picked two easier recipes and one that was slightly more challenging, and I loved every literary-inspired moment!

Overall, I think this cookbook is the perfect gift for the special bookworm in your life, or something you should treat yourself to if you are a whimsy literature lover.

Whilst I was originally really excited to get into this book, try as I might, I really could not get into it. The concept seemed neat, and the art looked lovely, but it just didn't hold my interest at all.

I really loved this cookbook. I love nerdy/literary recipes, and this book had a wide mix of of foods, sweet to savory, and a wide range of classic books. I also loved the pictures of each food - they were beautiful, and the instructions were all clear and easy to follow. I really loved how each food was paired with a tea or drink, and each had its own recipe as well, which was really creative and cute. The themed party ideas and baking tips were well done as well. The tips for less common ingredients, their uses, substitutions, explanations on certain less common baking techniques were very useful and welcome - definitely beginner baker friendly. Overall, if you enjoy baking and classic literature, this is the cookbook for you!

This lovely little cookbook is a an homage to food in classical literature. The author has been writing a blog for sometime with recipes inspired by books, and this book collects them and sorts them into a very easy to use book for planning tea parties inspired by books. The recipes are clear and concise with easy to follow directions and lots of photographs to help you along the way. This is would be a very fun book to have!

Have you ever yearned to eat what the characters in your current book are eating? Or gotten hungry from the descriptions of food in books? I always wanted to try Maple Syrup snow candy like Laura Ingalls made in Little House in the Big Woods. Or have Raspberry Cordial with Anne Shirley. Or something simple like Bread and Jam with Frances the badger. A Literary Tea Party by Alison Walsh includes recipes for sweet and savory teatime treats and the tea blends to accompany them.

Like many great cookbooks, this one starts with tips, tricks, and substitutions. Even when I think I know what I'm doing, these chapters usually teach me something I needed to know or remind me of a better way to do something. Alison gathers some of her recipes into suggested party themes before jumping into the recipes. I'm looking forward to a Tea Time Garden Party this Summer with Lavender Lemon Eclairs inspired by The Secret Garden and Poetical Egg Salad Sandwiches from Anne of Green Gables.

The recipes are a lovely balance of sweet and savory. I did not try any of the savory recipes but the Sweet Potato Bacon Pastries inspired by Little Women sound wonderful. This might be a nice snack to have while curling up with the new Masterpiece Theater presentation airing on PBS soon.

I couldn't review a cookbook without trying some of the recipes. Beorn's Honey Nut Banana Bread from The Hobbit was well received at work. The cinnamon and ginger add warmth and the banana flavor is not overpowering. My husband does not like banana bread, but admitted this smelled really good. No, he would not try it.

I didn't have as much success with the Blood Orange Scones, but I also did not follow the recipe completely. 1/4 cup of blood orange bitters sounded like a lot so I replaced it with fresh blood orange juice instead. If I attempt these again, I will follow the recipe.

My taste testers loved Long John's Lime Cookies. These had a nice snap of lime and sweetness from a powdered sugar coating. The cookies themselves are not too sweet, which made them a great pairing with tea. These were fast and worked well when we had a potluck during a very busy week. I mixed the dough, rolled it into a log, and froze it 2 days before the party. The night before I thawed the log a little, sliced and baked. These were devoured quickly.

The most popular recipe I tested were the Arctic Trail Coffee Muffins inspired by Jack London's White Fang. I've made them several times and have played with the recipe a little to fit my tastes. I upped the instant coffee (I used Espresso powder) and the spices. These are wonderfully fresh from the oven with nothing on them, with maple butter as suggested, or with cream cheese.

The next recipe I will be trying is Blackberry Lemon Sweet Rolls, a treat Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess may have enjoyed. I did not try any of the homemade tea blends because I wasn't sure where to start. A list of suggested tea vendors or websites would have been helpful.

All in all this was a lovely book to read and even better to cook from. I reviewed an ebook I received from NetGalley but will be buying my own print copy when it is released in June. I will also be buying copies for my friends with children so they can enjoy some literary teatimes.

#ALiteraryTeaParty #NetGalley

A lot of simple recipes that can be the part of a real literary tea party, I like the theme of the book and the thought put behind it. It would be nice to have some ideas on how to decorate for the tea party, but I guess this is a food book not a party book.
The sandwiches look lovely, while the tea sounds divine, now I need to find time to make it, and friends to eat it with .

What’s better than treats from your favorite books- nothing! This was so fun & yummy! Thanks Netgalley for the copy.

This book is SO much fun! Great way to run a classics book club by using the recipes in the book as each meeting's snack.

First of all, I love the concept of this cookbook for book-lovers. What could be more perfect than simple recipes for sweet and savoury snacks inspired by some of the very best stories? I especially love the tea pairing sections, as it is a very cute touch. I also like the attention to detail here, ex. instructions on how to decorate the Little Women gingerbread cookies to look like the characters, and an index in the front sorting the recipes by party theme.

This would be a lovely addition to any book-lover's kitchen.

Cometh the hour, cometh the cookbook. I was delighted to open this book and almost immediately find a new idea for my Easter party next week. (Cracked China Devilled Eggs – so colourful and pretty.)

This is a book of literary-inspired tea-time recipes. Some recipes are directly related to foods eaten in the stories; others are just inspired by them ( eg Star Crossed Focaccia for Romeo and Juliet ).

I recently read a cookbook with a similar premise to this: The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2300113161?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1) Interestingly, both authors used much of the same literary inspiration but came up with different recipe ideas. Whereas The Little Library Cookbook has many biographical notes, the notes in A Literary Tea Party are shorter and more focussed on the books. The foods are fancier, more novelty and less everyday. The photos are colourful and plentiful.

Unlike The Little Library Cookbook, A Literary Tea Party is focussed on ‘afternoon tea’. There are ideas for themed tea parties. I found the section on tea blending a bit confusing- first, I was worried by the tea recipes including 1 tsp chocolate and 1tsp of vanilla – then saw the note saying that these refer to flavoured tea blends. Really? Where do you get these? Do I want to know? I’m sure there are many flavoured tea enthusiasts out there who will love this. However, I found the non-tea alternatives much more appealing.

I do like this book. Many of the foods (such as Princess Sara’s Rose Cake and Arietty’s Mini Cherry Cakes) do look quite special. And although it seemed at first glance to be similar to The Little Library Cookbook, I’d be happy to find room for both of them on my (digital) shelf.
Thanks to Net Galley and Skyhorse Publishing for this review copy.

The tea party scene in Alice in Wonderland is one of the most inspiring literary descriptions of a food-related habit. The cuppa shared around the table is part of a cultural taste habit which where aromatic infusions are a pretext for conversations and sharing.

The literary world has plenty of episodes where the food is elegantly inserted into the stories, more or less delivered with a recipe at the end. Actually, in my experience, this 'habit' of sharing recipes in a literary work is rather a very new occurrence, due probably to the highest interest that food is getting nowadays, representative for a part of the world where elaborated food doesn't represent a luxury any more.

A Literary Tea Party by Alison Walsh is a delight for both of the reader and the foodie. Picking up inspiration from classical literary works as diverse as Romeo and Juliet, White Fang, or the Wizard of Oz, it set up the table for a lengthy discussion about life, works, words and, obviously, taste buds. You can easily organise your themed tea party ideas regardless of the topic of your book club, just to follow the literary inspiration in the picture. There are many recipes to talk about and taste too, many introduced by cute - not too highly elaborated and edited - pictures, but for my hungry eyes, the following caught my eyes: the apple tart inspired by King Arthur's story, the cyclone cookies from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, or the Lover's Tea that Romeo&Juliet inspired. The recipes are easy to replicate, with smart directions, doable by beginner and middle-level baker/cook too.

An amazing, deliciously sweet book that will brighten the tea time of every book lover.

A Literary Tea Party brings the foods of classic books to light and gives you enough recipes to spice up any bookish time. You’re taken on a trip from stories and fairytales through dishes and desserts: Turkish Delight and Hot chocolate from the Narnia Chronicles, Gingerbread from Little Women, Drink Me Tea and Painted Rose Cupcakes from Alice in Wonderland, Delicious Death chocolate cake from Agatha Christie’s Murder is Announced, amongst others. Fifty-five recipes that will brighten any tea time and/or book club meeting.

I loved this little book and even tried a few recipes. They are easy to follow and the instructions are written in a simple and direct way. Reading through them, I felt the need to read the books again. It gives out a sense of nostalgia and cosiness. In each page, beautiful photographs and quotes from the classics give a sense of magic.

This is a must-have in any book lovers’ collection right between the classics and the cookbooks.

Thank you NetGalley, Skyhorse Publishing and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

My book club met last night. We were trying to remember how long we've been going and who the original members were (I'm one of them), but that information was lost in the recesses of time. In any case, we used to try to theme our food to our monthly book, but we've gotten a little lazy about it. Therefore, the novel set in post-Civil-War Texas we read just inspired a carb onslaught in us that had not much to do with the book.

Some readers and eaters are more dedicated. Take Cara Nicoletti, whose delightful book I just read this week:

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Ordering the book by phases in her life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood), she begins each chapter with a memoirish essay and follows up with a recipe based on a food mentioned in the book. So there's sausage for LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS and doughnuts for HOMER PRICE and cherry pie for IN COLD BLOOD. (Did you remember that baking a cherry pie was one of the last things one of the murder victims did in IN COLD BLOOD? I didn't.) VORACIOUS is a delightful read and inspires me to pay attention to the food showing up in books again, that I might be a better book club member.

In the same vein as VORACIOUS is Alison Walsh's A LITERARY TEA PARTY.

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Walsh's book, featuring photos, rather than watercolor illustrations, is more strictly a recipe book, with only brief notes on what in the book inspired the recipe. The recipes are also more "inspired by" than actual connections. For example, Walsh cites A LITTLE PRINCESS (one of my childhood faves), where starving Sara Crewe passes the bakery window and salivates over fresh-baked buns. We don't know what kind of buns they were, but Walsh comes up with "Blackberry Lemon Sweet Rolls." Sounds tasty, but the connection to the book is pretty loose... Similarly, ROMEO AND JULIET leads to "Star-Crossed Foccaccia with Parmesan Chive Butter."

In any case, both of these books would be great starting points for your own themed book clubs or even a special supper or children's birthday party.

Next month it's the "classic" in our group's rotation, so we'll be reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth, about--gasp--a "fallen woman." 19th-century novels can be full of toast and tea, but I'll be extra-on-the-lookout for other foods. Let's hope this fallen woman's fleshly appetites include eating!

I love both books and tea and so was very excited to review this book. I liked most of the content but found the layout to be confusing. I think the idea is wonderful but could have used some adjustments to the execution.

What a phenomenal idea for a book! The author weaves together recipes that she (and you will too) believes that a character or two would have been fond of. Oftentimes, moms are looking to have book-themed parties and few places to find answers. This book will also be helpful to library staff when creating programs for their patrons... young and old. Recipes look pretty simple for the most part. The only downside, the reality of finding all those teas might be cumbersome. This book would make a terrific addition to any library!

I love the concept of this cookbook. It would be perfect for an afternoon book club meeting. My favourite part was the addition of quotes from the book as too often literary recipes have little to do with the actual novel except for a clever recipe title. I also enjoyed the mix of techniques throughout the book with some recipes for beginners with pre bought doughs, while others make dough or candy from scratch being more advanced, The unique tea mixes and pairings with the recipes is a very helpful touch as well. A wonderful book for those special occasions you may want to add a literary touch to.

This is a great gift for any book lover. It features literary themed recipes and ideas. I loved it. It is a charming little book.

Sweet book with fun literary themed party ideas and yummy recipes. Looking forward to testing plenty of them out!

The premise and style of this book is incredibly charming. The idea of making food and tea recipes based off of various well-known books is one that's really appealing to me as a bookworm, and the aesthetic design of this book (the pictures especially) is quite whimsical and cute.

The things I liked:
As I said, the style and concept were very well conceptualized and executed, and the pictures look scrumptious. I thought that perhaps more recipes would be direct recreations of dishes mentioned in books, but the majority are the author's interpretation of food mentioned in books, or simply dishes that take inspiration from a book or character. I appreciate that creativity and the fact that it's not too literal.

The recipes are very detailed and information is given about how to approach certain techniques and substitutions. I really appreciate cookbooks being user-friendly, and also appreciate that the author encourages the reader to experiment on their own using her recipes as inspiration.

Things I didn't love:
I did think that this book is not incredibly vegetarian/vegan friendly. There are some vegetarian recipes, but the majority of them prominently feature cheese. I'm not a vegan, but I am a vegetarian and I'm trying to avoid dairy, and that severely limited the amount of recipes I could try without significant substitutions. A strict vegan would have a very hard time finding recipes they could use in this book.

I think for the most part, there was a decent variety of recipes, but I did think a few got a little repetitive. There were quite a few recipes for savory pastries stuffed with vegetables and cheese. Tasty, I'm sure, but I don't need multiple recipes for that, especially given that I don't eat cheese. On top of that, I don't think that on the whole the recipes are particularly healthy-carbs play a pretty significant role. That being said, this book is about whimsical literary food, not healthy food, so that's fine, I suppose.

My biggest issue was with the instructions about how to make the teas to pair with the foods. I was quite excited about that, because I love tea and was interested in how to experiment with their own. I thought that this book might give instructions on what kind of spices could be used to make herbal tea/added to tea leaves to make new varieties of tea. Instead, it seems like every recipe is simply a blend of different kinds of flavored tea mixes. This isn't all that exciting to me, and on top of that, buying 3-4 variety of loose-leaf tea can get quite expensive. I also thought the recipes were confusing, and it took me a while to figure out that "cream" and "chocolate" meant cream and chocolate flavored black tea, not actual cream and chocolate. The fact that the variety of tea is not specified, only the flavor of said tea, means these recipes would be a little tricky to follow, and potentially quite spending.


However, on the whole I think this book is very successful for what it set out to do. It a whimsical marriage of appreciation for literature and appreciation for food and tea, and you could certainly create quite the literary tea party with the help of this book!

Sweet, but not saccharine; if I had a child this would be a fantastic resource to help stoke a love of reading (and tea!) and for family bonding. Maybe if I had a classics book club? Very nice.