Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 106
JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
On this episode, we talk to Mary Anna Evans about her book, The Dark Library.
Want to discuss the book in person? Join us at Book Club: The Dark Library on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 pm. The first 10 people to register may pick up a free copy of the book at the Customer Service Desk.
Reading The Dark Library (or another book set in a library) is one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge.
Plus, if you read the book and 1) attend our Book Club discussion of it or 2) listen to this episode of the Books & Bites podcast, you’ll earn a free square of your choice!
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About The Dark Library
Dr. Estella Ecker is the second-ever female professor in her department at the local university where her late father used to teach. After the department chair’s suicide, Estella notices her colleagues have begun treating her differently, with more respect and with her father’s name often on their lips.
Why do the men in her department still seem to fear him? How could he possibly be connected to the recent suicide? Once she finds out the truth, she’ll know what to do. But will she be able to live with herself after she does it? She is, after all, her father’s daughter.
— Provided by publisher
Recipes Hidden in The Dark Library
Mary Anna Evans suggests pairing The Dark Library with the following recipes, which Annie made partly from foraged ingredients.
Annie’s Raspberry Cordial
- 1 cup sugar
- ~1 quart wild raspberries
- ~1 quart vodka
- Put sugar into a one-quart jar.
- Gently fill remaining space in the jar with berries. Do not pack down.
- Pour vodka over the berries until they are completely covered.
- Seal the jar and let it stand for two months, shaking it once a week.
- After two months, strain the cordial through a fine sieve and again through a coffee filter.
- Pour into bottles.
- Serve the rosy cordial in tiny glasses. (Annie and Mrs. Ecker say that you should use the prettiest glasses you can find. The cordial will taste even better.)
Lily Ecker’s Cream of Asparagus Soup
- 2 bunches of asparagus (~2 pounds)
- 1 bunch of wild onions
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Paprika to taste
- Mince the spring onions and set aside.
- Trim the tough ends of the asparagus and discard. Cut the remaining asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.
- Melt butter in a large pot. Add the wild onions or scallions and cook over medium heat until soft. Add the 1-inch pieces of asparagus, salt, and black pepper and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender.
- Add the broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat.
- Simmer uncovered until the asparagus is very soft but still bright green.
- Puree the mixture until completely smooth.
- Return the soup to the pot.
- Stir in the heavy cream.
- Sprinkle each serving with paprika, if desired, and serve hot.
About Mary Anna Evans
Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author with a PhD in English literature, a handy background for writing The Dark Library, the story of a woman menaced by her dead father, a literature professor whose rare book collection holds the secret to escaping him.
Her crime fiction has earned recognition including two Oklahoma Book Awards, the Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award, the Mississippi Author Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals.
In addition to writing crime fiction, she writes about crime fiction, as evidenced by the Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and HRF Keating Award-nominated Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, coedited with J.C. Bernthal. Bloomsbury will publish her Agatha Christie and the 20th Century Woman: Rewriting Female Justice in 2027.