Pretty Book Club Recipe

“What can I do for you?” he says, but he says it like he isn’t talking about maybe he can pour me a cup of coffee or maybe he can give me a chocolate shake. He leans on the counter. He doesn’t even have his little pad to write something down and he’s looking me straight in the eye. “Can I help you?” he says, but he doesn’t say it like Aunt Babe does. He says it like it’s the nastiest thing you ever heard, but he smiles the whole time, daring you to say a word about it. I don’t answer. I tap my fingernails. I look away. Maybe I forgot he’s there. I turn and look at Virgil, over by the window, and then I swing back around finally, and ask, “What’s the soup du jour?” But he laughs, like I just proved something about myself that he knew all along, and he says it back, “D Jour,” copying my French accent, and I look a the clock and think where the hell is Bob Bybee. If he thinks I’m the kind of girl he can keep waiting, he’s got another thing coming. ~from Pretty Is As Pretty Does

Following is a suggested menu for a book club meeting to discuss my novel, Pretty Is As Pretty Does. Some of the story is centered around a diner, Aunt Babe’s Cafe, in a small imaginary town called Palmyra. Palmyra is loosely modeled on a real town in Illinois. Aunt Babe’s Cafe is modeled on about a million diners where I’ve eaten, including Susie’s Cafe, where I had one of my first jobs, as a dishwasher.

A while back I was invited to talk at a book club here in Corvallis, Oregon. The book club doesn’t have a name. If I was going to call it something, maybe it would be Nan From My Yoga Class’ Book Club, but we didn’t sit around eating raw food or brown rice. We ate:

BLTS (Okay, everybody knows how to make a BLT, right? Maybe I’m being ethnocentric. Maybe someone is reading from India or Africa or China. Of all the diner food, BLTs are the best. Admit it, Americans! They are good. Unless you are a vegetarian. If you are a vegetarian and you eat at a diner, you have to order grilled cheese sandwiches every time.)
Cole Slaw
Nan’s French Fries (This is the only place where we veered away from true diner food—Nan used sweet potatoes and she baked them– but the results more than made up for the lack of authenticity.)
Soup de jour
Apple pie ala mode
Chocolate milkshakes
Coca cola in little glass bottles