Host a Dinner!

Open House Info Session for Potential Novel Night Hosts
Join us for cocktails and nibbles and learn more from past hosts of various types of Novel Night dinners. The Friends of the Town of Pelham Public Library welcome you to an open house on March 1st from 4-6pm. Former hosts will give presentations about how they did it, from picking a book to choosing the décor. 

RSVP to the Open House by clicking here
But  RSVP is not required. This is a relaxed, non-pressured gathering so if you can only stop by for a short while—or if you are just curious—please feel free to join us and hear about hosting.

Location:
Maura Monaghan's house
316 Loring Avenue
Pelham, NY 10803

Date And Time:
Sun, March 1, 2020
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM 

Show your support for the Library by hosting a dinner for Novel Night 2020! 
It's never too early to start planning — the 14th Novel Night will be held in NOVEMBER 21, 2020.  We've put together a list of vendors that past hosts have used to make your job even easier.  For more information, contact either Lupe O'Keefe lgrandao@yahoo.com or Jessica Pearson pearsonj23@hotmail.com 

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FAQs & Tips for Hosts

FAQs

1. How many guests will I be expected to host?
The "math" of Novel Night is 10 guests per 2 hosts, or 20 guests per 4 hosts. Hosts attend the After Party gratis.  If you want an intimate and elegant dinner, then 12 or 14 might be the right number of guests for you.  If you want lively conversation, then 16 or 18 might be appropriate.  For a rocking good time, go with 20 or more guests.  If your space is too small for the number of guests you want to host, we can help pair you with a co-host, or suggest an appropriate venue for your dinner.

2. How do I choose a novel for my theme?
The sky's the limit. The only stipulation is that the book you choose must not have been used in the past six years.  Your book can be fiction, nonfiction, or a play. If none of those suit you, please contact the Dinner Committee if you would like help in choosing a book, or if you want to know whether your choice has been used recently.

3. Should my meal and decor be in keeping with the novel/theme I choose?
Yes, hosts usually create a menu and decorate their home -- or the dining room of a restaurant, or another venue -- based on their choice of novel. You need not spend a fortune!  Some of the most atmospheric and evocative dinner settings have been created cleverly yet inexpensively.  For example, at The Jewel in the Crown, guests were greeted at the door by girls in kurtas offering saffron-colored floral garlands; at The Official Preppy Handbook, the hosts built a tennis court backdrop, and served cocktails out of the back of a Volvo stationwagon; and at Kill Me Now, the hosts replicated the awning from CBGB's and hung it outside their front door.  Additionally, some hosts choose to hold their dinner in a Pelham restaurant instead of at their homes.  We've also got a list of vendors that hosts were happy with in 2020, to make it a little bit easier for you.

5. Is my dinner considered a charitable contribution to the Library? 
We believe so, but please check with your accountant.

6.  Can I tell my friends I'm hosting?  
You may tell people you're hosting, but we ask you not to tell them what book you're doing.  Secrecy is part of the mystique and excitement surrounding Novel Night.  Once RSVPs have been received and guests assigned to dinners, the secrecy isn't as strict, but please don't tell anyone the details of your decor, meal, costume... The gasps of delight when your guests arrive will be worth it!

Tips on Hosting

1.  Your guests will imbibe -- a lot!  Plan on three to four drinks per guest.

2.  While an open bar is required of the hosts, the contents of the bar are up to you.  Often, hosts streamline their bars by serving beer, wine, and a few carefully selected cocktails that work with their novel's theme.  Of course, if you want to have a full open bar with all of the fixings, we're not going to discourage you!

3.  All guests are expected at the New York Athletic Club around 9:15.  We will harass you to shut down your dinner if needed.  As it's sometimes difficult to get guests out of the dinners (they're having such a great time!), closing the bar at 8:45 might help.

4.  We strongly recommend hiring servers so that you can enjoy your party.

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Need help choosing a book?* Let these Friends' favorites inspire you...

​THE SPORTING SCENE
The Sun Also Rises/Ernest Hemingway
A River Runs Through It/Norman  
   McClean
The Year the Yankees Lost the  
    Pennant/Douglass Wallop
Raging Bull/Jake LaMotta
​more...

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS
Vile Bodies/Evelyn Waugh
The Picture of Dorian Gray/
​    Oscar Wilde
Great Expectations/Charles Dickens
Orlando/Virginia Woolf
​The Little Prince/Antoine de Saint-
​     Exupery

SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER
Dune/Frank Herbert
The Right Stuff/Tom Wolfe
2001: A Space Odyssey/
     Arthur C. Clarke
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/
​    Douglas Adams
Ender's Game/Orson Scott Card

ROAD TRIPS
Canterbury Tales/Geoffrey Chaucer
Lolita/Vladimir Nabokov
On the Road/Jack Kerouac
Gulliver's Travels/Jonathan Swift
​The Alchemist/Paulo Coelho
​The Odyssey/Homer

OUT OF AFRICA
West with the Night/Beryl Markham
Heart of Darkness/Joseph Conrad
Out of Africa/Isak Dinesen
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective    
​   Agency/Alexander McCall Smith
​African Queen/C. S. Forester

ASIA
Shogun/James Clavell
The Last Samurai/Helen DeWitt
Wives & Concubines/Su Tong

FOR FOODIES
Eat, Pray, Love/Elizabeth Gilbert
How to Cook a Wolf/M.F.K. Fisher
Kitchen Confidential/Anthony Bourdain
​The Tummy Trilogy/Calvin Trillin

MIDDLE EAST
Exodus/Leon Uris
Death on the Nile/Agatha Christie
The Source/James Michener
The Language of Baklava/Diana Abu-
     Jaber
Palace Walk/Naguib Mahfouz
more...

PREHISTORY-MIDDLE AGES
Beowolf
Clan of the Cave Bear/Jean Auel
Creation/Gore Vidal
The Name of the Rose/Umberto Eco
The Once and Future King/   
   T. H. White

ROCK ON
David Bowie: Starman/Paul Trynka
Kill 'Em & Leave: Searching for James
  Brown.../James McBride
Just Kids/Patti Smith
Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica/    
      Mick Wall
Bruce [Springsteen]/ Peter Ames                
​  Carlin

MEXICO CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA
Love in the Time of Cholera/Gabriel
     Garcia Marquez
The House of the Spirits/Isabel  
    Allende
Cartel/Don Winslow
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
     Wao/Junot Diaz
The Motorcycle Diaries/Ernesto Che
​     Guevara
​more...

ANCIENT GREECE & ROME
The King Must Die/Mary Renault
​I, Claudius/Robert Graves
Metamorphoses/Ovid
The Greek Myths/Robert Graves
A Midsummer Night's Dream/William
​    Shakespeare

VICTORIAN
Little Women/Louisa May Alcott
Oliver Twist/Charles Dickens
Vanity Fair/William Makepeace Thackeray
​Middlemarch/George Eliot
​more...

RUSSIA
Anna Karenina/Leo Tolstoy
The Gambler/Fyodor Dostoevsky
​Absurdistan/Gary Shteyngart

EUROPE & GREAT BRITAIN
Wolf Hall/Hilary Mantel
The Hunchback of Notre- Dame/Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities/Charles Dickens
Pride & Prejudice/Jane Austen
​Ivanhoe/Sir Walter Scott
Death in Venice/Thomas Mann
more...
​

ON BROADWAY
The Berlin Stories [Cabaret]/  
     Christopher Isherwood
​Pygmalion [My Fair Lady]/
​     George Bernard Shaw
Tevye the Milkman [Fiddler on the  
     Roof]/Sholem Aleichem
Anna and the King [The King and I]/ 
    Margaret Landon

WHY GROW UP?
Mary Poppins/ P.L. Travers
Peter Pan/J. M. Barrie
The Wind in the Willows/
​     Kenneth Grahame
Madeline/Ludwig Bemelmans
The Adventures of Pinocchio/ Carlo
​   Collodi
Winnie-the-Pooh/A. A. Milne

ALL-AMERICAN
Gone with the Wind/Margaret    
   Mitchell
Life on the Mississippi/Mark Twain
Leatherstocking Tales [e.g.,Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans]/James Fenimore Cooper
​Moby-Dick/Herman Melville
Tall Tales: Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, et al.
Washington Irving's stories [e.g.,  Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow]
​Loon Lake/E. L. Doctorow

ADVENTURE
Treasure Island/Robert Louis Stevenson
Around the World in 80 Days/Jules Verne
The Perfect Storm/Sebastian Junger
Into Thin Air/Jon Krakauer
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea/Jules Verne

GOTHIC, NOIR & HORROR
Tales & Verse of Edgar Allan Poe [The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, etc.]
The Maltese Falcon/Dashiell Hammett
Double Indemnity/James M. Cain
Wuthering Heights/Emily Bronte
Psycho/Robert Bloch
​Dracula/Bram Stoker

THE WILD WEST
Giant/Edna Ferber
The Last Picture Show/Larry McMurtry
True Grit/Charles Portis
Little Big Man/Thomas Berger
Little House on the Prairie/Laura
     Ingalls Wilder
Roughing It/Mark Twain
The Grapes of Wrath/ John Steinbeck
All the Pretty Horses/Cormac
     McCarthy
Riders of the Purple Sage/Zane Grey

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2018 Hosts

​Claire & Geoffrey Allen
Nandini Anandu & Sanjay Naik
Stephanie & Jay Anderson
Sandy & Brad Angevine
Jennifer & Trabue Bland
Nilsa & Thierry Bollier
Sam & Jim Cooper
Kate Coyne & Ron Martucci
Ginette & Matthew Dean
Jennifer DeLeonardo & Adam Frey
Julianna & Peter DePaola
Chris & Rick Emerson
Michaela & Matthew Evans
Ashley & Dan Gagnier
Ricki Gardner & Will Cayanagh
Lorri & Matt Gorman
Helena Grubesic & Steve Hutchinson
Belinda & Chris Gunster

​Michelle & Lee Hambright
Margo & John Hastings
Jessica & Ted Hopper
Sharene & Matt Jones
Aimee & Matthew Kaplan
Andrée & Harvey Kelly
Shayna Klopott & Michael Frankel
Elizabeth & Gavin Leckie
Ida Lo & Henry Chao
Holly & Brian Mellstrom
Valerie & Mike Micciche
Maura Monaghan & Chris Morris
Thumper Moyle & Jonathan Friedman
Monica & Terry Mullan
Theresa & Tommy O’Halloran
Liam & Dan O’Neil
Dawn & James Pintauro

​Debra & john Puchalla
Gretchen & Brad Pursel
Susan Quintin Jeanne & David Radvany
Jennifer & Joe Reda
Kristen & Jason Roberts
Sandy & Adam Roman
Lexi & Gerald Russello
Judy Shampanier & Mike Bowen
Annsley & Greg Slawsky
Tyson & Tim Stevens
Leah & Chris Tahbaz
Jennifer & Philip Upton
Elizabeth Wagner & Terry Hults
Deborah Winstead & Darius Kingsley
Laura Woods & James DiLorenzo
Margaret & Jim Young
Colleen & Joe Zale

2016 Hosts

​Clive J. Anderson
Stephanie & Jay Anderson
Sandy & Brad Angevine
Pina & Patrick Basu
Nilsa & Thierry Bollier
Jenny & Chris Buchholz
Kristen & Sid Burke
Sun Sun Chung & Mark McNulty
Mary & Tim Comerford
Irmeli & Lou Corsi
Kate Coyne & Ron Martucci
Rachel & Doug Cullen
Julie & Jim Fair
​Ricki Gardner & Will Cavanagh

Maura Monaghan & Chris Morris
Anne & Geoff Nixon
Karyn & Todd Nordstrom
Julie & Patrick Normoyle
​Margo & John Hastings
James & Laura Hupprich
Tiffany Kary & Dennis Berman
Kate & Charlie Kerr * Elizabeth & Tom Lavin
Scott & Lucy Lichtenberg
Luguang Luan
Rosemary Maggiore & Kevin Christiana
Elizabeth Massie
Amy & Curt Middleton
Eileen & Ethan Miller

Anthea Perkinson & Shaun Gurl
Kate Pringle & John McCormick
Dominique & John Polito
Xenia Protopopescu & Robert Bourne
Debra & John Puchalla
Sylvia & Ian Rowe
Lexi & Gerald Russello
Nancy Silberkleit
Lauren & Mark Stanich
Debra & Charles Stern
Paula Wood & Josh Wallach
Laura Woods & James DiLorenzo
​Margaret & Jim Young