Photo: Todd Cross
Host a Dinner!
Show your support for the Library by hosting a dinner for Novel Night 2023!
Host independently or with friends, at home or at another location! The 15th Novel Night will be held September 30, 2023. This is the largest and most fun event in town, and it's a critical fundraiser for the Town of Pelham Public Library.
For more information, contact Jessica Pearson
Host independently or with friends, at home or at another location! The 15th Novel Night will be held September 30, 2023. This is the largest and most fun event in town, and it's a critical fundraiser for the Town of Pelham Public Library.
For more information, contact Jessica Pearson
FAQs & Tips for Hosts
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FAQs
Where should I host a dinner? Most NN dinners take place at people’s homes, either inside or outside. You can also choose to host at a local restaurant or venue. Also, hosts may opt to host a party at different venue - previous venues have included the Bartow Pell Mansion, for example. Please reach out to us to learn more about these opportunities, which are perfect for groups who would like to host a larger dinner party. How many guests will I be expected to host? Parties of 36 or more tend to be most popular among guests, and we ask that parties at people’s homes have a minimum of 24 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 you can have your party at the NY Athletic Club, indoors or outdoors. Co-hosting is a great way to host a Novel night dinner! I want to host, but I don’t really want to have a big party inside of my home. What can I do? Consider hosting an outdoor party this year. You may also choose to host a party at your home, a co-host's home, or another venue. Let the venue take care of the food, alcohol, and space, while you focus on decor. I want to host, but I don’t want to go it alone. What should I do? Team up with some friends and host a dinner party together! We can also pair you up with hosts, too. I’ve never attended Novel Night in the past. Should I host a dinner party? Yes! The library needs our support, so your generous offer to host a party is very meaningful. Have you ever hosted a party before? If you answered ‘yes,’ you are the perfect candidate to host a Novel Night dinner. Remember, the NN dinners are held from 6 to 9, and then all guests head to the After Party. Your NN dinner may be shorter than many of the soirees you’ve hosted in the past. Hosting a party is the perfect way to get involved in our Pelham community. 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. Please contact us if you would like help in choosing a book, or if you want to know whether your choice has been used recently. Should my meal and decor be in keeping with the novel/theme I choose? Yes, hosts usually create a menu and decorate their space in ways that complement the chosen novel. You don’t need to spend a lot of money! 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 with 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 station wagon; and at Kill Me Now, the hosts replicated the awning from CBGB's and hung it outside their front door. Your guests will appreciate your creativity and our committee members are here to help with ideas and resources. Is my dinner considered a charitable contribution to the Library? We believe so, but please check with your accountant. 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 tickets have been purchased 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! How is the money raised through Novel Night used by the Library? When you host a Novel Night dinner or purchase a ticket to Novel Night, you are giving to a great cause: the library. Help us host an epic Novel Night 2023, so that we can donate as much money as possible to the library. Novel Night is the main fundraiser for the Friends of the Pelham Public Library. Each Novel Night must earn enough money to enable the Friends to support the Library for two years. Funds raised through Novel Night are used to support library programming for adults and children, to fund essential purchases like new furniture and computers, and to ensure patron access to electronic information and technology. Here are some examples of the programs and resources that the library provided to the community over the last year:
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Tips on Hosting
Your guests may be feeling festive! Plan on three to four drinks per guest. While an open bar is required of the hosts, the contents of the bar are up to you. Some hosts streamline their bars by serving beer, wine, and one or two select cocktails that work with their novel's theme. Some hosts offer a full open bar. All guests are expected at the Afterparty around 9:15. As it's sometimes difficult to wind down your dinner party (guests are having such a great time!), we recommend closing the bar at 8:45. . We can help you find a venue, caterer, food truck, music, a book for your theme, and anything else you need help with. ** We strongly recommend hiring servers so that you can enjoy your party ** 
Photo: Len Elmer
Photo: Liz Farrell
Photo: Eldar Shuminov.
Photo: Dominique Shuminov
Photo: Dominique Shuminov
Photo: Todd Cross
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Need help choosing a book?* Let these Friends' favorites inspire you...
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FOR ART LOVERS
Ninth Street Women/Mary Gabriel The Mayor of Leipzig/Rachel Kushner Edie: An American Biography/Jean Stein Lust For Life/Irving Stone Luncheon of the Boating Party/Susan Vreeland Girl with A Pearl Earring/Tracy Chevalier The Goldfinch/Donna Tartt The Birth of Venus/Sarah Dunant BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS Vile Bodies/Evelyn Waugh The Picture of Dorian Gray/ Oscar Wilde Great Expectations/Charles Dickens Orlando/Virginia Woolf Trust Exercise/Susan Choi This Side of Paradise/F. Scott Fitzgerald The Secret History/Donna Tartt SCIENCE FICTION Dune/Frank Herbert Metropolis, by Thea von Harbou 2001: A Space Odyssey/ Arthur C. Clarke The Fifth Season/N.K. Jemisin A Wrinkle in Time/Madeline L'Engle The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Douglas Adams Ender's Game/Orson Scott Card ROAD TRIPS Canterbury Tales/Geoffrey Chaucer Wild/Cheryl Strayed On the Road/Jack Kerouac Gulliver's Travels/Jonathan Swift A Motor Flight Through France/Edith Wharton Parable of the Sower/Octavia Butler FOR FOODIES Breakfast at Tiffany's/Truman Capote Eat, Pray, Love/Elizabeth Gilbert How to Cook a Wolf/M.F.K. Fisher Kitchen Confidential/Anthony Bourdain The Tummy Trilogy/Calvin Trillin Cork Dork by Bianca Boske 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 |
PREHISTORY-MIDDLE AGES
Beowolf Joan of Arc/Kathryn Harrison Clan of the Cave Bear/Jean Auel Creation/Gore Vidal The Name of the Rose/Umberto Eco ROCK ON David Bowie: Starman/Paul Trynka Kim Gordon/Girl In A Band Kill 'Em & Leave: Searching for James Brown.../James McBride Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir/Pat Benatar Just Kids/Patti Smith ANCIENT WORLDS The King Must Die/Mary Renault I, Claudius/Robert Graves Metamorphoses/Ovid The Greek Myths/Robert Graves Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff 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 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 Death in Venice/Thomas Man Wuthering Heights/Emily Bronte THE SPORTING SCENE A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match that Leveled the Game/Selena Roberts The Sun Also Rises/Ernest Hemingway Raging Bull/Jake LaMotta The Hunger Games/Suzanne Collins Friday Night Lights/H.G.Bissinger The Flamethrowers/Rachel Kushner |
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 Madeline/Ludwig Bemelmans Pippi Longstocking/Astrid Lindgren The Secret Garden/Frances Hodgson Burnett ALL-AMERICAN Moby-Dick/Herman Melville Washington Irving's stories [e.g., Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow] Loon Lake/E. L. Doctorow America Day By Day/Simone De Beauvoir The Price of Salt/Patricia Highsmith There is Confusion/Jessie Fauset Hamilton: The Revolution/Lin Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter AROUND THE WORLD Under a Tuscan Sun/ Frances Mayes The Beach/Alex Garland In a Sunburned Country/Bill Bryson Chocolat/Joanne Harris A Moveable Feast/Ernest Hemingway My Brilliant Friend/Elena Ferrante ADVENTURE Treasure Island/Robert Louis Stevenson Around the World in 72 Days/Nellie Bly 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 Fledgling/Octavia Butler Double Indemnity/James M. Cain Wuthering Heights/Emily Bronte Psycho/Robert Bloch Severance/Ling Ma Dracula/Bram Stoker Frankenstein/Mary Shelley |
2018 Hosts
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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
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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 |