Host a Dinner!
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 2020. We've put together a list of vendors that past hosts have used to make your job even easier.
For more information, contact Judy Shampanier jshampan@gmail.com
For more information, contact Judy Shampanier jshampan@gmail.com
Need help choosing a book?* Let these Friends' favorites inspire you...
(Then scroll down for FAQs and tips for hosts.) *Your book can be fiction, nonfiction, or a play.
(Then scroll down for FAQs and tips for hosts.) *Your book can be fiction, nonfiction, or a play.
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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 |
FAQs & Tips for Hosts
FAQs1. 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. A list of ideas is above. 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. 4. Are there local vendors/caterers/restaurateurs with whom I can work? Yes. For example, some hosts choose to hold their dinner in a Pelham restaurant instead of at their homes. And in the past, special vendors have partnered with our hosts. We've also got a list of vendors that hosts were happy with in 2016, 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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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 |
2014 Hosts
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Lori & Robert Anzilloti
Joan & Paul Brisson Kelly & Josh Brown Heather & Clayton Bushong Anne & J. D. Calder Mary Callahan & Phil Corbett Sun Sun Chung & Mark McNulty Erin Coffer Karen & David Cornman Tish & Ed Davey Anne Field & Geoff Lewis Indrani Franchini Stacey Gaine & Chris Fink Renée & John Gallagher Karen Gardner |
Lorri & Matt Gorman
Mary & Brenan Hefner Judy Hom & Phil Cannella Louise & Doug Kelly Diana Lada & Jean-Jacques L'Hénaff Elizabeth & Gavin Lackey Lucy & Scott Lichtenberg Mary & Brian Loughman Shannon Maher & Kurt Egger Eileen & Ethan Miller Maura Monaghan & Chris Morris Carleen & Dan Murdock Kathy O’Leary & Carl Pannuti Jill & Phil Orlando Anthea Perkinson & Shaun Gurl |
Michele & Paul Romanello
Lexi & Gerald Russello Jodi & Al Sassoon Judy Shampanier & Mike Bowen Marjorie & Christopher Shaw Sue Simpson & Stephen Handelman The Solimine Family/Meridian Risk Management/Joan Solimine Real Estate Tyson & Tim Stephens Colleen Stokes-Reim & Christopher Reim Ann & Stevenson Swanson Laura Woods & James DiLorenzo Janine & Jesse Yorio Margaret & Jim Young |
