Our latest book was Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt. Our group rarely chooses best sellers, but for July we seem to have chosen a book that many people are reading and discussing right now. Since it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, heartfelt book with compelling characters and an intriguing story line, I am not surprised!

We had a great discussion, and everyone seemed to really enjoy this book. The characters are well-developed, and became people (and creatures) that you care about and could envision in real life. So, our conversation was often about what they were doing and the choices they made, rather than about how they were written about by the author.

There isn’t much drinking in this book, aside from Ethan’s love of Islay Scotch and the occasional beer or glass of wine. So, I took inspiration from the main character’s Swedish roots, and one of the objects discussed in the book for two of our choices. The cocktails were:

• Dala Horse (Pour 1.5 oz NS Gin 6, .5 oz lingonberry cordial and .5 oz fresh lime over ice, top with ginger beer & stir, garnish with skewer of berries or lime wedge, or both). This is a cocktail we created a few years ago for one of our Midsommar celebrations at the distillery, named in honor of the Dala Horse, which is a minor character in this book.
  
• Muddled Mary – a refreshing, delicious cocktail that uses a classic Scandinavian spirit, aquavit, as its main ingredient. Muddle 5-6 fresh cherry tomatoes with .5 oz fresh lemon juice and .5 oz plain simple, add a few leaves of fresh herbs and 1.75 oz NS Aquavit, shake with ice. Fine strain (double strain) into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with an additional cherry tomato on the rim of the glass.
  
• Sea Smoke Old Fashioned – in honor of one of the character’s love of smoky whisky, we created an old fashioned with smoke notes; Stir 2 oz NS Malt Whiskey, .5 oz Demerara Simple and 4 dashes Owl & Whale Sea Smoke Bitters with ice, strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with an orange peel.

This was our largest book club gathering to date – we had to move to a different room with more space! It was nice to see some new faces; hopefully we’ll see them at future meetings of the NSD boozy book club.