Lindsay Merbaum
Lindsay Merbaum is an author of feminist horror and the founder of Pick Your Potions, a consortium of witchery offering custom cocktails and mocktails, recipe sets, swag, and virtual independent study classes via The Study Coven. The literary magazine Electric Literature hosted a year-long column featuring Pick Your Potions’ booktails, and other recipes have appeared in the LA Review of Books, All American Whiskey, Alcohol Professor, and on Tor.com. For more, visit www.pick-your-potions.com, or check out The Cauldron on Substack.
Revitalizing ‘Booktail’: The Gold Fame Citrus
Make mixologist Lindsay Merbaum’s vodka-and-watermelon cocktail for Claire Vaye Watkins’s debut novel, the May California Book Club selection.
Unique ‘Booktail’ for a Masterpiece: The Mumbo Jumbo
Make a divine cocktail inspired by hoodoo recipes for the April California Book Club gathering, featuring Ishmael Reed in conversation about Mumbo Jumbo.
Booktail: The California Novel
This original cocktail recipe evokes California’s rich cultural, culinary, and agricultural landscape and is inspired by the state’s literature.
Cornflakes ‘Booktail’ for ‘Headshot’
Make a milk wash for a nonalcoholic beverage to consume while reading Rita Bullwinkel’s beautiful boxing novel, the California Book Club’s March selection.
Dangerous Pleasure: A ‘Booktail’ for ‘The Sympathizer’
Make a mango shrub as part of mixologist Lindsay Merbaum’s smash cocktail for Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel, the California Book Club’s January selection.
Rejuvenating ‘Booktail’ for ‘Goodbye, Vitamin’
Mix cantaloupe, cucumber, and grapefruit for this variation on a vodka tonic to celebrate Rachel Khong’s literary debut, the California Book Club’s December selection.
Chai Daiquiri for ‘Violent Spring’
Mix a sweet and spicy “booktail” for Gary Phillips’s first novel, the California Book Club’s November selection.
Convivial ‘Booktail’ for ‘This Boy’s Life’
Mix whiskey with a homemade fruit punch in celebration of Tobias Wolff’s memoir, the California Book Club’s October selection.
Apple Brandy ‘Booktail’ for ‘Colored Television’
Mix this unusual and lovely cocktail for the California Book Club’s event with author Danzy Senna.
Refreshing ‘Booktail’ for ‘Under the Feet of Jesus’
Make this delicious, summery cocktail for Helena María Viramontes’s classic, the August California Book Club selection.
Deliciously Creamy Tequila ‘Booktail’ for ‘The Gangster of Love’
Try out this unique cocktail composed by author and mixologist Lindsay Merbaum for Jessica Hagedorn’s novel, the April CBC selection.