This article appears in print in the May 2020 issue. Click here to subscribe. 

If book clubs are a reason for reading and drinking together, Book Cru is a full-fledged call to action. The monthly pairing program ($50, nonmembers $60) offers curated book and bottle combinations along with discussion groups based out of Molly’s Bottle Shop in Ballard. But consider yourself warned: This club isn’t for the faint of heart or palate. Books are plucked from a lit lover’s shelf—all fiction, written exclusively by female and nonbinary authors—and each of the wines, which are natural, is paired with a book based on the imagery and feelings that work evokes. “Like a book, [natural wine] changes, doesn’t always taste the same or hit you the same way,” says Kim Kent, who has a background in poetry, editing and service industry jobs, and who launched Book Cru while working as a wine seller at Molly’s. Her goal: to help her own interests coalesce while inspiring others to start reading more—and drinking more. Think Joy Williams with French plum wine, or Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead with a dark and earthy Lambrusco. Pairings can be purchased at Molly’s Bottle Shop throughout the month on a first-come basis or paid for in advance through a monthly member subscription, with discussion groups, led by Kent, and new pairing announcements taking place on the second Sunday of every month. “It’s a place where book lovers who also love wine can be their full selves,” Kent says.