20 drinks mentioned in book titles

During the Second World War, a cargo ship runs aground on a Scottish island while carrying 50,000 cases of whisky. The locals rush to save the shipment of spirits, which they must then defend from the authorities. That’s the plot of Compton Mackenzie’s “Whisky Galore,” which is based on a true story, and is also the inspiration for both a 1949 British comedy movie and a play!

Four years after Ray Bradbury published his most famous work, the dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451,” the author released “Dandelion Wine.” A much simpler work that focused on the small-town lifestyle, much of “Dandelion Wine” was based on Bradbury’s own upbringing in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Illinois.

The “pop” in “Hop on Pop” actually refers to a father character, but it’s the closest thing to a drink in the title of any Dr. Seuss book! Plus, we love this classic collection of poems that aims to teach kids the basics of phonics and reading. You may refer to fizzy drinks by another name (soda or Coke), but did you know that roughly 25% of America uses the term “pop”?

“Sam, Bangs & Moonshine” has a title that sounds a bit adult-oriented, but it’s actually a children’s book written by Evaline Ness in 1966. The titular moonshine isn’t referring to high-proof homemade liquor, but instead a slang term for foolish fantasies or ideas. As for the rest of the title: Sam is the book’s protagonist and Bangs is her cat.

In 1967, flight attendants Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones penned the tell-all memoir “Coffee, Tea or Me?” Readers were tickled by this humorous recounting of the ups and downs (no pun intended) of working in the airline industry, and the book eventually spawned three sequels that sold millions of copies. The only problem? Trudy and Rachel weren’t real people, but instead fictitious authors created by an American Airlines public relations employee named Donald Bain.

The devil went down to…the Soviet Union? That’s the plot of “The Master and Margarita,” a masterpiece written by Russian playwright Mikhail Bulgakov during Stalin’s reign in the 1930s. Due to its controversial anti-communist content, “The Master and Margarita” wasn’t published until 1967, posthumously, as Bulgakov died in 1940. The “Margarita” in the title does not refer to the drink, but instead the protagonist's name.

For three weeks in the mid-1960s, author Tom Wolfe joined Ken Kesey as he and his crew of Merry Pranksters traversed America in a brightly colored school bus called Further. The resulting book, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” was lauded as an accurate portrayal of the blossoming hippie movement and a pioneering example of the New Journalism style. The title refers to the parties the Pranksters would often throw or attend that included LSD-laced punch as an important element.

Freckle juice isn’t a real thing. Instead, it’s the subject of a Judy Blume children’s book about a little boy who wants freckles and drinks a concoction suggested by a swindler schoolmate looking to make a quick buck. (Although it was actually 50 cents because the book came out in 1971…and they’re children.)

Not only did John Irving write the 1985 novel “The Cider House Rules,” but he also wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film version that starred Toby Maguire, Michael Caine, and Charlize Theron. In addition to being a box-office success, “The Cider House Rules” nabbed two Academy Awards, including a Best Adapted Screenplay win for Irving. 

“The Face on the Milk Carton” was quite popular when it came out in the ‘90s — for both good and bad reasons. The young adult novel was an enthralling story of a little girl who sees her picture on the side of a milk carton and begins to question her upbringing and parents. (And yes, milk cartons were indeed where posters of missing children used to be displayed.) The book also contained mature themes, which got it banned by some schools. In addition to selling millions of copies, “The Face on the Milk Carton” was adapted as a made-for-TV movie in 1995.

Elmore Leonard wrote numerous popular Western and crime novels, including “Hombre” (1960), “Get Shorty” (1990), “Rum Punch” (1992), and “Out of Sight” (1996). Even if Leonard isn’t on your reading radar, you may know these films because each one was made into a movie. While the film versions of “Hombre,” “Get Shorty,” and “Out of Sight” all used the book titles, “Rum Punch” was given another name when it was adapted by Quentin Tarantino: “Jackie Brown.”

Back-to-back Elmore Leonard books! Six years after publishing “Rum Punch,” Leonard released “Cuba Libre,” a crime caper about a cowboy seeking justice in Cuba during the onset of the Spanish-American war. “Cuba libre,” in case you’re not aware, is also another name for a rum and coke!

Chronologically, “The Rum Diary” was the first novel Hunter S. Thompson wrote — as it was based on his time working for a struggling newspaper in Puerto Rico in the 1960s — but it wasn’t actually published until 1998. That was well after Thompson had earned notoriety for his gonzo journalism and books like “Hell’s Angels” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

First published as a serial novel in a Scottish newspaper, “Espresso Tales” is Alexander McCall Smith’s continuation of “44 Scotland Street,” another serial novel. Both stories center on the amusing everyday lives of Pat MacGregor, her friends, and the people with which she shares an Edinburgh apartment.

We already had a coffee entry for “Coffee, Tea or Me?” but skipped right over the tea part, so here it is again. “Three Cups of Tea” is a 2006 memoir by Greg Mortenson, who co-founded a non-profit that helped build more than 171 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson was hailed as a hero, but he has since tarnished his reputation thanks to some shady financial dealings within the nonprofit.

“Water for Elephants,” the story of an old man in a nursing home who recalls how he joined the circus and found the love of his life, is the most famous of Sara Gruen’s novels. Not only did it earn numerous awards and carve out a spot in the New York Times Bestseller List for a dozen weeks in 2006, but it was also adapted into a 2011 feature film starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz. 

“The Lemonade War” is the name of a trilogy of children’s books by Jacqueline Davies. The eponymous first installment, released in 2007, revolves around a sibling rivalry between Evan and Jessie, who are competing to sell the most lemonade at their respective stands. Although they first focus on solid business tactics, the kids eventually turn to sabotage when the competition gets the better of them.

Comedian Chelsea Handler has already published six New York Times bestsellers, including the 2008 book “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.” The book is a collection of stories from her life, and the title is a spoof of the book “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” which was written by an author we mentioned earlier in this list: Judy Blume.

“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” is the true story of how Chickie Donohue, a former Marine, decided to lift the spirits of his friends fighting in the Vietnam War by delivering beers to them on the front lines. Donohue’s tale didn’t become a book until 2017, but Hollywood wasted no time adapting it into a feature film starring Zac Efron, which was released in 2022.

If you haven’t sampled the works of New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones, pick up one of the books in the witty and engaging Sunshine Vicram series. The second installment, 2021’s “A Good Day for Chardonnay,” follows Sheriff Vicram as she tries to keep the peace in her small New Mexico town while simultaneously attempting to piece together her own past. It’s suspenseful, a little romantic, and laugh-out-loud funny.