Tequila Mockingbird

"I work until beer o'clock."

- Stephen King

Forget flowers - bring this book next time you're invited to a friend's house for a dinner and drinks as it will amuse and delight your hosts with the abundance of puns and the fun little cocktail recipes based on famous literary works. 

The author takes a book, it gives it a tasty pun, it surrounds you with a little trivia and he creates a drink perfectly fitting the work cited. The fun of this original book is in its humor and less in the actual drinks, so you may find cocktails that will make a mixologist shiver. But if you test these out, by the time a mixologist starts telling you why this or that recipe is wrong, you'll be too buzzed to care.

A little sample from the book:

CRIME  AND PUNISH-MINT

When the lead character compares himself favorably to Napoleon, you turn off the laugh track on page one. New readers of Crime and Punishment - the tortured tale of a man who feels destined to murder a pawnbroker and then redistribute the wealth might think they're tuning in for a literary Law & Order. Those readers are wrong. Crime? Sure! But punishment? Forget primetime courtroom scenes, because the only punishment here is the murderer's life sentence of guilt. Pair Russia's homeland brew - vodka, baby!? - with just enough caffeine to give you the shakes. The mint should calm your nerves before you do anything too crazy.

• 1 1 / 2 ounces vodka
• 1 / 2 ounce coffee liqueur
• 1 / 2 ounce crème de menthe liqueur
• Light cream, to fill

Pour the vodka and liqueurs over ice in a rocks glass. Fill to the top with light cream - or heavy. Hey, you only live once.