Good Wine Under $20 will be hosting the 5th edition of the Wine Book Club, the online book club for wine lovers who also love to read.

On October 28, 2008 we will be meeting to discuss a book that fits nicely into what will be on many minds this fall: back to school and politics. The book under discussion will be Tyler Colman’s Wine and Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. (University of California Press, $27.50; available through Amazon.com for $18.15)

Remember those days of sitting in undergraduate lectures and listening to a professor talk about their subject of expertise? This book will make you feel like you’re learning about wine and politics from a very talented teacher who knows a lot about his subject.

As many of you know, Tyler Colman is at the top of the class in wine blogging as Dr. Vino. What you may not know is he really is a doctor, and holds a PhD degree in politics from Northwestern University. If you’d like to participate in Wine Book Club #5, all you have to do is get your hands on a copy of Tyler’s book, read it, and post a review on your own blog on October 28. That gives you almost 2 months to get this book finished, which should be plenty of time. (did you ever get a deadline that generous in college?)

Don’t have a blog? Post your review on the Wine Book Club site in the comments section for this announcement post, or on Shelfari, or on the Discussion Board for the Wine Book Club on Facebook. You can also leave a link in the comments at Good Wine Under $20’s review, which will of course be posted on October 28.

Here’s hoping a lot of bloggers, and fans of wine blogging, turn out this month to read Tyler Colman’s book. And watch out for the roundup of Wine Book Club #4, now that Farley’s back from vacation, on Wine Outlook.

Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover ($18; used copies available for under $2!) is a classic wine book written by one of the most illustrious wine writers in the world, Jancis Robinson. Known for her direct, witty writing style, Robinson talks about her career in the wine biz as it evolved from contributing writer to international wine expert. I’m hoping that some of the bloggers from the US wine biz join in this month and tell us how the inner workings of the UK wine biz differ from those on this side of the pond. And the book will also offer insights into the experiences of women and wine writing (as well as the wine world more generally).

When our attention wanes and our good intentions start falling by the wayside, we’ll be reminded to pick up Tasting Pleasure when Michelle from My Wine Education “spins the bottle” and reviews Natalie MacLean’s Red, White, and Drunk All Over. This is one of the more recent wine books written by a woman, and MacLean is open about following in Jancis Robinson’s footsteps. The two books offer an interesting compare/contrast exercise in writing style and substance.

A surprising number of wine lovers and bloggers confess to never having read this book, and if you are one of them I hope that you will consider joining us for WBC #4. We only had three participants in June, and I’m hoping that we have at least four this time around. If you are a blogger, please publicize this event on your site and consider joining in. And if you are one of those widely-read folks who has read this book before, your reminiscences will be welcome, too–and you can leave encouraging comments below. Please post your “book report” on the due date of Tuesday, August 26. For more details, please see Farley’s post, or visit our club pages on Shelfari or Facebook.

Coming in the September/October “back to school” edition of the WBC: a book that’s hot off the presses and written by a wine blogger. Stay tuned for details.

Cheers!

Our first host, David McDuff of McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail, posted the first round-up of reviews of Vino Italiano! yesterday. 24 bloggers participated in the event–which is an encouraging beginning, given the length of the book and the trouble that some folks had getting it. The reviews were superb, and would give anyone thinking of buying the book great information to take into consideration before making their purchase.

Stay tuned for the announcement of April’s WBC #2 theme from host Tim Elliott of Winecast, and for a Spin the Bottle review in week or so from Russ Beebe the Winehiker.