Nine Great Books (none of them are are new)

The backlist is full of gems

Hi friends,

It’s been weirdly warm this whole week which is nice and unsettling at the same time. Today’s post was inspired by a comment from Grace about my cookbook collection, the books I actually use and what they’re good for. For fiction, I mostly read books from the library, which often means a delay from a pub date to my hold arriving (there are usually hundreds of people in line). Enter: the backlist, which just means books that weren’t published within the past year. Those books usually get very little marketing love unless there’s a big peg like an adaptation but they don’t lose their value. If anything, it appreciates with cookbooks, as the recipes become part of your repertoire. You can buy backlist books anywhere you buy books (we love independent bookstores and Bookshop.org) but I recommend checking thriftbooks as you can find great deals.

A great book stack at my old apartment in 2021

I’m sharing four favorite cookbooks and four favorite fiction books today. The gift guide will have more titles to peruse. They’re in no particular order but I love lists.

Let’s get into it:

1. Tenderheart by Hetty Liu McKinnon: This came out last year and is a gorgeous vegetarian cookbook broken down by vegetable. Hetty’s influenced by her Chinese and Australian backgrounds and everything I’ve made from her has been delicious. The recipes aren’t the quickest but they’re not super elaborate. I find myself using this on the weekend and relishing the leftovers for lunch. Try the cauliflower pasta salad (but sub broccoli), the enchilada bake with spinach, the kale and orzo skillet, and the crispy potato tacos.

2. Small Victories by Julia Turshen: This came out in 2016 and I went to an event with Julia and Deb Perelman at the 92nd Street Y to celebrate it. I love the format of this book—each recipe has a cooking tip built in. Julia’s cookbook writing has evolved since then (she’s written about her eating disorder recovery and how it affected her approach to recipe writing) and I really love all of her books but this one has a number of hits and tips. It’s a delightful read and everything is very doable. I like her muffin recipe in here and her caesar salad dressing. A lot of the recipes work well for lunch or dinner.