It’s almost Pavlovian: the calendar turns to October and I start thinking holiday gifts. Books are among my favorite things to give and receive, and I make ample use of Amazon’s wish lists for friends and family. If you too are “making your lists” perhaps you’ll be tempted by some of my favorite books of the moment (not surprisingly, heavily weighted towards food and cooking):
- Martha’s Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations Probably the most anticipated title on this list, as it’s certain to be full of what Martha does best: beautiful parties with unparalleled attention to detail.
- Food Rules Michael Pollan’s 2009 release becomes the perfect gift book in 2011 with the addition of Maira Kalman’s quirkily winning illustrations.
- The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food Adam Gopnik is one of my favorite writers, so I’m looking forward to his take on today’s foodie culture.
- Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker Top Pot’s old-fashioned doughnuts are a (not so) secret vice of mine. This book will serve as a souvenir of our August visit to Seattle’s doughnut heaven. And who knows, maybe I’ll attempt a recipe or two!
- Miette: Recipes from San Francisco’s Most Charming Pastry Shop The title sums it up: Miette is unbelievably charming, and the sweets outrageously delicious. With sweetly scalloped pages, and plenty of photos to tempt, the book features a great range of Meg Ray’s recipes, including my favorite, the chocolate pot de crème.*
- Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and and Peter F. Neumeyer Floating Worlds chronicles letters between two book partners who became friends. Gorey’s envelopes are marvelously detailed works of art. Topping my Christmas list (if I can wait that long.)
- Taschen 4 Cities – 12 Vol. in Box Covering New York, London, Paris, and Berlin, each city separated into guides for “hotels”, “restaurants”, and “shops”. Love that they’ve taken the design-oriented (and coffee-table sized) Taschen guide book concept and translated it into pocket-sized companions.
- Menus for Chez Panisse I’ve yet to eat at Chez Panisse, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, but in the meantime, I’ll happily pore over this collection of letterpress menus for the restaurant, designed by Patricia Curtan.
Happy reading, and long live books! Feel free to add your favorites to the comments.
* Per the helpful comment from Stef (below) please note that the current edition of the Miette cookbook has several errors. They have been addressed through a pdf errata document from Chronicle Books. In addition, a corrected version of the book is to be released later this fall.
photo credits: 1, 3, 6 + 7 from amazon.com; 2 from us.penguingroup.com; 4, 5 + 8 from chroniclebooks.com
5 Comments
didn’t know until just recently about the maira kalman/food rules. that’s exciting. i have my eye on the chez panisse menus book, too.
I loved the simplicity of the old “Food Rules” cover but the Maira Kalman illustration definitely trumps it.
Not that I’m trying to warn off buying it, but I’d recommend waiting for the second edition of the Miette book if you can – I bought it as a gift for a friend only for her to discover that, beautifully produced though it is, it’s full of errors :(
There’s a correction card, but from what my friend’s told me – echoing several of the Amazon reviews – it still needs work. Hopefully you won’t have to wait long for the new edition, though, their website says ‘this fall.’
Thanks for sharing this list! Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the latest Martha Stewart book.
Hi. The second edition has been issued in Australia and it’s STILL full of errors. The errata sheet you have linked does not cover the errors in their entirety.
In addition, your readers should know that the instructions are not by weight and this creates havoc when attempting to re-create. Whomever wrote this book is no baker. I would not recommend this as a buy unfortunately.