New Books for the cool mom/Dads
If your reading list includes parenting tips, creative projects, and bedtime favorites, you’re a Cool Mom or Dad Reader. At Bookfinity, we know you're juggling it all—so we help you find books that are as practical and playful as your daily life, whether you're planning family adventures or carving out a quiet moment just for you.
This fall’s newest releases bring warmth, wisdom, and fun for the whole crew. From insightful parenting reads and cooking favorites to books that keep you in check and engaging stories for you too, these picks are perfect for cooler days, cuddle time, and keeping curiosity alive in every season.
November New Releases
Athens: Food, Stories, Love: A Cookbook
by Diane Kochilas
New York Times bestselling author Diane Kochilas's latest cookbook, with 150 recipes, explores all of the greatest dishes from Greece's most-visited city.
Everyone's favorite Greek chef, Diane Kochilas, is back with a cookbook dedicated to exploring the food of Athens. Diane has lived in Athens for thirty years and has been witness to the enormous social and culinary changes all around her. To navigate the city's gastronomic scene today is to discover a city overflowing with new creative energy in its kitchens and myriad of international ingredients in its markets. These new global influences on the Athenian table live side by side with Greece's great gastronomic traditions. Souvlaki, hand pies, and the classic pasta casserole pastitsio are included here along with Athenian "fancy" dishes like Noua, a classic Athenian pot roast, and Chicken Milanese, combining chicken, rice, and a velvety cream sauce. Giving readers a taste of the ways in which the culinary traditions of other countries are shaping the way Athens eats today, Diane offers a recipe for a French-influenced cross between a croissant and spanakopita, shares an Italian twist on a Greek classic with Shrimp Saganaki Risotto, updates a Greek bean dish with a Grec-Mex twist on gigantes, and much more. As with all of Diane's other books, the recipes in Athens are home-cook friendly. So, bring a taste of today's Athenian table to your home with Athens: Food, Stories, Love.
Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat [A Baking Cookbook]
by Vaughn Vreeland - New York Times Cooking New York Times Cooking
Delight your friends and family (and yourself) with 100 delicious cookies from NYT Cooking.
Dessert is sometimes seen as a bonus, but what could be more essential than delightful treats? From NYT Cooking and curated by recipe creator, video journalist, and YouTube personality Vaughn Vreeland, Cookies is the ultimate collection of treats-from classic recipes that taste like home, to flavor-packed bites that will become your new go-tos.
When you need a trusted recipe for the Best Chocolate Chip or Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, look no further. If you'd like something fresh, try the Salted Margarita Bars or Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies. Feeling a little nutty? Rum-Buttered Almond or Peanut Butter Miso Cookies might do the trick. And when you can't wait to break out the holiday cookie tin, Gochujang Caramel Cookies and Pistachio Pinwheels will have you feeling festive all year long.
Featuring time-tested recipes and expert guidance from trusted writers Yossy Arefi, Melissa Clark, Dorie Greenspan, Eric Kim, Genevieve Ko, Yewande Komolafe, Samantha Seneviratne, Susan Spungen, Vaughn himself, and many others, Cookies will serve up delight and inspiration for any party, picnic, or regular Tuesday night. Because you deserve a cookie.
Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop's Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery
by Nick Offerman - Lee Buchanan
*Instant New York Times Bestseller!*
From New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-winning actor, and charismatically carnivorous woodworker Nick Offerman and his fellow champion creator Lee Buchanan (who is also not averse to delicious meats), an illustrated woodworking guide with projects for the whole family
Are you a parent or an otherwise amply sized Woodchuck interested in making projects with, or for, your kids? Or are you an aspiring small Woodchuck ready to get into some quality mischief that involves a hammer, nails, and your very own pocketknife? Well, do we have a guide for you!
Offerman Woodshop is opening its avuncular doors to woodworkers of all ages in the form of twelve brand-new, family-friendly undertakings perfect for kids, from beginner offerings like a handmade box kite to more challenging structures like a garden planter.
All projects are achievable and fun and encourage eye contact, giggles, handshakes, and other old-fashioned familial engagements, while introducing young woodworkers-to-be to the satisfaction and good clean fun of hands-on crafting.
Make Do with What You Have: 100 Delicious New Recipes from Favorite Old-School Meals
by Kardea Brown
The New York Times bestselling author of The Way Home returns with over 100 fabulous recipes--delicious updates of her favorite childhood meals.
From Kardea Brown: Growing up in a household with a single parent taught me how to make use of things we already had. She made gourmet meals with simple kitchen staples. I invite readers to do the same with my twist on Old School Classic recipes.
Kardea Brown is back with this practical and flavorful cookbook everyone needs. Offering crowd and palate pleasing dishes from morning to noon, and night.
Breakfast
Break the fast with Geechee Egg Rice, Sausage and Grits and On the Run Breakfast Sandwiches.
Lunch
Dig into Turkey Burgers, Tuna Melts, and Ramen Chicken Noddle Soup.
Dinner
Welcome friends and family home with filling, mouthwatering dishes like Grilled "Poke" Chops, Chicken Mafe and "The Poor Man's Meal".
Desserts
Sweeten meals with delights such as Ma's goodie bars, Warm Sticky Apple Pudding and Lemon Snowball Cookies.
Filled with inviting and tasty food that won't break the bank, illustrated with over 100 color photos, Make Do with What You Have allows you to enjoy great meals every day.
Off the Scales: The Inside Story of Ozempic and the Race to Cure Obesity
by Aimee Donnellan
The inside story of the creation of Ozempic and its revolutionary impact on public health.
A "cure" for obesity has long been the holy grail for the pharmaceutical industry, one that seemed unattainable until recent breakthroughs in type 2 diabetes research led to the development of Ozempic, a weight loss medication that activates a hormone in the stomach called GLP-1, making people feel fuller for longer. The treatment is so effective that it is already disrupting many industries--from healthcare to fast food to fashion--and it has quickly made its creator, Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the most valuable company in Europe. But the impact of GLP-1s goes far beyond billion-dollar profits; a true long-term cure for obesity could save 40 percent of American adults from dangerous, preventable illnesses. And as more potential benefits emerge, one question looms in the minds of investors, healthcare workers, and politicians: Are these drugs too good to be true?
In Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan illuminates the history of a medical breakthrough that is poised to change the world, while raising difficult social questions about inequality and morality. Through original reporting and rigorous research, she forecasts the future of GLP-1s and examines what their explosive popularity tells us about our ideals of beauty and the lengths to which people will go in order to become thin.
Along the way, Donnellan profiles the scientist whose contributions to the discovery of GLP-1 were overlooked, documents her fight for recognition while her colleagues were thrust into the limelight, and offers new insights into the ways that the food and beauty industries made billions while promoting unhealthy and unrealistic body image standards and accelerating the obesity crisis. She also provides firsthand accounts of several early Ozempic users and the transformative effect the drug has had on their weight loss journeys.
Off the Scales is an informative and entertaining study of the unexpected consequences of finally getting what we've wanted for so long.
Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home
by Tim Siadatan
"They've bottled up the Padella magic and made it available to us all. Complimenti!" -YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
From bold Italian chef Tim Siadatan, over 100 recipes for true pasta lovers everywhere, from the freshest raviolis to the richest ragu-with a foreword by Jamie Oliver.
Since its inception in 2016, Padella restaurant has set the standard for pasta in London and beyond, drawing long lines, big crowds, and global attention for its range of simple, innovative, expertly prepared Italian fare. Now, head chef Tim Siadatan will collect Padella's renowned recipes and aim them squarely at the home cook, marrying style and flavor to create the elegant yet accessible pasta book his worldwide fans have been waiting for. The recipes include both meat and vegetarian dishes and range from fresh, flat pasta recipes like Fettucine with Artichokes, Pancetta & Sage; filled pastas such as Tortellini of Veal & Pork in Brodo; baked pasta dishes like Mushroom Lasagna; and Gnocchi with Nutmeg Butter.
With recipes that are adaptable, accessible, flavor-forward, and deeply satisfying, Padella is set to become your go-to book for perfect pasta every time.
Padma's All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook
by Padma Lakshmi
"[Lakshmi] is the perfect person to help us understand how immigrants are changing the way Americans eat . . . . A spicy blend. . . . Delicious." - The Wall Street Journal
In this very personal book--the result of seven years of traveling and tasting, listening and observing for her award-winning Hulu show Taste the Nation--Padma Lakshmi compiles more than 100 recipes from the immigrant and Indigenous communities she visits, as well as many from her own family, showing us what really comprises American cuisine.
Recipes include:
- Plum Chaat - Tomato Egg Drop Soup - Yogurt Tahdig - Pasta all'Amatriciana
- Jollof Rice - Saag and Grits - Shoyu Poke - Pad Thai Fish - Jerk Chicken
- Amazonian Tamales - Biracial Latkes - Vegetable Pakori - Coconut Rice - Banana Lumpia - Strawberry-Cardamom and Cream Cake - Masala Chai -
Padma's All American is filled with mouth-watering recipes, adapted here for the home cook--along with profiles and stories from the people who inspired the dishes. It is a joyful book--a love letter to the people who create and evolve American cuisine every day and a road map to the foods that give America its vibrant palate, from one of our most essential culinarians.
October New Releases
Bad B*tch in the Kitch: Craveable Asian Recipes to Ditch the Takeout: A Cookbook
by Cassie Yeung
Add some razzle dazzle to your home cooking with 80 recipes for your favorite Asian takeout dishes from culinary influencer Cassie Yeung
Cassie Yeung likes to think of herself as a chef for the people--no professional culinary training here, just a girl who really loves to cook (and eat, obvi). She believes that the #1 rule in the kitchen is to have fun, let loose, and cook the way you want to. For Cassie, that means yelling "behind!" in her own kitchen, softening butter against her skin, and showing off her baddie nails as she pleats dumplings like a boss.
In Bad B*tch in the Kitch, Cassie serves up the food she loves most: the Asian dishes she grew up eating and now craves on the regular. So many people know and love Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Singaporean cuisine, but they don't always know how easy it can be to recreate their favorite dishes at home. Cassie shares some of her go-to dishes, dialed in for home cooks, in chapters such as:
- First Bite Besties: Crab Rangoons, Siu Mai (Steamed Pork and Prawn Dumplings), Spam Musubi
- Noodz: Scallion Oil Noodles, Pad See Ew, Spicy Miso Instant Ramen
- Skip the Takeout: Sweet & Sour Pork, 30 Minute Beef + Broccoli, Chicken Katsu Curry
- Not Too Sweet: Lazy Girl Mango Sticky Rice, Brown Butter Matcha Cheesecake, Vietnamese Coffee Tiramisu
- Whole Lotta Basics: Hand Pulled Noodles, Ginger Scallion Sauce, Peanut Dipping Sauce
Not only can you save money by skipping takeout, but everything tastes better homemade, too. With Cassie's delicious and approachable recipes, you can confidently whip up classic noodles, stir fries, and soups whenever the craving strikes.
Does Anyone Else Feel This Way?: Essays on Conquering the Quarter-Life Crisis
by Eli Rallo
From TikTok star and the author of I Didn't Know I Needed This Eli Rallo, a reflection on the anxiety of transitioning into adulthood, navigating the quarter-life crisis, and realizing you're actually not alone.
Does anyone else feel like they're the only one having a quarter-life crisis? As a senior in college, Eli Rallo expected her post-grad years to be filled with certainty, that she would finally feel that she was the "adult" she had long dreamed she'd be, with a cool job, an amazing apartment, fabulous friends, and lots of fun and flirty date nights. Instead she was met with crippling social anxiety, no idea what direction her career was taking, an inability to stop comparing herself to her peers' picture-perfect lives on social media, and a looming sense that she may never feel certain--about her dating life, friendships, career, or even herself.
With deep honesty, raw emotions, humor, and relatability, Eli analyzes life in your twenties with a candid and heartfelt approach, asking and answering questions like:
Even though early adulthood doesn't look just like Sex and the City or Thirteen Going on Thirty the way Eli thought it would, with Does Anyone Else Feel This Way? Eli shows you that you're not the only one who misses the days when they could swing by the dining hall or just wants to call their mom to make it all go away. With a look at her own misadventures and hard-won life lessons, Eli shares the journey she's been on to find herself as an adult, and the twists and turns she's taken while navigating her own quarter-life crisis.
Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home
by Arnold Myint - Kat Thompson
One of Eater's Best New Cookbooks Fall 2025
The James Beard nominee and chef of the Thai restaurant International Market in Nashville, Arnold Myint, shares how to make the Thai food he grew up with in a cookbook that is approachable yet packs a punch of flavor
In Family Thai, Arnold breaks down an often-intimidating cuisine into accessible building blocks for every home cook, beginning with pantry staples--what's fish sauce? what are the differences between soy sauces?--and moving on to teaching readers essential skills like how to steam the perfect sticky rice or how to make their own noodles if they can't find them stocked nearby.
Arnold also shares what he likes to cook at home and adaptations of Thai cuisine that have been inspired by his hometown of Nashville and his travels around the world. From there, he takes us into the vibrant and colorful world of Thai street food--including shumai, shrimp toast, curry puffs, and more--classic noodle dishes, his own original creations, and, of course, his mother's classic recipes.
Longtime fans of International Market, who have been begging for their favorite classic recipes for years, will find them among these pages.
Arnold Myint grew up as a restaurant kid and was lucky enough to be surrounded by delicious Thai food. His parents, Thai and Burmese immigrants, first opened Nashville's International Market & Restaurant in 1975--a rarity in Tennessee, where Asian cuisine hadn't quite expanded beyond Americanized Chinese takeout. The Myints were determined to introduce Americans to the fiery, bold, and fragrant Thai flavors that had always brought them comfort, and it turned out that a taste of Thailand was exactly what Nashville needed.
Almost 45 years later, after attending culinary school in New York City and working with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Arnold now owns and runs International Market, where he continues to serve the comforting, soul-feeding recipes of his mother while also jazzing things up with his own Thai-Southern flare. During the pandemic, Arnold began reaching out to an all-new audience as well through Instagram, teaching "Thai 101" basics to an ever-growing number of viewers.
When Thais greet each other, they don't ask how are you or what's up? Instead, they ask, Kin lao yang? or have you eaten? Feeding people is how Patti and Win Myint--and now Arnold--show their love, not just for their family but for everyone within reach. In Family Thai, Arnold shares his boldly flavorful food and welcoming, heartfelt approach with home cooks everywhere.
Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity
by Cas Holman - Lydia Denworth
A designer, educator, and play expert calls for adults to add more fun, exploration, and imagination to their lives
"Radiant and essential ... this book brings a sense of transcendence. Reading it was not only inspiring; it was joyful." --Elizabeth Gilbert, NYT bestselling author of Big Magic
We're all born playful. But when we grow up, we learn to suppress this critical, hardwired instinct and our lives become ruled by "getting things done." As world-famous designer Cas Holman explains, this disconnection from our playful selves is hazardous to everything from our emotional wellbeing to our ability to problem solve and innovate. The emerging science of play shows that it sparks joy, wonder, creativity, and insight at any age.
Here, Holman explains the power of "free play" through open-ended, unstructured activities that we become absorbed in with no obvious goal or purpose. The ways we can play are endless and what recharges us most is unique to each of us: whether it's a piece of art we create, an entertaining conversation with a stranger, or an experiment to shake up a routine task. Weaving in inspiring stories and eye-opening research, Holman shows us that adopting a playful mindset is crucial in helping us:
- Overcome fear of failure and embrace new ways of thinking
- Destress, reset, and connect with each other
- Grow our creativity at every stage of our lives
- Find joy in bleak times
Playful draws on psychology, history, art, and design thinking to make a powerful case for the vital importance of play for grown-ups in a world obsessed with productivity. Provocative, wise, and full of spirit, it will inspire you to (re) learn how to play.
That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You
by Elyse Myers
Writer, comedian, and content creator Elyse Myers gets real about life's awkward moments in her bold, funny, and unfiltered debut book
Elyse Myers is known to her twelve million followers as "The Internet's Best Friend," sharing her relatable stories and comedic sketches and serving as an advocate for topics such as neurodivergence, impostor syndrome, body image, and more. Whether she's making people laugh with tales of disastrous dates or giving a voice to that awkward internal monologue many of us have, she has three simple goals behind everything she makes: To make people feel known, loved, and like they belong.
In That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You, Elyse delivers a debut collection of deeply personal stories and hand-drawn illustrations, offering even more intimate reflections beyond what fans have seen on her social media, including:
Plus, tales involving bad dates and is-this-a-dates; the tempting yet futile urge to reinvent yourself, panic attacks and escape hatches, and favorite pens and systems to use them, all while loving and letting yourself be loved, preferably at the same time.
The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life
by Morgan Housel
From the bestselling author of The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever, lessons on harnessing the power of money to live a happier life
Most of us don't know how to spend money. We chase things that impress others but leave us cold. Or we save endlessly, afraid to spend on what would actually make life better. We confuse admiration with envy, comfort with excess, and utility with status.
The Art of Spending Money doesn't provide budgets, hacks, or one-size-fits-all solutions. It gives you understanding of how your relationship with money shapes your decisions--and how to reshape it so money works for you.
Morgan Housel's work has helped millions rethink how they earn, save, and invest. Now he turns his attention to the other side of the equation: how to spend. With insight and warmth, he shows why the most valuable return on investment is peace of mind, why expectations matter more than income, and why doing well with money has less to do with spreadsheets and more to do with self-awareness.
This book isn't about getting rich. It's about getting the most out of what you already have--and learning to want what's worth wanting.
September New Releases
I'm Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches
by Drew Nieporent
Drew Nieporent has been a staple of the New York dining scene for decades, establishing a host of iconic restaurants like Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Montrachet. But his career started from much more humble beginnings--the grill at the local McDonald's.
A middle class kid from New York's East Side, Drew spends his childhood tagging along with his father to help restaurants get their liquor license, igniting a lifelong obsession with food. His passion takes him on a winding, continent-spanning journey, crossing paths with legendary chefs, iconic athletes, and movie stars as he grows into one of the most influential names in the culinary world. From waiting tables on a cruise ship to getting his first three-star review; from squabbling with Cornell professors to partnering with Robert DeNiro; this is more than a story of one man's extraordinary life--it's a story of an evolving industry. As culinary trends come and go, and relationships blossom and combust, Nieporent navigates it all with a simple yet powerful philosophy: give the customer what they want.
Told in Drew's unforgettable voice, I'm Not Trying To Be Difficult is a rollicking memoir that feels like sitting across the dinner table from someone who has seen it all--one of the last great restaurateurs.
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation
by Elizabeth Gilbert
In her first nonfiction book in a decade, the #1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.
What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love--or to any other passion, substance, or craving - and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.
Big Kids, Bigger Feelings: Navigating Defiance, Meltdowns, and Anxiety to Raise Confident, Connected Kids
by Alyssa Blask Campbell - Rachel Stuart Lounder
From the coauthor of Tiny Humans, Big Emotions, a guide to supporting children's social and emotional growth through the elementary school years (ages 5-12), a critical but often-overlooked developmental stage.
TOO OLD FOR TANTRUMS
TOO YOUNG FOR TEENAGE DRAMA
Meltdowns. Name-calling. Hitting, kicking, and hair-pulling. Except, these aren't the toddler years. Why is your elementary-school-age child still having these outbursts?
Long thought of as the time when parents can finally enjoy calmer kids and deal with less emotional volatility and tears, the elementary school years are anything but. During this pivotal time, our children navigate a new set of social and emotional challenges. From playground bullying to cliques and exclusion, ever-increasing academic challenges, and plenty of physical growth and hormonal changes thrown into the mix--the elementary school years are more complicated than most parents realize.
Big Kids, Bigger Feelings is the guide you need to help your child thrive during these developmentally complex and wonderful years. The social and emotional skills you provide your children with now will prepare them for a lifetime of self-advocacy and stronger emotional intelligence. Campbell's revolutionary Collaborative Emotion Processing (CEP) method, used in preschool and elementary school environments, teaches you how to work with your children to help them understand how they are feeling and process their big emotions in healthy, constructive ways. Discover how to:
- Teach kids to handle unkind behaviors and set boundaries
- Help kids learn to regulate themselves when they feel angry, sad, or upset
- Manage technology use in a safe and healthy way
- Navigate puberty, body changes, sex, drugs, and other important topics
- Develop a deeper connection with your child
The elementary school years are rife with change--from changing bodies to changing social structures--and there's never a better time to help your kids handle these ever-increasing challenges so they can thrive today and tomorrow.
Dealing with Feeling: Use Your Emotions to Create the Life You Want
by Marc Brackett
From Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of the bestselling book Permission to Feel, comes an essential guide for regulating how we respond to our emotions in order to transform our lives.
Success in virtually every aspect of life--career, friendship, love, and family--is determined mainly by one thing: how we deal with emotions. In your most challenging moments, how did you respond? Did you fly off the handle? Were you paralyzed by indecision? Did you engage in behaviors that undermined your best intentions? Or did you exhibit grace under pressure and flourish? How you responded likely shaped what happened next. But emotion regulation isn't a fixed trait, as many believe. It is a set of skills and strategies that must be learned, practiced, and refined over a lifetime.
Marc Brackett examines his own challenges dealing with emotions, explains the latest science of emotion regulation, and provides a set of practical, evidence-based strategies to help us use our feelings wisely to nurture healthy relationships, achieve ambitious goals, and experience greater well-being. At the heart of his message is acceptance: There are no bad emotions--only emotions we don't understand or know how to direct in positive, intentional ways.
The good news? We all have the power to decide how we will respond to what life throws at us. By honing our emotion regulation skills, we can increase our chances of achieving success in all facets of our lives. Dealing with Feeling will show you how to work with your and others' emotions--not against them--so you can become the best version of yourself and lift others up too.
Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves--And How to Find Our Way Back
by Ingrid Clayton
From a clinical psychologist and expert in complex trauma recovery comes a powerful guide introducing fawning, an often-overlooked piece of the fight-flight-freeze reaction to trauma--explaining what it is, why it happens, and how to help survivors regain their voice and sense of self.
Most of us are familiar with the three F's of trauma--fight, flight, or freeze. But psychologists have identified a fourth, extremely common (yet little-understood) response: fawning. Often conflated with "codependency" or "people-pleasing," fawning occurs when we inexplicably draw closer to a person or relationship that causes pain, rather than pulling away.
- Do you apologize to people who have hurt you?
- Ignore their bad behavior?
- Befriend your bullies?
- Obsess about saying the right thing?
- Make yourself into someone you're not . . . while seeking approval that may never come?
You might be a fawner.
Fawning explains why we stay in bad jobs, fall into unhealthy partnerships, and tolerate dysfunctional environments, even when it seems so obvious to others that we should go. And though fawning serves a purpose--it's an ingenious protective strategy in unsafe situations--it's a problem if it becomes a repetitive, compulsory reaction in our daily lives.
But here's the good news: we can break the pattern of chronic fawning, once we see it for the trauma response it is. Drawing on twenty years of clinical psychology work--as well as a lifetime of experience as a recovering fawner herself--Dr. Ingrid Clayton demonstrates WHY we fawn, HOW to recognize the signs of fawning (including taking blame, conflict avoidance, hypervigilance, and caretaking at the expense of ourselves), and WHAT we can do to successfully "unfawn" and finally be ourselves, in all our imperfect perfection.
Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook
by Samin Nosrat - Aya Brackett
From the bestselling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat--and one of America's most beloved chefs and teachers--125 meticulously tested, flavor-forward, soul-nourishing recipes that bring joy and a sense of communion
With all the generosity of spirit that has endeared her to millions of fans, Samin Nosrat offers more than 125 of her favorite recipes--simply put, the things she most loves to cook for herself and for friends--and infuses them with all the beauty and care you would expect from the person Alice Waters called "America's next great cooking teacher." As Samin says, "Recipes, like rituals, endure because they're passed down to us--whether by ancestors, neighbors, friends, strangers on the internet, or me to you. A written recipe is just a shimmering decoy for the true inheritance: the thread of connection that cooking it will unspool."
Good Things is an essential, joyful guide to cooking and living, whether you're looking for a comforting tomato soup to console a struggling friend, seeking a deeper sense of connection in your life, or hosting a dinner for ten in your too-small dining room. Here you'll find go-to recipes for ricotta custard pancakes, a showstopping roast chicken burnished with saffron, a crunchy, tingly Calabrian chili crisp, super-chewy sky-high focaccia, and a decades-in-the-making, childhood-evoking yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Along the way, you'll also find plenty of tips, techniques, and lessons, from how to buy olive oil (check the harvest date) to when to splurge (salad dressing is where you want to use your best ingredients) to the best uses for your pressure cooker (chicken stock and dulce de leche, naturally).
Good Things captures, with Samin's trademark blend of warmth, creativity, and precision, what has made cooking such an important source of delight and comfort in her life.
In Defense of Dabbling: The Brilliance of Being a Total Amateur
by Karen Walrond
Resist grind culture and discover the joy of dabbling.
From Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto and Radiant Rebellion, comes a delightful jaunt into how to be a total amateur--by doing the things you love even if you're not any good at them.
In today's grind culture, hobbies become side hustles. Work creeps into leisure time. Perfectionism reigns. We look up to experts, and we look down on amateurs. And when someone asks us what we like to do, we realize we have absolutely no idea.
But amateur just means ""one who loves."" So what if being a total amateur is actually a good thing? What if we've been so focused on achieving that we have forgotten how to be interesting?
In her new book, Karen Walrond strikes out to discover the things she loves that demand no excellence--just desire. As she cultivates practices and rituals, without any expectation of success or accolades, she shows us how to do the same. And she helps us learn Seven Attributes of Intentional Amateurism: curiosity, mindfulness, self-compassion, play, zone-stretching, connection, and awe.
Follow Walrond as she dabbles in throwing pottery, swimming laps, playing piano, learning to surf, and photographing the Milky Way (spoiler: it doesn't all go well). Listen in on her conversations with other amateurs--and experts too--about how intentional amateurism enhances mental and social health. And to get you started on your own intentional amateurism practice, she also serves up a list of more than two hundred ideas for things to dabble in--ways to discover your own path to being a total amateur.
Walrond reminds us that it's in the living that we create a life, so failure isn't a concern; in fact, it's kind of the point. If we get better at a hobby or a craft, that's simply a byproduct, never the goal. Transcendence awaits: What joy might we find if we simply started doing the things we love?
Sally's Baking 101: Foolproof Recipes from Easy to Advanced
by Sally McKenney
The ultimate baking book for home cooks of all skill levels with 101 sweet and savory, foolproof recipes plus helpful tips for best results--from the creator of the beloved website Sally's Baking Addiction.
"Sally has a gift for creating recipes that bakers trust and that families and friends crave. There's so much to learn and so much to love here."--New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan
For years, Sally's Baking Addiction has been the trusted online resource for anyone who wants to make delicious baked goods from scratch. An expert self-taught baker, Sally McKenney has been dedicated to developing and perfecting a wide range of baking recipes and her devoted audience trusts her implicitly. In this collection of 101 irresistible recipes, she presents an array of crowd-pleasing bakes to suit every occasion and craving, from cookies and bars to cakes, pies, breads, and brunch fare. Sprinkled throughout the book, you'll find a selection of her most treasured fan favorites, including Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Strawberry Cake, Homemade Pizza Dough, and Classic Apple Pie.
Sally shares everything you need to know to be a successful home baker including basic baking principles, tools and ingredients, detailed how-to's, and step-by-step photos. She also offers her best tips and tricks, such as how to brown butter, prepare your baking pans, freeze baked goods, test for doneness, and so much more. Simpler recipes are included if your time is limited or you're just beginning your baking journey, like Chewy Banana Walnut Cookies, Thick & Fudgy Brownies, Lemon Lavender Olive Oil Cake, and the Ultimate Fruit Crisp. Advanced bakers will be excited to try Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Danishes, Tiramisu Cake Roll, Sky-High Chocolate Mousse Pie, and Asparagus & Smoked Salmon Tart. Many of the recipes are somewhere in between, including Buttermilk Chive Fantail Rolls, Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies, Caramel Sheet Cake, and Butternut Squash & Sage Chicken Pot Pie.
With Sally's Baking 101 as your guide, you'll gain the knowledge you need to feel confident baking from scratch with tempting, reliable recipes guaranteed to delight family and friends.