Overbooked Book Lists

Cooked Books Booklist - Fiction & Nonfiction

Page Modified: June 19, 2009

Books about the cooking, cooks & caterers, bakers & baking, dinning & diners. All fiction genres are included - literary, historical, mystery, romance ... Fill up on food for the mind!

Fiction

• Crescent
  Author: Abu-Jaber, Diana
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305747x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Praised by critics for her first novel, Arabian Jazz, Diana Abu-Jaber now weaves with spellbinding magic a multidimensional love story set in the Arab-American community of Los Angeles.
  Genres: Literary | Multicultural
  
• Secrets of the Tsil Cafe
  Author: Averill, Thomas Fox
  Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399147551 Date: 2001
  Wes Hingler lives in the shadow of his fiercely opinionated cook parents. Argument and habanero chile are the dominant spices of Wes's life, permeating the tense atmosphere of his father's restaurant and his mother's catering business. Professional rivalries, romantic triangles, and assorted betrayals all make for a volatile coming-of-age tale.
  Genre: Fiction
  
• Scarlet Feather
  Author: Binchy, Maeve
  Publisher: Dutton $ 25.95 ISBN: 0525945938 Date: 2001
  PW
  Written by Maeve Binchy at her very best, Scarlet Feather is a novel capturing one year in the life of Tom Feather and Cathy Scarlet, cooking school friends who have formed Scarlet Feather, a catering company that is taking Dublin by storm. While some things go according to plan and their hard work begins to pay off, this is a year of heartaches and triumphs, disappointments and joys, loves and losses.
  Genre: Fiction
  Updated 1/18/01
• Liquor
  Author: Brite, Poppy Z.
  Publisher: Random $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1400050073 Date: 2004
  A manic, spicy romp through the kitchens, dive bars, and drug deals of New Orleans, Liquor is equal parts ambition, scandal, Cajun hot sauce, cocaine, crayfish, and murder, served straight up.
  Genre: Fiction | Humor
  
• The Food of Love
  Author: Capella, Anthony
  Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670033227 Date: 2004
  LJ
  In the spirit of Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat, Capella's delicious first novel, tempts readers to devour it at one sitting and confirms that fine food and romance are a winning combination.
  Genre: Fiction
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 7.13.04
• The Epicure's Lament
  Author: Christensen, Kate
  Publisher: Bantam Dell $ 23.95 ISBN: 0767910303 Date: 2001
  Kirkus LJ PW
  From the author of In the Drink, a compelling novel about a man smoking himself to death. A literary tour de force of bitter humor and gorgeously articulated misanthropy to rival the works of Martin Amis and John Lanchester.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Genre: Literary
  
• The Devil's Larder
  Author: Crace, Jim
  Publisher: FSG $ 20 ISBN: 0374138591 Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  Winner of the 2000 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for Being Dead, Crace is known for his finely honed style. Here he gets to work really close to the bone, producing 60 brief flights of fantasy on appetite, food and objects of desire.
  Genre: Literary
  
• Double Shot
  Author: Davidson, Diane Mott
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060527293 Date: 2004
  PW
  "Today's foremost practitioner of the culinary whodunit" (Entertainment Weekly) whips up a rich souffle of murder and mischief as her trusty heroine Goldy Schultz gets caught up in a web of secrets and lies that could tear her family apart.
  Suggested Reading: Amateur Sleuths
  Updated 9.18.04
• Like Water for Chocolate
  Author: Esquivel, Laura
  Publisher: BDD $ 25 ISBN: 0385420161 Date: 1992
  A #1 bestseller in Mexico in 1990, this charming, imaginative, and just plain fun novel of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico includes unique recipes at the beginning of each chapter for a variety of traditional dishes.
  Genres: Fiction | Multicultural
  
• Perfect Sax
  Author: Farmer, Jerrilyn
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0380978903 Date: 2004
  A sour note is struck at a hot L.A. gala when a priceless saxophone is stolenfrom the auction, a body is discovered, and caterer Madeline Bean starts to suspect a killer may be gunning for her, too.
  Genre: Mystery
  
• Second Thyme Around
  Author: Fford, Katie
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312273045 Date: 2001
  LJ
  The last thing organic gardener Perdita wants is a meddlesome man in her life. But she's about to get one in the form of her infuriating ex-husband, Lucas--the new chef at Grantly House, an English inn and Perdita's best customer. Soon, Mr. Grantly has an idea for a TV cooking show that will pair Lucas and Perdita as "The Gourmet and the Gardener." Now things are really heating up in the kitchen--and elsewhere.
  Genre: Romance
  
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
  Author: Flagg, Fannie
  Publisher: Random $ 23 ISBN: 0375508414 Date: reissued 2002
  This classic and folksy novel takes readers back to the thirties, where a friendship blooms between two girls who run a homey, little cafe in Alabama. A story of food, love, laughter, and even murder unfolds as an elderly woman relates her life story to a middle-aged friend.
  Genre: Fiction | Humor
  
• Five Quarters of the Orange
  Author: Harris, Joanne
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25 ISBN: 0060198133 Date: 2001
  Booklist LJ
  From the bestselling author of Chocolat comes a sensual literary concoction of tragedy, secrets, and the relationship between a daughter and her mother. Returning to the small Loire village of her childhood to run a cafe, Franboise Dartigen soon finds that hidden among her mother's recipes are clues that will lead her to the truth of long ago.
  Genre: Fiction
  Updated 4/3/01
• Chocolat
  Author: Harris, Joanne
  Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0670881791 Date: 1999
  PW
  Harris offers descriptions of chocolat real enough to melt in the mouths of chocholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere. Genre: Fiction
  
• Cooking for Harry
  Author: James, Kay-Marie
  Publisher: Random $ 21 ISBN: 1400045029 Date: 2004
  In this fast, funny, and food-laced romance, a woman falls in love with a newman after 25 years: her 100-pounds-lighter husband.
  Genre: Fiction | Humor
  
• How To Cook a Tart
  Author: Kilham, Nina
  Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 1582342695 Date: 2002
  Cookbook author Jasmine March's life is rich and satisfying like a perfectly prepared bchamel--but even a great bchamel curdles sometimes. This dark, wildly funny, and deeply imaginative first novel is about the pleasures of food and the perils of marriage.
  Genre: Fiction | Humor
  
• Reservations Recommended
  Author: Kraft, Eric
  Publisher: St Martins $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0312135971 Date: 1995
  Genre: Fiction
  
• Maggie Darling
  Author: Kunstler, James Howard
  Publisher: Pub Group West$ 23ISBN: 0871139103 Date: 2004
  She's the goddess of hearth and home, America's millionaire media maven of domesticity, Connecticut's most dazzling hostess, and everything in her world must be perfect--except that Maggie Darling's enviable life has suddenly gone off the rails.
  Genre: Fiction
  
• The Debt to Pleasure
  Author: Lanchester, John
  Publisher: Holt $ 20 ISBN: 0805043888 Date: 1996
  Kirkus PW
  A New York Times Notable Book,The Debt to Pleasure is a wickedly funny ode to food as the novel's snobbish narrator instructs readers in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu.
  Genre: Literary
  
• Girl Cook
  Author: McCouch, Hannah
  Publisher: Random $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400060427 Date: 2003
  A hilarious, contemporary romance about one woman's determined quest to have both love and a career, Girl Cook tells a delicious modern Cinderella story of love, sex, chefs, and the city.
  Genre: Fiction | Romance
  
• The Body in the Lighthouse
  Author: Page, Katherine Hall
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 038097844x Date: 2003
  Death takes a holiday in this captivating new mystery in the Agatha Award-winning series. Faith Fairchild heads for their island cottage off the coast of Maine, where something evil is afoot.
  Genre: Mystery
  
• The Secret Ingredient Murders
  Author: Pickard, Nancy
  Publisher: BDD $ 22.95 ISBN: 038531227x Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  A new mystery based on Virginia Rich's sleuth. Genia returns to Rhode Island from Arizona where old acquaintance Stanley Parker welcomes her. Genia and Stanley host a tasting party to test recipes for their new cookbook. Stanley selects six guests who are asked to contribute a recipe with one secret ingredient. When Stanley winds up dead, Genia's great-nephew becomes the prime suspect.
  Genre: Mystery
  
• Little Indiscretions
  Author: Posadas, Carmen
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0375508856 Date: 2003
  Business is slow for Nestor Chaffino, pastry chef to the rich and famous, until he's invited to cater a party in a villa on the Costa del Sol. When Nestor is found frozen to death in a walk-in freezer with a notebook in his hand, the party guests gathered that evening are the natural suspects. But who could have it in for a harmless cook?
  The answer, it turns out, is just about everyone who happens to be staying in the house. - Publisher marketing.
  Genre: Mystery
  
• La Cucina
  Author: Prior, Lily
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24 ISBN: 006019538x Date: 2000
  PW
  Since childhood, Rosa Fiore--daughter of a Sicilian matriarch and her hapless husband--found solace in her family's kitchen or "La Cucina", the heart of the family's estate. But there are other loves to be found, and hard won, in life.
  Genres: Fiction | Multicultural
  
• Butter Did It: A Gastronomic Tale of Love and Murder
  Author: Richman, Phyllis
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ ISBN: Date: 1997
  Washington's finest French chef, Laurence Levain is dead, and all of D.C. thinks the culprit was too much foie gras--except Chas Wheatley, the city's most famous restaurant critic. Still carrying a torch for Levain after a romance they shared years before, she's convinced that his death was more than a simple case of too much cholesterol--it was a case of murder. Enlisting the aid of detective/gourmand Homer Jones, she launches an investigation and soon finds herself in more trouble than she bargained for.
  Genre: Mystery
  
• The Book of Salt
  Author: Truong, Monique
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618304002
  Kirkus PW
  In this literary feast, the Vietnamese cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas reveals his fascinating story.
  Genres: Literary | Multicultural | Historical
  
• Velma Still Cooks in Leeway
  Author: Wright, Vinita Hampton
  Publisher: Broadman & Holman $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 0805421289 Date: 2000
  PW
  The chief cook in Leeway, Kansas, and the part-time janitor for Jerusalem Baptist Church, Velma takes good care of everyone around her. Then her husband stops talking, her cousin comes to live with her, and she finds herself dealing with the town's problems. Her journey of love and forgiveness lies at the heart of this novel. Recipes included.
  Genre: Christian/Inspirational
  

More Mysteries that cook . . . (authors and titles)
Bishop, Claudia
Bond, Michael Monsieur Pamplemousse
Fairbanks, Nancy
Fluke, Joanne
Heald, Tim. Just Desserts
King, Peter
Lyons, Nan. Someone Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe
Myers, Tamar. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth
Pence, Joanne
Pickard, Nancy. 27 Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders
Rich, Virginia
Stout, Rex. Too Many Cooks
Temple, Lou Jane

• Booklist Links:
  Edible Fiction: Food and Cooking Fiction
  Fiction With Recipes

Nonfiction

• The Language of Baklava
  Author: Abu-Jaber, Diana
  Publisher: Pantheon $ 23 ISBN: 0375423044 Date: 2005
  LJ Booklist
  Abu-Jaber's early life seemed defined by the rites and rituals of cooking and eating and she weaves her charming story around vividly remembered, sensually described meals.
  Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 3.3.05
• A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal
  Author: Bourdain, Anthony
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 25.95 ISBN: 1582341400 Date: 2001
  Dodging minefields in Cambodia or diving into the icy waters outside a Russian bath, Chef Bourdain travels the world over in search of the ultimate meal. The bestselling author of Kitchen Confidential loves traveling as much as cooking, and A Cook's Tour is the shotgun marriage of his two greatest passions.
  
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
  Author: Bourdain, Anthony
  Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 158234082x Date: 2000
  New York chef Tony Bourdain gives away secrets of the trade in his wickedly funny, inspiring memoir and expos. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "25 years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine".
  
• My Life in France
  Author: Child, Julia
  Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400043468 Date: 2006
  Kirkus PW
  This delightful memoir of Julia's years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence opens with Paul and Julia--a tall, wide-eyed girl from Pasadena who can't cook and doesn't speak a word of French--disembarking in Le Havre, and ends with the launching of the two "Mastering" cookbooks and Julia winning the heart of America as "The French Chef."
  Suggested Reading: Memoirs
  Updated 2.13.06
• Fried Chicken: An American Story
  Author: Edge, John T.
  Publisher: Putnam $ 18.95 ISBN: 0399151834 Date: 2004
  LJ
  Edge weaves a beguiling tapestry of food and culture as he takes readers from a Jersey Shore hotel to a Kansas City roadhouse, from the original Buffalo wings to KFC, from Nashville Hot Chicken to haute fried chicken at a genteel Southern inn. And, best of all, offers 15 of the ultimate recipes along the way.
  Updated 11.2.04
• M.F.K. Fisher: A Life in Letters: Correspondence 1929-1991
  Author: Fisher, M.F.K.
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 35 ISBN: 1887178465 Date: 1997
  Kirkus PW
  NYTBR Notable
  M.F.K. Fisher is a perennial literary favorite. Her evolution from an uncertain young woman to a feisty elder with opinions about everything continues to fascinate readers who understand the complexities of life's hungers.
  
• Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain Gone Haywire
  Author: Fox, Nichols
  Publisher: Basic $ 25 ISBN: 0465019803 Date: 1997
  Kirkus PW
  
• Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
  Author: Kurlansky, Mark
  Publisher: Walker $ 23 ISBN: 0802713262 Date:1997
  Booklist LJ
  Booklist Editors' Choice, LJ Best Books
  Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been founded on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To those it has sustained, the codfish is a treasure more precious than gold. Spanning a thousand years and four continents, Cod reveals the remarkable legacy of this extraordinary fish. 20 recipes.
  
• Salt: A World History
  Author: Kurlansky, Mark
  Publisher: Walker $ 28 ISBN: 0802713734 Date:2001
  Kirkus LJ
  Choice Outstanding Books
  Kurlansky, author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance--salt, the only rock humans eat-- and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning.
  
• American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads
  Author: Ledraoulec, Pascale
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060197366 Date: 2002
  LJ
  An engaging, quirky travelogue and adventure-cookbook brings back from the highways and backroads a homemade slice of America.
  
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
  Author: McGee, Harold
  Publisher: Scribner $ 35 ISBN: 0684800012 Date: 2004
  PW
  The revised and updated twentieth anniversary edition of the classic On Food And Cooking features 90 percent new material, addressing the culinary mechanics, mysteries, and trends of the past 20 years. Compulsively readable and engaging, this updated volume covers every aspect of how food is grown, harvested, cooked, eaten, and digested.
  Updated 11.22.04
• Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate
  Author: Medrich, Alice
  Publisher: Artisan $ 35 ISBN: 1579651607 Date: 2003
  LJ PW
  Medrich cracks the code for substituting one type of chocolate for another and offers new recipes--and fresh takes on old ones--that will please all who want flavor and nuance in their chocolate desserts.
  
• Fried Butter: A Food Memoir
  Author: Opincar, Abe
  Publisher: Soho $ 18 ISBN: 156947334x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Food is life, and Opincar relishes it in this food memoir that brings back the moments and people he broke bread with and loved. The author's memories are joined to food, with references to eggs sunny-side up and first sex, cornmeal mush and his dotty aunt, garlic and his father's love.
  Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
  
• The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
  Author: Pepin, Jacques
  Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618197370 Date:2003
  Booklist
  LJ Best Books
  In this frank and witty memoir, world-renowned chef Jacques Pepin tells how he rose from a frightened 13-year-old apprentice in an Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award-winning TV superstar. The PBS companion program of the same name airs nationwide beginning in June 2003.
  
• Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
  Author: Reichl, Ruth
  Publisher: Random $ 23 ISBN: 0679449876 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  NYTBR Notable
  The candid and comical memoir by the renowned New York Times restaurant critic whose high-spirited life has always been defined and enriched by food. Reichl's childhood and young-adult life provide a smorgasbord of wit and wisdom, sprinkled with recipes that perfectly capture her endlessly entertaining world.
  
• Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table
  Author: Reichl, Ruth
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375501959 Date: 2001
  PW
  The national bestseller that picks up where Tender at the Bone left off, Comfort Me with Apples recounts Reichl's transformation from chef to food writer, a process that leads her from New York to China in pursuit of good food and good company.
  
• Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing From Gourmet
  Author: Reichl, Ruth (editor)
  Publisher: Modern Library $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679642501 Date: 2002
  LJ
  This sumptuous compendium of food and travel essays, culled from the archives of Gourmet magazine, features beautifully rendered stories and unforgettable meals in the most interesting and unlikely places.
  
• Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater
  Author: Richman, Alan
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 006058629x Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From the ten-time James Beard Award winner and "GQ's" food critic comes a witty, globe-trotting smorgasbord of culinary escapades.
  Updated 8.25.04
• Recipes and Remembrances
  Author: Schenone, Laura
  Publisher: Norton $ 35 ISBN: 0393016714 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A stunningly illustrated book that celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives. Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, here is the first book to recount how American women have prepared food throughout the ages.
  
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
  Author: Schlosser, Eric
  Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 0395977894 Date: 2001
  Kirkus LJ
  ALA Notable Books, Booklist Editors' Choice
  To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Schlosser, a National Magazine Award-winning journalist, charts the fast food industry's enormous impact on our health, landscape, economy, politics and culture as he transforms the way America thinks about what it eats.
  
• The Housewife's Dream: Liberation and the Kitchen in 1950s America
  Author: Shapiro, Laura
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670871540 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  In this delightfully surprising history, Shapiro--author of the classic Perfection Salad--recounts the prepackaged dreams that bombarded American kitchens during the fifties.
  Updated 3.11.04
• The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World
  Author: Sheraton, Mimi
  Publisher: Bantam $ 19.95 ISBN: 0767905024 Date: 2000
  LJ
  
• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger
  Author: Slater, Nigel
  Publisher: Gotham $ 25 ISBN: 1592400906 Date: 2004
  Kirkus LJ
  Toast is Slater's extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. A bestseller and award-winner in the United Kingdom, Toast is sure to delight both foodies and memoir readers on this side of the pond.
  Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
  Updated 8.16.04
• The Best Thing I've Ever Tasted
  Author: Tisdale, Sallie
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 25.95 ISBN: 1573221309 Date: 2000
  PW
  
• Travels With Alice
  Author: Trillin, Calvin
  Publisher: Ticknor & Fields $ 18.95 ISBN: 0899199100 Date: 1989
  This delightful book collects Calvin Trillin's accounts of his trips to Europe with his wife, Alice, and their two daughters. "Trillin's skillful book of travel, food and humor is an entertaining excursion."--The Christian Science Monitor
  
  
• Stalking the Green Fairy: And Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink
  Author: Villas, James
  Publisher: Wiley $ 26.95 ISBN:0471273449 Date: 2004 Date: 2004
  LJ
  The Food Writer of the Year (Bon Appetit, 2003) Takes You on His Quest for the Ultimate Culinary Experiences . . .
  Updated 6.1.04
• Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family
  Author: Volk, Patricia
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375411062 Date: 2001
  Volk's delicious memoir lets readers into her big, crazy, loving, cheerful, infuriating and wonderful family, where one is never just hungry--one is stuffed. But as seductively as Volk evokes the family cuisine business, Stuffed is at heart a paean to her quirky, vibrant relatives.