Announcements! The Next 4 Book Selections and Other Cook The Books News!

Hello Cook the Books Members!

We hope you are enjoying our current book selection, The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life, by Angelo Pellegrini. It's time to announce our next four book selections, but first we have some hosting announcements.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Rachel, The Crispy Cook, co-host and one of the original founders of Cook the Books has taken a break from blogging and is stepping down from hosting. Rachel says, "We are in a transition in life right now with trying to sell the shop and then just sell books online and at fairs and do more book reviews. And maybe a bookseller memoir..."  Rachel's passion and talent will be sorely missed but we wish her well and look forward to hopefully being able to feature that memoir here at CTB someday.

We are excited to announce that long-time Cook the Books participant Claudia of Honey From Rock will be taking up the hosting mantle and joining Deb, Simona, and Debra as your hosting team. Welcome to hosting Claudia! 

And now, without further ado, let's talk upcoming books!

April/May 2016 Book Pick: 

Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good by Kathleen Flinn (2014)
Hosted by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen
 
"Memoirs are some of my favorite foodie books because I love reading stories of how people found their passion for food and cooking. I read and really enjoyed Kathleen Flinn's two previous foodie memoirs, The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry (about her experiences in Paris at Le Cordon Blue) and The Kitchen Counter Cooking School (about teaching a group of novice cooks to make simple healthy meals). In Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir with Recipes from an American Family, Flinn shares the stories behind how she gained her love of food and how it connects her to home, and to three generations of her family. There are family recipes peppered throughout the book so we should find plenty of cooking inspiration through Flinn's family and our own." 

--Deb

Submissions due: Tuesday, May 31, 2016

_______

June/July 2016 Book Pick: 

Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy (2002)

Hosted by Claudia of Honey From Rock

"Scarlet Feather, a Maeve Binchy novel set in contemporary Ireland, details the lives of Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, cooking school friends who achieve their dream of opening a high-end catering business in Dublin. An engaging, year-long chronicle which covers their personal struggles, along with those of family and friends, in Binchy's inimitable style. I love her pacing, humor and gift for describing and developing a range of unique characters. As food lovers and cooks we can relate to the hopeful entrepreneurs and their catering venture."

--Claudia

Submissions due: Sunday, July 31, 2016

________

August/September 2016 Book Pick:

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F.G. Haghenbeck (2012)
Hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats (along with an optional crossover with Food 'N Flix)

"Frida Kahlo’s works and life have fascinated me for a long time. When I saw this novel on a bookseller’s table, I had to have it. 

In The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo, F.G. Haghenbeck writes a novel of magical realism documenting all the trials of the life that was Kahlo. (The Secret Book reminds me a great deal of Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, another magic realism novel.) Inspired by the real-life notebooks that were found in Kahlo’s Coyoacán home, Haghenbeck depicts the world on which Kahlo drew for her surrealistic paintings. “I suffered two great accidents in my life… One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego.” Her marriage to the much more famous Diego Rivera is shown with all the violent love the two experienced. Throughout, her fiery and creative personality is evident   Sprinkled among the narrative are recipes, everything from Pico de Gallo to Mango Tepozteco Ice Cream.

Special Note--CTB / Food 'N Flix Crossover Event: Please join both Cook the Books and Food ‘n Flix for this optional crossover event. Frida is the September featured film for FnF. The deadline for both events will be September 30, 2016. Since Julie Taymor (of the Broadway Lion King fame) is the director, we will be treated to even more magical, mystical and fantastical visuals that pairs well with Haghenbeck’s prose."  

--Debra

Submissions due: Friday, September 30, 2016
 
________


October/November 2016 Book Pick: 

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer (2013) Hosted by Simona of briciole   

"Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is a title that invites you to take a closer look at the book. Reading a brief description of the novel by Jessica Soffer made me choose it as my selection for Cook the Books. Lorca, the troubled teenage girl who is one of the novel’s protagonists, sets out to find a recipe for Masgouf, an Iraqi dish that her mother, a chef, once said was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. Lorca’s quest leads her to Victoria, a widowed Iraqi-Jewish immigrant who can teach her how to make the dish. The two bond over the simple act of cooking together. 

Don’t you want to find out what Masgouf is, what Lorca and Victoria cook together and how it all unfolds? I do!  "Bukra fil mish mish," the Arabic saying goes. Tomorrow, apricots may bloom."

--Simona

Submissions due: Wednesday, November 30, 2016

________

And there you have it, four delicious books to devour, take inspiration from, and cook and post a dish inspired by your reading. We look forward to having you read and cook along with us this year. New participants are always welcome. (Leave a comment here or check out our Guidelines page if you have any questions.) 

Deb, Simona, Debra, and Claudia