It's that time of our virtual book club's cycle when we unveil the next four books selected by the co-hosts. As always, we hope the reading will delight and inspire you. Ready? Let's go!
Claudia (Honey from Rock) opens the series: for the August / September 2025 edition, she chose Alice Waters's memoir Coming to My Senses. The Making of a Counterculture Cook (September 2023)
Chef and restaurateur Waters (In the Green Kitchen, etc.) offers a personal view of her early life in this intimate and colorful memoir. The founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, Calif., Waters recalls a happy though gastronomically dull (e.g., frozen fish sticks, iceberg lettuce) upbringing in Chatham, N.J., as one of four sisters born to a Democrat mother and Republican father. Her supportive parents sent her to the University of California, Berkeley, where in the 1960s she became a political activist, aligning herself with the free-speech movement and the protest against the Vietnam War.
She traveled to France for a junior year abroad and fell in love with all things French, eventually declaring the French history as her college major. Waters also fell in love with French food during the trip; her tastes and senses were, in her words, "awakened." Waters began to dream of opening a restaurant; she purchased a house in Berkeley and in 1971, at the age of 27, opened Chez Panisse — a unique, organic, locally sourced restaurant with a prix fixe menu and just one main entrée served each evening, producing an experience much like dining in a private home.
Readers will be charmed by Waters's adoration of exquisitely prepared food. Her anecdotes and her descriptions of friends and customers (many of whom were filmmakers, artists, and prominent thinkers of the time) bring the era and the restaurant to the mind's eye in vibrant detail.
Aloha,
Claudia, Honey From Rock
Deadline for contributing your post is Tuesday, September 30, 2025
For the October / November 2025 edition, Debra (Eliot's Eats) has chosen the novel Maame by Jessica George (January 2023)
I have gone 'round and 'round on picking a book and finally landed on this novel. Here's an edited blurb from the publisher's site:
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman. It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting. When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her life on the line. Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most importantly, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.
Debra, Eliot's Eats
Deadline for contributing your post is Sunday, November 30, 2025
For the December 2025 / January 2026 edition Simona (briciole) chose the memoir Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (April 2024)
Although I've known Aimee Nezhukumatathil's poetry for some time and enjoyed reading it, I was not familiar with her essays until I saw this collection. After scanning the first few chapters, I decided to select this for our club.
From the publisher:
Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances... From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory.
I hope the lyrical essays will be a stimulating read and provide culinary inspiration. Should you be curious about her poetry, see a selection on this page of the Poetry Foundation website
Simona, briciole
Deadline for contributing your post: Saturday, January 31, 2026.
To round up the list of selections, for the February / March 2026 edition, guest host Amy (Amy's Cooking Adventures) chose the novel Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen by Annabel Abbs (also known by its title in the UK: The Language of Food, November 2021)
Victorian England, 1837: Eliza Acton wants to write poetry, but is told to write a cookbook instead. When circumstances demand, she begins the task, along with help from her 17-year old assistant, Ann. A fictionalized account of Eliza Acton’s life is sure to please foodies and historical fiction enthusiasts alike!
Amy, Amy's Cooking Adventures
Deadline for contributing your post: Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
Remember that membership in our book club is open to anyone and we hope you will join us by reading these selections and creating inspired recipes. For more information about participating, click here.
As always, specific announcement posts can be found at Cook the Books at the beginning of each two-month period and the current selection is always shown on the right side of the homepage.
And do not hesitate to leave a comment on this post or the specific announcement should you have any questions.
To recap:
August / September 2025: Coming to My Senses. The Making of a Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters (hosted by Claudia at Honey from Rock)
October / November 2025: Maame by Jessica George (hosted by Debra at Eliot's Eats)
February / March 2026: Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen by Annabel Abbs (hosted by Amy at Amy's Cooking Adventures)
Happy reading and cooking!
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