I went to a great cookbook event on Tuesday night presented by Kim Ricketts Book Events with my friend who was visiting from New York City. I was proud to show off the fantastic food writers we have here in the Pacific Northwest. For a very reasonable fee, we were offered a cocktail, vegetarian paella, roasted chicken, and sourdough bread (I had to mention the food).

The authors then sat as a panel and regaled us with never-before-seen scenes and stories. They graciously fielded questions from the audience  and the evening ended with book signings. For a group of writers, they were very comfortable in front of a crowd and had us laughing for most of the night. It was real treat to see them in person and hear about their experiences as writers.

I own a couple of these books but haven’t had a chance to read them yet (when do non-New Yorkers read books? I’m at a loss now without long subway rides) but I’m determined to find the time  now. I’m especially excited to read the recently published Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton. It sounds hilarious (the passage he read had the crowd in stitches) and I’m curious to hear what happened when he fed his baby gourmet food.

So, if you’re looking for a new food book to dive into, read on:

Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back by Shauna James Ahern

Read this if you need some inspiration to make a shift in the way you eat. Many of her delectable dishes are what we should be eating anyway: meals made with whole foods from the farmer’s market.

“The theme of Shauna’s writing isn’t gluten-free, it’s gluten freedom. She focuses much more on the delicious world of what she can have rather than fixating on what she can’t. Her enthusiasms for exploring the world of gluten-free cooking is infectious and her knack for communicating her experiences to the reader is heartfelt, inspiring, and informational.”

—Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

Read this if you love Orangette’s unique writing style found on her blog – it’s more of the same and each chapter ends with her delicious recipes.

A review, “An A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table”, Molly Wizenberg recounts life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother’s pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately entwined. You won’t be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story  or head straight to the market to fill your basket with ingredients  for Cider-Glazed Salmon and Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.”

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton

Read this just published book if you are a parent, a soon-to-be parent, or just like to laugh.

“Since becoming the proud father of a little girl, I’ve found myself quickly morphing into Bill Cosby–minus the sweaters. One of my greatest fears is imagining my daughter insisting on nothing but crustless grilled cheese sandwiches and “chicken” McNuggets. Hungry Monkey goes a long way to allaying that concern. I finished the last page and immediately set about making her Thai Shrimp Curry. A very timely and excellent book.”
—Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

This is the only fiction book in the mix. Read it if you want to lose yourself in the story of a cooking teacher and the lives of her eight students - and the magic that’s created when strangers cook together (which is why I love being a cooking teacher).

A review, “The School of Essential Ingredients” follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear,  however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen….Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less you Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Finn

Read this if you dream of going to culinary school or doing something equally adventurous - or what other people would consider reckless - at a point in life when you’re not “supposed” to take risks.

“I can never get enough of true stories about people who stop in the  middle of their life’s journey to ask, ‘What do I really want?’ and then  have the guts to actually go get it. Kathleen Finn’s tale of chasing her ultimate dream makes for a really lovely book - engaging, intelligent and surprisingly suspenseful.” -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Cheap Healthy Good also mentions some other great food books - Five Fiction Books for the Frugal Foodie - check them out.