I really, really love books with food in them, especially if the food is well described. Can you guys recommend me some good food-themed books that aren’t cookbooks?
Some books that I’ve read before that I enjoyed and would consider good food books:
– The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
– China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
– The Hunger Games
– Like Water for Chocolate
– My Side of the Mountain
– The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
Thanks in advance!!
by Purplemoonsong
8 Comments
Kitchen Confidential
Lunch With by Jan Wong. She interviews various celebrities over lunch and pays great attention to the food because her parents owned a restaurant.
Agnes and the Hit Man by Jennifer Crusie is about a cranky food writer preparing to cater a wedding. It’s technically a romance, but it’s mostly food porn. I gain ten pounds every time I read it
Little Women. They plan a lot of elaborate meals, including one memorable fiasco.
Rilla of Ingleside. It’s the last book in the Anne of Green Gables series. They constantly bake and cook, deal with WWI rationing and mailing food overseas for their boys, and every meal seems to be an event. All the Anne books have food, but this one is a standout.
It would never have occurred to me to list *The Hunger Games* as a food book, I’d love to know your reasoning!
Anyway:
The **Wayfarer** series by Becky Chambers (especially the first one, **The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet**, and the last one, **The Galaxy, and the Ground Within**, feature discussions about food and explore characters of different species trying new food during their travels through space.
**Legends & Lattes** by Travis Baldree has lovely descriptions of pastries.
In **A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking** by T. Kingfisher, baked goods are made in order to use them in warfare rather than to eat them – not sure if that is what you are looking for but there is a lot of baking in the book.
If you are open to a children’s book, **A Dash of Trouble** by Anna Meriano is the first book in a lovely trilogy about a magical bakery. (No idea why I am so focused on baking.)
The Havana Room by Colin Harrison
A real estate attorney loses his family, fortune, and career because of an accident, and winds up being asked to engineer a multi-million dollar deal at a secret pop-up restaurant in the back of another restaurant, the Havana Room. You’ll never look at sushi the same way.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone. Food-focused memoir.
With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo is the first book that comes to mind. The main character is a teenage mom with dreams of becoming a chef. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by the author and it was incredible.
Bitter Almonds by Maria Grammatico