You know what I like about us? I like that we read together. This summer we put together a Summer Reading List. It was super satisfying. I asked you what you were reading on Twitter, and you filled my life with new titles and old classics. I totally appreciate your point of view.
It’s a new season, and it’s time to pull out a new stack of books. Here’s a peek at what I’m reading and what I’m cooking from this Fall. Some are new. Some are old. All of them feel like that super worn in sweater that you wear despite its smell… or maybe that’s just me.
Letters To My Daughter by Maya Angelou. Maya is one of the best voices of our time. Her story, and her willingness to be so open, so vulnerable, and so imperfect, poetic, and uplifting is everything we need to hear. Everything.
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri. Her words just bleed with this depth of story, and passion, and knowing. I’m in the middle of The Lowland now and I’m reading slowly because I never want it to end. I get so attached to her characters it’s hard to say goodbye.
A Million Little Ways by Emily Freeman. I love when books invite me to look at my life and creativity differently. This is that book!
The Mac and Cheese Cookbook by Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade. It’s cold and I want cheese. This cookbook is all about comfort as evidenced my Mac and Cheese + Minty Peas.
Tender by Nigel Slater. If you’ve never read a Nigel Slater, it’s like you’ve never fallen in love with a process. Nigel’s recipes appear in paragraph form, and read like a ode to the kitchen. It’s a very grounding vacation from the kitchen game.
Good Meat by Deborah Krasner. I pull this book out every Fall and make meat. I just do. It’s a dictionary of meaty guidance. Let it happen. This book is great for a carnivore’s housewarming present. FYI.
The New Complete Cook of Pasta by Maria Luisa Scott. You might have to find this book used, but it’s so worth it! So much pasta. So much classic and peculiar pasta. I could drown, in the best/most pasta-y way possible.
The French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier. Take me away! Take me to your French Market, and fresh kitchen. Thank you.
And and and! One of my favorite authors EVER EVER has a new book out! Wally Lamb wrote us We Are Water. I’m diving right on in. If you have not yet been funny destroyed by I Know This Much Is True, perhaps start there.
There are some good reads that come directly to my email inbox. They keep me pithy and informed. I’ve told you about The Skimm before. It’s totally reliable, totally informed, real/not Kardashian news. Sign up and every morning you can read about the what’s going on in the world while you check email in bed. I also super love Next Draft, which is basically a distilation of the days most interesting news. With Next Draft I get to read about my age measured in altered DNA, and what it’s like when a grown woman wears Axe body spray for an entire week. I mean…
Emma @ Poires au Chocolat
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve just finished The Siege of Krishnapur by J G Farrell, which was excellent.
Audrey J.
There’s a French Market at my doorstep 5 days a week (yes, in France…) You should come for a visit and compare with what they’re saying in the book! :)
Patty
Just finished “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes. Kinda a chick book but LOVED IT,,
joythebaker
i’m not too proud to read a chick book.
Amina | PAPER/PLATES
Another awesome book! Gotta say, Joy, you and your other readers have excellent taste.
mallory
All of these look so great! Can’t wait to dive in to some of these reads with you! :)
Amy
My reading list has spilled off a page in my notebook and the stacks and piles and haphazard mounds have taken over every spare inch of my bedroom! And I can’t help but keep buying more…
Currently I am reading ‘Life After Life’ by Kate Atkinson – it is so fantastic that I keep reading until I fall asleep slumped over the page!
I also recently devoured ‘Snow Child’ by Eowyn Ivey, and I am thumbing through ‘What Katie Ate’, ‘Plenty’, and ‘Sprouted Kitchen’ to get some seasonal recipe ideas for our burgeoning summer produce.
Happy reading!
Sally - My Custard Pie
I like that you’ve mixed the cookery books and fiction together – just reading. Exactly as it should be – and recognised by all of us who snuggle up in bed with a good cookery book :) Great range of titles.
Alana - Paper Planes
I love how you have the books themselves and not on a Kindle/iPad!!
cindy
I’m currently re-reading The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and next up I’ll be reading some Alice Munro b/c I love her and when I heard she won the nobel prize, I literally clapped.
I read She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True when I was in high school and both were definitely those kind of books that rocked me and made me think of them for weeks after I was finished. I will definitely check out We Are Water…thanks for the great recs!
meg
Thank you for the list! You have excellent taste….I will be looking for some of these soon :)
Mallory @ Because I Like Chocolate
Thanks for all of the suggestions! I need to take some time for leisurely reading, I have been too caught up in scholarly reading with school lately!
Shobelyn
It is weird because I was just thinking of book lists that I wanna read about and then I accidentally opened your site ( through Saveur) thanks for the list. i looking at Maya Angelou’s.
Alisha
Oh I LOVE Wally Lamb! I’ve been so busy reading other books lately (I work in publishing, so hard to keep up!) that I had no idea he has another out. Yay!