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If you spend all of your time thinking about food and you also like to read, these food novels belong in your weekend getaway bag.
(January 5, 2016)
Lila's husband, Sam, takes a job as a restaurant critic in Philly. He becomes obsessed with keeping his identity secret, and asks Lila to limit her contact with the other moms (in case they have ties to the restaurant community), and starts wearing disguises and using different names. Lila starts to question her own identity, and wonders how she got here. (P.S., this is written by the wife of Craig LaBan, the long-time Philly restaurant critic. So, from the horses mouth and all that.)
(February 9, 2016)
A historical fiction novel about the late food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and her affair with her husband Al's charming friend, Tim. It takes place in California, France, and the Swiss Alps, so brb while we drink this large glass of white wine by the pool and live vicariously.
(February 9, 2016)
Written by the actual M.F.K. Fisher, this posthumously released book is the one to read after The Arrangement. The unpublished manuscript was discovered in 2012, neatly packed away in a red box in a literary agent’s office. It's not a biography, but it is inspired by real events from her life—specifically her affair with Dillwyn Parrish—the man who was to become her second husband. In true M.F.K. style, the story is marked by food experiences, each a metaphor for her hunger for life.
(March 8, 2016)
An autobiographical novel in which Leyner gives a reading in the food court of a mall. It's totally wild, dark, zany, and fun (just like the best food courts, amirite?)
(April 5, 2016)
Summer doesn't count unless you read at least one super cheesy, sweeping romantic novel while sand gets kind of annoyingly stuck in the sunscreen between your fingers. This is that book. Spoiler alert: Unfortunately, the secret isn't "there's no such thing as too much sun." Oh well.
(April 12, 2016)
In order to "figure himself out," a miserable dude decides to isolate himself in the Scottish Isle of Jura for a few months in the cottage where George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. The New York Times Book Review says "since many of its best passages are rhapsodies on single malt whiskies, one is tempted to call it a wee bonny dram of a tale." Consider us sold.
(May 24, 2016)
A coming-of-age story about a young woman who moves from nowhere (we never learn where) to New York and gets a job at a thinly veiled Union Square Cafe. This dynamite book is filled with the heart-wrenching indignities of self-discovery, and gives a gritty, inside look to the fast-paced, drug-filled, whirlwind scene of restaurant life.
(August 9, 2016)
Okay, maybe this is the cheesy novel you read on the beach where no one can judge you. This book is super cozy—probably because it takes place in a small town in Vermont, and because the protagonist has a dog named Salty, and because she's a baker who spends her days working at an inn. Okay, it's Gilmore Girls.