This weekend hit hard, and I spent most of my time offline making giant quantities of carrot soup and chocolate muffins, ensuring I had plenty of quick meals and snacks on hand for the work week. There’s something about focusing on the task at hand that keeps me from reaching for my phone and doom scrolling my time away. So this week, I have a couple of my favorite cookbooks to share. But first, let’s jump into new releases!
Bookish Goods
Bookmarks Are For Quitters Shirt by Ikerson LTD
Sometimes you just need a bookish shirt to live in for awhile. I love shirts like this that I can add to my regular book t-shirt rotation. This one is perfect for a tome tackle readathon. $13
New Releases
The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land by Sally Denton
In 2019, a caravan of women and children from the LeBaron and La Mora communities, an offshoot of fundamentalist Mormons, were ambushed by gunmen in Northern Mexico. The gunmen killed nine women and children and injured five more. Investigative journalist Sally Denton travels to Mexico to learn more about the communities these women and children were from and why gunmen from the Sinaloa drug cartel made them a target for violence.
My Name is Jason. Mine Too.: Our Story Our Way by Jason Griffin and Jason Reynolds
BFFs Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin share the story of their friendship. Reynolds and Griffin traveled to New York City where they both dreamed of making it as artists. Reynolds is a Black poet and writer, and Griffin is a white visual artist. Together they found a camaraderie and friendship neither of them ever expected.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Some days, you just need to lose yourself in a cookbook while you learn all sorts of new things about cooking and cuisine. Personally, I love cookbooks that also include essays about the author’s personal philosophy on how they approach cooking and what inspires their recipes. Here are a couple of my favorite cookbooks:
Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
Whenever I read Samin Nosrat’s cookbook, I know I’m going to learn something new. She structures her cookbook by the four categories in the title—salt, fat, acid, heat—explaining how each element is used in cooking. Best of all, she teaches you HOW to cook, not just how to follow a recipe. I have given dozens of copies of this cookbook to friends and family, always keeping a copy on hand for last minute gifts.
Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food by Julia Turshen
I have a huge soft spot for Julie Turshen and even had the honor of interviewing her for Reading Women. And while I may be biased, her cookbook Simply Julia is truly a gift to food lovers everywhere. Her cookbook is based around the idea of eating healthy, satisfying food using cooking methods that have nothing to do with losing weight. Turshen describes how she was very much inspired by her wife’s experience of developing chronic illness later in life and what it was like trying to learn new recipes that her wife could eat. As someone who also has a medical diet, I appreciated how Turshen’s recipes include notes on possible substitutions for each dish.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra