Weekend Cooking: 6 Books for Food Lovers

If you read my Monday post, then you know that I am away with my girlfriends, while my husband holds down the fort. Because I didn't cook all week, I thought I'd share a few summer books that would appeal to anyone interested in food and cooking. I haven't yet read any of these, but they're all are on my reading list. Note the publishing date in the parentheses.

• The Marley Coffee Cookbook: One Love, Many Coffees, and 100 Recipes by Rohan Marley, Maxcel Hardy, and Rosemary Black (Quarry Books, August 15): This cookbook is co-written by one of musician Bob Marley's sons, who started what is now a successful coffee plantation in Jamaica. As you would expect, each recipe in this book features coffee flavors in some way: whether in a sweet baked good or in a savory sauce.
• The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek by Howard Markel (Pantheon, August 8): This is the true story of two brothers who competed with each other in their joint desire to change the health and well-being of all Americans. They were indeed the men who started the company that we most often associate with corn flakes and breakfast cereal.
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty (Armistad, July 12): A culinary historian searches for the origins of what is commonly considered Southern cooking, teasing out the tangled roots of European and African traditions. The narrative combines memoir, genealogy, cookbook, history, genetics, and sociology as the author "takes us through his ancestral culinary history."

• What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories by Laura Shapiro (Viking, July 25): This is the book I'm most excited about. Shapiro examines the relationship that six famous women had with food and cooking and how that relationship was a reflection of her culture and times. The women are Dorothy Wordsworth, Rosa Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eva Braun, Barbara Pym, and Helen Gurley Brown. I'm familiar with Pym's recipes and Roosevelt's White House menus but know little about the other women's connection to food. I'm looking forward to learning more.
• Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like by Chris Bianco (July 5): Whether he really does make the best pizza in America, Bianco was certainly a driving force in the artisan pizza movement. In this book, he shares the secrets for great pizza making, geared to the home cook and home kitchen. We make pizza often, so I'm looking forward to perfecting my techniques. Besides, who doesn't love pizza?
• Toast & Jam: Modern Recipes for Rustic Baked Goods and Sweet and Savory Spreads by Sarah Owens (Roost Books, August 15): The recipes in this cookbook cover quick breads and scones, chips and bagels, and yeasted goods plus everything you could possible think of--or never thought of--to spread on top, such as watermelon jelly and sweet potato butter. Get ready to amp up your Sunday brunches!