While some readers may be hungry for Jill Kargman's Arm Candy or Chelsea Handler's Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang this summer, foodies will probably have other books in mind. While you're strolling the beach or cruising the pool patio, spot the foodies by these telltale new food lit titles on their beach blankets. Here's our guide to who will be reading what.
The gossip monger:
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco)
An opinionated take on food personalities from David Chang to Sandra Lee.
The ADD reader:
What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame by Matthew Jacob and Mark Jacob (Three Rivers)
A collection of tidbits on the culinary habits of Bette Davis, Babe Ruth, Barack Obama, and others.
The nostalgist:
Tom Fitzmorris's Hungry Town: A Culinary History of New Orleans, the City Where Food Is Almost Everything by Tom Fitzmorris (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
A study of the disappearance of New Orleans’s food culture post-Katrina and its triumphant comeback.
The Diane Lane fan:
The Dog Who Ate the Truffle: A Memoir of Stories and Recipes from Umbria by Suzanne Carreiro (St. Martin's)
Food critic Carriero looks at Umbria's recipes, traditions, and the people who pass them on.
The literary foodie:
Beahrs uses the palate of America's great humorist and satirist to celebrate and explore native foodstuffs and even make the case for him as a passionate locavore.
The Omnivore's Dilemma-obsessed:
American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen (Bloomsbury)
A celebration of the local food movement, covering apples, honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, wine, cheese, and chocolate.
The worldly reader:
Chef: A Novel by Jaspreet Singh (Bloomsbury)
Kirpal Singh becomes a chef's apprentice in conflict-ridden Kashmir.
The parent fed up with chicken fingers:
Eating for Beginners: An Education in the Pleasures of Food from Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid by Melanie Rehak (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Rehak recounts her journey as an amateur chef, amateur farmer, and amateur parent.
And for those who don't want to risk getting their hardcovers (or e-readers) wet, here are some food lit titles just out in paperback:
Bacon: A Love Story by Heather Lauer (Harper Paperbacks)
Born Round: A Story of Family, Food, and a Ferocious Appetite by Frank Bruni (Penguin)
Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen by Jason Sheehan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
My Life From Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time by Gesine Bullock-Prado (Broadway) (Published as Confessions of a Closet Master Baker in hardcover)
Just Food: How Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly by James McWilliams (Back Bay)
This article originally appeared in Cooking the Books, PW's e-newsletter for cookbooks.
