Marrs—who stars in the HGTV series Fixer to Fabulous—debuts with a pleasant blend of personal reflection and design advice. “We believe a home should reflect the personalities of the ones who live there,” Marrs writes, discussing how she has approached decorating clients’ houses. For instance, Marrs shows the 1,000-gallon aquarium she installed in the entryway of a couple who loved the beach and encourages readers to decorate their own entry areas in ways that “introduce the story of who you are,” which might include “a gallery wall of family photos” or “a treasured object from a memorable trip.” Marrs’s style mixes mid-century modern and contemporary farmhouse aesthetics while utilizing unexpected applications of color, such as a kitchen anchored by a fuchsia and gold oven range. The stories about Marrs’s family that introduce each chapter feel extraneous (a chapter focused on the living room begins with an account of her family’s Christmas morning ritual and includes no design commentary), but her guidance on sprucing up each room of the house is sensible and specific. For instance, she suggests that placing a runner in front of the kitchen sink adds “warmth and functional comfort” and that mounting curtains “as high as possible” gives “the illusion of more height in the room.” Marrs’s fans will find much to love. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

Mixologist and Vanderpump Rules star Madix (Fancy AF Cocktails, with her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval) makes a triumphant solo debut with this dishy, well-conceived, and visually striking “breakup album”–inspired cocktail collection. Having weathered her partner’s televised affair with a close friend and the ensuing public scandal (dubbed “Scandoval”; a timeline of events is provided for the uninitiated), Madix tells the story of her ill-fated relationship through recipes—from the “Good Chemistry,” a jalapeño mezcal margarita celebrating the heat of a new connection, to the betrayal-inspired “Real Truth,” a “deceptively spicy” Manhattan made with cherry liqueur and chili bitters, and the “Life Is Beautiful,” a refreshing herbal mocktail that toasts to newfound independence. Madix displays her bartending experience with useful tips (taste-test a drink with a clean straw before serving; shake cocktails with gusto to ensure proper flavor blending) and substitution options, and the personal anecdotes that accompany each recipe are conversational and intimate. Drama lovers will especially appreciate the list of “Best Drinks to Throw in Someone’s Face” (“Champagne is a great option because when it dries it smells awful”) and snarky recipe titles: a Fireball shot inspired by Scandoval, for example, is named “The Midlife Crisis.” Filled with creative but approachable recipes and gorgeous, stylized photography, this makes an ideal holiday gift for Bravo fans. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

TikTok creator Mandreucci (better known as “Sally Slices”) debuts with a personable but uneven collection of easy Italian fare, drawn especially from his nonna’s home cooking. He covers the basics—including a classic marinara sauce and simple spaghetti with olive oil and garlic—as well as a few more complex dishes, like pasta forno (which his father always made for family picnics) and stuffed artichoke. Despite the title, there’s only one pizza recipe on offer here, a replication of the stuffed-crust pie Mandreucci made on the show Pizza Wars, and it calls for any store-bought crust. It’s perhaps understandable that Mandreucci chooses not to give away the secret recipe that has made his family’s Marcello’s Pizza Grill in Hamilton Square, N.J., a destination, but this solution feels like a cop out. The collection ends with a handful of earnest essays reflecting on the author’s life, his struggles to stay positive in the face of depression, and his whole-hearted belief in the American Dream. Mandreucci’s voice comes through, but the recipes themselves are uninspired. This is for die-hard fans only. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

Rebel Recipes blogger Webster (Be More Vegan) presents a cute, gifty volume of 40 one-bowl vegan meals designed to maximize flavor and nutritional value by incorporating a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits into one’s diet throughout the day. The collection starts with breakfast bowls, divided into sweet (including matcha, coconut, and cacao overnight oats) and savory (such as spicy tomato hash), and ends with fruity desserts (plum, blackberry, and tahini crumble). In between, chapter titles seem arbitrary: “Restorative Bowls” include a cauliflower rice bowl which is “restorative and cosy” while the mushroom ragu with parsnip and carrot mash’s earthy flavors land it under “Comfort Bowls.” The rainbow theme is similarly loose, and some dishes—including charred green veg and toasted sourdough salad and spinach and tamarind green lentil bowl—are actually fairly monochromatic. Vibrant photos and an index of produce by color do most of the heavy lifting. To amp up the vegetable content, Webster focuses on bases of veggie mashes and pulses over grains like rice and pasta. Flavor profiles range far and wide: sweet potato–based recipes alone include both hearty sweet potato soup featuring Ethiopian berberi and cajun-spiced black beans with crispy sweet potatoes. Despite some flaws, this is sure to appeal to vegan chefs. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

This amusing coffee-table book from lifestyle photographer Barbera (Where They Purr) takes a look inside luxury homes through the eyes of the cats who live in them. A three-story Manhattan apartment’s exposed structure is described as “a boundless jungle gym” for Alice, a two-year-old Bengal who “can usually be found balancing on cantilevers” or “tiptoeing on the grill floor of open balconies.” In a baroque Sharon, Conn., house, an American shorthair tabby named Betty (who “wants nothing more than some sunlight and a good scratch, which she demands with raspy meows”) perches on an armchair in a living room decorated with large French mirrors and “Swatow plates salvaged from a shipwreck.” Much of the book’s joy derives from the cats’ apparent indifference to their wildly opulent surroundings. In an apartment in Manhattan’s Financial District, Lady Penelope, a European Burmese, is photographed walking under what appears to be a Sputnik satellite and lying in a sunny spot beneath “a twenty-four metre, adult-sized stainless-steel slide.” Barbera’s skillful photography captures the felines’ personalities and the artful interiors they roam. For instance, an image of a Miami Beach apartment shows a shy Siamese peeking out from behind a seat in a futuristic living room featuring metal wall art and a gold-colored coffee table. Cat lovers will dig this. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

Gowan, a stress management coach, debuts with an insubstantial guide to practicing mindfulness by connecting with nature. Reflecting on her relationship with the natural world, Gowan recounts delighting in the gardens her parents grew around their home in central New York State and appreciating the small verdant patches (“tree-lined streets, flower boxes, and community gardens”) near her current home in New York City. Meditations peppered throughout encourage readers to envision themselves walking through a “sunny plant shop filled with restorative energy,” stepping away from one’s desk to go outside, and bringing home a houseplant left on the curb. Unfortunately, the advice is repetitive, largely consisting of variations on stop and smell the flowers. For instance, she posits that “being mindful of nature is a rewarding act of consciousness” and that “nature lives and thrives in the present moment, and we can too,” without elaborating why or what that means. The exercises are similarly thin; one encourages readers to cultivate a relationship with nature by “press[ing] your hand on the bark of a tree.” Several others contain barely distinguishable exhortations to breathe while looking at “what nature surrounds you.” This slight outing doesn’t have much to offer. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

This thought-provoking debut from OR Books cofounder Oakes weaves meditations on fasting into an account of his successful attempt to go a week without food. He reports undertaking the fast as a kind of “personal exorcism,” realizing by the end that “I eat out of habit” and “routine can be the enemy of rationality and control.” Explaining how the body responds to fasting, he notes that the stomach generates the hormone ghrelin to stimulate hunger, but gives up after three days without food, at which point the body draws on “excess glucose stored in the muscles and liver” to create energy. Oakes presents an impressive cultural and historical survey of fasting, touching on its role as a form of nonviolent resistance to British rule in India and Ireland; its ritual use in the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, and Hinduism; and its use as a dubious cure-all, originating in a 1558 self-help book by Venetian nobleman Luigi Cornaro. Oakes’s nuanced take on fasting also considers its dangers; he suggests that while temporarily abstaining can provide an antidote to capitalism’s imperative to consume, the compulsion to permanently eradicate bodily desires can lapse into anorexia, which he describes as a biological disorder “related to but distinct from” fasting. Broad in scope and rich in insight, this provides plenty to ponder. Photos. Agent: Paul Bresnick, Bresnick Weil Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

In this moving debut collection, restaurateur Alarnab writes plaintively of migrating from Syria to the U.K., and how cooking—including making meals on a hot plate for hundreds of his fellow refugees in a camp in Calais, France—got him through tough times. Alarnab would go on to open the London restaurant that gives the book its name in 2021, but upon arriving in the city as an undocumented migrant in 2015, he found work in a car wash, where he also slept at night. His unvarnished descriptions of the immigrant experience (“We were cold, exhausted, afraid of what came next”)—are movingly rendered and segue smoothly into recipes where generosity is the watchword. A chapter on spice mixes including dukkah (cumin, coriander, pink peppercorns, and two types of chilli flakes) and another on basics like the crispy onions that top many dishes lay a solid foundation for cuisine that is both homey and elegant. The collection features recipes suited to gathering and sharing: marinated lamb shoulder roasted with abundant garlic; spiced rice with shrimp; a large tray of baklava. Flatbreads are ideal for scooping and “there’s pretty much nothing that hummus doesn’t go with,” Alarnab writes, before offering a recipe for a big batch with a variety of topping choices. Instructions are clear and thoughtful throughout, but it’s the author’s personal experiences that make this heartfelt cookbook shine. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

Harrison, founding president of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society, offers a cheerful guide to caring for and decorating with mophead hydrangeas. Outlining ideal growing conditions, she notes that the flowers should be planted in late spring or early fall in a spot with “morning sun and afternoon shade.” If the mophead is to be kept in a container, Harrison recommends choosing a light-colored one, which will keep the plant cool by deflecting heat. A rundown of common varieties explains that the blue Danube “does well in containers,” the Générale Vicomtesse de Vibraye is a hybrid of otaksa and rosea, the parzifal “tends to be compact,” and the “vigorous” Hamburg is “known for exceptionally large flower heads.” Advice on making flower arrangements suggests cutting the hydrangeas early in the morning when they’re at their dampest, “conditioning” them by submerging them in water for an hour (which helps to retain moisture), and creating plant food from bleach, lemon juice, water, and sugar to extend the flowers’ shelf life. Though Harrison sometimes points out the obvious (“It’s helpful for the consumer when the variety of the plant is identified,” she writes on shopping for hydrangeas), she provides plenty of useful advice (increasing the acidity of soil can change blue mopheads pink). The result is a fun and valuable resource on hydrangeas. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink

Psychiatrist Ede debuts with a stimulating examination of how eating better can boost brain health. Exploring how various foods affect the mind, she explains that refined sugars and flours are unnaturally rich in carbohydrates that cause glucose and insulin spikes in the bloodstream, impeding communication between neurons in the brain and making “concentrating, remembering, and processing information” difficult. To reduce carb intake, she recommends following a modified paleo diet that “allows meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, fruits, and vegetables and excludes grains, legumes, dairy, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, vegetable oils, and ultraprocessed foods.” If the paleo diet doesn’t yield improvements after six weeks, she suggests switching to the narrower ketogenic diet, noting studies that have shown it “cools inflammation,” “bolsters antioxidant defenses,” and keeps glucose levels in check. The science is rigorous yet accessible (cytokines in the brain respond to molecules formed from excess sugar by crossing “into the bloodstream to alert the rest of the body that the brain is under attack and instruct[ing] your whole body to temporarily adopt a new set of priorities to deal with the emergency”), and the dietary advice is easy to follow. It’s a solid guide to eating better. Agent: Alex Glass, Glass Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/15/2023 | Details & Permalink