Food stylist Worndl (Fruit) adapts a collection of recipes from Therese Schultz, the bakery manager at Vienna’s Grand Hotel during the 1920s, for the modern kitchen in this ambitious guide. Linzer torte, baked quark cheesecake, striezel (sweet braided bread), and other appealing Austrian classics abound. However, the considerable amount of skill and time many of these recipes require will intimidate some home bakers: the show-stopping imperial torte, for example, involves baking a Japonaise cake and preparing a whole-egg chocolate buttercream before cutting and layering. The cake is then refrigerated overnight and covered first in rolled-out marzipan and then a final layer of melted chocolate. Similarly involved are the Ischler cookies, which require preparing vanilla custard, cookie dough, and Parisian cream, then assembling with apricot jam, melted chocolate, and pistachios. For less intimidating options, readers will want to check out panettone-like fruit bread, drunken capuchin puddings (mini cakes soaked in a spicy wine mixture), and vanilla crescent cookies. Lovely photos of Vienna and scans of Schultz’s handwritten recipes add a charming, nostalgic feel. Veteran home bakers looking for their next challenge will want to check this out. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Balchandani, creator of the Instagram account @thebeardedplantaholic, debuts with a funny and practical guide to caring for houseplants. After nearly killing a “scrappy little vine” with neglect, he watched it miraculously bounce back, an experience that helped him understand plants are living things with unique needs and behaviors. He was hooked and began filling his home with greenery. Asserting that “most of the plant advice out there is absolute nonsense,” he shares the tips he’s learned. For example, houseplant labels that urge buyers to “water once a week” or keep in “low light” are misleading. Plant parents should instead trust their instincts and observe their plants to understand their needs (if a plant is stretching toward a window and its leaves are getting smaller, it needs more light). To help readers find the best plant for them, he offers “personality tests” determining “what kind of plant parent are you” and “what’s your plant soulmate.” Elsewhere, he guides readers through how to handle common pests, propagate houseplants, design verdant displays, and care for rare flora. Balchandani writes with wit and energy, warning about “divas in disguise” and “care instructions that are so ridiculously vague, they might as well just say: ‘Good luck, sucker.’ ” Aspiring plant whisperers will find this a windfall. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Dietitian Cotton debuts with a compassionate guide to healthy eating geared toward helping women undo disordered eating habits. Believing that the path to a better relationship with nutrition begins with awareness, she helps readers unpack their ideas about food, encouraging them to reflect on what they learned during childhood and how those beliefs evolved as they grew up. She traces diet trends through the decades, like the diet pills of the 1960s and the Atkins diet resurgence in the 1990s, explaining how advertisers make women insecure about their bodies to drive up profits. Meanwhile, quick weight-loss solutions not only deprive people of essential nutrients but lead to a cycle of stress, disappointment, and low self-esteem. She urges readers to view food as nourishment and pay attention to their bodies’ unique cues and signals, which change over time. Cotton also debunks myths about eating disorders, demonstrating how they can’t be identified by outward appearance alone, and outlines treatment options, including family-based treatment, which allows the patient and their family to meet with a therapist together. Elsewhere, she offers tips for cultivating a positive body image, applying mindful eating principles, and navigating nutrition during menopause. She imbues her practical advice with empathetic and empowering messages (“You are worthy of nourishment”). The result is a welcome antidote to a diet-obsessed culture. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

TikTokker Hinds debuts with a charming guide to crafting cat toys and accessories from upcycled or repurposed materials. Arguing that the DIY approach is more affordable and fun than buying something ready-made, she identifies essential materials, like sisal rope, cardboard shipping tubes, wood, and fabric, and offers tips for understanding what kind of toys one’s cat would enjoy, as some are always ready to pounce while others are laid-back observers. She begins with cat accessories, detailing how to make a sparkly resin name tag and jazz up a cat collar with charms (crafters can make matching “fur-endship” charm necklaces for themselves, too). Elsewhere, she teaches readers how to make catnip-filled plushies, suction springs, and braided ropes adorned with jingle bells. More advanced projects include a crescent moon–shaped hammock for cat naps and a hidden litter box to keep spaces tidy. For a budget-friendly project, there’s the cardboard scratcher, which requires little more than a box and cardboard. Hinds’s favorite project is a strawberry-shaped scratcher made with a plastic planter and red and green sisal rope. Adorable photos of cats using their DIY pieces accompany accessible step-by-step instructions. This is a must for cat-obsessed crafters. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Kelly, a textile artist and founder of the Brooklyn-based design studio Flora Obscura, debuts with a dazzling guide to botanical contact printing, or using plants and flowers to print designs onto fabrics and paper. Describing the practice as a “delicate dance between chemistry, botany and art,” she encourages crafters to first experiment with fabric scraps or recycled paper before investing in nicer materials. She spotlights botanicals that can be used for printing, explaining that anemones impart strong prints, as do eucalyptus, hibiscus, and hollyhocks. The material on which the design will be printed, be it fabric or paper, must first be soaked in a solution of metallic salts, a process known as mordanting, so the fibers will accept the pigmentation. For printing on fabric, she outlines such techniques as bundle dying, which involves layering leaves and flowers onto fabric, rolling it around a dowel, and then steaming it. Turning to paper printing, Kelly demonstrates techniques like steaming vegetation onto paper with a damp cloth blanket. Highlighting a plethora of striking plants and a variety of printing methods, this is a comprehensive manual for creating visually stunning designs. It’s a valuable resource for anyone seeking a natural approach to art and fashion. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Glow Diaries blogger Douglas aims to make “cooking with plants as simple and delicious as possible” in her wholesome if somewhat scattered debut collection. In lieu of an overview of pantry items and equipment, there’s a single sentence in Douglas’s brief introduction instructing home cooks to “get yourself some textured vegetable protein (TVP), nutritional yeast, flaxseed, tapioca flour, soy sauce and miso paste, plus a good-quality blender, and you should be set.” It’s indicative of her breezy tone, but those newer to vegan cooking may wish for a bit more orientation. The opening section, “Basics,” offers recipes for homemade dairy and meat substitutes, including “Parmesan” powder made with nuts, nutritional yeast, and salt, and tofu bacon crisped in an air fryer. Breakfast fare includes chocolate chia seed mousse, while the “Soups, Sides and Starters” chapter (which also, unexpectedly, includes sandwiches) offers broccolini in a lemon tahini sauce. Wide-ranging “Main Meals” include jackfruit and black bean tacos, Egyptian koshari, and mushroom bourguignon, while a chapter on pastas primarily features cream-based sauces veganized via soy milk and nuts. Salads, sauces, and desserts round things out. The organization occasionally confounds (lasagna appears in the main meals section instead of in the pasta chapter, for instance), but enticing photography and testimonials from a team of volunteer recipe testers add appeal. The author’s fans will be pleased. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Nutritionist Swanson debuts with a disappointing guide to optimizing health to improve one’s chances of getting pregnant. Swanson takes a “whole-body, longevity-focused” approach, encouraging readers to see their fertility as part of their overall health and understand that “the patterns that lead to accelerated aging are often the same ones that can create roadblocks to fertility.” She directs readers to actively manage the collection of microbes that live in their gut and vagina by eating a diversity of fruits and vegetables and opting for fragrance-free hygiene products, and urges improving metabolic health (“your body’s internal energy economy”) by eating protein throughout the day and exercising regularly. Much of the advice is intended for both partners; for example, she stresses avoiding environmental toxins, like microplastics, which have been linked to decreased odds of women conceiving and lowered sperm quality in men. Elsewhere, she discusses how omega-3s and vitamin D can “supercharge” one’s mitochondria (the part of cells that generates energy), the health of which she says is fundamental to reproductive vitality. Overall, Swanson’s method reads more like general health advice than a fertility-specific program. At times, the account is unhelpfully granular, as when she discusses the various microbial communities found in one’s vagina. Prospective parents will find little of use here. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Cheshire, the private yacht chef behind the TikTok account @abbyinthegalley, brings armchair travelers on a high-seas food adventure from her ship’s “small but mighty” kitchen in this pleasurable debut cookbook. It’s structured around an around-the-world “port crawl” visiting 14 locations—including Ireland, Greece, India, and Mexico—and offering recipes for a complete day’s menu, from breakfast to dessert plus cocktails, appetizers, soups, and salads at each port of call. The menus feature local flavors and fresh ingredients sourced en route at farmers markets. Bahamian johnny cake gets slathered with coconut-lime butter and mango jam for breakfast, while dinner offers seared scallops, corn, and sweet potato chowder in coconut milk. There’s onion soup and seared duck breast for dinner in Nice; bánh mì breakfast sandwiches in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; beef bulgogi with cucumber kimchi in Seoul; and mai tai cocktails in Hawaii. A final chapter of “Provisional Pointers” offers tips on efficiency and produce storage, while sidebars throughout encourage substitutions and teach simple cooking techniques. The recipes, while not particularly innovative, are dependable adaptations of classic international dishes that home cooks, even in landlocked kitchens, can easily source and prepare. It’s good fun. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Attorney and former Minnesota state senator Reichgott Junge (Zero Chance of Passage) offers a wide-ranging examination of the healing power of dance. Reichgott Junge, who took up ballroom dancing at 35, writes that it has taught her resilience and helped her become a more authentic person, one “who could love myself first—then love another person.” Elsewhere, she demonstrates how, by encouraging movement, dancing can improve quality of life. Case studies of individuals who have benefitted from ballroom dance include Dennis Yelkin, who found it helped him with his cancer recovery; Lisa Davis, who is blind and has Meniere’s disease and says partner dance has helped with her posture and agility; and married instructors Gene and Elena Bersten, who have witnessed dance help young people build confidence. Reichgott Junge points to studies that show regular dancing lowers the risk of dementia and slows the progression of Parkinson’s disease and urges medical institutions, insurers, and policymakers to invest in “social prescribing”—connecting people to nonmedical activities, like dance, to improve their overall well-being. While Reichgott Junge effectively shows how movement can improve people’s lives, she struggles to tie the account’s various strands together with a clear through line. Still, this is a loving testament to the transformative potential of dance. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Artist Jansson (Hidden Winter) offers a dazzling guide to creating crepe paper flowers. In 15 projects, Jansson demonstrates the twists and folds that differentiate anemones from peonies, or poppies from bluebells, resulting in paper flowers that are not just an imitation of the real thing but beautiful objects themselves. Her goal, she writes, isn’t to fashion thoroughly realistic flowers but to create work that “captures the feeling of the living and organic in the natural kingdom that sometimes actually surpasses reality.” Jansson instructs crafters to prepare the different parts of the flower before beginning assembly—cutting pieces of crepe paper in the shape of leaves and petals, giving them realistic structure by shaping them with a dowel, and covering wire with a strip of green paper to create a stem. Crafters can add depth to the petals and leaves with markers and dyes. Paper flowers are constructed from the inside out, Jansson explains, beginning with a stem and a pistil, followed by petals and leaves. The volume is beginner-friendly, but those who have made paper flowers before will especially appreciate the breadth of templates, from water lilies and sweet peas, to geraniums and irises. Crafters will be inspired. Photos. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink