“I’m in the trenches of daily cooking for the people who live under my roof.... We need meals that are quick, easy, affordable,” writes Secrest, the home cook behind the TikTok account @applesauceandadhd, in her fun debut collection of unfussy weeknight crowd-pleasers. Secrest went viral for her self-described “aggressive tutorials” and attempts to maintain her signature sassy-to-belligerent tone in print via excessive italicization, all caps, and plenty of cursing. The comic effect doesn’t entirely translate, however, and may alienate those who aren’t already fans. Still, the recipes themselves are quick, flavorful, and consciously beginner chef– and child taste bud–friendly. “Fast and Furious” fare promises meals ready in 30 minutes or less, including sloppy joe fries and “lazy lasagna” made by layering frozen ravioli. The “Meaty Mayhem” chapter offers classics like pulled pork, while “Veggie Vendetta” features side dishes such as honey garlic carrots. “Pantry Raid” is full of clever suggestions for using up pantry staples, while the most out-there section, “Potato Tot Take-Down,” serves up six meals made with tater tots, including “taco tot bowls.” Throughout, Secrest offers judgement-free ideas for store-bought substitutions and tips for how to freeze and stretch dishes over multiple meals. Busy home chefs will be inspired. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This solid debut guide from mixed media artist McCreevy introduces readers to the world of gel plate printing, a type of monoprinting that uses a reusable, gelatin-like plate to create layered prints with paint. Crafters will need a gel plate (she recommends ones from Gel Press or Gelli Arts), acrylic paints, quality paint rollers, paper, and other easy-to-find tools for creating the designs, like an old credit card, baby wipes, string, and sponges. Before delving into the projects, McCreevy offers tips on color theory (to reduce a color’s brightness, mix a small amount of its complementary color) and how to extend the drying time of acrylic paint (acrylic retarders or a few drops of water can help). With each of the six projects, readers learn new techniques. To create a bookmark, for instance, crafters are instructed on how to apply stencils to the gel plate, add pops of color to a print, and use a viewfinder (a tool that helps find a “visually pleasing composition” within a print). Other projects, like the circular collage painting, demonstrate how to print whole, fresh flowers and embroider French knots and sewing beads onto canvas. Gorgeous photos accompany McCreevey’s thorough step-by-step instructions. Printmakers and serious crafters will find this worth a look. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Emergency medicine doctor Alker (Goodnight Grandma Angel) explores in this witty yet indispensable guide 99 of the “most terrifying, interesting, and unfortunate ways to die.” Drawing on her experience as a “board-certified death escapologist,” Alker assumes the role of a medical translator, explaining common ailments like strep throat and flu, rare encounters such as with brain-eating amoebas and sharks, and everyday accidents from car crashes to drowning. One chapter is dedicated entirely to sex, illustrating how for most women pregnancy is “the most dangerous undertaking of their lives” and how the sexually transmitted disease HPV can cause cervical and penile cancer. Another is dedicated to warfare, demonstrating how toxic chemicals have been used as weapons and how atomic bombs can decimate large areas and emit lethal radiation. Throughout, she offers tips for avoiding these wide-ranging dangers: if you wake up with a bat in your room, get a rabies vaccine immediately; never ignore chest pain; don’t give a baby raw honey. Alker balances a tongue-in-cheek tone with honest reflections on death, which she says “is the force that defines human life as a temporary, precious spark of magic.” Readers who want to be prepared for the worst will treasure this. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bee balm, gillyflowers, and rocket larkspur are some of the vibrant plants featured in gardener Hubbard’s prudent debut guide to creating an English-style cottage garden. Dating back to the 12th century, the cottage garden is known for its abundant, informal look, featuring a diversity of colorful flowers and vegetables and meandering paths. Hubbard outlines seven steps to creating a cottage garden, including selecting the right plants (she recommends visiting gardens and parks to see what thrives locally) and sketching the layout. She takes into account such challenges as climate change, pollution, and food supply shortages, explaining how cottage gardens contribute to a healthier planet by replacing lawns with meadows that don’t require chemical fertilizers or “gas-guzzling mowers” and are filled with native plants that support biodiversity. Gardeners can also donate the vegetables they grow to their community to address food inequality. Elsewhere, Hubbard offers advice for shoring up one’s cottage garden against extreme weather events, like installing rain barrels to minimize the effects of heavy rainfall. She supports her shrewd guidance with her personal experiences growing up around her grandmother’s cottage garden in England and eventually building her own in Pennsylvania. The result is a definitive resource for cultivating a thriving cottage garden. Photos. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This whimsical guide from crochet designer Sartori (Crochet Your Celebrity Crush) teaches readers how to make stuffed toys known as amigurumi. Each character—from adorable animals to anthropomorphized food items—holds up a sign with a punny affirmation. For example, a pink octopus urges, “There’s nothing you can’t hand-le,” while a rosy-cheeked avocado proclaims, “You’ve guac this!” Before delving into the projects, Sartori covers the basics of the craft, instructing readers to use medium-weight yarn and a crochet hook that gives “a dense fabric and doesn’t allow any stuffing to show through” and offering step-by-step instructions for common crochet stitches and techniques, like the magic loop and chain stitch. The 30 projects include “comfort foods” such as a smiling donut and a cheeky taco; “caring critters,” like an encouraging snail and a sincere lion; and a slew of other uplifting figures, from a charming ghost who says “You have a boo-tiful spirit” to an animated houseplant who declares, “Be-leaf in yourself.” Throughout, color photographs and step-by-step instructions take guesswork out of the equation. The positive affirmations, which are printed on cards provided at the back of the book, make these figures great gifts or desk companions. Crafters will be inspired. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

This approachable and exciting guide offers up simple Mediterranean dishes that use five ingredients or fewer (excluding salt, pepper, cooking fat, and water). It’s an expansive collection that celebrates the versatility of the Mediterranean diet. From Southern Europe, there is Provencal herb tapenade, Spanish cream of asparagus soup, and sizzling rosemary shrimp over polenta, a “staple in Italy since the sixteenth century.” Selections from North Africa include Moroccan-style grilled tuna, baked chicken with a nutty dukkah crust from Egypt, and spice-dusted sweet potatoes. There are also dishes from the Middle East, including Turkish poached eggs in garlicky yogurt served for breakfast or as a mezze, homemade labneh, and a Lebanese-style green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and lemon-mint vinaigrette. Highlights in the desserts chapter include baked apples with cream and amaretti, and poached vanilla-scented pears and figs. Interspersed throughout are nutritional trivia (“Phytonutrients in grapes are believed to contribute to longevity,” the editors note) and fascinating cultural tidbits about Mediterranean cuisine (“Whole-wheat pita bread dates back to the 20th century BCE in ancient Egypt”). A majority of the recipes can be completed in less than an hour, and most ingredients are readily available at local supermarkets. Busy home cooks would do well to check this out. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

La Piña en la Cocina blogger Mendez shares her enthusiasm for Mexican salsas in this colorful collection. After an overview of different types of chiles, a section on fresh salsas includes the classic pico de gallo, pineapple habanero, a “restaurant-style” tomato and jalapeño salsa, and another made with chile piquin, a pepper that packs eight times the heat of a jalapeño, suitably paired with beef taquitos. A chapter on cooked salsas covers a tomatillo-based version that gets a smoky flavor from toasting chile de arbol and salsa borracha, in which Mexican beer adds a subtle note. Adobos and sauces include red and green hot sauces and a slow-simmering mole that cooks for over three hours. Mendez offers pairing suggestions (Salsa de Cacahuate, “aka peanut salsa,” for example, makes a spicy sauce to braise chicken thighs) and a few meal ideas before rounding things out with recipes for taco fillings, sides (guacamole, pickled onions), and homemade tortillas. It’s not quite as comprehensive as Rick Martinez’s Salsa Daddy, but readers looking to expand their sauce options will find this a helpful and cheery guide. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A love letter to Japanese street food, the comprehensive and appealing English language debut from Tokyo native Kié serves triple duty as a recipe collection, travel guide, and cultural history. Kié offers classic takes and regional variations on street food staples, including ramen, onigiri (rice balls), and takoyaki (octopus dumplings). Detailed instructions for several styles of sushi are accompanied by a guide to buying the best tuna in Tokyo, including a stop at Tsukiji Market’s daily auction. Recipes often reference each other, necessitating a fair bit of page-flipping. To make the katsu sandwich, for example, one must first make tonkatsu, breaded and fried pork cutlet, instructions for which appear four pages later. But this is only a minor inconvenience, because vibrant photography and charming illustrations make paging through the collection a joy. Kié recommends restaurants across Japan and hosts a whirlwind tour of the country’s culinary quirks, with sidebars on depachika, or luxury food halls in department store basements; vending machines, including the one atop Mt. Fuji; and the history of cup noodles. Desserts and drinks round things out, including a melon-shaped brioche and a matcha highball, the likes of which, Kié notes, might be enjoyed at a tachinomi, or tapas-style standing bar. Japanophiles—especially those planning a trip—will be thrilled. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Textile designer Baldelli (Blackwork Embroidery) delivers a creative how-to for crocheting borders inspired by different cities around the world. The designs, which include lacework, scalloped edges, and geometric patterns, are inspired by 24 cities, including Paris, London, Shanghai, New York City, and Dubai. In the Paris section, crafters learn to make a row of Eiffel Towers connected by tiny pink flowers. For the coastal city of Brighton, England, there’s a pattern for a string of red and white life preservers. While some patterns’ city inspirations are intuitive, others feel arbitrary and lack explanation, like the pine cone motifs featured in the section of Dubai-inspired designs. Among the easier projects is a green and brown Dublin-inspired border made up of several rows of single crochet stitches before a final row of picots. A intermediate design influenced by Shanghai involves crocheting a base of rings and attaching tassels to each. Experienced crocheters will want to try the lacy, Chicago-inspired border whose pattern resembles pineapple stitches. While readers can choose to follow the written instructions or the stitch diagrams, beginners should note that Baldelli does not provide a review of basic crochet stitches and techniques. Still, experienced crocheters will find plenty of inspiration. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

This practical, research-based guide from Maizes (Be Fruitful), executive director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, demonstrates how the body’s built-in “recovery reflex” can be strengthened to heal more quickly from everyday illness, chronic disease, and surgery. Drawing on conventional and alternative treatments, Maizes takes patients’ physical symptoms, mental health, and lifestyle into account and prioritizes natural interventions. She first addresses short-lived conditions, like the common cold and UTIs, explaining that a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables (especially raw garlic, which is antimicrobial) strengthens the immune system and probiotics (either in supplement form or in products like yogurt, kefir, and kombucha) can help prevent bacterial infections. Turning to chronic conditions, Maizes offers guidance for recurring pain, encouraging meditation and exercise (walking backwards, for example, can realign the body, improving back pain). To heal from surgery, Maizes outlines tips for every step of the process, like bolstering nutrition before a procedure with protein and reducing post-op pain with therapies like acupuncture and self-hypnosis. Maizes maintains a pragmatic and supportive tone throughout, not promising miracle cures, but challenging the negativity and false despair she contends is common in mainstream health care. Readers struggling to heal will discover they have more agency than they thought. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink