This captivating work of cultural criticism from journalist Whippman (America the Anxious), the mother of three young sons, explores how masculine norms deprive boys of connection. Interweaving personal anecdotes and reporting, Whippman discusses struggling to find books, movies, or other media about emotionally attuned male characters that would encourage her sons to “see themselves as... relational beings.” This dearth leads to disconnection, Whippman argues, citing her interviews with adolescent boys who reported wanting “more emotionally focused connections with friends” despite having “no real idea how to go about it.” Whippman’s deep dive into the state of modern boyhood serves up fascinating dispatches from a Manhattan all-boys’ prep school trying to stamp out toxic masculinity, a Utah residential therapy program aiming to instill “the values of traditional manhood” in participants, and a conference for an advocacy organization that defends young men accused of campus sexual assault. Whippman’s trenchant analysis explains without excusing some of the worst excesses of patriarchy, as when she concludes after interviewing incels (a group of “superonline” young men who feel entitled to sex) that they represent a toxic mixture of misogyny and a “lack of nurturing for young boys” that drives them to seek community in the “manosphere.” It’s an urgent call to reassess how boys are raised and socialized. Agent: Steve Ross, Steve Ross Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Paris-based American food writer Peppler (À Table) conjures up the vibrancy of southern French cuisine through these 80 recipes, which are framed by witty introductions and luscious photographs of the Mediterranean sea, market stalls, and the bounty of the region’s ingredients. Classic dishes include ratatouille, two versions of salad Niçoise, and the beef stew Daube Provençal. While she avoids “overwrought, technique-heavy dishes,” Peppler favors homemade tapenades, pesto, and aioli, the latter which she deems “the very sun of the Provençale universe.” This garlicky sauce shows up in soups (la bourride), mussels (moules in aioli), and, when paired with vegetables, makes a meal unto itself (aioli, petit to monstre). Veggies shine in cherry tomatoes with pistou, zucchini blossoms, and tomates à la Provençale (for “when it’s not summer but you need summer”). Peppler’s voice-driven writing is a treat, even in the titles: “The Pasta I Crave Every Time I’m Near the Sea,” which features fresh clams, is followed by “Pasta to Make When You’re Not Near the Sea (but Wish You Were)” with anchovies and sardines. Personal stories are lightly threaded throughout, as in the intro to sardines and piment d’Espelette, an impromptu picnic dish that Peppler once brought to the beach where she met her future wife. Desserts include a summery strawberry cake and a Christmasy hazelnut nougat, and a quick guide to the modern Provençale cheese plate rounds things out. This sparkling collection will delight foodies and armchair travelers alike. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

This cozy embroidery guide by Bussi (Enchanted Garden Cross-Stitch) shows how to cross-stitch pastoral scenes. The simple designs use only cross-stitches, backstitches, French knots, and “a few half stitches where necessary,” and Bussi shows how to make each in a brief introduction. Cottages feature heavily in the projects, such as the “wool and whimsy” composition that features sheep frolicking on hills outside a small home, and the “cottage joy mandala” that portrays a small yellow house at the center of flowers and vines arranged in concentric circles. Other pieces are more text heavy. For instance, one design consists almost entirely of a recipe for apple crisp cake, and another depicts the scene outside a beach house accompanied by the sentence, “We don’t count the days in a little house by the sea.” Most of the compositions are intended to work either as wall hangings or on pillowcases, though Bussi also shows how to stitch a floral wrap for a journal. The combination of muted colors and photos taken in relatively low light can make it hard to see the details of some projects, but their charm nonetheless comes through. Recipes for pancakes, pumpkin soup, and rose essential oil are a bonus. Cottagecore enthusiasts will be pleased. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this affecting memoir, Kuzmič (Hold On, but Don’t Hold Still) recounts supporting her teenage son through a severe mental health crisis complicated by substance abuse. She assumed that her eldest son, Luka, was going through the normal pangs of adolescence when he became withdrawn around his 13th birthday, but over the next two years he started lashing out at teachers and family and self-medicating with painkillers and alcohol, leaving Kuzmič feeling helpless and searching for answers. Recalling her agonizing attempts to get professional help for Luka, who was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression, ADHD, and generalized anxiety disorder, Kuzmič discusses pained conversations about her son’s suicidal ideation during joint therapy sessions and the difficult decision to temporarily place him in a residential care facility after a violent outburst. Kuzmič’s candid reflections plumb the intricacies of parent-child relationships, as when she describes realizing that her tendency to view Luka’s problems as a negative reflection on her parenting was hampering her ability to “genuinely listen and empathize.” A poignant concluding chapter written by Luka explains his mental health struggles in frank detail (“I took out my anger on the people I love the most because I knew they wouldn’t leave me”), before arriving at the hopeful conclusion: “Life gets better, but we have to put in the work.” Readers will be moved. Agent: Anna Sproul-Latimer, Neon Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Psychiatrist Turban debuts with a vital parenting guide for raising trans children. Writing for parents who may have little familiarity with trans terminology, Turban explains the basics of gender expression and the importance of using the right pronouns. A wealth of client stories addresses common questions and misconceptions. For instance, Turban pushes back against the fallacy that trans people are merely depressed by recounting how the poor mental health of one trans teen from a conservative Southern state was caused by her anxiety about coming out and improved substantially once she did. Delving into the science of gender affirming care, Turban explains how taking testosterone or estrogen changes the body and how puberty blockers fool the brain into ceasing the production of certain hormones. The numerous medical studies discussed make an airtight case for the benefits of such care (one paper found that taking puberty blockers while attending therapy improved trans teens’ mental health significantly more than therapy alone). A bravura chapter forcefully debunks the premises of antitrans legislation, noting, for instance, a study that found “policies that force transgender youth to use the bathrooms of their sex assigned at birth were associated with dramatically elevated rates of sexual assault against transgender kids in schools.” Thoroughly researched and buoyed by empathetic patient stories, this ranks among the best guides available for parents of trans children and teens. Agent: Todd Shuster, Aevitas Creative Management. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Dissen, the chef behind Asheville, N.C.’s the Market Place restaurant, takes a farm-to-table approach to Southern-style cooking in his exciting debut. He celebrates locally grown ingredients at the peak of their ripeness by dividing the recipes by season. Highlights include slow roasted pork shoulder with asparagus cream and green strawberry relish for spring, cornmeal fried catfish with butter bean and boiled peanut stew with green tomato chowchow for summer, candy roaster squash soup with blue cheese and pumpkin seeds for fall, and heirloom corn grits with mushroom ragout and poached egg for winter. Dissen also shares his passion for foraging ingredients, which inspired him to create dishes including wild ramp and new potato bisque, and pea and ricotta-stuffed morel mushrooms. A few offerings—including cioppino with tomato fennel broth and sourdough toast with saffron aioli, and charred romaine with miso tahini dressing, fried croutons, and mint—feel off-theme, but Dissen’s creative flavor combinations are sure to intrigue adventurous home cooks. He admits that the recipes are “not designed to be convenient and quick,” but his clearly written instructions are easy to follow. This is a trove of inspiration for weekend and holiday meals. Agent: Ellen Scordato, Stonesong. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Cooking instructor Jackson (Les Petits Farcis) delivers a vivid ode to the cuisine of Nice, France, weaving in expert cooking tips, personal anecdotes, and glimpses of the Mediterranean city’s current and historic food culture. Arranged by seasons with a hyperlocal focus on seasonal bounties, the recipes include classics like the summery ratatouille Niçoise (a “joyous mishmash”) and a salade Niçoise that hews closer to the raw local version than the one popularized by chef Auguste Escoffier, who added boiled potatoes and green beans. Seafood dishes include fish fillets with aioli and spring vegetables, and mussels with tomato and saffron. Street fare intrigues, including pan bagnat, “a kind of salade Niçoise in a bun” and socca, a simple chickpea flour pancake, and desserts abound, with spring and summer offering lighter fare—peaches roasted with olive oil and honey—while winter features heavier, citrusy options, including a lemon tart and a sweet Swiss chard pie popular at Christmas. Jackson is quick to recommend substitutes and adaptations, and a handy final chapter offers foundational recipes, including strained tomatoes, aioli, vinaigrette, and several pastry doughs. In lively intros to the recipes, Jackson shares stories of local restaurateurs and chefs who have inspired her, and waxes poetic about ingredients: Swiss chard, for example, is best enjoyed “preferably standing on a mountainside with wild thyme and rosemary at your feet.” This passionate portrait of a pocket of French cuisine is sure to inspire. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Textile artist Pennant debuts with a practical guide to repairing clothing in ways that emphasize the mending process. “The fashion industry is one of the top most polluting industries on the planet,” Pennant writes, suggesting that extending the lifetime of clothes through mending constitutes a crucial means of reducing ecological harm. The detailed overview of tools and materials recommends choosing fabric patches “of a similar weight and fibre content” to the garment and needle sizes that correspond to the thickness of the thread. The handy projects mostly rely on hand sewing, showing how to repair a frayed collar on a shirt with a sashiko patch, mend worn-out cuffs with plain-weave darning, and cover up tears in a leather jacket with leather polka dots. A brief primer on darning, patching, and sashiko provides some helpful tips (sashiko stitches should be “about the length of a grain of rice” and readers should be sure to leave enough slack in the thread when darning to prevent puckering), but Pennant doesn’t offer much guidance on how to actually perform the techniques. The wordy instructions and tendency to cover several steps in a single illustration will make it difficult for novices to follow along. This is best suited for experienced sewists with a penchant for sustainability. (May)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

This elegant coffee-table book by architecture journalist Webb (Architects’ Houses) takes readers inside 36 homes that “capture the spirit of California in distinctive ways and respond creatively to context and the environment.” Highlighting the “marriage of architecture and nature,” Webb offers closeups of a Montecito house that resembles a massive, succulent-covered mound with slices cut out for windows, and a Mendocino County abode whose cedar floors and Douglas fir plywood walls provide a sense of continuity with the surrounding woods. Webb delves into the architects’ inspirations, noting that the five pitched roofs on a home in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood riff on the abstract sculptures of Joel Shapiro. California’s zoning laws play a recurring role as the impetus for architectural creativity. For example, Webb discusses how a couple rebuilding their home after a wildfire were required to make the new structure no more than 25% larger than the original’s size, a challenge architect Brandon Jorgensen met by starting with a cube model and cutting away portions until the result met the size limit. The judicious selection of houses emphasizes the playful and unusual (a Santa Monica home designed by Frank Gehry’s son features gabled sections that come together at odd angles, as if a cubist tried their hand at creating a Craftsman-style house), and Webb’s assured commentary illuminates the inventive ways architects engage with municipal and natural constraints. It’s a striking survey of some of the Golden State’s more remarkable homes. (May)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Vegetable oils are terrible for one’s health, according to this troubling warning. Physician Shanahan (Deep Nutrition) explains that they contain polyunsaturated fatty acids that undergo a chemical transformation when heated during the manufacturing process, creating “brand-new compounds within the oil that... are mildly to extremely toxic.” Such toxins can cause oxidative stress, a “cellular imbalance that disrupts everything the cell is trying to do” and leads to chronic inflammation. Shanahan’s assertion that vegetable oils are the primary reason why inflammatory diseases have ticked upward in recent decades doesn’t quite persuade, as it relies on circumstantial evidence that vegetable oil use has increased over the same period, and she admits that there’s relatively little research studying a direct link between vegetable oil and inflammatory disease. Still, readers who want to err on the side of caution and steer clear of the substance will benefit from tips for replacing it with healthier fats. For instance, she recommends substituting butter, ghee, or unrefined coconut oil for vegetable oil; loading up on almonds, avocados, and pecans; and eating meats with low polyunsaturated fat content, such as beef and lamb. Shanahan also lists vegetable oil–free meal ideas, recommending steak, roasted vegetables, and hummus made from olive oil. Though this perhaps overstates vegetable oils’ evils, it provides sound guidance on how to reduce one’s intake of the stuff. Health enthusiasts will want to take note. (June)

Reviewed on 03/29/2024 | Details & Permalink