Food Fiction

"In almost any culture, at any time, you can find food writing,” writes guest editor Mark Bittman in his introduction. “Food means growing and hardship, and health and medicine, and work and holiday. In its abundance it is a gift and a joy, and in its absence a curse and a tragedy. If a culture has writing, that culture has food writing.” The stories in this year’s Best American Food Writing are brilliant, eye-opening windows into the heart of our country’s culture.

Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell usually reserves judgement for local cuisine, not the people who serve it. But staying neutral isn't so easy when caught between the biggest seafood rivals in town—her BFF Mona Barnes and the successful Leighton clan. Adding to a bitter decades-old surf-turf war between family businesses, a modern Romeo and Juliet story unfolds as Mona's son gets engaged to the daughter of her sworn enemy.

The oldest economic battle is repeating itself! Disruptive businesses must fight against their crony competitors - the ones with friends in government who try and protect them from innovative upstarts. Ethan and Emily Tuttle witness this battle firsthand with their food truck friends as they embark on a campaign to win public support and overturn the laws that shut them down. Recommended listening age: 5-11.

Darci Hannah presents Book 2 in the Food and Spirits Mystery series.

This novel is about a group of scientists that invent food that accelerates the growth of children turning them into giants upon becoming adults. There have been many B-movie adaptations. This is Wells at his finest with a science experiment gone wrong.

Exploring issues from the #MeToo movement, gender bias in division of labor and the workplace, and the underrepresentation of women of color in leadership, to cultural trends including food and travel shows, the intersection of fashion and food, and the evolution of food writing in the last few decades, Women on Food brings together food's most vital female voices.

On the eve of her high school reunion, Hayley Powell dreads seeing the trio of mean girls who used to torment her: Sabrina Merryweather, Nykki Temple, and former prom queen Ivy Foster. These days Ivy wears a different crown as the cupcake queen - and flaunting her success is just the icing on the cake.

When Hayley's idol, cookbook author and TV personality Penelope Janice, invites her to participate in a Fourth of July celebrity cook-off at her seaside estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, Hayley couldn't be more flattered. She just hopes she can measure up. With a who's who of famous chefs whipping up their signature dishes, this holiday weekend has all the ingredients for a once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience. Instead, Hayley gets food poisoning her first night and thinks she overhears two people cooking up a murder plot.

Carolina Hayes isn’t just another barista behind the counter at Caffè Inferno—she’s an undercover agent on a mission to dismantle a criminal empire steeped in smuggling, secrets, and scorched loyalties. Her target: Marco Moretti, the enigmatic café owner whose imported beans mask something far more dangerous than caffeine.

Collected within this volume are six hardcore tales of men who, through food related means, experience transformation from one gender to the other. Now overwhelmed with feminine arousal, they'll do whatever it takes to experience everything that being a beautiful woman has to offer, starting with their deepest, darkest, erotic desires for hardcore group sex and gangbangs.

Sheela Digs is a horny 21-year old virgin who was orphaned at a young age and longs for love and intimacy. Sadly, she finds it in all the wrong places. Suppressed by her overprotective grandmother, Sheela plays out her promiscuity through fantasy; that is until destiny leads her to uncover her deceased mother's book of love spells.

Bobby Greystein is a successful entrepreneur whose health concerns and sudden stewardship of a ninety-million-dollar trust dedicated to revolutionizing food leads him to launch Camelot, a sugarless ice cream that can compete favorably with the best super premium full-sugar brands. Camelot gets off to a tremendous start – but the company's good fortunes have put it on the hit list of The Food Mafia. And now the future of Camelot – and possibly Bobby's own life – hangs in the balance.

Freya Braithwaite knows she is lucky. Nineteen years of marriage to a man who still warms her soul and two beautiful teenage daughters to show for it: confident Charlotte and thoughtful Lexi. Her home is filled with love and laughter. But when Lexi's struggles with weight take control of her life, everything Freya once took for granted falls apart, leaving the whole family with a sense of helplessness that can only be confronted with understanding, unity and, above all, love.

Cava, die Nachfahrin der Liebesgöttin Aphrodite, wurde schon als Mädchen darauf vorbereitet, für Very Happy Meat zu arbeiten, den Lieferservice ihrer Familie. Denn der bringt seinen Kunden nicht einfach Pizza nach Hause: Die Familie macht Jagd auf korrupte Politiker, Serienmörder und andere Schwerverbrecher, um ihre Organe gewinnbringend im Untergrund zu verkaufen. Doch sie findet heraus, dass einer ihrer Brüder dem FBI Informationen hat zukommen lassen - und plötzlich steht die Sicherheit ihrer Familie auf dem Spiel.

Harper Vale isn’t running—but she sure as hell isn’t staying still. The graveyard shift at a rundown fast-food joint seems like the perfect place to disappear. Until she meets Luka Volkov—the grill cook with criminal tattoos, a dead stare, and secrets buried deeper than grease traps. Something in him sees her. Something in her wants to be seen. But the longer she stays, the hotter things burn—between them, and all around them. When danger comes knocking from the past, Harper has a choice: keep hiding… or burn it all down.

Laura Patterson is an American exchange student in Rome who, fed up with being inexpertly groped by her young Italian beaus, decides there's only one sure-fire way to find a sensual man: date a chef. Then she meets Tomasso, who's handsome, young, and cooks in the exclusive Templi restaurant. Perfect. Except, unbeknownst to Laura, Tomasso is in fact only a waiter at Templi; it's his shy friend Bruno who is the chef.

When Hope's elderly neighbor perishes in a home fire, she can't help but feel somewhat responsible. Only the day before, Peggy Olson had called her over, having burned a pot on the stove while she was sleeping and filling the house with smoke. In fact, she couldn't even remember cooking. Clearly, it was dangerous for the woman to live alone. But it turns out she wasn't alone. When a second body is discovered in the basement of the burned house, suddenly what appeared to be a tragic accident is beginning to look like premeditated murder.

Inspired by the exploits of ill-fated country-rock visionary Gram Parsons, this mid-60s tale of idealism and escape traces the trials of a fictionalized draft-dodging flower child from the United States to Canada and back.

Er wurde aus seiner bekannten Welt herausgerissen, um ihn brutal umzubringen. Er sollte das Schicksal all derer teilen, die nur Futter waren, das denen zum Fraß vorgeworfen wurde, die mehr Glück hatten. Aber sei gewarnt, Privilegierter: Er ist ein ganz besonderes Futter – von der Sorte, die zurückbeißt. Die euch frisst. Überlege dir gut, ob du immer noch Lust hast, ihn zu jagen. Und wenn ja, dann mache dir nicht die Mühe, zu rennen. Er wird von selbst zu dir kommen und dich holen.

The town of Jewel Bay, Montana - known as a Food Lovers' Village - is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead.