Food Literature

Cat and her family road-trip all the way to Arizona for Thanksgiving break to find the answers they need at the family bakery. Instead of resolving her bazillion questions, Cat finds herself in the middle of a bakery showdown with suspicion as the main ingredient. Emotions are all over the place as Cat and Robyn learn the hard way that reckless baking and magic is a recipe for disaster.

Princess Solenn’s marriage into royalty should have unified the continental neighbors of Verdania and Solenn’s homeland of Braiz against a common enemy: the country of Albion. Thanks to Albion’s cunning sabotage, Verdania is now Braiz’s lethal rival. And the dead Braizian sailors washed ashore near Solenn’s château are just the beginning.

Hoping to create a new growth agent for food with beneficial uses to mankind, two scientists find that the spread of the material is uncontrollable. Giant chickens, rats, and insects run amok, and children given the food stuffs experience incredible growth and serious illnesses.

Paying off a debt to the gods is never easy. In Kuala Lumpur, deities from a handful of major faiths tiptoe around each other and damned souls number in the millions. Now the Dragon King of the South wants to throw sorcerer and former triad soldier Rupert Wong right in it. The ocean god's daughter and her once-mortal husband have been murdered, leaving a single clue: bloodied feathers from the Greek furies. It's a clue that could start a war between pantheons, and Rupert's stuck in the middle.

When Josie Welford settles in the idyllic West Country village of Kings Duncombe, she honestly believes she can bury her past. The widow of one of Britain’s most wanted criminals, she knows what it’s like to be an outsider and fervently wishes for a fresh start in life. But she soon finds herself on the wrong side of the locals and she begins to wonder just how far their threats will go... A feisty and highly likeable character, Josie leads the listener through a tantalizingly twisted murder mystery to a deliciously rich ending.

When Jessica Harris flies home to Australia to sort out her late brother's estate, the last thing she wants to face is his altruistic investment - an eatery on the rural Bellarine Peninsula. The injured British/Indian elite cyclist just wants to settle up, move on, get rehab, and certainly not have to deal with the restaurant's beautiful owner and artisan foodie, Lillian McAllister, or her sweet, four-year-old daughter. In order to win, Jessica's disciplined life is dedicated to controlling her emotions, and she isn't sure she'd survive letting her walls down now.

Camille Marino has got a full plate. As the sole guardian of her 18-year-old sister and the head chef and owner of a food truck, she’s used to life being a juggling act. With food to cook, social media accounts to manage, and a little sister to look after, she doesn’t have time for much else. That is, until Drew Bautista walks back into her life. Drew is Camille’s former high school crush, and he returns to San Francisco to repair his relationship with his father before he ships out for deployment.

Chef Carrie Ann Cole is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime - an assignment as the new Personal Chef to the Royal Family at Kensington Palace. But no sooner has Carrie Ann touched down across the pond and donned her apron than a dead body crops up beneath the royal kale beds.

Ellie Agresti's not sure anything could be worse than being dumped by her boyfriend, Hunter, the first day of senior year. But sharing a "life skills" class with him and his new girlfriend, Brynn? And getting partnered with a "family" of misfits (A.J., the loudmouth; Isaiah, the horse-racing obsessive; and Luke, the tattooed stunt-biker)? It's a recipe for certain disaster...until an in-class competition allows Ellie to channel her angst into beating Hunter and Brynn's team, and she unexpectedly bonds with her own group - especially Luke - in the process.

Culinary queen Angie Amalfi has put aside her gourmet utensils to concentrate on planning her upcoming wedding to San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith. What could possibly go wrong? Instead of the answer to her heart's dreams, she scrambles to deal with wedding planners with bizarre ideas, wedding dresses that don't flatter, squabbling relatives with hurt feelings, a long-suffering groom, and worries over where she and Paavo will live after the wedding. But all of that pales when Angie finds the perfect house for them, except for one little problem - the house may be haunted.

Soul Food is a multi-voice performance of a short story called Fillet of Souls by D. Glenn Millar, in which strange, disembodied beings share a meal at a restaurant on the edge of galaxy. The menu? It's to die for.

Hell's too full, so the Devil hires ad man Dirk Quigby to pen a travel guide enticing travelers to different afterlives: Hindu, Catholic, Protestant (that one's got a lot of subdivisions), Scientologist, and more. Instead of writing a boffo best seller, Dirk unites all religions in a common goal: kill Dirk. E. E. King grew up in one of those tolerant households that don't force religion down kids' throats. This is the result.

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1904. Wells called it "a fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs.... I had hit upon [the idea] while working out the possibilities of the near future in a book of speculations called Anticipations (1901)." The novel is about a group of scientists who invent a food that accelerates the growth of children and turns them into giants when they become adults.

A gripping examination of the dark side of an iconic American product and a moving portrait of the women who lived in the shadow of its fractured fortune, JELL-O Girls is a family history, a feminist history, and a story of motherhood, love, and loss. In crystalline prose, Rowbottom considers the roots of trauma not only in her own family, but in the American psyche as well, ultimately weaving a story that is deeply personal, as well as deeply connected to the collective female experience.

Rural Free, first published in 1961, beautifully conveys the joys of family life on an Indiana farm. Marked by the slow pace and rich variety of seasonal change, Rachel Peden's narrative offers an authentic month-by-month chronicle of her family's daily adventures. Today, as the slow-food movement gathers support and more urban dwellers return to the land to plant roots again in honest soil, Peden's stories of country life and her lessons on sustainability, frugality, and wastefulness gain a special resonance. Rural Free will be a source of inspiration for all who rejoice in rural virtues.

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.

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.

When Lucy Berberian quits her Philadelphia law firm and heads home to Ocean Crest, she knows what she's getting - the scent of funnel cake, the sight of the wooden roller coaster, and the tastes of her family's Mediterranean restaurant. Lucy could do without Heather Banks, though. The Gucci-toting ex-cheerleader is still as nasty as she was back in high school...and she's just taken over as the local health inspector. Just minutes after eating at the Kebab Kitchen - where she's tallied up a whole list of bogus violations - she falls down dead in the street.

Pulses are racing in Holland, Washington, as it kicks off its "third annual" Lentil Festival. Jackie Norwood, former celebrity chef turned food festival judge, is excited to sample the town’s culinary creations—but she quickly discovers that Holland's lentil dishes come with a side of secrets and deception. Amid the half-truths and lies, she hears unsettling reports about a prom queen who mysteriously disappeared twelve years earlier. Holland’s friendly facade begins to crumble, revealing information the locals would rather keep buried.

On an island where finding love can be just as hard as finding a dinner reservation on a Friday night, Amy Thomas never imagined a family would fit into her lifestyle. So when Amy finds herself turning 40, moving to Brooklyn, and making way for a baby with a new man in her life, she realizes that starting over may be her biggest opportunity yet. But how do you balance staying out all night dancing with staying up all night soothing a baby? Can a lifelong city girl trade in spontaneity for domesticity? Set amid the backdrop of Brooklyn and Manhattan's foodie scenes, Amy sets out to make her second act even sweeter than the first.