Who is Eva Thorvald? To her single father, a chef, she's a pint-sized recipe tester and the love of his life. To the chilli chowdown contestants of Cook County, Illinois, she's a fire-eating demon. To the fashionable foodie goddess of supper clubs, she's a wanton threat. She's an enigma, a secret ingredient that no one can put their finger on. Eva will surprise everyone. On the day before her eleventh birthday, she's cultivating chilli peppers in her wardrobe like a pro. Abandoned by her mother, gangly and poor, Eva arms herself with the weapons of her unknown heritage: a kick-ass palate and a passion bordering on obsession. Over the years, her tastes grow, and so do her ambitions. One day Eva will be the greatest chef in the world. But along the way, the people she meets will shape her - and she, them - in ways unforgettable, riotous and profound. So she - for one - knows exactly who she is by the time her mother returns. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is about the family you lose, the friends you make and chance connections that can define a life. Joyful, quirky or brazen, everyone lends their voice to tell Eva's story - one that's as heartwarming as it is irresistible, taking the bitter with the sweet.
Publisher: n/a
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9780525429142
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Print book
Midnight Brunch
By Acosta, Marta
What's a girl to do when she discovers she's the main course on the menu? Hip, funny Milagro de los Santos thinks she's finally found love and a home at the California ranch of fabulous Oswald Grant and his urbane relatives, who have a rare genetic disorder that some call vampirism. But Milagro is bewildered when she's excluded from an ancient and mysterious midnight ceremony whose participants include Oswald's unfriendly parents, a creepy family elder, and Milagro's ex-lover, the powerful and decadent Ian Ducharme. What skeletons are the vampires keeping in their designer closets? When Milagro's life is threatened by a rogue family member, she flees to the desert to hide. Instead of solitude, she encounters an egomaniacal actor, a partying heiress, a sly tabloid reporter, and a lavish spa full of dark secrets -- all of which might help her find a way home.
Publisher: n/a
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9781416520399
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Paperback
Cooking for Picasso
By Aubray, Camille
For readers of Paula McLain, Nancy Horan, and Melanie Benjamin, this captivating novel is inspired by a little-known interlude in the artist's life."A tasty blend of romance, mystery, and French cooking." - Margaret Atwood, via Twitter The French Riviera, spring 1936: It's off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where seventeen-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned Caf Paradis. A mysterious new patron who's slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual request - to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa he's secretly rented, where he wishes to remain incognito. Pablo Picasso is at a momentous crossroads in his personal and professional life - and for him, art and women are always entwined. The spirited Ondine, chafing under her family's authority and nursing a broken heart, is just beginning to discover her own talents and appetites. Her encounter with Picasso will continue to affect her life for many decades onward, as the great artist and the talented young chef each pursue their own passions and destiny. New York, present day: Cline, a Hollywood makeup artist who's come home for the holidays, learns from her mother, Julie, that Grandmother Ondine once cooked for Picasso. Prompted by her mother's enigmatic stories and the hint of more family secrets yet to be uncovered, Cline carries out Julie's wishes and embarks on a voyage to the very town where Ondine and Picasso first met. In the lush, heady atmosphere of the Cte d'Azur, and with the help of several eccentric fellow guests attending a rigorous cooking class at her hotel, Cline discovers truths about art, culture, cuisine, and love that enable her to embrace her own future. Featuring an array of both fictional characters and the French Riviera's most famous historical residents, set against the breathtaking scenery of the South of France, Cooking for Picasso is a touching, delectable, and wise story, illuminating the powers of trust, money, art, and creativity in the choices that men and women make as they seek a path toward love, success, and joie de vivre.Praise for Cooking for Picasso "Intrigue, art, food, and deception are woven together in a tale of love and betrayal around the life and legacy of Picasso. Touching and true, this well-written narrative made me long for my mother's coq au vin and for the sun of Juan-les-Pins." - Jacques Ppin, chef, TV personality, author"Intriguing and insightful, the sensory details alone will have you thinking you're reading the pages seated at a seaside caf in the South of France." - Susan Meissner, author of Secrets of a Charmed Life"[A] delicious, atmospheric novel . . . You'll be glad you're along for the ride." - People (Pick for "The Best New Books") "[A] colorful family saga . . . Cooking for Picasso is . . . about how people take what seems to be worthless and make it into something priceless. . . . The characters in Camille Aubray's debut novel illustrate . . . that value lies not in what you own, but in who you are." - The Washington Post "This richly crafted tale of love, trust, art and food is wonderfully evocative of the sun-kissed Cte d'Azur, while weaving in a modern-day mystery. . . . Ideal for whiling away some time en vacances on the Riviera." - France Today "[A] sweet summer escape." - Cosmopolitan
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399177655
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Secrets of the Chocolate House
By Brackston, Paula
The second novel in a bewitching series "brimming with charm and charisma" that will make "fans of Outlander rejoice!" (Woman's World Magazine) New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston's The Little Shop of Found Things was called "a page-turner that will no doubt leave readers eager for future series installments" (Publishers Weekly) . Now, Brackston returns to the Found Things series with its sequel, Secrets of the Chocolate House.After her adventures in the seventeenth century, Xanthe does her best to settle back into the rhythm of life in Marlborough. She tells herself she must forget about Samuel and leave him in the past where he belongs. With the help of her new friends, she does her best to move on, focusing instead on the success of her and Flora's antique shop.But there are still things waiting to be found, still injustices needing to be put right, still voices whispering to Xanthe from long ago about secrets wanting to be shared.While looking for new stock for the shop, Xanthe hears the song of a copper chocolate pot. Soon after, she has an upsetting vision of Samuel in great danger, compelling her to make another journey to the past.This time she'll meet her most dangerous adversary. This time her ability to travel to the past will be tested. This time she will discover her true destiny. Will that destiny allow her to return home? And will she be able to save Samuel when his own fate seems to be sealed?
Publisher: n/a
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9781250072443
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Hardcover
The Cauliflower
By Barker, Nicola
From Man Booker-shortlisted, IMPAC Award-winning author Nicola Barker comes an exuberant, multi-voiced new novel mapping the extraordinary life and legacy of a 19th-century Hindu saintTo the world, he is Sri Ramakrishna--godly avatar, esteemed spiritual master, beloved guru. To Rani Rashmoni, she of low caste and large inheritance, he is the brahmin fated to defy tradition. But to Hriday, his nephew and longtime caretaker, he is just Uncle--maddening, bewildering Uncle, prone to entering trances at the most inconvenient of times, known to sneak out to the forest at midnight to perform dangerous acts of self-effacement, who must be vigilantly safeguarded not only against jealous enemies and devotees with ulterior motives, but also against that most treasured yet insidious of sulfur-rich vegetables: the cauliflower. Rather than puzzling the shards of history and legend together, Barker shatters the mirror again and rearranges the pieces. The result is a biographical novel viewed through a kaleidoscope. Dazzlingly inventive and brilliantly comic, irreverent and mischievous, The Cauliflower delivers us into the divine playfulness of a twenty-first-century literary master.
Publisher: n/a
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9781627797191
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Print book
Soy Sauce for Beginners
By Chen, Kirstin
Gretchen Lin, adrift at the age of thirty, leaves her floundering marriage in San Francisco to move back to her childhood home in Singapore and immediately finds herself face-to-face with the twin headaches she's avoided her entire adult life: her mother's drinking problem and the machinations of her father's artisanal soy sauce business. Surrounded by family, Gretchen struggles with the tension between personal ambition and filial duty, but still finds time to explore a new romance with the son of a client, an attractive man of few words. When an old American friend comes to town, the two of them are pulled into the controversy surrounding Gretchen's cousin, the only male grandchild and the heir apparent to Lin's Soy Sauce. In the midst of increasing pressure from her father to remain permanently in Singapore - and pressure from her mother to do just the opposite - Gretchen must decide whether she will return to her marriage and her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory, or sacrifice everything and join her family's crusade to spread artisanal soy sauce to the world.
Publisher: n/a
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9781477800959
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Paperback
Egg Drop Dead
By Childs, Laura
In Laura Childs's New York Times bestselling mystery series, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni - co-owners of the Cackleberry Club Caf - are back to track down another bad egg ... Maintaining good personal relationships with their suppliers is one of the secrets of the Cackleberry Club Caf's success, so Suzanne doesn't mind going out to Mike Mullen's dairy farm to pick up some wheels of cheese. She's looking forward to a nice visit with the mild-mannered farmer before heading back to their hectic kitchen. But when she arrives, Mike's nowhere to be found. The moaning of his cows leads her to look in the barn, where she discovers a bloodcurdling sight - the farmer's dead body. Apparently not everyone was as fond of Mike Mullen as the Cackleberry Club. Churning with grief and outrage, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni vow to find the farmer's murderer - but as they get closer to the truth, the desperate killer gets whipped into a frenzy and plans to put the squeeze on them...
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9780425281703
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Print book
Let It Rain Coffee
By Cruz, Angie
Angie Cruz has established herself as a dazzling new voice in Latin American fiction, her writing compared to Gabriel Garca Mrquez's by The Boston Globe. Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Coln family and the dreams, love, and h
Publisher: n/a
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9780743212045
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An Apple for the Creature
By Harris, Charlaine
Includes a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story! What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal from Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms. In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up.
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425256804
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Hardcover
Rest In Pizza
By Cavender, Chris
Small towns like Timber Ridge, North Carolina - the home of Eleanor Swifts delectable pizzeria, A Slice of Delight - dont take well to prima donna celebrities. So no one is particularly pleased when TV host and chef Antonio Benet roars into town for a book signing and manages to insult Eleanor, her sister Maddie, and everyone else within earshot. Insults are one thing, however ...murder is quite another. Eleanor knows shes on the menu of suspects. So is bookstore owner Beth, Benets beleaguered personal assistant, and the TV producer who was trying to stop Benet from going to another network. With her freedom - and even her looking-good-for-a-minute-there love life - on the chopping block, Eleanors got a seriously full plate. But can she serve up justice before she ends up with a knife in her back?,.
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758271506
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Hardcover
Out to Lunch
By Ballis, Stacey
A touching and hilarious novel from the fabulous Stacey Ballis about best friends, true love, and the joy of foodfor fans of Jen Lancaster, Jennifer Weiner, and Emily Giffin...Jenna has lost her best friend.With Aimee gone so tragically young, Jenna barely knows where to turn. Aimee was the one who always knew what to donot to mention what to wear. The two built a catering company together and had so much in commonwell, except their taste in men. Jenna never understood what the successful, sophisticated Aimee saw in Wayne, with his Star Wars obsession and harebrained business schemes.And gained her best friends husbandBut Aimee has left a shocking last request Jenna now has financial custody of the not-so-merry widower. True, Wayne needs someone sensible around to keep him under control, but what was her dear departed friend thinkingThe thing is, as she gets to know Wayne better, his latest moneymaking idea actually starts to intrigue her.
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9780425265499
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Paperback
The Dinner Party
By Ferris, Joshua
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the YearThe first collection of short stories from the critically acclaimed, prize-winning author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. These eleven stories by Joshua Ferris, many of which were first published in The New Yorker, are at once thrilling, strange, and comic. The modern tribulations of marriage, ambition, and the fear of missing out as the temptations flow like wine and the minutes of life tick down are explored with the characteristic wit and insight that have made Ferris one of our most critically acclaimed novelists. Each of these stories burrows deep into the often awkward and hilarious misunderstandings that pass between strangers and lovers alike, and that turn ordinary lives upside down. Ferris shows to what lengths we mortals go to coax human meaning from our very modest time on earth, an effort that skews ever-more desperately in the direction of redemption.
Publisher: n/a
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9780316465960
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Paperback
The Grapes of Wrath 75th Anniversary Edition
By Steinbeck, John
April 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Viking hardcover publication of Steinbeck's crowning literary achievementFirst published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America. As Don DeLillo has claimed, Steinbeck "shaped a geography of conscience" with this novel where "there is something at stake in every sentence." Beyond that - for emotional urgency, evocative power, sustained impact, prophetic reach, and continued controversy - The Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the most American of American classics.To commemorate the book's 75th anniversary, this volume is modeled on the first edition, featuring the original cover illustration by Elmer Hader and specially designed endpapers by Michael Schwab.
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9780670016907
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Hardcover
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
By Bradley, Alan
Winner of the CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DEBUT DAGGER AWARD and the AGATHA AND DILYS AWARD - "A wickedly clever story, a dead-true and original voice" - Laurie R. KingIt is the summer of 1950-and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."
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9780385343497
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Paperback
Cakewalk
By Brown, Rita Mae
Continuing in the exuberant tradition of Six of One, Bingo, and Loose Lips, New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown returns to her much-loved fictional hamlet of Runnymede, whose memorable citizens are welcoming both the end of the Great War and the beginning of a new era. The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house - during a Mary Pickford picture, no less - you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world - and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she'll not soon forget. Set against the backdrop of America emerging from World War I, Cakewalk is an outrageous and affecting novel about a small town where ideas of sin and virtue, love and sex, men and women, politics and religion, can be as divided as the Mason-Dixon Line that runs right through it - and where there's no problem that can't be cured by a good yarn and an even better scotch. With her signature Southern voice, Rita Mae Brown deftly weaves generations of family stories into a spirited patchwork quilt of not-so-simple but joyously rich life. Praise for Rita Mae Brown's Runnymede novels Six of One "Joyous, passionate and funny." - The Washington Post Book World "No matter how quirky or devilish, Brown's people cavort in an atmosphere of tenderness. . . . It is refreshing to encounter this celebration of human energy." - Chicago Sun-TimesBingo "Genuinely funny." - Los Angeles Times "Vividly drawn characters . . . and tart, loving humor." - SelfLoose Lips "Surprises . . . come from Rita Mae Brown's comic timing and her affection for eccentrics." - The Seattle Times "[Brown] does an admirable job of portraying the effects World War II has on one small American town." - The Arizona Republic
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9780553392654
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Print book
Sourdough
By Sloan, Robin
Click Here For the Autographed Copy
In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.
Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her - feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she's providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer's market, and a whole new world opens up.
When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?
Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer.
Publisher: n/a
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9780374203108
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Hardcover
Pineapple Grenade
By Dorsey, Tim
"The undisputed king of the comic crime novel." - Providence Journal"I guarantee Dorsey will never win the Nobel Prize for Literature - he's far too funny." - Richmond Times-Dispatch"If you've never read Dorsey, you need to start ... You won't be disappointed." - Miami HeraldGloriously unrepentant Florida serial killer Serge Storms is back - and he's finagled his way into becoming a secret agent in Miami - in another outrageous crime comedy from New York Times bestselling author, Tim Dorsey. In Pineapple Grenade, the incomparable Serge takes up spying for the president of a banana republic, and now Homeland Security wants to bring him down. It's always a wild ride when Dorsey's at the wheel, and with Pineapple Grenade he delivers his most explosively hilarious road trip to date.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
By Stradal, J. Ryan
Who is Eva Thorvald? To her single father, a chef, she's a pint-sized recipe tester and the love of his life. To the chilli chowdown contestants of Cook County, Illinois, she's a fire-eating demon. To the fashionable foodie goddess of supper clubs, she's a wanton threat. She's an enigma, a secret ingredient that no one can put their finger on. Eva will surprise everyone. On the day before her eleventh birthday, she's cultivating chilli peppers in her wardrobe like a pro. Abandoned by her mother, gangly and poor, Eva arms herself with the weapons of her unknown heritage: a kick-ass palate and a passion bordering on obsession. Over the years, her tastes grow, and so do her ambitions. One day Eva will be the greatest chef in the world. But along the way, the people she meets will shape her - and she, them - in ways unforgettable, riotous and profound. So she - for one - knows exactly who she is by the time her mother returns. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is about the family you lose, the friends you make and chance connections that can define a life. Joyful, quirky or brazen, everyone lends their voice to tell Eva's story - one that's as heartwarming as it is irresistible, taking the bitter with the sweet.
Midnight Brunch
By Acosta, Marta
What's a girl to do when she discovers she's the main course on the menu? Hip, funny Milagro de los Santos thinks she's finally found love and a home at the California ranch of fabulous Oswald Grant and his urbane relatives, who have a rare genetic disorder that some call vampirism. But Milagro is bewildered when she's excluded from an ancient and mysterious midnight ceremony whose participants include Oswald's unfriendly parents, a creepy family elder, and Milagro's ex-lover, the powerful and decadent Ian Ducharme. What skeletons are the vampires keeping in their designer closets? When Milagro's life is threatened by a rogue family member, she flees to the desert to hide. Instead of solitude, she encounters an egomaniacal actor, a partying heiress, a sly tabloid reporter, and a lavish spa full of dark secrets -- all of which might help her find a way home.
Cooking for Picasso
By Aubray, Camille
For readers of Paula McLain, Nancy Horan, and Melanie Benjamin, this captivating novel is inspired by a little-known interlude in the artist's life."A tasty blend of romance, mystery, and French cooking." - Margaret Atwood, via Twitter The French Riviera, spring 1936: It's off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where seventeen-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned Caf Paradis. A mysterious new patron who's slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual request - to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa he's secretly rented, where he wishes to remain incognito. Pablo Picasso is at a momentous crossroads in his personal and professional life - and for him, art and women are always entwined. The spirited Ondine, chafing under her family's authority and nursing a broken heart, is just beginning to discover her own talents and appetites. Her encounter with Picasso will continue to affect her life for many decades onward, as the great artist and the talented young chef each pursue their own passions and destiny. New York, present day: Cline, a Hollywood makeup artist who's come home for the holidays, learns from her mother, Julie, that Grandmother Ondine once cooked for Picasso. Prompted by her mother's enigmatic stories and the hint of more family secrets yet to be uncovered, Cline carries out Julie's wishes and embarks on a voyage to the very town where Ondine and Picasso first met. In the lush, heady atmosphere of the Cte d'Azur, and with the help of several eccentric fellow guests attending a rigorous cooking class at her hotel, Cline discovers truths about art, culture, cuisine, and love that enable her to embrace her own future. Featuring an array of both fictional characters and the French Riviera's most famous historical residents, set against the breathtaking scenery of the South of France, Cooking for Picasso is a touching, delectable, and wise story, illuminating the powers of trust, money, art, and creativity in the choices that men and women make as they seek a path toward love, success, and joie de vivre.Praise for Cooking for Picasso "Intrigue, art, food, and deception are woven together in a tale of love and betrayal around the life and legacy of Picasso. Touching and true, this well-written narrative made me long for my mother's coq au vin and for the sun of Juan-les-Pins." - Jacques Ppin, chef, TV personality, author"Intriguing and insightful, the sensory details alone will have you thinking you're reading the pages seated at a seaside caf in the South of France." - Susan Meissner, author of Secrets of a Charmed Life"[A] delicious, atmospheric novel . . . You'll be glad you're along for the ride." - People (Pick for "The Best New Books") "[A] colorful family saga . . . Cooking for Picasso is . . . about how people take what seems to be worthless and make it into something priceless. . . . The characters in Camille Aubray's debut novel illustrate . . . that value lies not in what you own, but in who you are." - The Washington Post "This richly crafted tale of love, trust, art and food is wonderfully evocative of the sun-kissed Cte d'Azur, while weaving in a modern-day mystery. . . . Ideal for whiling away some time en vacances on the Riviera." - France Today "[A] sweet summer escape." - Cosmopolitan
Secrets of the Chocolate House
By Brackston, Paula
The second novel in a bewitching series "brimming with charm and charisma" that will make "fans of Outlander rejoice!" (Woman's World Magazine) New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston's The Little Shop of Found Things was called "a page-turner that will no doubt leave readers eager for future series installments" (Publishers Weekly) . Now, Brackston returns to the Found Things series with its sequel, Secrets of the Chocolate House.After her adventures in the seventeenth century, Xanthe does her best to settle back into the rhythm of life in Marlborough. She tells herself she must forget about Samuel and leave him in the past where he belongs. With the help of her new friends, she does her best to move on, focusing instead on the success of her and Flora's antique shop.But there are still things waiting to be found, still injustices needing to be put right, still voices whispering to Xanthe from long ago about secrets wanting to be shared.While looking for new stock for the shop, Xanthe hears the song of a copper chocolate pot. Soon after, she has an upsetting vision of Samuel in great danger, compelling her to make another journey to the past.This time she'll meet her most dangerous adversary. This time her ability to travel to the past will be tested. This time she will discover her true destiny. Will that destiny allow her to return home? And will she be able to save Samuel when his own fate seems to be sealed?
The Cauliflower
By Barker, Nicola
From Man Booker-shortlisted, IMPAC Award-winning author Nicola Barker comes an exuberant, multi-voiced new novel mapping the extraordinary life and legacy of a 19th-century Hindu saintTo the world, he is Sri Ramakrishna--godly avatar, esteemed spiritual master, beloved guru. To Rani Rashmoni, she of low caste and large inheritance, he is the brahmin fated to defy tradition. But to Hriday, his nephew and longtime caretaker, he is just Uncle--maddening, bewildering Uncle, prone to entering trances at the most inconvenient of times, known to sneak out to the forest at midnight to perform dangerous acts of self-effacement, who must be vigilantly safeguarded not only against jealous enemies and devotees with ulterior motives, but also against that most treasured yet insidious of sulfur-rich vegetables: the cauliflower. Rather than puzzling the shards of history and legend together, Barker shatters the mirror again and rearranges the pieces. The result is a biographical novel viewed through a kaleidoscope. Dazzlingly inventive and brilliantly comic, irreverent and mischievous, The Cauliflower delivers us into the divine playfulness of a twenty-first-century literary master.
Soy Sauce for Beginners
By Chen, Kirstin
Gretchen Lin, adrift at the age of thirty, leaves her floundering marriage in San Francisco to move back to her childhood home in Singapore and immediately finds herself face-to-face with the twin headaches she's avoided her entire adult life: her mother's drinking problem and the machinations of her father's artisanal soy sauce business. Surrounded by family, Gretchen struggles with the tension between personal ambition and filial duty, but still finds time to explore a new romance with the son of a client, an attractive man of few words. When an old American friend comes to town, the two of them are pulled into the controversy surrounding Gretchen's cousin, the only male grandchild and the heir apparent to Lin's Soy Sauce. In the midst of increasing pressure from her father to remain permanently in Singapore - and pressure from her mother to do just the opposite - Gretchen must decide whether she will return to her marriage and her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory, or sacrifice everything and join her family's crusade to spread artisanal soy sauce to the world.
Egg Drop Dead
By Childs, Laura
In Laura Childs's New York Times bestselling mystery series, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni - co-owners of the Cackleberry Club Caf - are back to track down another bad egg ... Maintaining good personal relationships with their suppliers is one of the secrets of the Cackleberry Club Caf's success, so Suzanne doesn't mind going out to Mike Mullen's dairy farm to pick up some wheels of cheese. She's looking forward to a nice visit with the mild-mannered farmer before heading back to their hectic kitchen. But when she arrives, Mike's nowhere to be found. The moaning of his cows leads her to look in the barn, where she discovers a bloodcurdling sight - the farmer's dead body. Apparently not everyone was as fond of Mike Mullen as the Cackleberry Club. Churning with grief and outrage, Suzanne, Petra, and Toni vow to find the farmer's murderer - but as they get closer to the truth, the desperate killer gets whipped into a frenzy and plans to put the squeeze on them...
Let It Rain Coffee
By Cruz, Angie
Angie Cruz has established herself as a dazzling new voice in Latin American fiction, her writing compared to Gabriel Garca Mrquez's by The Boston Globe. Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Coln family and the dreams, love, and h
An Apple for the Creature
By Harris, Charlaine
Includes a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story! What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal from Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms. In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up.
Rest In Pizza
By Cavender, Chris
Small towns like Timber Ridge, North Carolina - the home of Eleanor Swifts delectable pizzeria, A Slice of Delight - dont take well to prima donna celebrities. So no one is particularly pleased when TV host and chef Antonio Benet roars into town for a book signing and manages to insult Eleanor, her sister Maddie, and everyone else within earshot. Insults are one thing, however ...murder is quite another. Eleanor knows shes on the menu of suspects. So is bookstore owner Beth, Benets beleaguered personal assistant, and the TV producer who was trying to stop Benet from going to another network. With her freedom - and even her looking-good-for-a-minute-there love life - on the chopping block, Eleanors got a seriously full plate. But can she serve up justice before she ends up with a knife in her back?,.
Out to Lunch
By Ballis, Stacey
A touching and hilarious novel from the fabulous Stacey Ballis about best friends, true love, and the joy of foodfor fans of Jen Lancaster, Jennifer Weiner, and Emily Giffin...Jenna has lost her best friend.With Aimee gone so tragically young, Jenna barely knows where to turn. Aimee was the one who always knew what to donot to mention what to wear. The two built a catering company together and had so much in commonwell, except their taste in men. Jenna never understood what the successful, sophisticated Aimee saw in Wayne, with his Star Wars obsession and harebrained business schemes.And gained her best friends husbandBut Aimee has left a shocking last request Jenna now has financial custody of the not-so-merry widower. True, Wayne needs someone sensible around to keep him under control, but what was her dear departed friend thinkingThe thing is, as she gets to know Wayne better, his latest moneymaking idea actually starts to intrigue her.
The Dinner Party
By Ferris, Joshua
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the YearThe first collection of short stories from the critically acclaimed, prize-winning author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. These eleven stories by Joshua Ferris, many of which were first published in The New Yorker, are at once thrilling, strange, and comic. The modern tribulations of marriage, ambition, and the fear of missing out as the temptations flow like wine and the minutes of life tick down are explored with the characteristic wit and insight that have made Ferris one of our most critically acclaimed novelists. Each of these stories burrows deep into the often awkward and hilarious misunderstandings that pass between strangers and lovers alike, and that turn ordinary lives upside down. Ferris shows to what lengths we mortals go to coax human meaning from our very modest time on earth, an effort that skews ever-more desperately in the direction of redemption.
The Grapes of Wrath 75th Anniversary Edition
By Steinbeck, John
April 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Viking hardcover publication of Steinbeck's crowning literary achievementFirst published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America. As Don DeLillo has claimed, Steinbeck "shaped a geography of conscience" with this novel where "there is something at stake in every sentence." Beyond that - for emotional urgency, evocative power, sustained impact, prophetic reach, and continued controversy - The Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the most American of American classics.To commemorate the book's 75th anniversary, this volume is modeled on the first edition, featuring the original cover illustration by Elmer Hader and specially designed endpapers by Michael Schwab.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
By Bradley, Alan
Winner of the CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DEBUT DAGGER AWARD and the AGATHA AND DILYS AWARD - "A wickedly clever story, a dead-true and original voice" - Laurie R. KingIt is the summer of 1950-and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."
Cakewalk
By Brown, Rita Mae
Continuing in the exuberant tradition of Six of One, Bingo, and Loose Lips, New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown returns to her much-loved fictional hamlet of Runnymede, whose memorable citizens are welcoming both the end of the Great War and the beginning of a new era. The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house - during a Mary Pickford picture, no less - you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world - and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she'll not soon forget. Set against the backdrop of America emerging from World War I, Cakewalk is an outrageous and affecting novel about a small town where ideas of sin and virtue, love and sex, men and women, politics and religion, can be as divided as the Mason-Dixon Line that runs right through it - and where there's no problem that can't be cured by a good yarn and an even better scotch. With her signature Southern voice, Rita Mae Brown deftly weaves generations of family stories into a spirited patchwork quilt of not-so-simple but joyously rich life. Praise for Rita Mae Brown's Runnymede novels Six of One "Joyous, passionate and funny." - The Washington Post Book World "No matter how quirky or devilish, Brown's people cavort in an atmosphere of tenderness. . . . It is refreshing to encounter this celebration of human energy." - Chicago Sun-Times Bingo "Genuinely funny." - Los Angeles Times "Vividly drawn characters . . . and tart, loving humor." - Self Loose Lips "Surprises . . . come from Rita Mae Brown's comic timing and her affection for eccentrics." - The Seattle Times "[Brown] does an admirable job of portraying the effects World War II has on one small American town." - The Arizona Republic
Sourdough
By Sloan, Robin
Click Here For the Autographed Copy In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her - feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it. Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she's providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer's market, and a whole new world opens up. When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly? Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer.
Pineapple Grenade
By Dorsey, Tim
"The undisputed king of the comic crime novel." - Providence Journal"I guarantee Dorsey will never win the Nobel Prize for Literature - he's far too funny." - Richmond Times-Dispatch"If you've never read Dorsey, you need to start ... You won't be disappointed." - Miami HeraldGloriously unrepentant Florida serial killer Serge Storms is back - and he's finagled his way into becoming a secret agent in Miami - in another outrageous crime comedy from New York Times bestselling author, Tim Dorsey. In Pineapple Grenade, the incomparable Serge takes up spying for the president of a banana republic, and now Homeland Security wants to bring him down. It's always a wild ride when Dorsey's at the wheel, and with Pineapple Grenade he delivers his most explosively hilarious road trip to date.