"Frescoes by the Bay" is a two-volume visual tour of the wealth of fresco murals in the San Francisco area. Karen Norton-Sinell provides detailed research and extensive commentary about the frescoes’ history, composition, iconography,... Read More

T. Sean Steele’s "Tacky Goblin" is a clever, loopy novella that relates the journal entries of an unnamed twentysomething central character. He drifts through ennui-laden days in his parents’ home in Chicago, surviving demonic... Read More

The Butcher’s Daughter follows a Tudor English girl, Agnes Peppin, from the cocoon of her youth in her small market town, to consignment to a nunnery after an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, through to her wiser, bittersweet middle... Read More

"The Two-Plate Solution" is a molten broth of comic, nonstop action from page one. The American TV show Natural Dish-aster is shooting in Israel, and producer Sara Sinek, a Special Forces veteran with a secret about her time embedded... Read More

Todd Richards’s Soul: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes is a thoughtful introduction to African American food, though it is only the launching point for Richards’s inventive cooking repertoire. Chapters begin with base... Read More

Ren Behan’s "Wild Honey and Rye" transforms the treasured foods of her Polish forbears into fresher, lighter recipes. While there are still hearty dishes in the mix, Behan’s emphasis is on adaptations of classic Polish fare to... Read More

Baking is chemistry; baking is alchemy; baking is craft. Brian Hart Hoffman’s Bake from Scratch: Artisan Recipes for the Home Baker, Volume Two celebrates all of these aspects with more than 600 recipes from the sophomore year of Bake... Read More

The important message underpinning Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson’s otherwise playful "The Campout Cookbook" is tucked at the end: “On a small scale, we think the best thing you can do for the environment is to bring your friends... Read More