Well-Curated Booklist: Inspiring Reads for Food, Home, and Heart

If you enjoy discovering new reading material, one of the best ways to do so is with a well-curated booklist and suggestions from other book lovers. That’s why we are so excited to share our latest booklist, which includes everything from cookbooks to home decor.

Furthermore, you’ll read details about the book, why we recommend it, and images from the books themselves. Every month, I add new and exciting titles to my book collection, and we are sharing them with you this month.

I promise you will fall in love with them as I did and keep them near you on your coffee table or your bookshelf. With a wonderful array of recipes, cocktails, snacks, and home decor advice, you won’t know which to read first!

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1 – Simple Pleasures Incredibly Craveable Recipes for Everyday Cooking – Jodi Moreno

Suppose you love discovering incredible new recipes like Salsa Macha Fried-Egg Tacos, Sesame-Crusted Brown Butter Banana Bread with Crème Fraîche, Asparagus Cacio e Pepe, Sheet Pan Eggplant Parm, and many others. In that case, you must read Simple Pleasures: Incredibly Craveable Recipes for Everyday Cooking by Jodi Moreno.

James Beard–nominated chef Jodi Moreno captures life’s simple pleasures in her collection of super-easy-to-make, highly craveable comfort recipes.

Sizzling bacon in the morning
A perfectly ripe avocado
Freshly baked bread out of the oven
Pomodoro simmering on the stove
…these are just a few of life’s simple pleasures.

Furthermore, a few things you will be sure to find: lots of butter, crème fraîche in desserts, juicy ripe tomatoes everywhere, mounds of parmesan cheese, blankets of sauces, layers of texture and flavor, and the perfect mix of indulgence + feel-good foods to nourish you inside and out.

In addition to the standard breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert chapters, this playful book has sections devoted to pasta parties and long leisurely gatherings with friends―all with super adaptable recipes that feel both unexpected and approachable.

Recipes like:

Salsa Macha Fried-Egg Tacos
Sesame-Crusted Brown Butter Banana Bread with Crème Fraîche
Asparagus Cacio e Pepe
Sheet Pan Eggplant Parm
Pickle Potato Salad with Crispy Mortadella
Celery Caesar Salad with Bacon Breadcrumbs
Not-So-Classic Bolognese
Crispy-Skin Chicken Breast + Ginger-Scallion Sauce
Date Cake with No-Churn Tahini Ice Cream + Bourbon-Soaked Dates
Salty Mezcal Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Once you pick it up, there’s no putting it down. I feel like a pro chef in my kitchen when it’s on my countertop. I can’t wait to explore so many of these recipes. Now, you can see why it’s on my booklist this month.

2 – 101 Things To Do With Rotisserie Chicken New Edition

I love discovering new chicken recipes, and with this book, 101 Things To Do With Rotisserie Chicken (New Edition), you’ll never run out of them.

A groovy new look to showcase all the easy-to-make 101 recipes featuring rotisserie chicken in this bestselling cookbook from a series with over 3 million copies sold.

Furthermore, this new edition of 101 Things to Do With Rotisserie Chicken by Madge Baird will delight poultry lovers. Learn how to stretch a single chicken into several family- and budget-friendly meals with creative recipes from salads to stir-fries.

Now, you can minimize your time in the kitchen by using moist, delectable rotisserie chicken as your main ingredient. Author Madge Baird provides a list of helpful hints on handling store-purchased rotisserie chicken, ideas for making several meals from one bird, and 101 delectable recipes for lunch and dinner—soups, stews, salads, casseroles, pasta dishes, and stir-fries.

So, grab a fork and tuck into a filling Potato Chicken Frittata, a tasty Chicken Pesto Pasta, or a Quicky-Chicky Stir-Fry. Other recipes include Chicken Cacciatore Pasta, Chicken Nachos Supreme, Chicken Puff Pastries, Squawkamole Quesadillas, Ramen Cabbage Salad, Quick Chicken and Dumplings, 5-Minute Lasagna, Breakfast Chicken-Potato Hash, and more.

Along with a new design, the book is now a concealed spiral-bound flexi paperback.

3 – Dopamine Home: A bold guide to mood-boosting interiors by Rachel Verney – A Booklist Must-Have

I adore Dopamine Home: A Bold Guide to Mood-Boosting Interiors by Rachel Verney. The images are inspiring and gave me the kick in the pants I need to start redecorating my home. I’m so excited to add this book to this month’s booklist.

Moreover, packed full of ideas for every budget, interiors expert Rachel Verney shares her creative design process, color know-how, and interior hacks to make every corner of your home a colorful, dopamine-inducing haven.

So, whether you’re looking for cost-friendly mini upgrades with maximum impact or large-scale inspiration as part of a renovation, Rachel guides you through the core principles of dopamine décor room by room, showing you how to implement it as you transform your space.

4 – Farmhouse Weekends Menus for Relaxing Country Meals All Year Long – Melissa Bahen

Even though I don’t live in the city, I dream about a farmhouse lifestyle and everything that goes with it. That’s one reason I love this book, Farmhouse Weekends Menus for Relaxing Country Meals All Year Long.

Farmhouse Weekends is the cookbook for anyone who daydreams of country life. Prepare meals and experiences to enjoy with family and friends easy companionship. Furthermore, everything you need to create the perfect farmhouse weekend, no matter where you live, is found within these pages.

For example, each chapter provides recipes inspired by author Melissa Bahen’s weekend jaunts in the country: apple cider donuts and white bean chili after a day of picking fresh apples in the fall, buttery cobbler full of ripe summer berries after a trip to the farmers’ market; hot, flaky biscuits slathered with butter and homemade strawberry freezer jam to start a spring day.

You’ll find brunch, dinner, and dessert recipes for spring, summer, autumn, and winter: 65 recipes to entertain and enjoy good company all year round.

5 – Cutting Up in the Kitchen Food and Fun from Southern National’s Chef Duane Nutter

Chef Duane Nutter’s fusion style of cooking blends modern American bistro with regional direction and global inspiration that adds a new blast of flavor or a twist in the preparation to make familiar Southern food even better.

Chef Duane Nutter is a storyteller with his Southern-fusion cuisine, his comfortable yet informative writing style, and his humor. Cutting Up In the Kitchen: Food and Fun from Southern National’s Chef Duane Nutter offers more than 100 Southern-leaning recipes composed of familiar ingredients that are often infused with international flavors.

Furthermore, while widely praised for his cooking prowess by the likes of the James Beard Foundation, the New York Times, and the FAB (Airport Food and Beverage) Awards, Nutter is also known as The Mad Chef from his stand-up comedy act.

This cookbook, full of sophisticated yet approachable recipes, is organized like a comedy act with chapter titles such as The Set Up (Cocktails), Stock Material (Sauces and Condiments), Open-Mikers (Appetizers, Salads, and Soups); Bit Parts (Side Dishes); The Hook (Fish and Seafood Main Courses); Headliners (Main Courses), and Curtain Calls (Desserts).

Furthermore, you will find recipes for Spiced Rum Iced Coffee and Coconut Negroni to whet your whistle; Smoked Paprika Compound Butter and Mustard Green Chimichurri to flavor dishes; Arugula Salad with Golden Beets, Pickled Grapes, and Spiced Pecans along with Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs to start the meal; Sautéed Royal Red Shrimp with Bourbon Maque Choux or Lamb Burger Helper for a main course, and Buttermilk and Honey Ice Cream, Citrus Bread Pudding, or Cheesecake Flan to close the show. All will have a good time!

6 – Brunch Season: A Year of Delicious Mornings from the Buttermilk Kitchen

From the Buttermilk Kitchenis a beautiful, year-round, go-to cookbook that highlights more than 60 made-from-scratch brunch recipes incorporating fresh fruits and vegetables at their peak times of the year. Brunch Season: A Year of Delicious Mornings from the Buttermilk Kitchen is the perfect go-to cookbook for every season.

★ “Straightforward yet elegant and full of inspiration, this will become a go-to for home cooks looking for an excuse to make brunch for any occasion.”―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“The flavors of Atlanta’s Buttermilk Kitchen―famed for its dazzling breakfasts and lunches―shift to coastal Maine in Suzanne Vizethann’s Brunch Season, an inviting cookbook.”―Foreword Reviews.

Brunch is a lovely way to celebrate a meal with friends and family and a great way to make any midday or mid-week dining special. The recipes in Brunch Season: A Year of Delicious Mornings from the Buttermilk Kitchen include sweet and savory dishes, drawing ideas from Buttermilk Kitchen breakfast favorites and adding seasonal soups, salads, and drinks.

Chef Suzanne Vizethann’s fresh farm-to-table approach to this cookbook, divided into spring, summer, fall, and winter chapters, reflects her commitment to providing high-quality, ripe, flavorful ingredients.

Ideally the recipes are simple yet refined, and the seasonal section openers include a list of peak ingredients for that season. For spring, you will find recipes such as Young Garlic and Radish Focaccia and Rhubarb Cobbler; for summer, Heirloom Tomato Toasts and Watermelon Mimosas; for fall, Roasted Squash Oatmeal with Crispy Rosemary Seeds and Chocolate Hazelnut Sticky Cake; for winter, Coddled Egg with Creamed Kale and Winter Citrus with Whipped Ricotta and Honey. The home cook can expect balanced dishes that are as beautiful as they are delicious.

7 – Cocktails, Southern Style: Pours, Drinks, Sips, and Bites

Let your Southern hospitality shine when you serve your guests drinks, cocktails, or nonalcoholic beverages from this delectable compilation of classic and newly-inspired recipes.

Belinda Smith-Sullivan’s Cocktails, Southern Style: Pours, Drinks, Sips, and Bites is a collection of approximately 90 recipes for classic Southern cocktails, new flavor-profile mixed drinks, and a bonus chapter of nibbles―after all we are talking about Southern hospitality, and no Southern host would serve you a drink without offering a tasty treat to accompany it!

Furthermore, along with information about the structure of a cocktail, techniques, and equipment, you will find instructions for making infused vodkas and simple syrups for use in mixing drinks.

For instance, there are recipes for celebrations; brunch; afternoons on the porch; classic martinis; happy hour; spritzes, smashes, and farts; beer-based drinks; wine-based drinks; traditional cocktails; and mocktails and nonalcoholic beverages.

Moreover, for gatherings of any size, try serving your drinks with an assortment of Mini Hot Browns, Pimento Cheese and Tomato Sliders, Sausage Roll Poppers, and Crab Hush Puppies. Your guests will approve!