All Reviews

NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

The Water-Smart Garden

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Arizona horticulturalist Noelle Johnson, sometimes known as the “AZ plant lady,” shares her expertise and longtime passion for gardening in a hot, dry climate in this informative guide to gardening in our changing climate. The Water-Smart Garden: Techniques and Strategies for Conserving, Capturing, and Efficiently Using Water in Today’s Climate . . . and Tomorrow’s, of course, is not simply for those living in or near the desert, but also has practical use for gardeners elsewhere. As Johnson notes at the outset, “shrinking water supplies also are occurring in more temperate regions.” 

Johnson’s clear, accessible text begins with some basic information about how plants use water. Throughout, she aims to assuage concerns that a waterwise garden only consists of rocks and cacti. She includes chapters on plant choices, building drought-resistant soil and watering efficiently—in other words, giving gardeners essential tools and techniques to plan, make changes and maintain a sustainable garden. Johnson’s chapter on capturing rainfall and passive water harvesting is especially useful, as precipitation patterns shift. Tips, graphics and photographs demonstrate how to maximize available water throughout the year. 

Not much of a gardener? The Water-Smart Garden will also be a great choice for those who don’t wish to spend much time or money on their yard and want to keep water bills low. Johnson’s book includes charts to help gardeners and homeowners choose the best trees, shrubs, vines and plants for their region. Simply put, if you’re a gardener concerned about the climate, this book is for you.

Noelle Johnson’s book includes charts to help gardeners and homeowners choose the best trees, shrubs, vines and plants for their region.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Your Asian Veggie Patch

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Based in Melbourne, Australia, permaculture expert Connie Cao brings a joyful exuberance to her book about growing and enjoying Asian vegetables, herbs and fruits. Whether you’re an expert or new to Asian culinary traditions, Cao’s enthusiasm is contagious. Cao is the daughter of immigrants from Shanghai, who moved to Australia in 1988, and she grew up watching her dad tend his garden. Cao notes, “The thing that got me into gardening is the magic that happens from seed to food.” Your Asian Veggie Patch: A Guide to Growing and Cooking Delicious Asian Vegetables, Herbs and Fruits provides an excellent introduction for anyone wishing to experience that magic for themselves.

Cao’s well-organized, easy-to-follow book provides guidance on growing, harvesting and cooking Asian veggies. Many of the recipes that appear were inspired by her own family’s traditions. Cao is trained in permaculture, and also includes principles and practices of this sustainable, regenerative approach to gardening and agriculture.

Cao has an easy, conversational style. In Part 1, she covers many gardening basics, including a page on plant families that is especially helpful for gaining a better understanding of vegetables and herbs. Part 2 features plant profiles organized by season. For instance, Asian mustards come first in cool-season veggies, while vegetables like eggplant and long beans appear in the warm-season section. Each plant’s profile includes photographs that show how to plant, grow, harvest and cook it. 

Interested but not sure where to start? Browse through all the gorgeous, mouthwatering pictures of finished dishes in this delightful book: You won’t go wrong picking any of these options to grow and cook yourself.

Connie Cao’s well-organized, easy-to-follow book provides guidance on growing, harvesting and cooking Asian veggies.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Garden Wonderland

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In the innovative Garden Wonderland: Creating Life-Changing Outdoor Spaces for Beauty, Harvest, Meaning, and Joy, garden designer Leslie Bennett teams up with writer and editor Julie Chai to explore how to create outdoor spaces that nurture family, friends and community. 

At the outset, the authors suggest that readers grab a blank notepad to jot down ideas and goals as they go along. And that’s wise advice, as this book is replete with helpful tips as well as the fundamentals. Part 1 focuses on the practical, which will be appreciated by those new to gardening or garden design. The authors share four principles that ground their approach to gardening: making plants part of your daily life; surrounding yourself with beauty; making space for connection; and fortifying your sense of belonging. Most importantly, they stress that rather than conforming to someone else’s idea of what a garden should be, individuals and families should create spaces that work for them. Bennett and Chai also discuss considerations such as space allotment, seating arrangements and sun exposure. There’s also helpful information on design concepts, with tips about selecting plants for foliage and color.

The second part of the book focuses on inspiration. This section features garden “wonderlands” that celebrate edible and floral landscapes, along with gardens designed to serve as gathering places or to spotlight cultural heritages. Full color photographs throughout show gardens, plants, and the individuals and families who treasure them. With its seamless integration of gardening principles with advanced design ideas, Garden Wonderland is the perfect gift for new gardeners—or anyone in need of a little inspiration.  

With its seamless integration of gardening principles with advanced design ideas, Garden Wonderland is the perfect gift for new gardeners—or anyone in need of a little inspiration.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

The Story of Perfume

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

The Story of Perfume: A Lavishly Illustrated Guide successfully pulls off one of my favorite literary tricks: It takes something extremely specific—in this case, perfume—and gets so immersed in it that all manner of connections among seemingly disparate worlds begin to take shape. From ancient Greek mythology to traditional Indian medicine, from the French Revolution to the sexual revolution, from Salvador Dali to Christian Dior, perfume was there through it all. And although fragrance is an area of study that is traditionally skipped by scholarly treatment, historian Élisabeth de Feydeau takes her subject seriously. The Story of Perfume is much more scholastic than you might expect. For example, the chapter “The First Iconic Perfumes” includes an entry about the 16th-century French king Francis I, whose edict to treat gunshot wounds with an elixir made from aromatic plants became so popular among the general public that it helped forge a path for legendary perfume house Guerlain. The stories Feydeau tells are fascinating, and they’re matched with a slew of equally compelling visual elements, like an ancient Roman fresco that depicts a seated woman decanting perfume, photographs of fragrant herbs and more elaborately detailed glass bottles than I was able to count. This is a great reference for fragrance lovers, but might also be an unexpected supplement for students of history—from ancient times through the Industrial Revolution, in particular.

The Story of Perfume is a sumptuous reference for fragrance lovers and an unexpected supplement for students of history.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

The Contemporary African Kitchen

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

James Beard Award-winning author Alexander Smalls includes 120 recipes from 33 chefs, restaurateurs, caterers, cooks and writers in The Contemporary African Kitchen: Home Cooking Recipes From the Leading Chefs of Africa. It’s a massive undertaking that spans an entire continent filled with innumerable culinary styles. But that breadth is important to Smalls, who writes in the book’s foreword that “our culture has been kept alive in great part through our culinary currency and traditions.” The book is organized into broad geographic segments: Northern, Eastern, Central, Southern and Western Africa are all represented. The Northern African section includes a particularly interesting recipe for Egyptian okra stew, which is loaded with garlic, basil, cilantro and mint and looks at once lush and hearty. In his description of the stew, chef Mostafa Seif writes, “Some foods are as much for nourishment as they are a tool for showing off.” He goes on to describe how people would hang okra from their balconies on the days that it was on the menu as a kind of demonstration of abundance. This book is great for adventurous eaters from all backgrounds, but that’s not to say an experimental palette is a prerequisite; if you’re more comfortable with traditionally American fare, you may be surprised by how familiar some of these dishes are: from Ethiopian deviled eggs and a chocolate cake recipe from Uganda to a buttery, garlicky recipe for South African mashed potatoes with spinach.

 

James Beard Award-winning author Alexander Smalls’ The Contemporary African Kitchen collects recipes that span an entire continent filled with innumerable culinary styles and traditions.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

A Year in Bloom

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

For anyone who’s ever perused a bulb catalog and been overwhelmed trying to choose among the many varieties of daffodils, tulips or amaryllises, this book by British garden designer and author Lucy Bellamy is for you. With bright, full-color photographs by Jason Ingram, A Year in Bloom: Flowering Bulbs for Every Season takes the guesswork out of selecting bulbs that will brighten your yard year-round. 

A Year in Bloom is clear and well-organized. Bellamy provides a helpful introduction, then introduces her featured 150 bulbs by season, beginning with late winter/early spring. Bellamy’s text and selections are especially helpful for gardeners seeking to adapt to climate change and focus on sustainability. For instance, she notes a new emphasis on bulbs that are perennial over single-use hybrids. The selections here also recognize the desire of many gardeners to support pollinators and encourage biodiversity. 

As a former editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine, Bellamy made her selections by calling on her network of international garden designers, landscape architects and head gardeners. These recommendations add depth and interest to the text. For instance, in recommending the snowdrop called “E.A. Bowles,” Bellamy consulted British nurseryman Joe Sharmon, known as “Mr. Snowdrop.” Bellamy includes a complete list of those who nominated their favorites in the back matter, along with an indexed list of bulbs by function, conveying which are best for shade, for planting in pots, naturalizing, for cut flowers, etc.

Planting bulbs usually means planning ahead. A Year in Bloom is a practical, beautiful handbook that will find a place in any gardener’s library.

Planting bulbs usually means planning ahead. A Year in Bloom is a practical, beautiful handbook that will find a place in any gardener’s library.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

Our South

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

The recipes in the lavishly presented Our South: Black Food Through My Lens feature a fascinating blend of ingredients, flavors and techniques. Acclaimed chef Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman from Appalachia, shares the region’s history and her own backstory to show how she developed a love of all things culinary. Recalling past meals rich in bacon, lard, butter and country ham, Shanti includes an abundance of regional dishes, such as Virginia Brunswick stew, and black pepper quail and leather britches, a southern Appalachian specialty dish of dried green beans and smoky seasoned meat. I made the gingered shrimp, watermelon and peach skewers—like eating summer on a plate—and the cucumber and celery heart salad, which is bathed in zesty, pickled goodness and tasted even better the second day. Shanti notes that her book is meant to “amplify your understanding of the complexities of Black food” and “dispel the myths of what America thinks Black cooking is and is not.” Our South is a perfect gift for anyone curious about the intersections of food and culture.

Ashleigh Shanti’s excellent, lavishly presented Our South twines the recipes and culture of Black Appalachia with the chef’s own culinary journey.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

The Artful Way to Plant-Based Cooking

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

Sure to inspire leisurely, locally crafted meals paired with excellent conversation and luscious wine, The Artful Way to Plant-Based Cooking: Nourishing Recipes and Heartfelt Moments is a breathtaking cookbook created by mother-daughter team Trudy Crane (a ceramic artist) and Chloé Crane-Leroux (a New York City-based food and lifestyle photographer) that could do double duty as an attractive coffee table display. Blending artistry with plant-based dishes, the duo makes enticing connections between food, taste and presentation, proving vegetables can be colorful works of art. With stunning photographs taken in Spain, the book highlights the shared love of travel that has always been a “deeply meaningful connection” between the mother and daughter. Divided into six sections of appetizers, date night dishes, friends for dinner, weekday favorites, solo suppers, and slow mornings and brunch favorites, a wide range of recipe types and flavor combinations are represented, among them crumbed artichokes with cashew aioli, a ricotta and squash galette, a traditional Greek salad and savory chickpea pancakes. I made the shawarma spice tofu skewers with hummus and wilted spinach, which proved to be a delicious blend of flavors and textures.

In their breathtaking new cookbook, mother-daughter team Trudy Crane and Chloé Crane-Leroux prove that vegetables can be colorful works of art.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

Breaking Bao

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

Breaking Bao: 88 Bakes and Snacks From Asia and Beyond by award-winning pastry chef Clarice Lam is a striking collection of thoughtfully crafted baked goods, highlighting her “love for Asian flavors while simultaneously connecting the dots between cultures.” Recalling her diverse background (her mother is from Hong Kong and her father from the Philippines) and experiences (the family lived and traveled all over the world), Lam explains how food was her solace during times when she felt like an outsider. On her path to becoming a chef, she gained knowledge and appreciation of the “interwoven food histories” that sustained her when the rest of the world shut her out. Organized into three main sections—Bao, Cakes and Desserts, and Snacks—Lam’s highly detailed instructions accompanied by texturally rich close-up photos will help assist even the most inexperienced pastry chef, as many of the recipes can be rather complicated and span several pages. Detailed chapters on ingredients, tools and equipment helpfully describe how and why they are used and where to get them. Dishes range from traditional Asian recipes such as shokupan (Japanese milk bread—one of the most common recipes in Asian baking) and chili crisp (a staple oil in every Chinese household), to dishes with an Asian-inspired twist, such as matcha-azuki Mont Blanc and pandan-lime meringue pie. This beautiful, informative cookbook is the perfect gift for anyone who enjoys being creative in the kitchen, and might even inspire home bakers to invent their own confectionary delights. 

Clarice Lam’s Breaking Bao is a striking collection of thoughtfully crafted baked goods that highlights the inventive pastry chef’s love of Asian flavors.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

Every Last Bite

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

With the goal of sharing simple, delicious recipes filled with constructive tips to reduce waste, save time and cut costs, Every Last Bite: Save Money, Time and Waste With 70 Recipes That Make the Most of Mealtimes by British chef and writer Rosie Sykes (The Kitchen Revolution) is a delightful mix of global recipes reflecting her background and experiences as a chef and former London pub owner. Featuring eight chapters with cheeky titles such as “Quick as a wink and not too filling,” “Goings-on in the oven” and “Blueprints for leftovers,” Sykes has crafted an accessible, practical resource that will be welcomed by anyone looking to rein in their food budget and avoid excess waste and energy usage. The recipes are a wide-ranging mix of cultural dishes, from Catalan-style beans and chorizo, pea and potato pav bhaji, and bacon and egg pie. Each is accompanied by a helpful symbol indicating alternate serving suggestions, ways to use up leftovers, ingredient hacks, storage tips, budget helpers and low/no-waste ideas. For example, the simple, delicious cauliflower farfalle, which combines roasted cauliflower, red onions and bow-tie pasta dressed in a simple walnut pesto, features a tip to store nuts in the refrigerator to prevent spoiling. The recipes and instructions are clearly laid out (including conversions to American measurements), and will appeal to both beginning and advanced cooks.

Every Last Bite is an accessible, practical cookbook that will be welcomed by anyone looking to rein in their food budget and avoid excess waste and energy usage.
NonfictionLiteratureBiography

Didion and Babitz

Review by Sarah McCraw Crow

In her introduction to Didion and Babitz, Lili Anolik lays out her plan: “What this book attempts to do: See Joan Didion plainly; see Eve Babitz plainly. Except Joan Didion can’t be seen plainly,” only “through a glass darkly. Eve Babitz is that glass.”

Babitz, born in 1943, was a child of Hollywood. Her father was a violinist for movie studios, her godfather was Igor Stravinsky. At 20, she made waves for posing nude with Marcel Duchamp as the two played chess. Though she wanted to be an artist and design album covers, she’s remembered for her memoir and short stories recounting the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll scene of early-1970s Los Angeles. But Babitz’s drug-fueled lifestyle got in her way, and her writing was largely forgotten until Anolik got to know her in 2012. Anolik’s profile for Vanity Fair and a 2019 biography, Hollywood’s Eve, sparked a resurgence of interest in Babitz’s writing. 

After Babitz died in 2021, Anolik stayed in touch with Babitz’s sister, Mirandi, who invited Anolik to examine the writer’s collection of letters. Anolik found one of particular interest: an unsent 1972 letter from Babitz to her friend Joan Didion. By turns earnest and angry, it sets up Babitz and Didion not as merely friends but as writerly rivals; Babitz chides Didion for dismissing Virginia Woolf and, Babitz claims, wanting to write like a man. The revelation led Anolik to begin another book about Babitz, this time including Didion.

The resulting book draws on copious interviews with Babitz’s and Didion’s networks, and the archives of Didion, Babitz and a host of others. Didion and Babitz situates the two in the 1970s LA scene that both wrote about, following them to the end of their lives—they died within days of one another. It’s a lively recounting of freewheeling partier Babitz and ambitious “cool customer” Didion. Despite the title, the narrative is notably tilted towards Babitz, more grounded in her work and life than in Didion’s. Still, the book captures a period and a vibe, and the celebrity gossip alone will entertain any ’70s-curious reader. Like Babitz herself, Didion and Babitz is an engaging narrative that Didion fans may quibble with, but that situates the two writers as the prime chroniclers of 1970s LA. 

Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz is a freewheeling and engaging narrative about two iconic literary rivals and their world in 1970s Los Angeles.
NonfictionMusicBiography

We All Shine On

Review by Alice Cary

“Full disclosure. I was never a Beatles superfan,” Elliot Mintz confesses early in his memoir, We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me. Nonetheless, in 1970, the 26-year-old radio host suddenly became one of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s closest friends.

The son of a Polish immigrant, Mintz grew up in New York City and, despite having a strong New York accent and severe stutter, decided to become a radio broadcaster. He overcame the stutter, lost the accent and, by age 21, was a radio talk show host in Los Angeles. One fateful day, he hosted Ono to discuss her newly released album, Fly. Not 24 hours after the interview, Ono called Mintz at home to thank him. “Sometimes,” she said, “it’s very difficult being me.” They chatted for about 45 minutes, and Ono continued to call nearly every day. Before long, Lennon joined her.

Mintz installed a third telephone line at home, his “John and Yoko hotline,” as well as a red light on his bedroom ceiling that flashed whenever it rang. He traveled and spent holidays with the pair, and his life became consumed with their whims and needs. “I believed, in a sense, that I was married to John and Yoko,” he writes.

Like any celebrity memoir worth its salt, We All Shine On makes readers feel as if they’ve spent time with the book’s subjects. A candid storyteller, Mintz reveals intimacies about the artists’ lives without being salacious. Readers will delight in strange facts (their apartment in the Dakota contained an Egyptian mummy), compelling insights (“John was functionally a child when it came to taking care of himself”) and amusing observations (“The mere mention of Bob Dylan’s name . . . could uncork a volcano of roiling resentments and pent-up jealousies—not to mention one of John’s startlingly accurate impersonations.”). There are spats and hurt feelings, as well as the memorable time that Lennon and Ono invited themselves to tag along to Mintz’s radio interview with Salvador Dali, which they ended up ruining with their frequent, unsolicited comments.

Mintz’s ending, which leads up to Lennon’s horrific murder, is especially poignant. The couple were leading fulfilling, creative lives when suddenly their charmed world ceased to exist. Mintz, who ultimately became the spokesperson for Lennon’s estate, describes sitting outside Ono’s bedroom door after the murder, waiting for her to respond. Regardless of whether you’re a superfan or an ordinary admirer of the music of Lennon, Ono and the Beatles, you’ll likely find the captivating story of this unusual friendship unduly hard to put down.

Elliot Mintz recounts his one-of-a-kind friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in an intimate memoir that is unduly hard to put down.
NonfictionArtPhotographyArt

The African Gaze

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Amy Sall’s The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power began as a university course Sall developed at New York City’s The New School. An undercurrent of academic rigor flows throughout the volume, which functions as an introduction to African photography and film as well as a collective biography of some of its most influential players. In her preface, writer and archivist Sall distills her thoughts on the subjects she spent so many years studying, and each sentence is packed with authoritative insight. The photography section begins with self-portraits by Ghanaian Felicia Abban, who also happens to be one of the few “named and known” women photographers in Africa. Many of the book’s other highlights involve female subjects: a striking studio portrait of three women by Augustt Azaglo Cornélius Yawo; a candid shot of four young women seated around a table at a party by Jean Depara; and a woman posing seated with a single high-heeled sandal that’s been placed atop her oversized skirt by Seydou Keita. Cinema is more difficult to capture in still images, and so the Filmmakers section relies on the breadth of its subjects, which includes artists working in documentary and animation in addition to scripted dramas. Particularly evocative are images of the two protagonists of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki, or the stunning close-up of the main character in Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl. The African Gaze is an essential, encyclopedic study of African image-makers, and reading through it in its entirety made me feel like I’d actually enrolled in Sall’s course.

Amy Sall’s The African Gaze is an essential, encyclopedic study of African photographers and filmmakers that’s packed with insight and images.

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Trending Reviews

All Reviews