A Feast of Fiction Display
It's the perfect time of year to read some food-themed books. Light a candle or turn on some twinkle lights, pour a hot beverage, and curl up with one of these delicious reads tonight!
"Milk Fed" by Melissa Broder is a tale of appetites: "physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts." "Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting--until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam--by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family--and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey."
"The Lager Queen of Minnesota" by J. Ryan Stradal is "novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate, and the secrets of making a world-class beer." "Edith Magnusson's rhubarb pies are famous in the Twin Cities. Still, she lays awake wondering how her life might have been different if her father hadn't left their family farm to her sister Helen. With the proceeds from the farm Helen built her husband s soda business into the top selling brewery in Minnesota. But when the fortune begins its inevitable decline, Diana Winter earns a shot at learning the beer business from the ground up. When the unthinkable happens, it's up to Grandma Edith to secure the next generation's chances for a better future. Can Grandma Edith's Rhubarb Pie In A Bottle Ale save Diana's fledgling brewery?"
If you like a story set within the structure of a restaurant, check out "A Taste of Sage" by Yaffa Santas. "Lumi Santana is a chef with a gift: she can perceive a person's emotions by tasting their cooking. Despite being raised by a mother who taught her that dreams and true love were silly fairy tales, she puts her heart and savings into opening her own fusion restaurant in Upper Manhattan. The restaurant offers a mix of the Dominican cuisine she grew up with and other world cuisines she is inspired by. When her eclectic venture fails, she is forced to take a position as sous chef at a staid, traditional French restaurant owned by Julien Dax, a celebrated chef known for his acid tongue as well as his brilliant smile. After he goes out of his way to bake a tart to prove her wrong in a dispute, she is so irritated by his smug attitude that she vows to herself never to taste his cooking. But after she succumbs to the temptation and takes a bite one day and is overcome with shocking emotion, she finds herself beginning to crave his cooking and struggling to stay on task with her plan to save up and move on as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Julien's obsessed secretary watches with gnashed teeth as they grow closer and becomes determined to get Lumi out of her way permanently."
What would a food-themed display be without a book set in Paris, like "The Little French Bistro" by Nina George. "Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After forty-one years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as "the end of the world." Here she meets a cast of colorful and unforgettable locals who surprise her with their warm welcome, and the natural ease they all seem to have, taking pleasure in life's small moments. And, as the parts of herself she had long forgotten return to her in this new world, Marianne learns it's never too late to begin the search for what life should have been all along."
You'll find these and other state's titles in our "A Feast of Fiction" display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
