November 2025 Reading Challenge

"Konstantin Duhovny can't exactly see ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. He has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones--at least for the time it takes them to eat a dish he's prepared. He thinks his life's purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers and sets out to learn all he can by entering the New York culinary scene. But...

"When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. 'Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle...

"In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past--a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with...

Cod spans a thousand years and four continents. From the Vikings, who pursued the codfish across the Atlantic, and the enigmatic Basques, who first commercialized it in medieval times, to Bartholomew Gosnold, who named Cape Cod in 1602, and Clarence Birdseye, who founded an industry on frozen cod in the 1930s, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs, and of course the fishermen, whose lives have interwoven with this prolific...

A New York Times Bestselling Author Billie Breslin traveled from her California home to take a job at Delicious, the most iconic food magazine in New York. When the publication is suddenly shut down, the staff, now Billie's extended family, must move on. But Billie is offered the job of staying behind in the deserted downtown mansion offices to uphold the "Delicious Guarantee." What she doesn't know is that this boring, lonely job will be the portal...

"Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King's seminal debut features the man who inspired the world's oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction. On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar's reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond...

Masterchef in Space! A fun, satirical, thought-provoking novel. Looking for your one shot to rise to the "top of the pots" in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further-you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef! Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show....

"Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America's most beloved TV cooking show. Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the...

Inside this fully illustrated cookbook is an introduction to intuitive food preparation! Meaning less reliance on teaspoons, grams, degrees, and exact cook times, and more on the way humans have always cooked: by tasting, watching, smelling, listening, feeling, and remembering. Follow along with home chef Mariah-Rose Marie to learn how to measure with your hands, season with your senses, balance flavors on the fly, remember ratios, and more―all...

Pie has been a delectable centerpiece of Yankee tables since Europeans first landed on New Englands shores in the seventeenth century. With a satisfying variety of savory and sweet, author Robert Cox takes a bite out of the history of pie and pie-making in the region. From the crackling topmost crust to the bottom layer, explore the origin and evolution of popular ingredients like the Revolutionary roots of the Boston cream. One month at a time, celebrate...