It's Tuesday again, which means it's once again time for my favorite weekly meme.  This week's topic has to do with food.  Who can't get behind that, amirite?  Technically, lists are supposed to be about Top Ten Yummy Foods Mentioned in Books, but I'm going to go ahead and give mine my own little twist.  Since I eschewed them last week, I'm going to feature book jackets this time around.  And not just any ole cover art, but the kind that makes your mouth water so much you just want to lean over and lick the picture right off the paper.  Yummmm ...  

Before we get to that, though, I want to encourage you to join in the TTT fun.  All you have to do is click on over to The Broke and the Bookish, read a few quick guidelines, make your own list, and join the party.  It's a great way to discover new book blogs and add exciting new reads to your TBR mountain chain.  C'mon, you know you want to!

Okay, here we go with Top Ten Drool-Worthy Foodie Book Covers: 


1.  The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch—I'm not a big honey fan, but this cover is scrumptious-looking!  The story sounds good, too.  It's about a woman who lets her queen honeybee choose where she's going to live next.  She ends up in New York City, where she brings together a group of neighboring misfits through the magic in her honey.


2.  The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert—This novel looks delicious all around.  It's a romance about a chef and the restaurant critic who's trying to ruin her career.  A case of mistaken identity leads to love, but can this new relationship survive once the truth comes out?


 3.  When In Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison—Cupcakes I can give or take, but frosting?  Can't resist it.  Especially if it's nice, thick buttercream yum.  So, yeah, I'm basically in love with this cover.  The story sounds cute and really similar to The Wedding Bees.


4.  The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and Cafe by Mary Simses—Jam isn't really my, well, jam, but I do love blueberries.  Also cafes because they smell delectable.  The title of this one also evokes warm memories of The Blueberry Cafe, a little place in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, that a fellow exchange student and I loved to visit because it reminded us of home.  Appropriate, since this novel is about a woman going home to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish.


 5.  The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi—Speaking of The Philippines, I ate the tastiest (also smelliest—I'm looking at you, durian) fruit there.  The mangoes were especially glorious.  This novel is about a young Indian woman who's returning to her homeland after seven years to break horrifying news to her very traditional parents—she's engaged to an American.  


 6.  The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs by Dana Bate—Again with the frosting!  Delish.  This novel, which is about a woman who launches an underground supper club, sounds fun, too.


 7.  Lion House Bakery—I love this cookbook, one in a series featuring recipes from the historic Lion House restaurant in Salt Lake City.  My favorite recipe is the one featured on the cover—crescent rolls.  They're unbelievably good.  My mother-in-law bakes the best ones I've ever tasted; even though I use the exact same Lion House recipe, mine never turn out as well. 


8.  Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee—Mmmm, chocolate.  As long as it's white or milk, I'm in.  The novel sounds intriguing as well.  It's about an overweight young woman who embarks on a journey to change her body and her life.


9.  Rhymes With Cupid by Anna Humphrey—I'm not going to add this anti-Valentine's Day romance to my TBR list, at least not for the story.  The ice cream sundae on the cover, though ...



10.  First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen—I've never read anything by Allen, but her book covers are all so pretty!  Maybe that's because lots of them feature food.  First Frost, a novel about sisters and their magical food concoctions, sounds engaging.

What do you think?  Do any of these covers make your tongue salivate and your stomach growl?  Have you read any of my picks?  What food-laden jacket art/books do you love?

Leave me a comment on this post and I'll gladly return the favor.  Happy TTT!

If you're looking for a breezy beach read, you're not going to find it in Entertaining Disasters by Nancy Spiller. In fact, you won't find a lot of things in this book. No thrills, no action, no adventure, no romance, no real plot. However, if you don't mind a slower pace, a little melancholy and a lot of introspection, then this book should be in your hands. It won't demand a lot of your time or keep you up at night flipping pages, but its sharp observations on life will make you pause. And think. And identify. And laugh. And possibly cry.

The book features an unnamed foodie, who writes about her elaborate, celebrity-studded dinner parties for L.A.'s culinary magazines. In her articles, she describes the food she prepares, the guests she entertains, and the memories she made baking with her mother. Her expertise speaks for itself. So, why does an upcoming dinner party with a well-known food editor have her quaking in her boots? The truth is, she hasn't entertained in over a decade. Her mouth-watering menus have been prepared only in her head, her guests invented in her imagination. One upon a time, she did entertain, but now, the thought makes her tremble. Paranoia has her questioning everything - will anyone show up for the party? What will she talk about with them? Will her guests like her food? Will they be bored to tears? Can she find a good excuse to cancel? Her grandmother has only died twice and she hasn't come down with a good flu lately ...

As our heroine obsesses about the party, she contemplates the terror that paralyzes her in social situations. She muses over her disfuctional family, her less-than-passionate marriage, her culinary education, and the crushing effort that goes into planning a real, live dinner party.

Although the book drags under details only hard-core foodies will find interesting, it's buoyed by the authenticity of the narrator's voice. The novel lacks swift pacing, careful plotting and lively dialogue, but our heroine will entrance you with her vulnerability. Her paranoid, sarcastic views on life keep the book interesting, while her true memories of childhood make it absolutely riveting. Since the narrator's sharp, poignant musings really make the book, I offer you a sample of her thoughts*:

On family: There isn't a place for a family like ours in the grand scheme of American dreams, and no one, least of all us, knows how to respond to it.

Sometimes I fear that if I stop mourning its loss, this family will cease to exist altogether. That my sorrow is the only thing keeping it alive. Or possibly that this family never existed at all.

On dining together: At this point in the process it invariably dawned on me that the real hunger in all of this was not merely for food, but for the company of others. When none of us seemed to have time for anything, including a sit-down, well-prepared meal, and everyone appeared trapped in a solo chase after things we were not even sure existed, companionship and community could be the first things cut from the to-do list. The thought of a dinner amongst friends took on the backlit glow of a Platonic ideal.

On the rat-race: I wasn't trying to make this a business evening, but I wasn't an idiot, either, and when you went to this much effort in Los Angeles, it had better, like the freeways, lead somewhere. That's why they called it the City of Angles. Most of the population was running on a biofuel based on fear-borne angst, and it took too much of the stuff to not turn every event into a golden on-ramp. Marisa would be mine that night.

You get the picture. Come January, you'll definitely want to get the book.

Grade: B+

*Quoting from an ARC is a big no-no for reviewers, so I have to justify my actions by saying that (1) I didn't think you could really get the essence of the book without quotes, (2) I can't check the text of the ARC against a final copy, because those won't be available until January, and (3) Spiller's publicist never emailed me back to verify the quotes. So, there. I'm safe, right?