New in Paperback: This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan

When This Is a Call (DaCapo) came out in hardcover late in 2011 it was well reviewed by critics and fans alike. This is the definitive biography of one of the most important and influential musicians of his era by a rock journalist who was as well-equipped as any who might have bitten off this assignment. This is a Call’s opening lines explain why:

Dave Grohl has just slapped me across the face.

Holiday Gift Guide: Waffles by Dawn Yanagihara

Who needs a whole book about waffles? After all, on the surface of things, how much can be done with the waffle-y form? But in chef and cookbook editor Dawn Yanagihara’s first book, Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple (Chronicle) you see the waffle in what would seem to be all possible forms. And it’s wonderful!



The waffles of my own childhood were delicious but super simple affairs. They came from

Holiday Gift Guide: Seriously Simple Parties by Diane Rossen Worthington

Whether you choose Seriously Simple Parties (Chronicle Books) as a gift or to complete your personal holiday schedule, Diane Rossen Worthington’s 20th cookbook hits home. The tone here is light, the recipes well laid out and carefully chosen and the food itself reflective of a culture that has gone through a lot of changes since the author’s earliest efforts. Best of all, in spirit, it answers

Holiday Gift Guide: Crazy Sexy Kitchen by Kris Carr and Chad Sarno

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the latest fad diet cookbook. This year, the raddest fad diet is -- wait for it -- health. And fad healthful eating is springing up all over in the form of vegan and “plant-based diet” cookbooks.

Nowhere is the fad as pretty and shiny than it is in Crazy Sexy Kitchen (Hay House). In some ways, the name says it all.

The book follows up the New York Times

Holiday Gift Guide: Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin

The title warns you not to expect high art and, in case you were ever in doubt, the cover confirms it. Yes, this is a parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. Of course it is. But there is a surprise or two left in store: in a market that seems clotted with mashups and parodies, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey (Da Capo) actually exceeds all expectations.

This is due entirely to the rapier wit of author, Andrew

Cookbooks: The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe by Mark Reinfeld

Part of living vegan is giving stuff up. At least, that was true until fairly recently, when a larger number of people than ever before became interested in a plant-based diet. In the past few years, we’ve been deluged with vegan cookbooks. Obviously, some of these are better than others.

Mark Reinfeld’s books are generally among the good ones. What sets  Reinfeld’s books apart is his welcome

Biography: John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger

No one writes biography quite like Harlow Giles Unger. His last half dozen or so books have brought as many long dead presidents back to something like literary life.

I loved 2010’s Lion of Liberty, an action-packed portrait of Patrick “liberty or death” Henry. James Monroe, Lafayette, Noah Webster, John Hancock, George Washington and others all have been breathed to life for us with skill and

Cookbooks: Humphry Slocombe by Jake Godby, Sean Vahey and Paolo Lucchesi

Never mind the season or the temperatures out of doors, ice cream is a year ’round affair for many of us. Even so, I’m not sure anyone is ready for the “ice cream counterculture revolution.” And yet here it is.

Humphry Slocombe is an ice-creamery in San Francisco’s Mission district. (Of course. If you were going to start an ice cream counterculture revolution, where else would you hang out your

New Last Week: Sunday Brunch by Betty Rosbottom

A special Father’s Day begins with breakfast. Though, of course, so many special days do. The fact is, though, you don't need a special occasion at all to enjoy Betty Rosbottom’s truly terrific Sunday Brunch (Chronicle Books), perhaps the best breakfast book I’ve enjoyed out of a sea of them.



In addition to the standard scones, popovers and pancakes, Rosbottom wins by filling her book to the

Non-Fiction: The Lean by Kathy Freston

Always on the look-out for what is going to be happening next in books on food and diet, I knew I was spotting a winner when I saw The Lean (Weinstein Books) by Kathy Freston the author of the bestsellers Veganist and Quantum Wellness.The Lean capitalizes on a couple of ideas Freston seems to have been developing in her earlier books, one that’s done no harm at all by her movie star sparkle. On

New in Paperback: American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott

Following on the success of 2007’s magnificent Sin in the Second City, author Karen Abbott seems determined to build a career writing books about sexy seductresses of the past. Sin in the Second City revolved around sisters Minna and Ada Everleigh, two turn of the century Chicago madams who “decided that creating a fantasy for others was better than pretending to live in one.”If American Rose is

Non-Fiction: The Life of Super-Earths by Dimitar Saddelov

It doesn’t take long for Harvard professor of astronomy Dimitar Saddelov to get down to business in The Life of Super-Earths (Basic Books). The second line in the book: “What is life and how did it come to be?" In a conversational tone, Saddelov sets out to answer that, as well as anyone can. As he points out, “The actual origin of Earth remains as elusive as ever and may well stay that way.

Art & Culture: Movies of the 2000s by Jürgen Müller

Art critic Jürgen Müller continues Taschen’s movies decades series with Movies of the 2000s, a look at the important films made since the turn of the century.“There is a good argument that the first decade of the 21st century will be the last in which cinema as a mass medium will continue in the form we have always known it,” Müller writes, reminding us that, as an internationally respected film

New Today: Writing in Pictures by Joseph McBride

With the Golden Globes just behind us and the Oscars just ahead, a lot of attention is focused on the movies right now. And when that happens, those of us who love books inevitably think of the words that make those films. In some cases, we take all of that another step and think about writing for film. If all this movie talk turns your head in that way, you might want to take a peek at Writing

Holiday Gift Guide: Best Food Writing 2011 edited by Holly Hughes

Best of compilations tend to make super gifts for people who you’re not sure what they have or need, but you know what they like. Because it’s the best, right? And in this case, the best of everything on topic, but it pretty digestible chunks. Who wouldn’t like that?The Best Food Writing 2011 (Da Capo) is the 11th edition that Holly Hughes has edited so, clearly, she knows this beat pretty well.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Tipsy Vegan by John Schlimm

I may always remember 2011 as the year the world went vegan. I didn’t, but enough people did that January Magazine saw a record number of books roll in on that topic. According to our editor, January saw more vegan cookbooks than any other single topic.What does it all mean? Though I could go into a deep philosophical monologue on the the long-term impact of the 50 Mile Diet and other

Holiday Gift Guide: A Free and Hardy Life: Theodore Roosevelt’s Sojourn in the American West by Clay S. Jenkinson

It’s true that no other President is as closely associated with the American West as Theodore Roosevelt. Born and educated in the east, Roosevelt first set foot out west when he was a young man and instantly fell in love with the open spaces and way oflife. These things would come to influence both him and his presidency greatly, his noted conservationism shaped as it was by his extensive

Holiday Gift Guide: Architecture Now! Houses: 2 by Philip Jodido

Say the word “house” and everyone creates their own mental picture. A place, perhaps, of comfort. Shelter. Even safety. And those are fine things, maybe even good things. But what we come to understand in Philip Jodido’s book, Architecture Now! Houses: 2, (Taschen) is that “house” can mean so much more.Jodido brings us the idea -- not a new one, but still -- that “house” can be more than the sum

Holiday Gift Guide: Everyday Exotic by Roger Mooking and Allan Magee

“One person’s exotic is another person’s everyday.” That’s the basic premise behind Everyday Exotic (Whitecap) as well as the television show that spawned this new book.Host of the show and co-author of the book, Roger Mooking was born in Trinidad and Tobago, raised in Edmonton, Alberta and somehow the culinary traditions of both are seamlessly fused into the cuisine he coaches. Imagine for a

Cookbooks: 300 Best Potato Recipes by Kathleen Sloan-McIntosh

The cover is not a clue. In fact, it’s misleading, playing in as it does to so many people’s idea of what a potato should be: shoe-stringed, then boiled in fat until golden brown. And, sure: while, like most people, I respond well enough to a properly french fried potato, there is so much more to this at once humble and noble vegetable than that.Food journalist, author and restaurateur, Kathleen