Human Interest

With just four or five ingredients and an ice cream maker, you can surrender to the arctic charms of Pistachio Gelato or Melon Sorbetto. You don't even have to separate an egg.

Somehow, seafood always tastes better in the summer, and this book, says T. Susan Chang, is like "having your smart aunt in the kitchen, saving you from your own foolish, blundering self." Why not start with Key West Ceviche or center a meal on the Grilled Dorade with Hoisin Glaze?

Rick Rodgers works with familiar warm-weather flavors and tweaks them just a bit. Try it yourself with Spaghetti with Roasted Summer Vegetable Sauce or Grilled Chicken with White Rosemary Barbecue Sauce.

This book streamlines strong flavors into bold, relatively simple recipes. Our recommendations? Easy Memphis-Style Barbecued Pork Spareribs or Smoke-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Maple Barbecue Sauce.

This wisecracking, story-telling treasury of Southern cooking offers a variety of delicious dishes. Some, like Apricot Rice Salad, have an elegant, dinner-on-the-porch feel. Others (All for Okra and Okra for All), are resolutely egalitarian.

While there's definite comfort to be had in the familiar authors, sometimes what you really want is the spark and thrill of a chance encounter — that's where first books come in.