cookbooks

There are a lot of cooks at NPR. Every time we ask our staff for recommendations for our annual, year-end books guide, we get back a veritable smorgasbord of cookbook offerings.

A lot has been said about the joy of cooking, but what about the fury? A host of new cookbooks right now aim to help cooks pound, grate and shred their feelings about the state of the world.

A visit to Ann Arbor wouldn't be complete without a trip to an eatery that bears the famous name. And the mouthwatering, no-nonsense recipes are designed to entice even novice bakers into the kitchen.

The Arizona chef, widely regarded as the father of the modern artisanal pizza movement, weaves threads of memory, tradition and family in a book that reflects his evolution as a chef and restaurateur.

At the turn of the 20th century, when access to professional care was spotty, many cookbooks served up recipes for the sick — some (brandy) more appealing than others (toast water).

Princess Barbare Jorjadze is renowned for her cookbook. But she spent most of her life writing letters, poems and essays, to fight for a greater public role for Georgian women.

Foxfire started as a class project at a Georgia high school in the '60s, but soon became a magazine, then a book, and even a way of teaching about the region's simple, self-sustaining way of life.

The cookbook Nothing Fancy, first published in 1984, has just been re-released — and is the closest thing to a memoir that the formidable "Julia Child of Mexico" has ever written.