Food for Thought: Titles to get You Through the Holiday Cooking Season

The kitchen can be overwhelming during the holiday season. Don’t fret, we have a Librarian Recommends: Lists full of comfort food and accomplishments from world-renowned chefs.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – or not – for those who host family and friends for the holidays. Gatherings imply an expectation of good food and reconnection, especially after the seclusion of the last few years.

Lane Public Library recently created a Librarian Recommends: Lists that focuses on the memoirs and stories of chefs from all over the globe. We encourage you to share their list, Tasty Memoirs of Cooks & Cooking with your patrons for a much needed respite from kitchen-related chaos this holiday season.

What is Librarian Recommends: Lists?

Librarian Recommends: Lists is the newest enrichment in Syndetics Unbound’s suite of more than 15 catalog enhancements.

Now, librarians can curate lists within the catalog to showcase topics, genres, staff picks, and more. Lists are shared between libraries, so your patrons can benefit from the expertise and creativity of librarians in thousands of libraries around the world.

“Chefs don’t make mistakes; they make new dishes.” -Elizabeth Brigg

Sharing some of your favorite things, like food, recipes and books, is easy using the Lane Public Library Staff picks found in the Librarian Recommends: Lists Tasty Memoirs of Cooks & Cooking. It currently contains 22 titles that examine how those chefs found success and themselves in the kitchen.

Here are a few of titles from the list that your cooking-weary patrons might enjoy:

• From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

  This New York Times bestseller is “a captivating story of love lost and found” (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours.¹

• Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner

  From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.¹

• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

  A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture.¹

• Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon

  Reese Witherspoon invites you into her world, where she infuses the southern style, parties, and traditions she loves with contemporary flair and charm.¹

• California Soul by Kevin Alexander

  Before becoming executive chef and part owner of the California soul food restaurant Alta Adams in West LA, Keith Corbin had spent a quarter of his life in prison.¹

Prepare Appetizing Lists for your Patrons

The library can be a place of comfort for patrons during the holiday season. Syndetics Unbound gives librarians the ingredients to create lists of titles that could provide their patrons a welcome recipe for escape.

Check out our Librarian Recommends: Lists tutorials, then get started on your lists! The first 50 libraries that create and publish at least five lists by December 15, 2022, will automatically be entered into our Librarian Recommends: Lists Makers Challenge.