Staff Picks Category: Non-fiction

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin [Book]

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Grandin transports her readers into the animal mind. She challenges us to approach animals the same way we approach each other- considering the psychology of the individual.The book explores training, communication, trauma, happiness,and natural behaviors. What makes horses spook? How do you train a cat? Why raise happy livestock? The answers may not be what you expect. Grandin brings together scientific research and anecdotal evidence to reveal surprising insights that can improve human-animal interactions in ways that are simple but have enormous impact.

Calvin Coolidge At Home in Northampton by Susan Lewis Well [Book]

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Using original material from the collections of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, Well presents the daily life and residences of Calvin Coolidge in Northampton, Massachusetts. She uses new sources to document the unique and interesting personal life stories of Coolidge’s landlords and neighbors.

Copies are also available to purchase in at the library or in our online store.

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis [Book]

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Because she was by nature reserved and even shy, Edna Lewis never received the credit she deserved for helping recreate American cooking in a style that treasured in equal measure our culinary heritage and our fresh, local foodstuffs. In this, her autobiography, she lets us see how this came about—a childhood totally immersed in the living tradition of country cooking as practiced in a small Virginia Piedmont community settled by slaves.

The Physiology of Taste by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin; translated by Anne Drayton [Book]

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One of the great classics of food writing, still fun to read and filled with insights almost 200 years later.

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell [Book]

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Join Julie Powell as she tries to cook the entire “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” cookbook in one year. Her funny story started out as a blog and turned into one hilarious story about the adventures of trying something new.

American Fried by Calvin Trillin [Book]

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Trillin is just as serious about food as some of the more earnest writers on this list, but also hysterically funny. His main thesis is that the local food usually is best, not the “continental cuisine” served in the pretentious restaurants found everywhere which he names generically “La Maison de la Casa House”. This book is the first in his Tummy Trilogy, which moves on to Alice, Let’s Eat, and finishes with Third Helpings — a delectable three-course meal, all in our collection.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser [Book]

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Analyzing the influence of the fast food industry on American society, an award-winning journalist explores the homogenization of American culture and the impact of the fast food industry on modern-day health, economy, politics, popular culture, entertainment, food production, and more.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver [Book]

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The National Humanities Medal-winning author of The Poisonwood Bible follows the author’s family’s efforts to live on locally and home-grown foods, an endeavor through which they learned lighthearted truths about food production and the connection between health and diet.

The omnivore’s dilemma by Michael Pollan [Book]

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An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of everyday consumers to protect their health and the environment.

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher [Book]

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A compendium of the first five books by the famous food and autobiographical writer, filled with her mixture of insights into gastronomy and life in general. Her dry humor seasons the experience, as when she noted during the food shortages of World War II “when the wolf is at the door, one should invite him in and have him for dinner.”

The Taste of America [Book]

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This polemic about American cooking grabs the food establishment by the back of the neck and gives it a good shake. It does this partly by setting the historical record straight and partly by exposing the conceits, lazy thinking, and nutritional gobbledegook of so many food writers. Karen Hess was a food historian, John L. Hess was a reporter with a nose for the telling detail, and together they have written a book that is eye-opening, deliciously mean, and, unexpectedly, affectingly evocative. Sadly, it is just as pertinent today as it was in 1977, when it first appeared.

Candyfreak by Steve Almond [Book]

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The aptly named Almond has a jones for almost any kind of candy, especially if it’s made by the smaller and quirkier manufacturers. Part rant, part social history, part confession, this funny and bittersweet book will not only tell you a lot you didn’t know about candy itself but reveal show you the role it plays in all our lives as a source of pleasure and an escape from pain.