November 2025 Cookbook Reviews

 

The Unprocessed Plate by Rhiannon Lambert

I'm all about cooking from scratch and sourcing high-quality, local food, so I thought this cookbook would be right up my alley. I didn't expect the first half of the book to be an explanation of ultra-processed foods. There was some good information in that section but there were a few things I vehemently disagreed with. To say that a "red meat patty" is worse than a plant-based fake meat patty (p. 37) is ridiculous. She didn't even try to talk about sourcing local, sustainably raised meat. Instead you should just make your own bean patty. On p. 34-37 she talks about the most common everyday UPFs including plant-based milk substitutes. But then in the info about plant-based milk she basically says yes this is a UPF but it may actually be better for you than cow's milk - no. These fake milks are some of the worst things out there - and I understand not everyone can drink cow's milk but there is a lot of research that raw milk can be consumed by people who are lactose intolerant. There are other options than fake plant-milk. At this point I knew this cookbook wasn't for me. I did flip through the recipes and didn't really see anything I was interested in trying. Not cookbooks but if you're interested in ultra-processed foods and why they're bad for you, check out Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken and/or Eat Everything by Dawn Sherling instead.

Good Things by Samin Nosrat

Good Things is the collection of recipes that Samin Nosrat cooks when she cooks for herself or friends and family. It's not organized like a typical cookbook. The chapters are a little random - there is one about seven dressings with three ways to use each, one about yeasted bread, etc. There are lots of tips and suggestions for various ways to use many of the recipes. The recipes skew more ethnic than my personal taste but there were a few recipes I'd like to try. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of Nosrat.

A School Lunch Revolution: a cookbook by Alice Waters

Alice Waters is known for two major things - her restaurant Chez Panisse and the edible schoolyard. In this cookbook she walks the reader through the tenants of the edible schoolyard and then gets into the recipes. The recipes focus on fresh, local food with a focus on vegetables. While there weren't a ton of recipes I wanted to try, this one is definitely worth checking out especially if you're not already familiar with the edible schoolyard concept. Or if you just want to try to incorporate more seasonal vegetables into your own diet.

My Southern Kitchen by Ivy Odom

I'm a Southerner and I love Southern food, so I'm always checking out new Southern cookbooks. And My Southern Kitchen does not disappoint. Even though Ivy Odom is young, there are SO MANY great looking recipes in this book. At some point you think, am I going to find anything new to try? But I did with this cookbook. The recipes are not organized in a typical appetizer, entree, sides way but by Southern events - parties, everyday dinners, funerals, etc. I think it's a unique and very Southern way to organize a cookbook. This one is definitely worth checking out!

Seasoning in Appalachia by Jimmy Proffitt

To a non-Southerner it might not be obvious, but there is a difference between Southern food and Appalachian food. There is definitely an overlap, but there are some very distinct Appalachian foods. Jimmy Proffitt does a great job of highlighting those in this cookbook. There is also a section at the beginning about seasonal eating and preserving seasonal foods. There were several recipes I'd like to try as well. Overall, a solid cookbook and worth checking out.

Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden

This is a very thorough pasta cookbook. I especially liked that McFadden only uses dried pasta for all the recipes. Making fresh pasta is not that hard, but it does take much longer. I feel like focusing on dried pasta makes this much more accessible for the average home cook. He starts out with some basic sauce recipes, then goes into any season and seasonal pasta recipes. There are a LOT of recipes in this book, so you're bound to find something you'll like.

Make It Don't Buy It by Matt Remoroza

Matt Remoroza decided to learn how to cook from scratch after an encounter with moldy bread at a grocery store. Plus, eating out is SO expensive. He learned how to cook lots of food so that he could teach you how to Make It, Don't Buy It. There are a LOT of recipes in here. The recipes are all organized by type of food/course. I liked that he had a whole chapters on "foundations" that covered basic sauces, stock, etc. There is something for everyone in here and I found several recipes I'd like to try. If you're newer to cooking or hoping to expand your home cooking repertoire, this is a great cookbook to check out.

November 2025 Reviews

 

50 States of Murder: an atlas of American crime by Harold Schechter

Instead of focusing on high profile murders or serial killers, Harold Schechter tried to find murder cases for each of the 50 states that were either specific to that area or stand out in some way. I was excited to read this but it was a little disappointing. It felt like at least 40-50% of the stories were from the 1800's and I guess I was expecting more recent cases. There were also several cases where it was the first woman executed in that state or the last person hung in that state - there was even a case where the guy was sent to the electric chair twice (the first time didn't kill him). To me, many of the stories weren't "stand out" cases. And similar to The Ultimate Serial Killer Trivia Book by Jack Rosewood, it was kind of hard to read just story after story of brutal murders. I mean I understand that's the concept of the book but I couldn't read it as quickly because I needed to take breaks. Overall, it was interesting but I would recommend reading it over time and not like a normal book that you read over a couple of days.

Some cases that stood out to me:

p. 111 Constance Fisher of Maine suffering from postpartum depression killed her 3 children and tried to commit suicide in 1954. She was sent to a mental hospital and when she was released five years later her husband took her back. They had 3 more children. Then in 1966 she killed those 3 children and again attempted suicide. She was again sent to a mental hospital and a few years later escaped and succeeded in committing suicide. It was like a precursor to Andrea Yates but TWICE.

p. 271 I did not know that Frank Lloyd Wright abandoned his family and ran off to Europe with his mistress. When he came back to the US he started building a "bungalow of love" for them in Wisconsin. While he was away on business one of the workers building the house killed his lover, her children, and several other workers and set the house on fire.

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

Two weeks after Lila Kennedy published a best selling book about keeping your marriage alive, her husband left her for a neighbor he'd been having an affair with - who's now pregnant. Then not long after that her mother is killed in an automobile accident and Lila's stepfather moves in with her and her daughters to help them all cope. Lila's publisher is also asking about her next book for which she has zero ideas. Then to top things off more, her American biological father shows up and needs a place to crash. To say Lila is overwhelmed is the understatement of the year. Trying to keep all the plates spinning while simultaneously grieving her marriage and her mother, leaves Lila overwhelmed and exhausted. When she meets a new single father at school pick up, things start to look up a little and Lila also has some ideas for a new book. But is this new man as good as he appears? Or will he be one more thing to go wrong for Lila? Maybe a happier future lies in unexpected people in Lila's life.

This is the classic Jojo Moyes that I LOVE! I'm always amazed at how her books weave in so many people and plotlines that all come together to create an amazing story that you didn't expect. This is a beautiful story about the meaning of family and finding love in unexpected places.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit: a true crime story by Pagan Kennedy

Pagan Kennedy stumbled on to the story of Marty Goddard being the person who "invented" the rape kit in the 1970s. Marty worked for a philanthropic organization and volunteered at a crisis helpline. She realized just how many children and teenagers were being molested or abused and were running away from home, then often being victimized again in different ways. She started wondering why more sexual assaults weren't prosecuted - then she saw why not - the police didn't bother collecting evidence to crimes they couldn't "prove" in a court of law. So, she starting thinking about how that could change and the rape kit as we know it today was born. First in Chicago, then New York City, then all over the US. One of the craziest facts for me was that the first batch of kits was funded by the Playboy Foundation. Sadly, just as these kits were beginning to be used all over the US and women and minorities were beginning to find a little more justice from the law, Marty disappeared. She cut herself off from most of her family and friends. Kennedy was determined to find Marty and try to bring her the recognition she deserved. Marty had a rough childhood and was raped in her 30's in the early 1980s. It seems that those events in her own life, plus all the other survivor stories she witnessed through her work took a hard toll on her. She ended up a mentally ill alcoholic who died alone and unrecognized for her trailblazing idea and work in women's health and police protocol. Even though Marty died before she could be more publicly recognized, her story is important. This one woman created a tool that wields enormous power today and helped change the way sexual assault is viewed by society and handled by law enforcement. This is not a super happy read, but it's an important one.

Some quotes I liked:

"When Marty couldn't find any conventional support for her rape-kit pilot program, she turned to her friend Margaret. 'I decided we had to put aside our feelings for objectification of women in [Playboy] magazine,' Marty later said. She applied for a donation of $10,000 from the Playboy Foundation - the equivalent of more than $50,000 today. She got it...In 1978, Marty Goddard delivered standardized rape kits to twenty-five hospitals in the Chicago area for use in the pilot program she had designed..." (p. 58-59)

"'For years, there's been a misconception that people who commit [sexual] offenses are two types of people: stranger rapists or acquaintance rapists, and they don't cross over,' a victim advocate named Colleen Phelan told a reporter in 2021. The new rape-kit evidence data confirmed that this idea had been wrong all along: the same man's DNA might show up in his girlfriend's rape kit and in a kit belonging to a child whom he'd grabbed off the street. In some cases, DNA results revealed that perpetrators have sexually assaulted people of different ages and genders. As the Tucson Police Department analyzed the results from its backlog, a new picture emerged of the serial rapist as a 'generalist' who attacked strangers, acquaintances, and family members. 'Their MO is vulnerable people,' Phelan said." (p. 145)

"Chillingly, two-thirds of serial rapists had never been arrested for sexual assault before the backlogged evidence was tested, even though some of them had been active for years. That 'is an indicator as to just how much undetected sexual offending there is,' Lovell told a reporter in 2020. It was also an indication of just how little police departments had done to prevent it." (p. 147-148)

"Black women, many of whom were in communities that have been shattered by police brutality, continued to be less inclined than other groups to seek help from forensic nurses or the criminal justice system. For every one Black survivor who reported a sexual assault, there were fifteen others who decided not to do so, a U.S. Justice Department study found in 2003." (p. 160)

"Even if the patient was spattered with blood and shivering with fear, she would be forced to wait, sometimes all day, before anyone attended to her. 'I don't think any of the victims ever waited for less than eight hours,' Waegemann said, 'and that's not including the rape-kit exam.' [that can take up to 5 hours on its own...]" (p. 162) [Then people wonder why women don't go to the police or hospital after a sexual assault...]

Gathered: on foraging, feasting, and the seasonal life by Gabrielle Cerberville

Gabrielle Cerberville has been foraging since she was a child, although she didn't know it was foraging then. She grew up in a homeschool family and was always outside exploring and that often meant picking wild berries. As an adult, she stumbles across some mushrooms and in trying to find out about them discovers they are edible, and that opens the door for her to foraging.

I'm in the minority here in that I didn't really like this book. I didn't know who she was before finding this book and I don't follow her on Instagram. Maybe if I was familiar with her, I would have anticipated her writing style more. Her foraging tips seem solid, but the overall book seemed all over the place to me. The book is organized seasonally with both foraging tips and recipes, but it's mostly stories of her personal foraging experiences. Her personal stories were written like the reader knows more backstory than we're given. They often seem to pick up in the middle of a situation or story that we don't know about so a lot of them felt kind of random or like you don't have enough information. There were also a couple chapters where one story was broken up throughout the chapter with other stories from different time periods mixed in which was confusing. Some of her foraging stories I enjoyed, some I did not. Many felt like she was trying a little too hard to be a hippie/Earth goddess type persona. Overall, I didn't love the book, but I do like that she is trying to bring more attention to foraging all year long.