January 2026 Cookbook Reviews

 

Recipes from the American South by Michael W. Twitty

Michael Twitty is a food historian who specializes in the food of the American South and the cultures that helped create what we know as American Southern food. In this book he has created a comprehensive cookbook that features Southern recipes you may recognize, as well as, ones you may not that highlight some of the other cultures that helped create Southern food as we know it today. The recipes are organized by typical categories and throughout the book there are some essays about particular topics - the southern garden, rice, storing preserves, etc. There were several recipes I'd like to try and overall I am impressed at the scope of this cookbook and the diversity of the recipes. Even if you're from the South, you will still find something new here.

Measure with Your Heart by Hannah Taylor

This is a Southern cookbook with lots of good, basic recipes for many Southern classics. I liked that the first chapter was "homemade kitchen staples" like vanilla extract, pasta dough, stock/bone broth, etc. The recipes included a good variety of appetizers/snacks, breakfast, main dishes, soups, breads, and desserts. I found a couple recipes I'd like to try. There are definitely better and worse Southern cookbooks out there and I think this one falls right in the middle.

January 2026 Reviews

 

Pitchfork Pulpit: wisdom and practice in a self-reliant life by Joel Salatin

I was subscribing to Mother Earth News magazine for the years that Joel Salatin had his Pitchfork Pulpit column and it was always the highlight of the magazine for me. But to have this collection of his columns in one place is awesome. I remembered some of my favorite columns and rediscovered others. It took me longer than normal to read this one, not because it was a hard read, but because I was savoring it and didn't want it to end. Joel is SO inspiring and this was the absolute perfect book to start off 2026 reading. This might be one I re-read every year.

Every page of this book is quoteable, but here a few that stood out even more:

"Most people think ants are strong for their size, but earthworms are arguably the ultimate strength creature. Weighing only 1/30th of an ounce, they routinely move 2 ounce stones, equivalent of a 150-pound person moving a 9,000 pound stone." (p. 57)

"The point here is to enjoy your homestead more than seeing it as something to conquer in a week. Emotional energy drives physical energy, and if we're constantly depressed because we feel like our pace is not fast enough, we'll miss the greatest joy of homesteading, which is seeing progress toward unorthodoxy. The homestead tribe is one that bucks every accepted norm in society." (p. 157-158) [This is my all time favorite Joel Salatin quote - are you progressing toward unorthodoxy?]

"When our minds become preoccupied with societal disturbance and worry, a walk amidst our handiwork is a balm for the soul. A change here, a new activity there, and suddenly the landscape responds with a tree, a mushroom, a luxuriant patch of red clover. The landscape carries on." (p. 230)

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban

A tin Mouse and his son are forever attached and when wound up the turn around in a circle with the Mouse lifting his son into the air. But, like many toys, they eventually are broken and end up in the dump. There they are collected by Manny Rat who uses his mechanical skills to commandeer tin toys and make them carry loads for him. Both the Mouse and his son are dismayed at their new life in the dump working for Manny. Eventually they get away and have several wild encounters with various animals and toys searching for the tin elephant and seal they were with before being thrown away. Against all odds, the four tin toys are eventually reunited and even Manny Rat turns into a good guy.

I had never heard of this book but it was listed in a recent book I read, World of Wonders that compiled 80 children's books that have had a lasting impact on readers. The Mouse and His Child was written in 1967 and is an odd book. It almost reminded me of a combination of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Velveteen Rabbit but with tin toys and animals living in and around a dump. I'm not sure what children would make of this one. There are some interesting storylines and the hope the Mouse Child has and Manny Rat's turn from evil to good are the two best parts for me. It is an odd book but I am glad that I read it.

Some quotes I liked:

"The animals and birds paid their acorns, beechnuts, seeds, and grubs, along with turnips and dead beetles saved for the occasion, and were ushered by the starlings to their places, where they combined sniffs, growls, whines, and twitters in the general murmur of an audience waiting for an entertainment to begin." (p. 82)

[Inside Muskrat's den] "A little group of firefly students had lit up when the muskrat's familiar step was heard in the tunnel, and now they said in unison, 'Good morning, sir.' Devoted followers who had outstayed the summer, they lived in a glass jar in a corner, and their dormitory cast its pale and blinking glow on the clutter all around them." (p. 108)

"The elephant was completely overwhelmed. Until now she had thought only of herself and the injustice done her; the child and the father had been nothing to her. But now into her one glass eye there rushed a picture in its wholeness of the foggy day, the steaming snow, the black trees, the tired father, the tiny, lost, and hopeful child. A world of love and pain was printed on her vision, never to be gone again." (p. 127-128)

"The house's character had changed much with the fire that had wrecked it and the several stages of reconstruction that renewed it; phoenixlike, the place seemed reborn of itself." (p. 211)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

This book tells the story of a man leaving his homeland, wife, and child to go to a new country in hopes of finding a better place and bringing them along later - but all in pictures - no words at all. While not a new storyline, the pictures make both his homeland and the "new world" fantastical with people but very whimsical and fantastic landscapes and animals. The main character seems to have a pet dragon and there are other equally fantastical pets in the new world. The man makes friends and a new life for himself and then sends for his wife and child. A quick "read" with wonderful sepia toned illustrations. A really unique look at the classic immigrant story.

I had never heard of this book but it was listed in a recent book I read, World of Wonders that compiled 80 children's books that have had a lasting impact on readers. I had also never seen a wordless graphic novel before. I love wordless picture books, but this is my first wordless graphic novel. I can definitely see why this was included in World of Wonders.

Tell Her Story: how women, led, taught, and ministered in the early Church by Nijay Gupta

In the introduction to this book, Nijay Gupta talks about the 2016 book Hidden Figures by Margaret Shetterly that shined a light on three Black women who's contributions to NASA's space race had been "hidden" by history. His goal with this book is to kind of do the same thing for women in Christian history, specifically the early Church in the New Testament. The book is divided into two sections - the first section talks about the Jewish/Biblical history of women before Jesus and also the historical context of what life would have been like in the Roman world leading up to the time of Jesus. The second section covers the early Church and several specific women who were important in that time but have been glossed over or left out of Christian history. At the end there are two chapters covering specific passages that are often used to limit modern-day women's roles/place in the Church - I Timothy 2: 11-15 and several sections dealing with "household codes" of the day with Colossians 3: 18 - 4:1 being the focus of that chapter.

The book was interesting, particularly the sections that talked about the Roman culture of that day. I do agree with some of the reviews I read that this does read almost like a thesis and is very scholarly and not a super easy read especially if you're not somewhat versed on this subject and the Bible overall. I'm a staunch egalitarian and to me it's obvious in how Jesus interacted with women (and the fact that He DID interact with women at all) that He doesn't view women as lesser or beneath men. And again, the fact that women are mentioned at all in the New Testament shows that they were involved and in more than just cooking and childcare. Gupta brings up some good points and it's definitely worth thinking about for any Christian how much interpretation there is when translating the Bible into English or other languages from the original. Overall, I liked the book but I think it probably has a more narrow audience.

Some quotes I liked:

"Sometimes the question is raised whether God used Deborah only because there were no men available, or because Barak had weak faith. But if we look at the judges as a whole, especially Gideon and Samson, it is clear that they were not chosen for their virtue or strong faith." (p. 14)

"Another important conversation Jesus has with a woman happens at the Sycharian well in Samaria. In popular modern reflections on this story, this unnamed Samaritan woman is often depicted as a sexually immoral person that Jesus calls out. But that is read into the text; nothing like that is ever stated in John...They get into the topic of her family life. She has had five husbands and now does not live with a husband. In our modern minds, we quickly jump to her having a string of divorces and is now shacking up with yet another man. But another scenario is possible, even more probable. Her husbands have died, not uncommon in a world with high mortality, and she very well could be living with her brother or another male relative. In that case, Jesus was not calling her out on her promiscuity; he was attentive to her hard life." (p. 59-60)

2025 Year of Reading

 In 2025 I read 70 books (goal was 75 so I got close) and 32 cookbooks. Here are my Top 10, Top 5 Cookbooks, and Worst 5:

Top 10 Books Read in 2025

When Southern Women Cook by America's Test Kitchen

Becoming the Pastor's Wife by Beth Allison Barr

A Life in the Garden by Barbara Damrosch

Dodge County, Incorporated by Sonja Trom Eayrs

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Seeking Shelter by Jeff Hobbs

The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

The Owl Handbook by John Sheway

Top 5 Cookbooks

When Southern Women Cook by America's Test Kitchen

Preserving the Seasons by Holly Capella

The Garlic Companion by Kristin Graves

3 Doughs, 60 Recipes by Lacey Ostermann

The Cook's Garden by Kevin West

Worst 5 Books of 2025

End of Story by A.J. Finn

Spare by Prince Harry

Portrait of a Thief by Grace Li

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever

December 2025 Reviews

 

Becoming the Pastor's Wife by Beth Allison Barr

After reading and loving The Making of Biblical Womanhood, I couldn't wait to read this one and it did not disappoint. In a very similar vein, but more specific to how the pastor's wife has replaced ordination for women, particularly in the evangelical church. Barr is a pastor's wife and some of her family's struggle is shared in The Making of Biblical Womanhood but in this book she goes into more details about the current expectations for pastor's wives, how that has changed over the years, and how the current model was created. And since she's a history professor, she also shows how historically 1) there was no such thing as "ordination" in the Christian church until much later in Church history and 2) women DID preach, lead early churches, and held positions that would be equivalent to an ordained pastor today in the early Church. In my opinion her historical research makes such an obvious case that women were and can be pastors and that complementarian theology was created in response to the 1960's feminist movement as a way to keep women's unpaid labor in the home and church. It's hard to know if the men (and women) pushing the complementarian theology genuinely believe it's biblical or if they are aware how much this benefits men and want to keep women subjected for their own benefit. This was definitely an eye-opening book and important book that is continuing to shine the light of biblical truth on some dark corners of the Church.

Some quotes I liked:

"Murphy-Geiss quotes the aphorism that 'marriage is as much a requirement for Protestant ministry as celibacy is for the Catholic priesthood.' She also cites a 2008 finding that 94 percent of 'all Protestant clergy in the United States are married, and, unlike most other professions, the pastor's family is often involved in his/her work.' And marriage seems to be on the rise for Protestant clergy, as a 2017 Barna Group study found that 96 percent were married. These trends and persistent attitudes mean that the pastor's role is by design a two-person job in which only one person receives a salary, title, and official position. For a pastor's wife, especially one in the American evangelical tradition, the very nature of her husband's calling presumes her supportive and unpaid labor. He literally can't do it without her." (p. xiv - xv)

"We have taken a position [pastor's wife] never mentioned directly in Scripture and turned it into the highest ministry calling for contemporary evangelical women, allowing it to supplant other ministry roles. We have pressured women who do not feel called to ministry into ministry service because of their husbands' vocations. We have told women that their best path to ministry is literally to follow behind men." (p. 21)

"The problem isn't what these women were doing. The problem is what we call the work these women were doing. Milburga's world called her an abbess. Bertha Smith's world called her a missionary. Kathy Hoppe's world called her a minister's wife. I can't help but thinking about Elizabeth Marvel's words about women's ordination in the modern global church. 'Ordination has less to do with what an individual can or cannot do in the church,' she writes, 'and more to do with the power or prestige assigned to their position while doing it.' I think she is right. History suggests that ordination has less to do with the work of ministry and more to do with how that work is recognized." (p. 66-67)

"[Elizabeth] Flower's book Into the Pulpit provides an in-depth analysis of the SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] gender wars and their connection to broader American culture. In her chapter focused on the 1970s, Flowers shows how SBC concerns about female autonomy and independent leadership roles coincided with increasing agency for women...it was only in the 1960s and '70s that women in the US gained legal protections against wage discrimination, credit discrimination, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination within the workplace. They also gained legal access to birth control and abortion." (p. 138)

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller (Books & Banter book club)

Lula Dean grew up in Troy, GA in a wealthy family who lost their fortune. Ever since Lula has been bitter and looking for a way to regain some power in her town. When a teenager places an erotic baking book in the public library as a prank, that launches Lula's campaign to ban books and "make Troy great again." Beverly Underwood also grew up in Troy, GA and never liked Lula. She's on the school board and is fighting against Lula's book banning campaign. Unbeknownst to either woman, when Lula puts up a little free library in her yard full of books that "made me who I am today," Beverly's daughter switches out all the books with ones that Lula wants banned. As the town residents accidentally start reading banned books all kinds of hell breaks loose in Troy, GA.

While it's clear in the book description that this book is satire, I did not like it. I'm a public librarian so obviously I'm against book banning. And I get that most of the characters were purposely caricatures, but the heavy handedness of the message got old FAST. I mean how many times was it mentioned that Lula Dean had orange hair - COME ON. It was also unnecessarily vulgar in my opinion. And there were WAY too many characters. She could have cut the character list in half and still almost had too many. I do think book banning is a topic worth discussing, but no one on "the other side" of this issue would read this book and change their mind. I did like the DNA storyline of the Black family finding out they were ancestors of the town Confederate hero - that was well done and brought up a known issue in a more natural way. Overall, I didn't like it at all. The writing was good and despite not really liking it I did want to find out what happened in the end with everyone. But I wouldn't recommend this one.

West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge (Evening Edition book club)

In 1938 two giraffes survive a hurricane at sea and are delivered to New York to be driven across country to San Diego, California. Woody Nickel is an orphan from Texas who came East to find his only living relative after his family and farm were all lost to the Dust Bowl. In the aftermath of the hurricane, Woody's cousin and place of employment were lost to the storm and he has a magical encounter with the giraffes. With nothing left to lose, he follows the giraffes when they leave and is eventually able to talk his way into helping transport them across the country. Thus begins Woody's adventure with the giraffes who will teach him more than he ever thought possible and prove that they are "not just animals."

The plot of this book is based on real historical events - two giraffes that survive a hurricane and are driven across the US to the San Diego Zoo. The rest of the story and the characters are built around this event. I liked all three main characters and in the beginning I was really liking the book. But it was somehow both monotonous and ridiculously over the top at the same time. Every day was get up tend the giraffes, stop, run into some trouble, get out of said trouble, stop for the night and then rinse and repeat the next day. Yes, I can imagine there would be trouble along the way and some of the trouble they encounter seems likely. Some of the trouble was so ridiculous that it seemed a stretch even for fiction. The further the book went the more ridiculous a lot of stuff became until I wasn't really liking the book anymore. I think this could have been an amazing book but it was a little too Kristin Hannah-eque for me - like every possible thing that could go wrong for these people and the giraffes did over and over. I would have quit reading if not for my book club reading this one.

Anatomy of a Con Artist by Johnathan Walton

Johnathan Walton never expected to be targeted by a con artist, but when his apartment building lost its pool he wanted to meet with other neighbors to work together to get their pool access back. That's when he met Mair Smyth and she quickly inserted herself into his life. He thought they were good friends until he realized she was a con artist and had conned him out of close to $100,000. But Walton didn't tuck his tail between his legs in shame and embarrassment - he got loud. He created a blog and ended up finding several other victims of Mair and eventually brought a criminal case against her. After being conned himself, Walton started helping other con victims get justice. In doing so he realized there are several red flags that con artists use to find and con victims. And that's where this book comes in, he wants to share with the world the Anatomy of a Con Artist to try to help people avoid being scammed or get justice if they have been scammed.

I agree with some of the reviews that I read that the book is a little repetitive. Each chapter tells the story of someone who's been conned that Walton helped and part of his own story of being conned by Mair Smyth. So there is a lot of reiteration around the red flags in each chapter. And honestly, any one of the red flags he talks about alone wouldn't be enough to be suspicious. But these red flags together or combined with other gut feelings or logic-defying situations could point to a con artist. The biggest downfall of honest people is that you assume other people are honest as well - and con artists count on that. This book wasn't amazing, but it was interesting and I definitely admire the lengths Walton went to to get Mair Smyth prosecuted and to help other victims.

Worlds of Wonder: celebrating the great classics of children's literature by Daniel Hahn, ed.

Daniel Hahn looked at almost 200 years of stories for children to put together Worlds of Wonder. This book highlights 80 children's books (not picture books or Teen/YA books) that have had a lasting impact on readers - both children and adults alike. The books included are all available in print in English, but several international authors/titles are represented. Each book covered has some information about the author and then a 1-2 page write up about the book - a short synopsis and why this book has had an impact on readers. The books are divided into 4 sections that cover a span of years. There are several contributors listed in the back of the book who wrote about each title. I do wish that the author had been listed on the page with the write up and I'm not sure why that wasn't the case. Of the 80 books listed, I've read 20 and after reading this book I've added a few more to my to-read list. This is the perfect book for a librarian and I loved reading about old favorites from my childhood and finding some new ones to check out as well.

Some quotes I liked:

[Black Beauty by Anna Sewell] "One Texas cowpuncher arraigned for ill-treating his pony would be sentenced to one month's imprisonment where he was required to read the story three times." (p. 34-35)

[Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers] "P.L. Travers fought hard against the changes to her story that she saw in the Disney film - ultimately, she lost. She was so unhappy with the way she and her novel were treated that she ruled out any further adaptations." (p. 94) [There were 8 books in the Mary Poppins series]

[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl] "In 2023, four years after Dahl's death, Puffin books announced that they would be revising all of his texts to eliminate derogatory words and passages. In the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Augustus Gloop is now described as 'enormous' rather than 'fat,' and the Oompa-Loompas go from being 'tiny' to 'small.' Elsewhere, references to glass eyes, ugliness, old age, disability, and other potentially sensitive topics were removed or altered. Arguments about censorship swiftly broke out, even getting as far as the U.K.'s House of Commons. But Puffin Books' decision to re-issue the original texts in The Roald Dahl Classic Collection finally left readers free to choose whichever version they wanted." (p. 159)

[A quote from the text of Watership Down by Richard Adams] "Animals don't behave like men," he said. "If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures' lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality." (p. 173)

[The Neverending Story by Michael Ende] "Michael Ende disliked the 1984 film adaptation of his novel so intensely that he launched legal action that delayed the release of the sequel until 1990." (p. 184)

[The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly by Luis Sepulveda] "In Sepulveda's imagination, cats not only understand the language of humans but can speak it - though it's the ultimate taboo to let humans in on that little secret...'Cats were aware, of course, of the sad fate of the dolphins, who had displayed their intelligence to humans who had in turn condemned the dolphins to acting like clowns in aquatic spectacles.'" (p. 206)

The Lost and the Found: a true story of homelessness, found family and second chances by Kevin Fagan

In 2003 journalist Kevin Fagan spent six months on the streets of San Francisco working on a series of articles about homelessness for the San Francisco Chronicle. During that time he met Rita and Tyson - two homeless addicts who had been living on the streets for years. When his article series came out, family members recognized Rita and Tyson and reached out to Fagan for help reconnecting with their family members. Both Rita and Tyson had loving family members who were willing to help them come back home. Things seemed to be looking up for both of them, but sadly only one made it to long-term sobriety. The Lost and the Found is about San Francisco's long history as a homeless mecca, but it's also the stories of Rita and Tyson - how they ended up homeless, how they survived, what made them decide to accept help and go home. Every homeless person you see on the street anywhere has a story and probably has family out there somewhere who loves them. Kevin Fagan does a great job of showing a "behind the curtain" view of homelessness through these two people's stories. And the fact that there is one happy ending and one unhappy ending also highlights the reality of drug addiction and how hard that cycle can be to break for many people.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Books & Banter and Evening Edition book clubs)

In 2016 Amy Tan took drawing classes and nature journaling field trips with naturalist, author, and educator, John Muir Laws. Around this same time, Tan began to get into birding - mostly in her own backyard. Her house in Sausalito, CA is surrounded by trees and a natural habitat for many different birds. She started stocking different types of feeders and really observing all the birds in her yard. By her own admission, she became obsessed with birds. The Backyard Bird Chronicles is taken from 6 years of her bird journals where she sketched birds and noted behavior and habits she noticed. Honestly, her sketches are AMAZING. It's obvious that she put in a lot of "pencil miles." The journal is more than just daily notes and observations of the birds - in the beginning it's more of her search for the right feeders/food, how to keep squirrels and rats out, and identifying birds. As the journal moves on, it's more behavioral observations and notes about sick or injured birds. She also has a young, Great Horned owl move into her yard - close enough where she can see him every day. There was a little repetition in the entries, but honestly not as much as you might expect for a work like this. She includes SO MANY sketches that really make the book. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but I really liked it. It's a unique book that any nature lover or artist would really enjoy. Tan shows that she is much more than a fiction author, she is also a talented artist and naturalist.