Books about Books and Beyond: 7 Interesting Reads You’ll Love

Looking for some interesting reads to start the new year off? This short guide contains books to check out, including cookbooks, travel books, strange history, and books about books.

 

Have you ever daydreamed about visiting the worlds inside the books you’ve read, the worlds that are born from the author’s imagination? Laura Miller’s Literary Wonderlands is your travel guide to fictional worlds, from Lilliput in GULLIVER’S TRAVELS and the worlds of ancient myths like Gilgamesh and The Odyssey, to Florin in William Goldman’s THE PRINCESS BRIDE and Discworld in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

 

John Sutherland takes the reader on a tour of the real-life places that influenced some of the greatest works of literature. Follow the book through Bath, England during Jane Austen’s time; Nigeria in 1958 as recounted by Chinua Achebe; and Gertrude Stein’s Oakland, California; and Honore de Balzac’s Paris.

 

If you have someone on your list who’s devoted to The Great British Bake-Off, The Joys of Baking by Magnolia Baking’s Samantha Seneviratne will be a good choice. This book is filled with scrumptious recipes like Earl Grey Pains au Chocolat, Chocolate Creme Bundt Cake, Caramel Cookie Bars, and Nectarine Galette with Sour Cherry Jam, along with heartfelt reflections on the role that baking plays in life’s joys and heartbreaks.

 

If you’re looking for a book for someone whose interest is in art, history, or true crime, this gripping tale of Tony Tetro – one of the world’s most renowned, cleverest art forgers – has all of those things. Over a career that has spanned five decades, Tetro passed off his paintings as the work of the great masters, selling them to the most prestigious museums and collectors, until the law finally caught up with him in the 1980s. Even today, Tetro continues to paint, and to sell paintings to a very select list of clients, as this book – full of drama, secrets, fast cars, and even a secret room behind a mirror – will tell you.

 

We like to think about the myriad ways science has improved life for the better, but history is also full of ways in which science and medicine were used for questionable – if not downright inhumane – purposes. In this book, Sam Kean takes the reader through the role that the slave trade of the 1700s played in science, the medical abuses committed at Tuskegee and in Nazi Germany, the connections between Thomas Edison and the electric chair, and the ways that these historical events still have an impact the world today.

 

 

 

 

Best-selling food writer and blogger Maureen Abood pays tribute to the flavors of her Lebanese-American upbringing with Rose Water and Orange Blossoms, developed from her popular blog of the same name. This book contains more than 100 tantalizing recipes, from Spiced Lamb Kofta Burgers and Stuffed Koosa and Grape Leaves to Pomegranate Rose Sorbet and Walnut Baklawa.


Erin Roll is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her favorite genres to read are mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, and her TBR pile is likely to be visible on Google Maps. Before becoming an editor, Erin worked as a journalist and photographer, and she has won far too many awards from the New Jersey Press Association. Erin lives at the top floor of a haunted house in Montclair, NJ. She enjoys reading (of course), writing, hiking, kayaking, music, and video games.