There are so many great books that tell stories through food. Food as plot, food as character, food as device, food as window to the soul. There are so many, in fact that it is truly hard to know where to begin.  If they are on this list, I assure you, I have read and enjoyed them. I will continue to update the list as I have read them. Feel free to post your own favorites for me to explore and add to this list in the comments section below.

Happy Reading!

The List

Memoir

• A Tiger in the Kitchen by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
• Alice, Let’s Eat by Calvin Trillin
• Between Meals by A.J. Liebling
• Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
• Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen
• Born Round by Frank Bruni
• California Dish by Jeremiah Tower
• Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl
• Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang
• Heat by Bill Buford
• Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin 
• Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir of Food and Family by Diana Abu Jaber
• My Life in France By Julia Child
• Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
• Shark’s Fin & Sichuan Pepper by Fuschia Dunlop
• Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
• The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pépin
• The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White
• The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher
• The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu Jaber
• The Man who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
• The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison
• The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
• The Telling Room by Michael Paterniti
• Toast by Nigel Slater
• When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman

Fiction

• Arabian Jazz: A Novel by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Birds of Paradise: A Novel by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Bread Alone: A Novel by Judith Ryan Hendricks
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Chocolat by Joanne Harris
• Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
• Crescent: A Novel by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Delicious by Ruth Reichl
• Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
• Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg
• Heartburn by Nora Ephron
• Secrets of the TSIL Cafe by Thomas Fox Averill
• The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
• Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
• Rosewater and Soda Bread: A Novel Paperback by Marsha Mehran

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