Fun Reads for Summer
You need a culinary cozy or two for your time off.
It’s been a tough year. If you haven’t taken time off, I hope you do. While you could always read the latest thriller on your vacation or staycation, thrillers are not about food, are they? And that’s what we care about. With a cozy culinary murder mystery, you can have your cake and read it too.
For summer reading, cozies with a food theme offer just the right amout of fluff and fun. The female protagonist is usually in the food industry, such as a caterer, or owner of a restaurant or bed and breakfast. She has to solve a crime. This sleuth is an amateur who has a knack for investigation, like Jessica Fletcher on the Murder, She Wrote television show; or Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, but with a passion for food. She solves the crime herself or with the police.
Baking and cooking are a big part of the story. Recipes made by the culinary sleuth appear, often with notes about ingredient brands or recommended food pairings.
I wrote about culinary capers in the first three editions of Will Write for Food, in the chapter about writing fiction. I mentioned dozens of books. If you own one of those editions, thank you. For an update on the genre, check out The Dark Reality Behind ‘Cozy Mysteries’, a recent article in The Atlantic.
There are hundreds of culinary cozies to choose from. The titles are fun. I haven’t read Darla’s Delectable Food Truck Cozy Mystery yet, but the series has nine books with great titles, including Poison in the Pastries. If you are on a budget, find older whodunits in used bookstores or online at bargain prices.
Here’s a small sample of culinary cozies:
In Death by Dumpling, by Vivien Chen, Lana Lee works in the family noodle restaurant. A customer turns up dead after eating the restaurant’s shrimp dumplings. Lana has to figure out who killed him and clear her name. The book is part of Chen’s Noodle Shop Mysteries.
A classic culinary caper is The Butter Did It, by Phyllis Richman, once the restaurant critic for The Washington Post. In it, the city’s finest French chef dies. A restaurant critic solves the crime, after enlising the aid of a detective and gourmand. The descriptions of dishes make you hungry. If you like that one you can also read her other book, Murder on the Gravy Train.
See lists of more culinary cozies in 10 Scrumptious Culinary Cozy Mysteries and Cozy Mysteries Featuring Delicious (and Doable) Recipes.
And, if you’re not a fan of murder mysteries, get your foodie fix this month. August is “Read a Romance” month. Read about this food-based subgenre in Romance Novels Are Increasingly Getting Hot and Heavy in the Kitchen. Romance novels comprise one third of all mass-market fiction books sold.
Your turn: Do you recommend a particular culinary caper or do you have a food-based novel you love? Chime in on your choice for a summer read.
What I’m eating:
While standing in line at a restaurant, we watched waiters deliver this odd square thing to many tables. What was it?
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What I'm Reading
How to Build a Home Cookbook Library. Advice from Oprah magazine.
Don’t Call Stephen Satterfield Brilliant. Invest In Him Instead. The Sporkful interviews the publisher of Whetstone about what it took to launch a food media publishing company.
Inside the Colorful, Campy, Unapologetically Horny World of Erotic Cookbooks. Eater says there’s more to them than gag gifts.
Why Agents Don’t Give Feedback—And Where to Get It Instead. You send a query letter but get no response or a generic one. What does it mean?
What are the Best Italian Cookbooks? A British newspaper made a list of classics.
The Oldest Cookbooks from Libraries Around the World. Gastro Obscura says cookbooks offer “glimpses of humanity’s food history.”
How Reels Have Impacted Feed Post Performance. If you are like me, you are still in denial about making Reels. Here’s an incentive.
Tieghan Gerard’s Refusal to Take Responsibility for Her Content is Part of an Ongoing Pattern. An anonymous writer calls out misinformation, cultural appropriation, and racist stereotypes.
The Quiet Explosion of Pop Culture Cookbooks. People want to cook from favorite shows and movies.
The 3 Best Angles for Incredible Food Photography. Andrew Scrivani photographs cookbooks and takes photos for the New York Times. He knows his stuff.
12 Hot Summer Cookbooks to Feast On this Season. Drinks, ice cream, grilling and a whole bunch more.
Why Write? The Paris Review considers what authors have said about writing.
How Did “Recipe Developer” Become a Famous Job? The role of social media in establishing stars.
Fall/Autumn 2022 Cookbook Preview: Part I: The Baking Titles. Eat Your Books has organized a huge list for your perusal.
Best Props for Food Photography and How to Use Them. Food Blogger Pro breaks it down.
Neiman Storyboard has lots of excellent posts on how to write narrative nonfiction books.
News About Clients and Students
(I like to brag about food writing accomplishments here. Send me an email: dj@diannej.com.)
Reem Assil wrote Cooking Online, Arab Women Find Income and Community for the New York Times. (Free to read.)
The Wall St. Journal recommended Fire + Wine: 75 Smoke-Infused Recipes from the Grill with Perfect Wine Pairings by Mary Cressler and Sean Martin in the feature article Summer’s Most Exciting Grilling Recipes. (Free to read.)
Faith Kramer’s cookbook, 52 Shabbats, took Gold at the Foreword Indies, an award from librarians and booksellers.
Becky McKinnon of Biscuits & Bubbly has a new website.
Kate Ryan wrote The Last of Ireland's Rare Wild Salmon for the BBC.
Melissa Uchiyama wrote How To Stock A Jewish Pantry Wherever You Live for aish.com.
Maggie Zhu’s first cookbook, Chinese Homestyle: Everyday Plant-Based Recipes for Takeout, Dim Sum, Noodles, and More, is available for pre-order.
Thanks for Reading
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Dianne Jacob
Editor, Writer and Coach
Office: (510) 923-1770
Email: dj@diannej.com
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My Books
Will Write for Food: 2021 4th Edition
Disclosures: I am an affiliate of Food Blogger Pro, Amazon and Bookshop.org.
Thoroughly delightful, Diannne. Your newsletters are always a treat.
Great issue, and thanks for the interesting list of what you are reading 👍