Celia Sack is the owner of Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco, a bookstore for food lovers. Each holiday season, she calls in to KCRW’s Good Food with a list of her favorite books of the year, and there were many in 2019.
Celia’s recommendations
From the Levant:
Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen - Adeena Sussman
Shuk: From Market to Table, the Heart of Israeli Home Cooking - Einat Admony
The Jewish Cookbook - Leah Koenig
Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen - Yasmin Khan
Mexican cooking:
Made in Mexico - Danny Mena and Nils Bernstein
My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions - Gabriela Cámara
Oaxaca - Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral
Fruit lovers:
Apple: Recipes from the Orchard - James Rich
Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over - Alison Roman
For the baker:
Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery - Apollonia Poilâne
Tartine: Revised Edition: A Classic Revisited - Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt
For the barfly:
Last Call: Bartenders on Their Final Drink and the Wisdom and Rituals of Closing Time - Brad Thomas Parsons
Bar Chef: Handcrafted Cocktails - Christiaan Rollich and Carolynn Carreño
Vegetarian and vegan:
Love and Lemons Every Day: More Than 100 Bright, Plant-Forward Recipes for Every Meal- Jeanine Donofrio
The Forest Feast Mediterranean: Simple Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by My Travels- Erin Gleeson
History buff:
American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way - Paul Freedman
Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food - Lenore Newman
For the advanced cook:
The Food of Sichuan - by Fuchsia Dunlop
Cooking in Iran: Regional Recipes & Kitchen Secrets - Najmieh Batmanglij
For the beginner:
Perfect Pan Pizza: Detroit, Roman, Sicilian, Foccacia, and Grandma Pies to Make at Home - Peter Reinhart
New:
Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook - Toni Tipton Martin
Joy of Cooking: 2019 Edition Fully Revised and Updated - John Becker and Megan Scott