Books for Your Lifestyle

The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking With Organic Spices

Spice entrepreneurs Sara Engram and Katie Luber, with Kimberly Toqe, show you how to give every dish a boost of good health and enhanced flavor in their new cookbook The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking With Organic Spices. Along with great recipes and a primer on spices that will make anyone a better cook, the book is filled with tips, facts, and spice trivia. You’ll learn, for example, that tarragon has been used to cure hiccups and that people in the middle ages put thyme under their pillows to prevent nightmares. Who knew?www.andrewsmcmeel.com

The Calorie Counter for Dummies

Dieting, or simply tracking nutrient intake, is easier with The Calorie Counter for Dummies by Rosanne Rust, MS, RD, LDN. You can tally your consumption of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium, carbs, fiber, sugar, and protein while you’re on the go and eating at 150 popular restaurants.

The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook

Erin Chase has shared her culinary penny-pinching tips with more than 1 million people on her coupon-clipping and recipe resource www.5dollardinners.com. The need for a book was likely a no-brainer. Everyone could use some help getting good food on the table without breaking the bank. Chase serves lots of practical tips in The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare.

How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People (While They’re Still on This Earth)

It would probably be a hard sell convincing young people to pick up a book that explores the heart and soul of people far closer to the end of their lives than the beginning. And it would probably be impossible to convince them that such a book would not only be amusing but also teach them something about age they’d be well advised to learn while they’re young. But Henry Alford’s How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People (While They’re Still on This Earth) is both witty and wise and well worth your attention, no matter what your age.
www.twelvebooks.com

Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Cookbook

The dishes made famous by Bruce and Eric Bromberg at their chain of Blue Ribbon restaurants defies categorization. There’s nothing catchy, no gimmicks, no overarching culinary style in the recipes in Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Cookbook: Better Home Cooking—just good food, some as basic as comforting Doughnut Muffins (OK, not one of the more healthful choices, but very tempting) to more elaborate and elegant dishes that hint at their Parisian training to the simple foods they grew up on in New Jersey eateries, such as Mom’s Egg Salad Sandwich.
www.crownpublishing.com

Food Presentation Secrets

Want your food to look as good as it tastes? Learn from the pros. Food stylists Cara Hobday and Jo Denbury share their tips in Food Presentation Secrets. It’s loaded with great suggestions for professional-looking garnishes and tips on tools and techniques.

A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation

Can we talk? Daniel Menaker explores that question as well as these: Why do we talk? How do we talk? Does it matter if we talk? It won’t teach you how to hold your own with Barbara Walters or Charlie Rose, but Menaker’s new book A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation will change your perspective about even the simplest of verbal exchanges. A surprising subject for a page turner, it’s amusing, highly entertaining, and, simply, an exceptionally good read.

Surviving Your Doctors

Everyone knows the expression “First do no harm.” Yet everyone also knows that the medical system often does harm. Richard S. Klein, MD, aims to keep you from being a victim and arms you with the questions to ask and the steps to take to ensure a safe passage in Surviving Your Doctors: Why the Medical System Is Dangerous to Your Health and How to Get Through It Alive. It’s a frightening and sobering but ultimately empowering view of the healthcare landscape.www.rowmanlittlefield.com

How to Buy Wine

Want to be speak intelligently and choose wisely when it comes to wine? Jonathan Ray’s very slim book, How to Buy Wine: All You Need to Know to Choose the Right Bottle Every Time, contains a wealth of information distilled to its essence. www.rylandpeters.com

Vegan on the Cheap

It’s not necessarily true that a vegan lifestyle is costly. In her new book, Robin Robertson, a chef specializing in vegan cooking and a prolific author of vegan cookbooks, proves that you can make delicious meals for as little as 50 cents per serving. In Vegan on the Cheap: Great Recipes and Simple Strategies That Save You Time and Money, she not only provides great budget-conscious recipes but also shows you how to save by making your own meat alternatives and saves you time with “two-for-one meals.” And for those times you want something extra, she provides lots of suggestions for little splurges.www.wiley.com