Author: Kendra Winchester

In 2019, Sarah M. Broom won the National Book Award for The Yellow House, which follows the story of her family and their connection to New Orleans. She describes her family’s history through the Yellow House, her childhood home that her mother owned for decades. We learn about Broom’s family history and the history of New Orleans. Through her vibrant and engrossing writing, you come to love her family and the Yellow House. This book is such a beautiful work of nonfiction, and I can’t recommend it enough.

As an Appalachian book lover who adores food writing, I was so thrilled to learn about Erica Abrams Locklear’s book on Appalachian Cuisine. Locklear examines the history of Appalachian food, its influences, and what it looks like today. I loved the way that she delved into the creativity of Appalachian cooks and the stigma against Appalachian food. She discusses chefs like Ashleigh Shanti and Sean Brock, both of whom have a national presence and discuss Appalachian food in all of its historical complexities. This book is perfect for folks with a love of American cuisine and the incredible food it brings to the table.

After Goldbach experiences a mental health crisis, she isn’t able to finish the last step of her graduate work. Instead, she gets a job at the local steel mill, writing down her experiences and the complex and very dangerous work she does everyday. Goldbach examines the realities of being paid very well for a job that is such high risk. She’s able to capture the blurry borders of being a person in academia from a working class background. Is the college debt, years of study, and poor job prospects worth it? How does the prejudice of “blue collar jobs” impact her decision? Goldbach does such an excellent job of balancing out all of these different questions while weaving in her own story.

Cornejo Villavicencio and her family have lived undocumented in America for decades. Her dad could only work “blue collar” jobs that didn’t pay well and took an intense toll on his body. Cornejo Villavicencio showed incredible promise, getting high grades, scholarship, and honors. But at every step, she worried about her and her family’s undocumented status. She also experienced suicidal ideation from an early age, her mind filling with intrusive thoughts and clouding her judgment. The Undocumented Americans is part Cornejo Villavicencio’s story and interviews with other undocumented Americans from around the country, showing the diversity of their lived experiences.

If you love books about cults and how the minds work, Cultish is right in your wheelhouse. This book delves into the details around the language of cults and how everyday exposure to this language influences how people view the world. Through her skill at narrative storytelling and incredible research skills, Montell takes us deep into the influence of cults and the words that help build them.

One of the best biographies in recent years, The Dead Are Arising is an award-winning biography of Malcolm X. Les Payne worked on this book for decades, and when he passed, his daughter, Tamara Payne, continued his work and finished the book. The Dead Are Arising went on to receive dozens of accolades, including winning the National Book Award for nonfiction. This is definitely a book you won’t want to miss!

Matthew Salesses introduces his book by describing how the fiction writing workshop was created by white male writers. Salesses reimagines the writing workshop, examining the elements of writing— plot, character, structure, etc.—from a new perspective. The book includes exercises, giving teachers resources to create better, more inclusive workshops for their students.

A lot of people have a great idea for a book, but where do you even start? Publishing seems so overwhelming. That’s where Courtney Maum comes in. Maum has written my go-to publishing guide for writers who are looking to publish their first book. From finishing your manuscript to book contracts to second books, Maum is here to guide you through it all. She’s structured the book around a Q&A format, using headings and organized chapters to help readers follow along. Maum breaks up a daunting task into different parts, making a seemingly impossible thing actually doable.

In this Audible Original, National Book Award-winning author Imani Perry describes her experience living with Lupus. She brings in work by other chronically ill authors, like Virginia Woolf and Audre Lorde, aligning herself with a more intersectional approach to writing about her disability. Perry intersperses personal stories about her life throughout the essay, and looks at disability from several different angles. I loved that there was always a new way to think about illness in each section, and I found myself pausing the audiobook just to sit with my thoughts on something she said.

In 2020, Penguin issued a new edition of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, a series of essays where Lorde discusses how illness is treated in society. A large portion of this book is dedicated to examining the reasons why her doctor’s office kept insisting that she wear a prosthetic breast after having one of her breasts removed as part of her cancer treatment. She found the prosthetic uncomfortable and didn’t care that people could see that she’d had a mastectomy. But the doctor’s office said it would make other people more comfortable if she would wear one, which got her thinking about how there’s a lot of dedication to chronically ill people to perform wellness for the sake of the people around us.

I love Julia Turshen. She has such a warm way of describing her love of food. Turshen has written several cookbooks, but Simply Julia is my favorite. This cookbook includes intervals that are like essays in-between sections of the cookbook. There, Turshen describes her inspirations for various recipes and her cooking style. She explains that her wife had to go on a strict medical diet, so to be supportive, Turshen began reworking her recipes so her wife could eat them. The food we cook is often an act of love for the people in our lives, and you feel that truth on every page of Simply Julia. Plus, the recipes are incredible.

I don’t hear enough people outside of Appalachia or the South discuss how incredible Edna Lewis is. Her recipes move with the season, always focusing on what is fresh and readily available. She’s practical, often giving you substitutes in the text as needed. But what I love about her best is the descriptions of WHY she makes certain choices with her cooking. Like why she hates using a lot of baking powder because she hates the aftertaste it leaves in baked goods. Her work is truly vital to both Appalachian and Southern cuisines, and although she is gone now, she has left behind such an incredible legacy.

One of the first books I immediately had to tell my aunt about is Taste. Tucci is such a fabulous storyteller, so when he goes to tell his own, I was immediately hooked. Here he shares the story of his life growing up in an Italian American family, slowing down here and there to describe some of the favorite meals he’s eaten in his life. And if you’re an audiobook fan, Tucci performs his memoir, making it a one-of-a-kind listening experience. The way this man can describe food — my stars! It’s such a great memoir!

Of course, if we’re talking about books about Americans traveling to Italy, I had to mention From Scratch. This memoir follows Tembi Locke, a reluctant law student who takes a summer to study art in Italy. She studies art, sure, but she also finds love. Her memoir follows her whirlwind relationship with her husband, a Sicilian chef who moves to America to be with her. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but let’s just say I cried so much while reading this memoir. You can also find the fictionalized mini series of From Scratch over on Netflix!