FOOD
Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food
by Nigella Lawson
Former host of multiple cooking shows and author of nine bestselling cookbooks, Nigella Lawson returns with her latest release Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food. A collection of relaxed, uncomplicated yet always satisfying recipes, Simply Nigella recognizes that different days require different ways of eating. From quick and calm dinners like Miso Salmon and Cauliflower & Cashew Nut Curry to stress-free ideas to feed a crowd including Chicken Traybake with Bitter Orange & Fennel, Lawson gives us a collection of recipes guaranteed to make everyone feel good while providing an antidote to our busy lives.
$45; penguinrandomhouse.ca
Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries
by Russell van Kraayenburg
One part art, one part science and one part good old-fashioned know-how, pastry baking can seem quite the confusing and intimidating task. In Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries Russell van Kraayenburg lays out the basics with helpful diagrams, easy-to-follow recipes and step-by-step instructions for every type of dough from puffy pastry to short crust. Along with a helpful list of variations, substitutions and tips to put tasty spins on recipes like Apple Chipotle Hand Pies, Cinnamon Custard Eclairs and more to help make you a bona fide at-home pastry chef.
$26.95; quirkbooks.com
FICTION
A Wild Swan: And Other Tales
by Michael Cunningham
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, Michael Cunningham releases a collection of fairy tales for our time with A Wild Swan: And Other Tales. Cunningham takes the classic tales of childhood and reveals the forgotten moments or the ones that were deliberately concealed: The years after a spell is broken, the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse, a loutish and lazy Jack who prefers living in his mother's basement above getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans. Exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, A Wild Swan reimagines a darker, more perverse side of bedtime stories.
$19.99; harpercollins.ca
The Heart Goes Last: A Novel
by Margaret Atwood
Renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood presents a hilarious yet harrowing futuristic vision of what lies ahead in her latest release The Heart Goes Last: A Novel. Several years after the world's brutal economic collapse, husband and wife Stan and Charmine are, like much of the world, struggling to stay afloat. Hearing of the new Positron Project in the town of Consilience ““ an experiment in cooperative living ““the couple believes they have found the answer to their life's problems, from living in their car, to the vandalism and gangs and their piled up debt. The only problem is, once inside Consilience, you never get out. A pervasive prison system where citizens live a double life switching roles monthly from prisoner to guard or town functionary, Stan and Charmine adapt quickly and easily to their newfound prosperity. That is, until Charmine becomes romantically involved with the man sharing her civilian house in turn setting off an unexpected chain of events that leaves Stan running for his life.
$34; penguinrandomhouse.ca
BIOGRAPHY
A Day with Marie Antoinette
by Hélí¨ne Delalex
Heritage Conservation Manager at Chí¢teau de Versailles, Hélí¨ne Delalex demystifies the legend and unveils the woman behind the queen, and the wife and mother behind the sovereign, in A Day with Marie Antoinette. Using lavish illustrations, rare personal correspondence and a wealth of previously unpublished material, Delalex paints an intimate portrait of this passionately admired, vilified and defamed royal.
$34.95; rizzoliusa.com
ARCHITECTURE
Longue Vue House and Gardens: The Architecture, Interiors, and Gardens of New Orleans' Most Celebrated Estate
by Charles Davey and Carol McMichael Reese
Designed and built between 1934 and 1942 for Edgar Bloom and Edith Rosenwald Stern, New Orleans' foremost mid-twentieth-century philanthropists and civil rights activists, Longue Vue House and Gardens is considered one of the city's architectural masterpieces. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and listed as a national historic landmark, the mansion and surrounding eight acres of garden space draw on Southern architectural traditions and native Louisiana flora. In Longue Vue House and Gardens: The Architecture, Interiors, and Gardens of New Orleans' Most Celebrated Estate the main house and gardens come to life through lush photography, architectural drawings and informative text.
$65; rizzoliusa.com