In this comprehensive reference, Wallace (The Female Factor), a medical doctor and host of The Food Medic podcast, explores the menstrual cycle’s effects on women’s overall well-being, arguing that “menstruation is more than just a personal issue; it’s a critical health and education concern that impacts us all.” Wallace offers practical nutritional and medical insights for women, including those who are so debilitated by their menstrual cramps they deplete their sick leave from work and those who are unable to get properly diagnosed for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a severe cyclical mood disorder. Wallace helps readers understand how the menstrual cycle works, identify what fluctuations are normal versus concerning, and optimize their health by focusing on nutrition, exercise, and sleep. She addresses common myths, stigmas, and fears associated with menstruation and provides a wide range of actionable advice, such as yoga poses to alleviate cramp pain and steps workplaces can take to become more menstruation friendly, like policies that allow for menstrual-related absences. Additionally, Wallace includes helpful graphics to elucidate biological processes and clearly defines terms, symptoms, and treatments. This empowering and reassuring guide equips women with the knowledge to make peace with their periods. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hardie Grant launches their user-friendly Basics series with this no-fuss vegetarian collection from Auge (Everyday Air Fryer). An opening section on “Essentials” lays out basic elements of a vegetarian diet, pantry, and protein alternatives through appealing step-by-step photographs. Images in the same style accompany every recipe, making this a useful book for beginners to prop on the counter while cooking. A falafel recipe shows a bowl of chickpeas soaking in water (step one); onion, garlic, and herbs pre- and post-chopping (step two); a food processor surrounded by the remaining ingredients (step three); and an image of formed falafel balls on a baking sheet (step four). This thorough documentation is especially useful with more complex dishes, demonstrating the proper way of folding phyllo dough for pea and potato samosas, for example. Fare ranges from “vegetarian classics” with clever twists (greek salad with watermelon, pasta salad with candied tomatoes) to “reinvented recipes,” which use vegetables as meat substitutes, as in the mushroom bourguignon and celery root Milanese. Recipes lack introductions, which might leave the uninitiated wishing they had more information before diving into making such dishes as green shakshuka or hasselback butternut squash. Still, novice home cooks looking for an easy-to-follow guide will find this does the trick. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sartori (Unofficial Harry Styles Crochet) delivers a fun, accessible guide to amigurumi based on crush-worthy celebrities. Amigurumi, the Japanese art of crocheting yarn dolls, has taken off in recent years, in no small part thanks to Sartori. While her previous titles focused on one particular celebrity—Taylor Swift, for instance, or Harry Styles—this one casts a wider net, providing 15 patterns for a plethora of heartthrobs, including Ryan Gosling, Lenny Kravitz, Pedro Pascal, and Jonathan Van Ness. The book opens with a questionnaire on crafters’ favorite movies and preferred romantic getaways, designed to help one identify their crush. Sartori then provides an overview of amigurumi basics, including appropriate crochet hook size, how to make a magic loop, and preferred yarn weight. Color photos show each step in creating appendages, with the author advising crafters to either stuff the arms a little (think Timothée Chalamet) or a lot (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Sartori’s directions are methodical and detailed, and the images effectively demonstrate how to assemble each doll. There are also patterns for accessories, such as Jason Momoa’s granny square cardigan or Sam Heughan’s kilt. This entertaining how-to is ideal for pop culture–loving crafters. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

“I think about food all day,” confesses SeemaGetsBaked blogger Pankhania in her adventurous and playful debut. Recipes pull from wide-ranging international influences and chapters are organized by craving: “Something Fresh” includes summery peach and halloumi tacos, while “Something Salty and Savory” features an indulgent grilled cheese with caramelized honey and za’atar. Nigerian-style scotch bonnet lentils with crispy salmon bring intense heat when “Something Spicy” will hit the spot. From the “Something Comforting” menu, there’s pickled jalapeño mac and cheese, while the “Something Special” selections include Pankhania’s viral butter chicken recipe. For when a sudden hankering arises, the “Something Now!” chapter includes “emergency dumpling soup” and cheesy gochujang tortellini, both of which promise to be ready in 10 minutes. Ideas for ingredient substitutions are provided throughout, including options for increasing or decreasing spice levels. Home cooks looking for flavor-packed and accessible meals will find this hits the spot. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

U.K. MasterChef contestant Anatole debuts with an elegant and enthusiastic ode to a flavor profile that is often “picked last for the team.” She organizes the collection around 10 key ingredients—including coffee, grapefruit, liquorice, and tahini—though sometimes these ingredients don’t feel like the true star of a given dish. The recipe for spiced lamb chops, for example, appears in the chapter on walnuts due to the pickled walnut compote served alongside the meal. Minor organizational quibbles aside, Anatole demonstrates an impressive command of a broad range of cuisines and uses this skill to create some exciting fusion fare, including a marriage of Italian melanzane and Iranian fesenjan; tres leches tiramisù; and a cabbage and cranberry pie that draws inspiration from Indian, Greek, and French dishes. The section on bitter greens includes a spiral phyllo borek, while a chapter on cooking with beer features a unique porridge made by soaking stale rye bread in ale. Even the simplest recipes, such as toast spread with tahini and honey, appeal. Anatole’s deep dive into bitterness is wonderfully thorough: a section on five ways to mellow the flavor, for example, suggests combining it with dairy and cross-references recipes that do just that. The result is an enticing, clever collection that should rehabilitate the reputation of bitter food. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

This excellent compendium from Itoh (The Just Bento Cookbook) offers an encyclopedic introduction to “the complete range of modern Japanese home cooking.” She breaks down Japanese food into three main styles: washoku, or traditional fare, includes sake-steamed cod, mixed rice with greens (“a favorite since the Edo period,” Itoh notes), and sukiyaki (beef hotpot); chuka, or Chinese-influenced dishes, ranges from chicken and ginger soup with glass noodles to sweet and sour okara and tofu meatballs; and yoshoku, Western-style cuisine, includes cream stew, classic tempura, and Japanese milk bread. Tips abound to help readers achieve authentic flavors even when ingredients aren’t accessible: boiling spaghetti in a baking soda solution, for example, helps mimic the texture of Chinese noodles. Alongside the more than 500 recipes, Itoh immerses readers in Japanese food culture, with fascinating sidebars on the science of umami and the history of cheesecake. The result is a one-stop resource that Japanese food enthusiasts will turn to time and again. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

“I want to encourage everyone to expand their mushroom culinary horizons, and challenge even my most knowledgeable readers to think a little differently about mushrooms,” writes chef and forager Hyatt in his enlightening debut. Though he acknowledges that the book won’t teach novices how to safely forage fungi, Hyatt does provide an extensive and detailed overview of common cultivated and wild mushrooms, noting that king trumpets are known for their nutty flavor and meaty texture, and that matsutake have a “spicy cinnamon aroma” with a dense texture. The recipes take inspiration from cuisines across the globe, with standouts including stewed mushrooms in peanut sauce, lion’s mane cannelloni, portobello and scallion pancakes, and oyster mushroom chilaquiles. Sweet applications, including blueberry-porcini ice cream and a mushroom frangipane and stone fruit tart, may raise eyebrows, but Hyatt’s enthusiasm (“I can’t think of a better way to introduce a neophyte to these sweet-smelling mushrooms,” he says of the candy cap flan) is infectious. Though some recipes were developed with specific mushrooms in mind, Hyatt encourages readers to experiment with different varieties in caponata, savory crepes, mushroom tartare, and more. Mushroom lovers will find a trove of inspiration. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Married architects Jane and Michael Frederick examine in this authoritative handbook the history and sustainability of residential architecture in the Southern U.S. The intense heat and humidity of the South pose many challenges to home designers, like keeping spaces cool and free of mold. The Fredericks, who have spent more than 40 years designing homes in the region, lay out tried-and-true methods for addressing these concerns, including high ceilings that allow rising heat to escape, porches that provide shelter from the harsh sun, and breezeways through the center of a home that keep it cool. With the help of photographs and floor plans, the authors demonstrate the importance of incorporating environmentally conscious systems, from high-efficiency HVAC units to native landscaping. They encourage readers to build homes in harmony with their environment, arguing that “by leveraging the beauty of the land, and all that it has to offer, into the design of the home, its value increases.” In addition to offering helpful insights on selecting responsibly manufactured and reclaimed materials, the authors provide fun anecdotes, like the time they salvaged floors and doors from the Forrest Gump movie set in Beaufort, S.C., to use in their guesthouse. This well-informed blueprint for resilient design will appeal to architects and prospective homeowners alike. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Wallpaper* editor Bell (Carchitecture) offers an opulent survey of homes that showcase Mexico as a “country of contrasts.” His tour of the nation’s “massive range of architectural ambition” is divided into four sections. The first covers creative spaces, including artist studios and residencies like the Casa Wabi arts complex in Oaxaca, which mixes concrete with traditional palapa roofing, and the remote Casa Terreno, a self-sufficient artists’ home that aims to make a statement about “raw nature and the ways in which to artificially control it.” The next section, on experimental structures, features a “puzzle-like” apartment building east of Mexico City, a house inspired by “the feeling of pulling up a bedsheet around oneself for security,” and an eye-catching cube-shaped home. The seaside houses in the “architectural retreats” section include a home built on a land reserve with sea and jungle views and a stunning eco-friendly oceanfront resort. The final section highlights functional family houses, including a super-modern structure and a ranch-style abode. Common attributes run throughout—many of the projects mix wood and concrete, emphasize a dissolved border between indoors and outdoors, and feature brutalist vibes, and the concept sketches and site plans that accompany each home are a nice touch. It adds up to a transportive study in luxury. (June)

Reviewed on 06/13/2025 | Details & Permalink

Slow Style Home podcaster Zuraw debuts with a user-friendly guide to ditching the “anonymous chain store behemoth[s]” when it comes to interior decorating. She cautions readers against limiting their taste to strict categories such as “boho” and “farmhouse,” which in her view stymie creativity and make for “flash-in-the-pan” trends. To counter that way of thinking, Zuraw outlines her “slow style” approach, which draws on the 1970s slow food movement and the early 2000s slow fashion movement to counter mass production, help readers accumulate meaningful items over time, and consider the environmental impact of their purchases. She provides guidance on antique shopping (newbies should opt for a small shop rather than a huge fair), touts DIY projects and handmade objects, and takes a particularly impassioned stance on collecting art, noting that it doesn’t have to be pricey to be meaningful. Her decorating tips are whimsical—she suggests choosing a room’s colors by picking a bird’s feathers as inspiration—and readers new to design will benefit from the fun exercises, as when Zuraw lays out a step-by-step guide to creating a vignette with items one already owns. Conscious consumers ready to redecorate should check this out. (June)

Reviewed on 06/13/2025 | Details & Permalink