Top 10 Summer Cookbooks

It's fizzy, too—and comes complete with recipes and regrets

(NEWSER) - Recipes for "Morning After Pumpkin Bread" and "Ineffectual Eggplant Parmigiana" should clue readers in that Giulia Melucci's I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is no how-to on gaining a man's heart through his stomach, Joyce Wadler writes for the New York Times. Melucci—"a former publishing publicist who is hilarious, good-looking, and as restrained as Joan Rivers on crack"—recounts her checkered love life in a style Wadler dubs "Sex and the City with recipes." More»

5 gripping novels for those long summer days

(NEWSER) - Memorial Day means beaches, languid hours, and a page-turner within reach—so Salon has collared the season's best thrillers. This year's lineup includes: An art forger who gets in too deep; a Stalinist official who tries to do good; and a college prof who needs help solving an imaginary murder. Let's dive in! More»

Mark Sarvas and Laura Miller recommend the best works to be overlooked this year.

(NEWSER) - Looking for a read off the beaten path? NPR asks two literary bloggers—Laura Miller of Salon and Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation—for the best works, fictional or factual, that were overlooked by mainstream book-review sections in 2007.

• The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck: "A new kind of military novel"
• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop: The last work of the legendary Argentine experimental novelist

Go beyond the Joy of Cooking with Slate's recommendations

(NEWSER) - What to get the foodie or chef who already has all the classic cookbooks? Slate compiles offbeat favorites recommended by Mollie Katzen, James Oseland and other standout chefs, food editors, and more.

1. Ethan Becker: Cookwise—Less a cookbook than a bible of general cooking knowledge.
2. Dan Barber: The River Cottage Meat Book—"A carnivore's manifesto."
3. Melissa Clark: The Mensch Chef —Traditional Jewish recipe perfection.

For some good reading, check out these books recommended by your favorite authors

(NEWSER) - Read the books writers are raving about with the help of this list from the Guardian:

1. David Hare: Five Germanys I Have Known, Fritz Stern
2. Nicola Barker: Teenage, Jon Savage
3. Margaret Drabble: Edith Wharton, Hermione Lee