Slow Books
Slow Books is a curated list of books and resources that speak to Slow Food values. We hope to connect readers with food writing that inspires thought and discussion about the food you love, diverse food cultures, historical foodways, food justice and the joy of eating.
SLOW Books recommends
We use bookshop.org to host our booklist because their sales support independent bookstores. Plus, Slow Food USA will receive 10% of the sale of every book sold via our booklist, which will support our efforts to achieve good, clean and fair food for all.
THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Prepared by Slow Books team member Katie
MAY 2023 BOOK OF THE MONTH
“This book has heft – and not only due to its 900-plus pages. Set in Georgia (the country) on the edge of the Russian Empire in the start of the twentieth century, it tells the tale of a family who prospers against all odds, thanks in no small part to an intoxicating chocolate recipe, passed on generationally only through memory. This internationally bestselling novel was an English Pen Award winner and will pull you in from the start – much in the way people become seemingly hypnotized by this Georgian family’s most treasured heirloom: a chocolate recipe. But be warned, ‘A very small quantity of the ingredients can make any chocolate product a true delight, but in its pure form, in this form, it can bring about calamity.'”
MAY 2023 YOUTH BOOK OF THE MONTH
“For me, the theme of ‘Maybe You Might’ is all about the metaphor of planting a seed. Maybe that translates into physically watching a plant grow, but maybe it also could relate to watching a child delight in all the possibilities before them. Beautifully illustrated with a lyrical cadence – an all around sweet book.”
Discussion Guides
For the 2022 Network-Wide Read-Along, the Slow Books team chose Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens. Here are some additional reading materials to enhance your enjoyment of this epic ode to some of our favorite foods.
PUBLISHER’S WEBSITE
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE
PURCHASE THE BOOK FROM BOOKSHOP!
In 2021, Slow Books selected Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass as its network-wide read-along for the year. They created a Discussion Guide and revised their Virtual Book Club Toolkit. Watch a video recording of a session where the Slow Books team offered tips on how to host a chapter-wide book club focused on the book.
Suggest a Book
The Slow Food Book Curators
Tammy Maitland
Katie Johnson
Cedar Schimke
Cedar is a chef, community gardener, farmer, writer, singer, artist. They devour books both fiction and nonfiction that help them imagine emergent worlds. Their favorite ingredients to cook with are chilies, and they love exploring recipes as a way to apprentice themselves to culture, tradition, and place. Cedar’s favorite genre of book is magical realism, especially when written by folks who use storytelling to offer alternatives to the current systems of hierarchy and dominance.
