Our theme this year is Plant a Seed, Read! which is rooted in the farm-to-table concept. A farm grows food that nourishes our bodies; a library grows ideas that nourish our minds. Both food and stories connect us to our family, culture, economy, and ecology. Join us for activities, programs, prizes, and, of course, reading throughout the challenge!
The Summer Reading Challenge is for ages 0-18, but that does not mean adults cannot get into the spirit of summer with these seed-sifying reads! Adults can join the America 250 reading challenge on Beanstack!
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Chef's kiss : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
Simone Larkspur is a perfectionist pastry expert with a dream job at The Discerning Chef, a venerable cookbook publisher in New York City. All she wants to do is create the perfect loaf of sourdough and develop recipes, but when The Discerning Chef decides to bring their brand into the 21st century by pivoting to video, Simone is thrust into the spotlight and finds herself failing at something for the first time in her life. To make matters worse, Simone has to deal with Ray Lyton, the new test kitchen manager, whose obnoxious cheer and outgoing personality are like oil to Simone's water. When Ray accidentally becomes a viral YouTube sensation with a series of homebrewing videos, their eccentric editor in chief forces Simone to work alongside the chipper upstart or else risk her beloved job. But the more they work together, the more Simone realizes her heart may be softening like butter for Ray. Things get even more complicated when Ray comes out at work as nonbinary to mixed reactions--and Simone must choose between the career she fought so hard for and the person who just might take the cake (and her heart).
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ale
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Forest school for grown-ups : explore the wisdom of the woods - VIEW IN CATALOG
Forest school for grown-ups : explore the wisdom of the woods
Author(s):
Description:
From starting a fire to foraging for food, basket making to making a bird feeder, tree hugging and cloud scrying, this forest almanac is a treasure for anyone who loves the outdoors. Forest schools for kids originated in Scandinavia as outdoor play-based learning groups, and in 2016 The Forest School Foundation was established in the USA. Connecting with green spaces, trees, and plants can lift our spirits, lower our stress levels, and relax our brains--playing outside is good for adults, too. In this comprehensive guide to all things outdoors for anyone who loves being in and interacting with nature, readers will learn how to make a rope sing, go forest bathing, read flowers, build a campfire, and make a forest potion. From practical tips and how-tos to forest folklore, there's something for everyone.--From publisher's website.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
796.5 Irv
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Piglet : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
Outside of a childhood nickname she can’t shake, Piglet’s rather pleased with how her life’s turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she’s got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking. But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly...hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. Torn between a life she’s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Haz
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Soil : the story of a Black mother's garden - VIEW IN CATALOG
Soil : the story of a Black mother's garden
Author(s):
Description:
Poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominately white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
635.09788 Dun
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Legends & lattes : a novel of high fantasy and low stakes - VIEW IN CATALOG
Legends & lattes : a novel of high fantasy and low stakes
Author(s):
Description:
"Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior's life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune's shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve" --Back cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Bal
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Family foraging : a fun guide to gathering and eating wild plants - VIEW IN CATALOG
Family foraging : a fun guide to gathering and eating wild plants
Author(s):
Description:
More than ever before, we need to find tangible ways for our children to experience the natural world on a regular basis. Foraging for wild food is one of the most exciting ways to get kids interested in the world around them--a day gathering wild blackberries and dandelion greens gets their hands dirty and uses all of their senses. This guide gives families the tools they need to accurately describe each plant and how to tell it apart from any harmful lookalikes. It also includes simple, seasonal recipes that readers of all ages can make with their wild edibles.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
581.632 Ham
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Savvy Sheldon feels good as hell
Author(s):
Description:
Savvy Sheldon spends a lot of time tiptoeing around the cracks in her life: her high-stress and low-thanks job, her clueless boyfriend, and the falling-apart kitchen she inherited from her beloved grandma -- who taught her how to cook and how to love people by feeding them. But when Savvy’s world starts to crash down around her, she knows it’s time for some renovations. Starting from the outside in, Savvy tackles her crumbling kitchen, her relationship with her body, her work-life balance (or lack thereof) and, last but not least, her love life. The only thing that doesn’t seem to require effort is her ride-or-die squad of friends. But as any home-reno-show junkie can tell you, something always falls apart during renovations. First, Savvy passes out during hot yoga. Then it turns out that the contractor she hires is the same sexy stranger she unintentionally offended by judging based on appearances. Worst of all, Savvy can’t seem to go anywhere without tripping over her ex and his latest "upgrade". Savvy begins to realize that maybe she should’ve started her renovations the other way around: beginning with how she sees herself before building a love that lasts.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC McC
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Chef's kiss
Author(s):
Description:
Now that college is over, English graduate Ben Cook is on the job hunt looking for something...anything...related to his passion for reading and writing. But interview after interview, hiring committee after hiring committee, Ben soon learns getting the dream job won't be as easy as he thought. Proofreading? Journalism? Copywriting? Not enough experience. It turns out he doesn't even have enough experience to be a garbage collector! But when Ben stumbles upon a Now Hiring--No Experience Necessary sign outside a restaurant, he jumps at the chance to land his first job. Plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. He's actually not so bad in the kitchen, but he will have to pass a series of cooking tests to prove he's got the culinary skills to stay on full-time. But it's only temporary...right? When Ben begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the other super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, and when he starts ditching his old college friends and his old writing job plans, his career path starts to become much less clear.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mel
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The gardener's color palette : paint your garden with 100 extraordinary flower choices
Author(s):
Description:
Format:
Book
Call Number:
635.968 Fis
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The comic book guide to growing food : step-by-step vegetable gardening for everyone
Author(s):
Description:
Like having your own personal gardening mentor at your side, this is the story of Mia, an eager young professional who wants to grow her own vegetables but doesn't know where to start, and George, her retired neighbor who loves gardening and walks her through each step of the process. Throughout the book, "cheat sheets" sum up George's key facts and techniques, providing a handy quick reference for anyone starting their first vegetable garden, including how to find the best location, which vegetables are easiest to grow, how to pick out the healthiest plants at the store, when (and when not) to water, how to protect your plants from pests, and what to do with extra produce if you grow too much. This unique illustrated format is ideal because many gardening concepts--from proper planting techniques to building raised beds--are easier to grasp when presented visually, step by step. Easy and entertaining, this book makes homegrown vegetables fun and achievable.--From book jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
635 Tyc
See Also:
Meal
Author(s):
Description:
"Yarrow is a young chef determined to make her mark on the cutting edge of cookery with her insect-based creations. But her evangelism of insect cuisine rubs some of her fellow chefs the wrong way...particularly Chanda. Her people have been eating bugs for centuries, and she's deeply suspicious of Yarrow's goal to turn their traditions into the next big foodie trend. Can Yarrow win over Chandra...and Milani, the neighbor she's been crushing on for weeks?" -- back cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Del
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Tacos for two
Author(s):
Description:
Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can't cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red--and an upcoming contest during a food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she's been talking to via an anonymous online dating site. Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father's law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he's back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option. Complications arise when Rory's chef gets mono and she realizes she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he's been falling for online the past month. Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the sake of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC St. A
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Love & saffron : a novel of friendship, food, and love - VIEW IN CATALOG
Love & saffron : a novel of friendship, food, and love
Author(s):
Description:
When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter--as well as a gift of saffron--to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she's never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Fay
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An invitation to Indian cooking
Author(s):
Description:
"A fiftieth anniversary edition of the classic Indian cookbook, with a new introduction by the author and a foreword by Yotam Ottolenghi"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
641.5954 Jaf
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Mango, mambo, and murder
Author(s):
Description:
Food anthropologist Miriam Quiñones-Smith's move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, puts her academic career on hold to stay at home with her young son. Adding to her funk is an opinionated mother-in-law and a husband rekindling a friendship with his ex. Gracias to her best friend, Alma, she gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women's Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again. When a second woman dies soon after, suspicions coalesce around a controversial Cuban herbalist, Dr. Fuentes--especially after the morning show's host collapses while interviewing him. Detective Pullman is not happy to find Miriam at every turn. After he catches her breaking into the doctor's apothecary, he enlists her help as eyes and ears to the places he can't access, namely the Spanish-speaking community and the tawny Coral Shores social scene. As the ingredients to the deadly scheme begin blending together, Miriam is on the verge of learning how and why the women died. But her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Rey
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The seed keeper : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakota people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato - where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited. On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Wil
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Arsenic and adobo
Author(s):
Description:
"When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case. With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block" --
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
FIC Man
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Two parts sugar, one part murder
Author(s):
Description:
When Maddy Montgomery’s groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, it’s a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrand--as long as Maddy is willing to live in her late, great-aunt Octavia’s house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby. Maddy doesn’t bake, and her Louboutins aren’t made for walking giant dogs around Lake Michigan, but the locals are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. With help from her aunt’s loyal friends, aka the Baker Street Irregulars, Maddy feels ready to tackle any challenge, including Octavia’s award-winning cake recipes. That is, until New Bison’s mayor is fatally stabbed, and Maddy’s fingerprints are found on the knife. Maddy’s going to need a whole lot more than a trending hashtag to save her reputation--and her life.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Bur
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Praisesong for the kitchen ghosts : stories and recipes from five generations of Black country cooks
Author(s):
Description:
"A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden stories of Black Appalachians through powerful essays and forty comforting recipes from the Poet Laureate of Kentucky. Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother's presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; There were an abundance of ancestors stirring, measuring, and braising with her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who arrived in her region of Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine. Part food memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves fiction with historical records, memories, and interviews to present a unique culinary portrait of Black Appalachians. Forty recipes rooted deep in the past yet full of contemporary flavor are brought to vivid life through stunning photography and beautiful illustrations. You'll find delicious favorites such as Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits woven into the narrative of Crystal's family, portraying the experience and history of Black Appalachians through their voice, spirit, and foodways. As the keeper of her family's stories and treasured dishes, Crystal shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found these stories woven into her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens, and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Crystal conjures up her ancestors every time she cooks, honoring the mothers who came before her, the land that housed generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
641.5975 Wil
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Groundbreaking food gardens : 73 plans that will change the way you grow your garden
Author(s):
Description:
Here are 73 garden designs from horticulturalists, community gardeners, bloggers and print writers, television and radio hosts, and other professional gardeners. Contributions include design illustrations, plant lists, and stories explaining the personal quirks and motivations behind the garden. There's a plan to satisfy every craving.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
635 Jab
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Against the currant
Author(s):
Description:
"When the disgruntled owner of a rival bakery is murdered after getting a rise out of her, Lyndsay Murray, the owner of Spice Isle Bakery, falls under suspicion and most prove her innocence while dealing with her overprotective and meddlesome family"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mat
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As cooked on TikTok : fan favorites and recipe exclusives from more than 40 TikTok creators!
Author(s):
Description:
This cookbook from the video social media platform, TikTok, features popular and brand new recipes from FoodTok creators. It offers an in-hand version of the hottest, highest trending, and most viral food posts on the platform. The 60 recipes are divided into chapters and recipes are paired with a QR code that, when scanned, leads readers directly to that creator's platform or to the cookbook-exclusive platform being built by TikTok.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
641.5 Ste
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Super simple twig projects : fun and easy crafts inspired by nature - VIEW IN CATALOG
Super simple twig projects : fun and easy crafts inspired by nature
Author(s):
Description:
Easy instructions with how-to photographs introduce young readers to create projects using twigs, including picture frames, vases, and a basket.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 745.59 Dou
See Also:
Best served hot
Author(s):
Description:
"Two restaurant critics learn their opposing tastes might make for a five-star relationship in this foodie romantic comedy. By day, Julie Zimmerman works as an executive assistant. After hours, she's @JulieZeeEatsNYC, a social media restaurant reviewer with over fifty thousand followers. As much as she loves her self-employed side gig, what Julie really wants is to be a critic at a major newspaper, like the New York Scroll. The only thing worse than the Scroll's rejection of her application is the fact that smarmy, social-media-averse society boy Bennett Richard Macalester Wright snagged her dream job. While at the Central Park Food Festival, Julie confronts the annoyingly handsome Bennett about his outdated opinions on social media and posts the resulting video footage. Julie's follower count soars--and so does the Scroll's. Julie and Bennett grudgingly agree to partner up for a few reviews to further their buzz. Online buzz, obviously. Over tapas, burgers, and more, Julie and Bennett connect over their shared love of food. But when the competitive fire between them turns extra spicy, they'll have to decide how much heat their relationship can take"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ell
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Death by bubble tea
Author(s):
Description:
When Yale Yee discovers her cousin Celine is visiting from Hong Kong, she is obliged to play tour guide to a relative she hasn’t seen in twenty years. Not only that, but her father thinks it’s a wonderful idea for them to bond by running a food stall together at the Eastwood Village Night Market. Yale hasn’t cooked in years, and she hardly considers Celine’s career as a social media influencer as adequate experience, but because she’s just lost her job at her local bookstore, she feels she has no choice. Yale and Celine serve small dishes and refreshing drinks, and while business is slow, it eventually picks up thanks to Celine’s surprisingly useful marketing ideas. They’re quite shocked that their bubble tea, in particular, is a hit--literally--when one of their customers turns up dead. Yale and Celine are prime suspects due to the gold flakes that Celine added to the sweet drink as a garnish. Though the two cousins are polar opposites in every way, they must work together to find out what really happened to the victim or the only thing they’ll be serving is time.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Cho