Have a Book Picnic with These Tasty Titles

Even the sultriest summer feels a little easier when you’re sipping sweet tea, especially the kind served up by Molly Harper in her “Southern Eclectic” series. This fish-out-of-water story finds elite event planner Margot landed with her estranged family in sleepy Lake Sackett, Georgia after a professional disaster. She’s planning to regroup and bail as soon as she can—but soon, her quirky but loving relatives, and the cute new elementary school principal, are giving her reasons to stay.

If you recognize this author’s name, you’re probably a Real Housewives fan…but even if you don’t own a television, you’ll enjoy this foodie novel. Billie’s ready to ditch Manhattan and jump-start her culinary career in the Hudson Valley…but leaving her three besties behind will take its toll. Tensions rise and friendships grow strained, but a great meal can fix everything. . . right?

This book is truly a feast for the eyes as well as the mind; look your fill at the gorgeous photos, but don’t miss this “memoir” of the iconic New York restaurant, Balthazar, and the community that surrounds it. Reggie Nadelson was given unprecedented access to the restaurant and its staff, and the result is a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes look at a restaurant that is more than just an institution. . . it’s a family.

Tia’s a journalist-in-training who just wants to write about food, so when she gets tapped to work with the most prominent critic in the city, she’s thrilled—until it turns out her job will be to conceal the fact that he’s lost his sense of taste, by tasting and describing the dishes and letting him claim her words as his own. Are dazzling meals and lofty connections enough to nourish her sense of self?

Savor this one like a fine wine! Georgia’s a bride on the run—just one week before their wedding, she discovered that her fiancé has been keeping an explosive secret. So she jumps in the car and heads to her family’s winery in Sonoma, California, expecting the comfort and familiarity of home. But when she gets there, she finds more secrets waiting for her, and it’ll take more than a bottle of wine to set this family straight.

This sweet treat is You’ve Got Mail for the culinary set—Milwaukee chef Lou receives a scathing review from a critic who happened to come to her restaurant on basically the worst day of her life, and now her business is in shambles. Drowning her sorrows in a local pub, she runs into Al, a gruff but charming Brit who’s celebrating getting a new article in the paper. Banter ensues, and when Al pooh-poohs the local scene, Lou undertakes to show him the best of what Milwaukee has to offer. But what happens when the two of them discover that Al’s the critic who ruined Lou’s career?