I’m not really that into foodie writing (or foodie anything, since I’m a vegetarian with an otherwise very British penchant for the bland and potato-based), so this one is going to involve a few that will seem like a bit of a stretch.
Under the Tuscan Sun is peppered with recipes and also lots of references to things like olive trees. A Year In Provence isn’t that much food, but does have the occasional reference to baguette or a fancy French meal. Bridget Jones makes me more thirsty than hungry, but there is that scene when she’s looking in her fridge and there’s nothing there but some moldy cheese. I dislike the kitchen being empty of food, so that made me very hungry. The Innocents is one of those books where the characters rarely have enough to eat and never have extra. It’s also set in a time when food was what you could hunt, grow or trade for, so there wasn’t much in the way of variety or taste!
The Mortmains in I Capture the Castle are very poor, and there are lots of descriptions of meals they want to have or meals they remember having when things were better. The Starless Sea partly takes place in this sort of fantastical place full of books that also has a magical portal in each room where you write down what you want and it appears, as if by magic, and is plentiful and delicious. Ducks, Newburyport is all about a housewife who runs a small baking enterprise from her kitchen, so there is a lot about pies and cookies and cakes in here, along with discussion of her favourite meals and everything in her pantry. Pumpkinheads is set at a fair and has all kinds of delicious (and slightly odd) treats!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory always makes me hungry for candy, though if I were actually there I’d like to think I’d be able to resist sampling things in case they turned me into a massive blueberry. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is about a girl who can taste the emotions of the person who made her food. It made me really want lemon cake (minus the sadness) and at the end when she’s learning to cook, the food then sounded so good as well!
Not my most inspired post, but there you go. Better than sad lemon cake or becoming a giant blueberry! What about you guys? Come up with anything better than I found?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.
I can’t wait to read The Starless Sea. Thanks for sharing!
Lauren @ Always Me
There were things I loved about it, but I ended up putting it down halfway through and just never going back to pick it up again. Could just be me though!
Love this! I like reading books about food and cooking, but mostly memoirs, not regular nonfiction-style writing or reporting. Mostly I read fiction, so your list is great! The only ones I’ve already read are Bridget Jones’ Diary and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You’ve made me move Ducks, Newburyport higher up on my TBR list, and I really should give I Capture the Castle another try. The Starless Sea and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake have been on my radar too.
Ducks is a very big undertaking – if you like audiobooks I would definitely recommend that format, as I never would have finished it in print! I loved I Capture the Castle when I was a kid. It did hold up on later reading as a young adult, but I don’t know if it will appeal to everyone. It is a bit quaint and twee. Which I like! I ended up giving up on The Starless Sea halfway through – too meandering and didn’t really feel that drive to find out where it was trying to take me. Particular Sadness is usually well-loved. I found it slightly stronger in concept than execution, but if the premise appeals to you, worth a try! I’d love to hear what you think of these if you get to any of them and want to stop back and let me know! 🙂
I can totally see how Bridget Jones would make you want to eat!
So many cravings!
Hey, don’t knock on potatoes. They’re the best! Not bland at all 🙂 I could seriously eat potatoes for every meal …
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Oh trust me, I’m not knocking them one bit! I am, however, admitting a certain lack of adventurous eating when I don’t stray far from them! Even though there are plenty of reasons to stick with them!
I’d struggle with the same temptation on the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tour.
My post .
I suspect I would end up a large blueberry or something similar. As Wilde said… temptation!
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was on my list this week too!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/top-ten-tuesday-279/
It was a fairly obvious choice, I must admit!!!
Bridget Jones Diary makes me thirsty, too.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Right??!!!
I’m on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to books with food as a theme. I can’t resist.
I think it’s part of my general lack of interest in exploring food – unless, of course, it is pie or chocolate! Then I’m ALL in.
Great call on Under the Tuscan Sun!
I read it ages ago, and at the time it was the first time I had encountered such vivid discussion of food or recipes in a non-recipe book. I loved that about it!
Charlie and the chocolate factory. Still my dream competition! There is lots of honey in the Starless Sea as well! I also have The particular sadness of lemon cake on my list. Here’s the rest of it: 10 Books that make me hungry
I know, right? If only it were real… The Starless Sea didn’t manage to keep me, but the food made me so hungry! Lemon Cake fascinated me as a concept, but I had a bit of a hard time in places as well. I did like the end though!
Pumpkinheads made me crave all things pumpkin – and made me crave fall. Great list!
<a href=”http://theburstingbookshelf.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-made-me-hungry/”>Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday List!
Yes it definitely did that – and I read it before we’d even got to summer! In retrospect I may have gotten into it a bit more if I’d read it in the autumn….