Have you ever noticed that certain cookbooks and their signature dishes can define a decade and become the go-to source for dinner party menus? In the 80s everyone was serving Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate (chicken marinated in garlic, oregano, prunes, green olives and capers, in case you weren't born yet).  In the aughts, it was the Zuni's Roast Chicken which sat, heavily salted, in the refrigerator for three days before being roasted to juicy perfection and served over a bread salad. What do you think is the 'IT' cookbook and dish is for today?

I think that we can all agree that a cookie is a glorious and wonderful thing to behold. And a slice-and-bake cookie — one that you make ahead, keep in your freezer, and literally slice-and-bake whenever the mood strikes — well, that just makes the deal even sweeter, doesn't it? In her latest book, the aptly titled Slice & Bake Cookies, Elinor Klivans rounds up all the freezer cookies she can think of and hands them to us in one very tempting package.

After interviewing Allison Carroll Duffy and getting her 5 Essentials for Summer Canning, I couldn't wait to check out her new cookbook, Preserving with Pomona's Pectin. If you are interested in low- or no-sugar jams, or you'd like to sweeten your preserves with sugar alternatives such as honey or agave, then you should definitely check out Pomona's Pectin and this lovely, informative new cookbook!  

Do you ever wish that you could have a little genie on your shoulder who would just tell you what to make for dinner? Me, too. I think this book Twenty-Dollar, Twenty-Minute Meals is that genie. It's a straight-shooting cookbook full of the kinds of quick, no-fuss recipes that we crave on any given weeknight.

It was really only recently that I discovered the simplest crackers ever and I still haven't quite gotten over how crazy-good they are. Now this new book from Ivy Manning has come along and broken the universe of homemade crackers wide open for me! Whether the aim is a healthy afternoon snack or a fancy cracker appetizer for our next dinner party, Ivy Manning shows us how to make crackers for each and every occasion.

If you've ever tried to kick the coffee habit, you are familiar with the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal: headaches, fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. But the release of the newest version of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) made official what us coffee addicts suspected all along. Caffeine withdrawal can be a mental health disorder.

Remember the whole controversy about Baby Gaga (since renamed Baby Googoo), the breast milk ice cream served by a London boutique? That was the work of Matt O'Connor and The Icecreamists, who have continued to provoke with their punk-inspired "vice creams," cocktails, sundaes, and other guilty pleasures, as they call them. I was ready to roll my eyes at their deliberately outrageous approach, but after flipping through their new cookbook, I'm more hungry than shocked. 

This is a cookbook about celebration: celebrating women who have survived war and other conflicts, and celebrating the foods that nourish us and bring us together. With recipes like sweet, cakey Sudanese Baseema and fragrant Burmese tomato fish curry, it's also a cookbook that will lift you right up from your seat and carry you  straight into the kitchen.

Although it does contain four recipes, Michael Pollan's new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation is not a cookbook.  It is, however, a book for cooks, as well as a book for people who would like to cook but don't, or can't, or won't.  In other words, if you eat, then you may be interested in this thoroughly engaging look into past, present, and future of cooking.

Q: I have been wanting to move my cookbooks into my kitchen on a couple of shelves for better access, but my husband thinks that they are going to get that icky cooking grease film on them. We don't have an extractor fan (it's a rental) but the books would be on a different wall about six feet from the stove.