In the kitchen with a good appetite: 150 stories and recipes about the food you love, by Melissa Clark

I'm counting this "cookbook," because it is much more a collection of columns the author has written for the New York Times than a book of recipes. But the recipes all sound scrumptious! Each short essay meditates on one or another aspects of a dish, an ingredient, a tradition, or a memory. Always engaging and opinionated, a wonderful book to dip into over the course of several evenings. 444 pp.