I have the great honor of running the Livingston Public Library’s Cookbook Club, a group that typically meets once every other month and comes together to prepare and share recipes from a cookbook. We critique recipes, congratulate each other on our culinary successes and offer support and tips when recipes don’t always turn out the way we intended. It’s a fantastic group to be a part of and we learn a lot about general cooking, tips, and each other. Titles are available for a 21 day checkout. Here are some of the authors we have tried:
Come And Get It! by Ree Drummond: Simple, Scrumptious Recipes for Crazy Busy Lives
Part of the Pioneer Woman Cooks series
Screeeeeech! Reality check! Okay, let’s face it: With school, sports, work, obligations, and activities pulling us in a million directions, not many of us can spend that amount of time in the kitchen anymore! What we really need are simple, scrumptious, doable recipes that solve the challenge of serving up hearty, satisfying food (that tastes amazing!) day after day, week after week without falling into a rut and relying on the same old rotation of meals. Cooking should be fun, rewarding, and it definitely should feed your soul.
Cook This Now :by Melissa Clark: 120 Easy and Delectable Dishes You Can’t Wait to Make
Melissa Clark, New York Times Dining Section columnist, offers a calendar year’s worth of brand-new recipes for cooking with fresh, local ingredients-replete with lively and entertaining stories of feeding her own family and friends. Many people want to eat well, organically and locally, but don’t know where or even when to begin, since the offerings at their local farmers’ market change with the season. In Cook This Now, Melissa Clark shares all her market savvy, including what she decides to cook after a chilly visit to the produce section.
Around My French Table: by Dorie GreenspanMore than 300 Recipes from My Home to 
Yours
When Julia Child told Dorie Greenspan, “You write recipes just the way I do,” she paid her the ultimate compliment. Julia’s praise was echoed by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, which referred to Dorie’s “wonderfully encouraging voice” and “the sense of a real person who is there to help should you stumble.” Now in a big, personal, and personable book, Dorie captures all the excitement of French home cooking, sharing disarmingly simple dishes she has gathered over years of living in France.
My Master Recipes by Patricia Wells: Famed bestselling cookbook author Patricia Wells 
creates a blueprint for success in the kitchen with this superb collection of recipes drawn from her cooking schools in France-the perfect successor to Julia Child’s classic The Way to Cook.
At her cooking schools in Paris and Provence, Patricia Wells’s students leave with more confidence in the kitchen than they ever experienced before. Now, home cooks can learn from the master, known for her collections of delectable, precise, and well-tested recipes.
How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman: A Better Way to Cook Great Food
Homemade wonton soup in 30 minutes. Chicken Parmesan without dredging and frying. Fruit crisp on the stovetop. The secret to cooking fast is cooking smart-choosing and preparing fresh ingredients efficiently. In How to Cook Everything Fast, Mark Bittman provides a game plan for becoming a better, more intuitive cook while you wake up your weekly meal routine with 2,000 main dishes and accompaniments that are simple to make, globally inspired, and bursting with flavor.
-Melissa Brisbin, Associate Director