Summer and ice-cream are perfect together, though there is always room for ice cream at any time of the year. July is National Ice Cream Month, and we could all do with extra large scoops of ice cream this summer to chase away the blues. Luckily ice cream shops have remained open giving us a chance to indulge in a scoop or two of the smooth sugary bliss on warm summer nights or scorching afternoons.
For a list of best ice cream spots across the Garden State, check out this article from The StarLedger.
Here are some ice cream (and frozen dessert) flavored books available in the Library’s physical and digital collections to help you cool off.
NonFiction
Ben & Jerry’s Double-Dip: Lead with Your Values and Make Money, Too by Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield
How Ben and Jerry built a $160 million business without selling out.
The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto by F. W. Pearce & Danilo Zecchin
Pearce is one of the founders and Zecchin is the executive chef of New Jersey’s Ciao Bello, which has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and has received 15 awards from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. They explain kitchen tools and offer advice on ice cream makers before presenting a variety of gelato and sorbetto, such as Pistachio Gelato (which includes instructions for roasting nuts) and Pumpkin and Spice Gelato.
500 Ice Creams, Sorbets & Gelatos: The Only Ice Cream Compendium You’ll Ever Need by Alex Barker
The 500 easy, cool, and glorious indulgences featured in this book include classic ice creams, sorbets, and Italian-style gelatos; as well as elegant water ices and granitas, show-stopping ice cream cakes and gateaux, kid-friendly frozen goodies, and incredible edibles for the health and calorie-conscious.
Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts by Peggy Fallon
Fallon serves up over 100 recipes to tempt every palate. A brief introduction describes different ice cream machines and ingredients, and the first half of the book is dedicated to original and often unusual ice creams as well as basics.
Ice Pop Joy: Organic, Healthy, Fresh, Deliciousby Anni Daulter
Using fresh, seasonal fruits; sweet, nutritious vegetables; protein-packed whole food bases; and a multitude of other exquisite ingredients, Ice Pop Joy offers recipes for scrumptious treats any time.
Ice Cream Sandwiches: 65 Recipes for Incredibly Cool Treats by Donna Egan
A sweet collection of 50 recipes for ice cream sandwiches from London’s popular Buttercup Bake Shop.
No-churn Ice Cream: Over 100 Simply Delicious No-Machine Frozen Treats by Leslie Bilderback
Bilderback brings homemade ice cream to specialty-appliance-free -kitchens with this accessible collection of frozen desserts, ranging from stand-alone scoops (e.g., vanilla ice cream, cappuccino sherbet, bananas foster sorbet) to plated pleasures (e.g., baked Alaska, ice cream cake).
The Perfect Scoop: 200 Recipes for Ice Creams, Sorbets, Gelatos, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz
This revised edition features an updated design and a dozen new recipes for daring, assertive flavors (e.g., negroni slush, bacon and bourbon ice cream, labneh ice cream with pistachio-sesame brittle).
Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America by Amy Ettinger
A journalist channels her ice-cream obsession, scouring the United States for the best artisanal brands and delving into the surprising history of ice cream and frozen treats in America.
Fiction
A Deadly Inside Scoop: An Ice Cream Parlor Mystery Series, Book 1 by Abby Collette
This book kicks off a charming cozy mystery series set in an ice cream shop—with a fabulous cast of quirky characters.
The Ice-Cream Makers: a novel by Ernest Van Der Kwast; translated by Laura Vroomen
In the far north of Italy lies the valley of the ice-cream makers: about a dozen villages where, for generations, people have specialized in making ice cream. Giuseppe Talamini claims it was actually invented here. Every spring his family sets off for the ice-cream parlour in Rotterdam, returning to the mountains only in winter. Eldest son Giovanni Talamini decides to break with this tradition by pursuing a literary career. But then one day his younger brother Luca approaches him with a highly unusual request. Now Giovanni faces a dilemma: serve the family’s interests one last time or choose his own path in life, once and for all.
The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street: a novel by Susan Jane Gilman
This historical novel is a rags-to-riches saga of ice cream entrepreneur -Lillian Dunkle. Lillian’s rise to fame and fortune spans seventy years and is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition to the disco days of Studio 54. Yet Lillian Dunkle is nothing like the whimsical motherly persona she crafts for herself in the media. Conniving, profane, and irreverent, she is a supremely complex woman who prefers a good stiff drink to an ice cream cone.
Murder with a Cherry on Top by Cynthia Baxter
The first in the Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery series; when Kate McKay moves back home to care for her grandmother, she indulges her dream of opening up an ice cream shop, and ends up the prime suspect in her rival’s murder.
In Hot Fudge Murder, the second in the series, Kate McKay investigates the murder of a fashion designer at a gala she was hired to cater.
Scoop to Kill : a mystery à la mode by Wendy Lyn Watson
During the local college’s annual Honor’s Day festivities, a graduate student is killed. When the English professor suspected of his murder also meets an untimely end, Tallulah Jones steps out from behind the counter of ice cream parlor, Remember the a-la-Mode to clear the professor’s name-before anyone else gets put on ice.
A delectable variety of ice cream themed ebooks are available here on Hoopla.
-Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian