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The deal of a lifetime by Fredrik Backman.  Despite the Christmas tree on the cover, this isn't a holiday story necessarily.  An emotional read, though not nearly as devastating as any of his other books.  Recommended, of course.

First bite: How we learn to eat by Bee Wilson.  I was asked to reread this to lead a book group meeting at a branch.  Since I suggested this title when brainstorming for the group, I could hardly turn down such an opportunity, especially since I liked it so much the first time I read it.  I was shoving ARCs and library copies into the hands of family and coworkers left, right, and center.

It was interesting for me to reread this as I tackle my anti-inflammation diet and binge on cookbooks.  The author 's main point, repeated throughout the book, is that eating (food choices, really) is a learned behavior, and if it's something you can learn, then it's something you can unlearn or relearn.  That felt very hopeful to me.  When the author talked about her own history with an eating disorder, it reminded me very strongly of some of the sentiments and points in Hunger; they would make good companion books, to read together.  Still highly recommended.

Owly and Wormy: Bright lights and starry nights by Andy Runton.  !  This happened to be sitting on top of a shelf in the children's area on a day I was closing; it was a coincidence that I walked through on the right day to spot it.  I love Owly so, so much!

This is a picture-book in size, but otherwise feels like the graphic novels.  I'm not sure why the format change, but the story doesn't suffer.  Adorable.  Everyone must read Owly.

Old cook books: an illustrated history by Eric Quayle.  My coworker weeded this because it hadn't checked out in an amount of time probably best measured in decades.  I saw it among the discards and of course was interested.

This had a lot of formatting problems and some content issues, but it was very interesting.  I didn't know when I started reading this that I would be basically inventorying sections of cookbooks, but this, along with First bite and the cookbook deluge, made for an interesting reading experience.  The example recipes throughout were informative and illustrative.

There were a few problems that effected the reading.  There are illustrations every few pages, but the illustration rarely corresponds closely to the text.  The tenuous tie-in could be as loose as [chapter about cookbook from 1750] and [reproduced artwork showing kitchen scene from 1810].  The few times there was artwork directly related to the chapter's contents (author portrait, book cover or frontis piece, etc.), it was usually several pages away with an in-text note to see page [x].  This seemed poorly planned.  There were also several text sizes and levels of indentation used to give long reproductions from historical cookbooks and recipes, but they were used very inconsistently, making it very difficult to tell at a glance the origin of any given paragraph.  The author also jumped topics rather abruptly a number of times, for instance, talking at length about an important and unique cookbook and the author, then transitioning mid-sentence to a new author and cookbook.  Not all cookbook authors were given space for biographical information, and it wasn't made clear as to why; certainly for some, given the length of time intervening, records may not exist, but this was not stated.

Chance, season 1, with Hugh Laurie.  This reminded me a lot of The night manager in its style, except I didn't like it as much.  The main character is a bit annoying; he's aware that he's making bad decisions and he's generally unmotivated to do anything about that.  The show is also a bit more violent than anticipated.  I see there's a season 2; I cannot imagine what you could do with the characters, since season 1 is kind of a self-contained story.  I'm not terribly motivated to watch it and find out, though. 

Person of interest, seasons 4 and 5, with Jim Caviezel.  This... got kind of weird, especially season 5.  I felt like I wasn't following all the conspiracies and related tendrils.  Kinda glad it's done.

Kingdom, series 1, with Stephen Fry.  I'm not really digging the sister character-- she doesn't seem realistic and she's given no depth-- but I like the show so far.  It's got all the best bits of Doc Martin-- small rural community, eccentric townspeople, loving yet trying family, wise but sassy elderly relative-- while having a main character that's a bit more likeable.

Flat broke with two goats: A memoir by Jennifer McGaha; read by Pam Ward.  Oh, bad.  I did the press prep for this, OverDrive's Big Library Read, and it sounded pretty fun-- suburban types move to more rural surroundings and learn through trial and error that rural living isn't all sunflowers and fluffy baby animals. 

This is a huge disappointment.  First, the author spends most of the book explaining events that lead up to moving to the more rural surroundings.  In all that time, the author never comes off as sympathetic.  She was willfully ignorant of the family's situation and then casts herself as the victim.  They lose their house and owe thousands to the goverment, but routinely make ridiculous decisions with what money they do have.  The author makes off-handed comments about "at the time" or "I now realize" but it doesn't make the situation any less unbelievably stupid, nor does it seem like she would truly make a different decision today.  We're talking about middle aged adults with grown children, not 20-somehings who were never told how to budget or prioritize. 

I finally quit about halfway through, for 2 reasons:
1.  There's a scene in which the author comes home and wants a shower; their water is heated by a wood fire, which has not been lit, so there is no hot water.  She yells at her husband that the situation (living in the rural setting with few creature comforts) is not her fault and he needs to step up and make it more comfortable.  First of all, it is her fault, too, and it doesn't look like she's going to recognize that any time soon.  Secondly, it's 2000-and-whatever and women rock.  Light your own damn fire.
2.  We've never made a ton of money.  For several years in the late 2000s, we qualified as earning below the poverty line.  You quickly learn things about priorities (assuming you've got two brain cells to rub together), and organic yogurt, restaurants, and spending $450 on improperly-penned farm animals do not make the list.  I think the thing that tipped me over the edge on this person's sheer stupidity may have been the garden fiasco-- they picked a spot to grow vegetables and (spent the money on seeds and) planted it, without first observing anything about it.  As a result, the whole area flooded and never dried out, as the sun wasn't above the ridge long enough each day.  These seem like pretty basic things to think about, and my gardening results have been hit or miss at best.

I wasn't a big fan of the reader, just as an added bonus.  The author is in her 40's (I think she says) at the beginning of the story, but the reader sounds much older than that.  When she read parts that were supposed to be more emotional, it sounded fake.  And I'm not at all sure her accent is real, either: sometimes a word here or there slips out that doesn't match.