WINTER: The Story of a Season, seasonal celebration of hygge...in tartan

WINTER: The Story of a Season
VAL McDERMID (illus. Philip Harris)
Atlantic Monthly Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$22.00 all editions, available now

The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: Non-Fiction For the week ending January 25, 2026

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season’s ever-evolving community-based traditions

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks.

In Winter, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood—of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square—McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

A hygge-filled journey through winter nights, McDermid reminds us that it is a time of rest, retreat and creativity, for scribbling in notebooks and settling in beside the fire. A treat for the hunkering-down, post-holiday reading season, Winter is a charming and cozy celebration of the year’s idle months from one of Scotland’s best-loved writers.

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My Review: See, that's the thing about "traditions"...they start, and change, and then vanish. They're human-made decisions, all of them. Collective loss of interest is killing awards shows on TV, which were a staple of my own TV-blighted childhood. It felt immutable: Watching the Oscars was a ritual. It might've been the only time our TV was tuned to ABC until the late 1960s. It was a ritual in my teens, too, among the theatre kids I hung out with. Now Disney's taken it away from ABC to go onto Hulu, the corporate streaming service for things they don't think will earn much money.

A tradition of fifty years shifting?! Whaaat? Traditions shouldn't change! They make the framework of our lives!

They do indeed do that. As Val McDermid's compact essay on the rituals she's made and those she's inherited from her family (her mother's improvised soup a good example) of the cold season discusses, how exactly they do that is a matter of decision and choice. Her wintertime activities growing up in freezyfrosty cold Scotland could not've taken place in my contemporaneous Sun-Belt childhood...I've only seen frozen-over ponds maybe three times since moving to New York's heat island in the 1980s, but that's three more than I ever saw in Texas...my own winter rituals of shuffling up wet live-oak leaves to see what was living under them, and putting out the toad house, wouldn't've made her radar.

In remembering her own place in the march of the seasons, Author McDermid offers us many fresh bits and bobs to incorporate into our own seasonal traditions, appreciations of reading she's done while cozied away from cold and wind, foods that warm and comfort, poems she's written and read (nothing is allowed to be poetry-free in this decade, to my disgust) all offer the reader delights to consider adding to their own lives.

What a wonderful read, what a wonderful gift to (self-)gift to the resistant cold-hater and the delighted snugness addict alike. The illustration, not provided to reviewers for reproduction, are charming and atmospheric, though what I'd call pedestrian. I can't offer a fifth star to something that contains this much poetry. I'd probably knock a bit off even absent the poetry because the illustrations aren't that interesting to me, but I know many will enjoy them.

Author McDermid's fiction readers are strongly urged to pick the book up because it is so interestingly in tension with her very noir crime novels. It might very well have been my most enjoyable moment trying to put Karen Pirie into the time young Val sees her first xmas tree in the public square!

VIBRANT HARVEST: Cultivating a Kaleidoscope of Colors in Your Vegetable Garden with Heirlooms, Modern Hybrids, and More

VIBRANT HARVEST: Cultivating a Kaleidoscope of Colors in Your Vegetable Garden with Heirlooms, Modern Hybrids, and More
SANDRA MAO
Cool Springs Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$26.99 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Vibrant Harvest is the ultimate guide to bringing more color and diversity into your veggie garden (and your diet!) by growing the most colorful veggies on the planet. Fill your garden and plate with a rainbow of flavorful produce with this engaging and visually stunning guide to a Vibrant Harvest.

It’s easy to “eat the rainbow” when you’re growing one right in your own backyard! In Vibrant Harvest, you’ll meet some of the most colorful veggies on the planet and learn how to grow, harvest, and enjoy them. Author Sandra Mao (@sandra.urbangarden) and her color-infused garden hand you all the insight you need to grow a kaleidoscope of heirloom, hybrid, and ancestral vegetables that are not only a feast for the eyes but also nutritional powerhouses.

With this inspiring guide, bringing bright colors and rich flavors into your kitchen has never been simpler or more dynamic. From purple tomatoes, pink beans, yellow carrots, magenta potatoes, and black radishes, to speckled lettuces and orange cucumbers, you’ll find handy advice for growing them all. Plus, learn the best varieties to seek out.

The book is organized into four parts:

Choose Your Plants: First, meet these multihued dynamos via detailed plant profiles organized by both the growing season and the edible portion of each plant—stem, leaf, bud, fruit, pod, or root.

Plan & Start Your Garden: Next, gain insight into planning and installing your garden, from site selection and soil prep, to seed starting and transplanting.

Care for Your Garden: Then, learn the ins and outs of caring for your polychromatic garden and all the plants living in it, including watering, feeding, staking, pruning, and trellising.

Pick, Preserve & Prepare Your Harvest: Finally, discover how to harvest and enjoy your rainbow-hued garden through recipes and easy preservation techniques.

It’s a KALEidoscope of possibilities out there for modern gardeners! Meet dozens of vivid varieties and gain the expertise you need to plant and tend your own super-colorful garden in Vibrant Harvest.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A book I thought I'd mildly snort at...colors matter! faugh!...when I got it, but it's about useful gardening as opposed to ornamental gardening, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

"Eat the rainbow" is actual, serious food science; adding color to your diet has measurable health benefits. If you're going to garden,I say do it to enjoy really fresh foods you wouldn't otherwise have access to; adding the color factor also adds a certain pleasurable frisson to the work as well as the harvest.

two of my favorite veggies in a row!

It's a serious book, about a serious subject...food security, health and lifespan improvement...that people my age need to consider seriously because we didn't when we were younger. If you're under 40, first of all hello! how on earth did you get here of all places?, please learn from my mistake: eat carefully and intentionally as a habit. Go wild on holidays, take the occasional extra cookie, but as your baseline, be very intentional in your eating habits. It pays off in the medium and the long run.

Growing your own is a solid habit to form, as well. No ordinary grocery store will have anything as beautiful as these:

...and there's no sense looking at the pretties unless you know the problems you'll likely face in growing them:

All said and done, this is a great gift to the aspiring gardener, the new homeowner, and the flagging, bored plant butler. And/or yourself.

THE PRESERVER'S GARDEN: How to Grow a Garden for Fermenting, Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, Freeze Drying, and more

THE PRESERVER'S GARDEN: How to Grow a Garden for Fermenting, Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, Freeze Drying, and more
STACI HILL & JEREMY HILL
Cool Springs Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$30.00 any edition, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The Preserver’s Garden is an essential guide to planning and planting a garden specifically for the preservation and long-term storage of the harvest. Discover how to plan, plant, and grow a garden with food preservation and long-term storage in mind—plus, meet seven different preservation techniques.

Growing a garden with the intent to preserve the harvest and improve your self-sufficiency is an entirely different world than growing food for fresh consumption. When growing for preservation, your efforts need to be focused on the promotion of uniform ripening, high yields, and flavor that remains stable through the preservation process. Since the end goal is to have plenty of food to eat for months to come, how do you know how much to plant, which varieties are best, and which preservation method is ideal for each different vegetable and fruit? In The Preserver’s Garden, you’ll learn all that and so much more from a modern farming family with a pantry lined with jar after jar of preserved homegrown treasures, a fully stocked freezer, and endless bags of dehydrated and freeze-dried goodies!

In addition to taking a deep dive into seven different methods of food preservation—including freezing, drying/dehydration, pressure canning, water bath canning, salting, freeze drying, and fermenting—authors Staci and Jeremy Hill of @goosberrybridgefarm teach you how to:

Plan your garden around the veggies your family eats the most.

Figure out how much to grow to meet your preservation goals.

Decide which preservation methods are best for your harvest and your home.

Safely prepare your harvest for processing and preservation.

Achieve success in growing a lot of food organically, with less time and less work.

Also included are 22 in-depth produce profiles—from tomatoes and squash to onions and berries—where you’ll learn specifics about everything from growing requirements and harvesting tips to the best preservation methods and plant care techniques to increase the harvest. It’s time to plan for your family’s future with help from The Preserver’s Garden.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I long for a garden when I read books like this...they're much more aspirational than flower gardens, herbaceous borders, topiary and fountains...fine if you're a king or queen but I'm just your basic queer.

contents page explaining the way we're going

This clear, concise...no wasted words...handsomely designed book is packed with basic concepts, ideas for fillips, and overall inspiration for you to think realistically about your garden plans. It can't be a bad thing to devote some space to planting and nurturing tings that can nourish you in their turn.

Samples of the look follow:

There are chapters on key concepts:

...and key crops everyone always wants to grow:

everyone loves home-grown tomatoes

...and ways to use them:

It was not a bad experience reading the book on a tablet, but what a beautiful thing to see glossy and present on a page!

No matter the format you choose, this is a useful way to spend gifting money on your gardening buddy, on your first-time homebuyer, or yourself.

QUEERS AT THE TABLE: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (with Recipes), a guide for those perplexed by the hows

QUEERS AT THE TABLE: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (with Recipes)
ALEX D. KETCHUM & MEGAN J. ELIAS (Editors)
Arsenal Pulp Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: An anthology of essays, comics, and recipes that reveals the dynamic and transformative relationship between queerness and food

Food has long played an important role in queer culture. Lesbian- and queer women–run feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses have been safe spaces for queer and trans folk where gender norms can be challenged and where female authority is legitimized. During the AIDS epidemic, gay men and their allies centered food as an expression of collective care for those who needed it most. And queer and trans folk have asserted themselves in a restaurant culture largely controlled by white cisgender men.

Queers at the Table celebrates the various intersections between queers and food. In its essays, comics, and recipes, the book shows how this shared culture fosters connections, defies norms, honours legacies, and creates community. Taylor Hartson and Tristian Lee write about a queer farming community in which queerness is part of a broad network of living things to be enjoyed and shared; Danielle Kydd writes about food security issues as faced by LGBTQ2S+ folk; and Blue Delliquanti's comic on urban foraging in Minneapolis demonstrates the role of a queer friend group in a local ecosystem.

In full color throughout, Queers at the Table is a diverse and enriching anthology that reveals the myriad nurturing ways that queerness informs food production and restaurant culture and how food empowers, transforms, and unites queer and trans folk.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Many are the queer folk who, throughout the decades, have no holiday cheer...they very often have no space to spend holidays that is accepting of them as they are. It's a painful passage to realize you can't go home for {insert food-centered holiday here} without hiding your self and/or receiving abuse. It knocks the Cindy-Lou-Who out of you, turning you into a grinch.

But...and this is key...someone has been here before you! They can show you fellowship via sharing their stories. It's axiomatic that food holidays are about community. It's becoming more and more understood that community comes in many types and styles. The queer people ou know will, I hope against hope, have a community with you...but even if they do, a reminder that their complicated feelings around food holidays are perfectly in keeping with those who have trodden this path before them can't hurt. Know someone young, or relocating, or just thinking afresh about their place among us? This is a great gift to give.

examples of essays in comics form

No book about food is going to be truly complete without some recipes! A newly-fledged wannabe host is likely to need a simple place to start, along with a visual reference to be sure there's at least some resemblance between product of labor and intended appearance.

A thoughtful presentation to address an ever-growing (sad to say) need.