This week’s prompt is “Books Involving Food (That are Not Cookbooks)”, which… I’m sure I know a lot of books which incidentally mention food, but I’m not sure how many will stand out for me. Let’s see…

1. Heaven Official’s Blessing (vol 4), by MXTX. This one springs to mind because I just read it, and because (alas) all the food Xie Lian cooks is awful, if not deadly. Only he and Hua Cheng can stand it, and in volume four, it gets used as a weapon… I’ll pass on the Love for All Seasons stew, and the Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs.
2. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s been a long while since I read this, but all the descriptions of baking stuck in my head! It’s so full of good food for a vampire novel.
3. Chocolat, by Joanne Harris. I need to give this a reread, it’s been ages, but I always did enjoy it. And of course, it always makes me crave chocolate. (Oh no!)
4. Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree. Okay, it mostly involves coffee, but it does feature the tasty, tasty snacks made by Thimble.
5. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (vol 1), by MXTX. The original Luo Binghe shows his harem favour by cooking for them… but the Luo Binghe that Shen Yuan meets after his transmigration will pretty much only cook for him. Unlike Xie Lian in MXTX’s other book, mentioned above, Luo Binghe really can cook. I have no idea if I’d like congee, but it makes me tempted to find out.
6. Cold Clay, by Juneau Black. Food keeps getting mentioned again and again, and it all sounds so tasty. Though in this book it is slightly macabre to think that Joe’s been making apple pies using apples from the orchard where his murdered wife was secretly buried.
7. The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, by Lizzie Collingham. Time for some non-fiction! This one discusses biscuits, of course, but in a way that also tells us about a broader swathe of history too.
8. White Bread: A Social History of the Store-bought Loaf, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain. A whole history about bread? And not just any bread, but just… store-bought loaves? Yep. And it’s fascinating, and in many ways it’s a book about class.
9. A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles, by Ned Palmer. I found this one totally fascinating — and it helps that I really do love cheese.
10. Ice Cream: A Global History, by Laura B. Weiss. I love the Edible series in general, but I’ll stick to highlighting just one. My main complaint was that it wasn’t actually very global.

Yay, I did it! I read a surprising number of books about food for someone who isn’t interested in food, per se. I’m not a cook or any kind of gourmet, but food can be such a strong indicator of culture, it’s a fascinating way to look at society and history.