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Ruth Reichl's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Ruth Reichl recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Ruth Reichl's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Diet for a Small Planet book cover1

Diet for a Small Planet

Frances Moore Lappe

4.1
Here again is the extraordinary bestselling book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating-- one that remains a complete guide for eating well in the 90s. Featuring: simple rules for a healthy diet; a streamlined, easy-to-use format; delicious food combinations of protein-rich meals without meat; hundreds of wonderful recipes, and much more.
Steve Jobs portraitRuth Reichl portraitYale Program On Climate Change Communication portrait Recommended by Steve Jobs, Ruth Reichl, and Yale Program On Climate Change Communication.
Ruth Reichl portrait
Ruth Reichl

When this book came out in the early 1970s, it was revolutionary. I feel this is a book that hasn’t gotten its due. [source]

Steve Jobs portrait
Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

In that first year at Reed, Jobs also read "Diet for a Small Planet," a book about protein-rich vegetarianism that went on to sell three million copies. It was a breakthrough. "That's when I pretty much swore off meat for good," Jobs told Isaacson. [source]

Yale Program On Climate Change Communication portrait
Yale Program On Climate Change Communication

Frances Moore Lappé's best-selling book “Diet for a Small Planet” changed the way many people in the 1970s viewed the food system and its inefficiencies: https://t.co/xla4y5Nuzd via @nytimes https://t.co/wNIgZLCI9Z [source]

The Art of Eating book cover2

The Art of Eating

M.F.K. Fisher, Joan Reardon

4.5
This book is the essence of M.F.K. Fisher, whose wit and fulsome opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were several decades ago, when she composed them. Why did she choose food and hunger she was asked, and she replied, 'When I write about hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth, and the love of it . . .
Ruth Reichl portrait Recommended by Ruth Reichl.
Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris book cover3

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris

A. Liebling

4.0
New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling recalls his Parisian apprenticeship in the fine art of eating in this charming memoir.

No writer has written more enthusiastically about food than A. J. Liebling. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, the great New Yorker writer's last book, is a wholly appealing account of his éducation sentimentale in French cuisine during 1926 and 1927, when American expatriates l
Ruth Reichl portrait Recommended by Ruth Reichl.
4

The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook

Alice B. Toklas

4.3
Toklas's rich mixture of menus and memories of meals shared with such famous friends as Wilder, Picasso, and Hemingway, originally published in 1954.
Ruth Reichl portraitSophie Dahl portrait Recommended by Ruth Reichl and Sophie Dahl.
Ruth Reichl portrait
Ruth Reichl

If you ask most people about the Alice B Toklas cookbook, the recipe that comes immediately to mind is marijuana brownies. It needs to be rescued from that. [source]

Sophie Dahl portrait
Sophie Dahl

The anecdotal part of it is a dream and each recipe tells a story. [source]

5

The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life

Angelo M. Pellegrini, Ruth Reichl, Mario Batali

4.3
First issued in 1948, when soulless minute steaks and quick casseroles were becoming the norm, The Unprejudiced Palate inspired a seismic culinary shift in how America eats. Written by a food-loving immigrant from Tuscany, this memoir-cum-cookbook articulates the Italian American vision of the good life: a backyard garden, a well-cooked meal shared with family and friends, and a passion for ingred
Ruth Reichl portrait Recommended by Ruth Reichl.