Slice Harvester: A Memoir in Pizza

Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone

Marky Ramone, Rich Herschlag · 416 pages

"The inside story behind one of the most revered bands in music history during the early days of punk rock in New York, from legendary drummer Marky Ramone. Rolling Stone ranked the Ramones at #26 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." They received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. And Marky Ramone played a m

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Anthony Bourdain · 320 pages

A celebrity chef shares anecdotes of his experience in the restaurant industry, and of his journey from dishwasher to a position of fame in the food industry.

Just Kids

Patti Smith · 336 pages

In this memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith shares tales of New York City : the denizens of Max's Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner's, Brentano's and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe--the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius.

Girl in a Band

Kim Gordon · 273 pages

Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her story -- a memoir of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll. Gordon tells the story of her family, growing up in California in the '60s and '70s, her life in visual art, her move to New York City, the men in her l

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp

Richard Hell · 298 pages

The progenitor of American and British punk rock shares his journey, from his arrival on the streets of New York in 1967 to his rise to fame, touring with such bands as The Clash and The Sex Pistols, to his full-blown descent into drug addiction.

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter

Phoebe Damrosch · 240 pages

Kitchen Confidential meets Sex and the City in this delicious, behind-the-scenes memoir from the first female captain at one of New York City's most prestigious restaurantsWhile Phoebe Damrosch was figuring out what to do with her life, she supported herself by working as a waiter. Before long she was a captain at the New York City four-star restaurant Per Se, the culinary creation of master chef

The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon

John Joseph · 428 pages

I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir

Mickey Leigh · 418 pages

When the Ramones recorded their debut album in 1976, it heralded the true birth of punk rock. Fast and frenetic in their leather jackets and torn jeans, the Ramones gave voice to the disaffected youth of the seventies and eighties, influenced countless bands, and inspired the counterculture for decades to come. Born Jeffry Hyman of Queens, New York, Joey Ramone was the quirky, extraordinary lead s

Stuffed

Patricia Volk · 256 pages

"In a restaurant family, you're never just hungry - you're starving to death. And you're never full - you're stuffed.". "Patricia Volk's family is as American (background: Austrian-Jewish) as "Rhapsody in Blue." They came to these shores determined to make their mark; each of them is a piquant morsel of history. Great-grandfather Sussman Volk brought pastrami to the New World. Grandfather Jacob w

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

Ruth Reichl · 352 pages

The editor-in-chief of "Gourmet" recounts her visits to some of the world's most acclaimed restaurants, both as herself and as an anonymous diner in disguise, to offer insight into the differences in her dining experiences.

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living

Julie Powell · 309 pages

Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy, but as she moves from

Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line

Michael Gibney

The back must slave to feed the belly. In this urgent and unique book, chef Michael Gibney uses twenty-four hours to animate the intricate camaraderie and culinary choreography in an upscale New York restaurant kitchen. Here readers will find all the details, in rapid-fire succession, of what it takes to deliver an exceptional plate of food -- the journey to excellence by way of exhaustion. Told i

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

Laura Jane Grace · 313 pages

The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self.

Yes, Chef

Marcus Samuelsson · 327 pages

"It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother's house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Mar

Dad Is Fat

Jim Gaffigan · 274 pages

"In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who's best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children--everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers' communication skills ("they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news"), to the

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove

Cathy Erway · 320 pages

In the city where dining is a sport, a gourmand swears off restaurants (even takeout) for two years, rediscovering the economical, gastronomical joy of home cooking. Includes thirty original recipes.

Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

Gabrielle Hamilton · 291 pages

Driving Hungry: A Memoir

Layne Mosler · 313 pages

"A delicious memoir that takes us from Buenos Aires to New York to Berlin as the author, driven by wanderlust and an unrelenting appetite, finds purpose, passion, and unexpected flavor. Layne Mosler's search for her next meal based on a recommendation from a cab driver starts in Buenos Aires: After leaving a tango club following a terrible turn on the dance floor, she impulsively asks her taxista

Spilling the Beans

Clarissa Dickson Wright · 336 pages

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

Steve Dublanica · 302 pages

Taken from the popular blog, WaiterRant.net, tells the story from the server's point of view about customer stupidity, arrogance, misbehavior and even human grace.

Give a Girl a Knife

Amy Thielen · 315 pages

"A beautifully written memoir that follows one woman from her childhood in a dysfunctional Midwestern family to becoming a chef in New York City and finally her triumphant return home to reclaim and redeem Midwestern cooking. Amy Thielen, author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook The New Midwestern Table, traces her journey from Park Rapids, Minnesota, to cooking professionally under some o

My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes)

Luisa Weiss · 310 pages

The story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad perfectionist broke off her engagement to a handsome New Yorker, quit her dream job, and found her way to a new life, a new man, and a new home in Berlin -- one recipe at a time

Dharma Punx: A Memoir

Noah Levine · 272 pages

Fueled by the music of revolution, anger, fear, and despair, we dyed our hair or shaved our heads ... Eating acid like it was candy and chasing speed with cheap vodka, smoking truckloads of weed, all in a vain attempt to get numb and stay numb.This is the story of a young man and a generation of angry youths who rebelled against their parents and the unfulfilled promise of the sixties. As with man

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste

Bianca Bosker · 450 pages

A tech reporter describes her introduction to the world of master sommeliers and her in-depth investigation into the source of their interests and skills, an effort marked by work with elite tasting groups, encounters at exclusive New York restaurants, visits to California winemakers and more.--