Gastronomy III Book Discussion Series
Gastronomy III – Library Book Discussion Series (with a bonus film)
Join us for our Fall/Winter season as we explore how food fuels experiences, societies and cultures. We’ll be digging into a classic memoir of kitchen culture, the perils and perplexities of immigration, and the life-changing potential of feeding others and ourselves. Book discussions take place at noon in the Latham Library Community Room and include a voluntary potluck lunch, featuring foods inspired by the books and film. To register and reserve a book, please contact librarian@thetfordlibrary.org.
October 23 – Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain – non-fiction
When this book made its startling debut in 2000, it launched the author’s media career. Bourdain’s blunt account of unsavory and other aspects of working in high-end restaurant kitchens has since become a classic of food literature.
November 20 – Solito – Javier Zamora – non-fiction
At age 9, Javier Zamora left his home in El Salvador to join his parents in the U.S. This memoir of his harrowing journey is told from his perspective as a young boy.
December 4 – The Big Night – film – script by Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci
Based on the novel by Joseph Tropiano, this film is the hilarious and poignant story of two brothers from Italy, who open a restaurant in New Jersey, hoping that the meal they prepare for an appearance by famous Italian-American bandleader Louis Prima, will save their culinary dreams.
January 22, 2026 – Kitchen Front – Jennifer Ryan – fiction
Two years into World War II, four British women compete to co-host a wartime BBC radio cooking show to improve their own lives and to help other housewives cope with food rationing.
February 26 – The Girl With the Louding Voice – Abi Dare – fiction
A 14-year-old Nigerian girl seeks an education to discover her self-worth and evade her country’s negative cultural treatment of women, including child marriage, domestic servitude and gender inequality.
March 26 – Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up and What We Make When We Make Dinner – Liz Hauck – non-fiction
When a high school teacher decides to pursue one of her deceased father’s dreams by volunteering to run a weekly cooking program in a residential home for teen-aged boys in state care, one dinner eventually becomes one hundred.