Voracious is a book about recipes developed based on favourite works of literature, a premise that appeals to me so thoroughly at this time of year that I was absolutely delighted to pick it up. The beginning of a new year always gets me thinking about my goals, and time after time, they involve reading more (like, say, 52 books this year?) and trying more new recipes. Voracious seemed like a perfect match for these introspective moments.

While I did enjoy it, I found it missed the mark just slightly. I think this is likely my own fault – most of the works that the author writes about are not pieces I’ve read, and so I often wasn’t all that engaged with the short essay that prefaced each recipe, since I had little experience with its subject. I enjoyed each of the stories about the books I had read, though, and the creative recipes and gorgeous illustrations all filled out the pages with a sense of her love of food. The book comes from the blog, Yummy Books, and unfortunately it seems to no longer be posting new entries, as I still find the whole concept to be quite lovely, and I’d like to read more whenever she posts something that overlaps with a book I’ve actually read.

If you love cookbooks as much as books, as I do, you’ll probably have a good time with this read. I might recommend that you cross-reference your reading experience against the list of works she’s included, to see how much overlap you have, but whether or not you’ve read any of her list, Voracious was a pleasant way to pass an afternoon. If nothing else, it gave me a fun chance to remember all my own favourite culinary scenes in books!