Developed by family members who consulted with a nutritionist, human services workers, educators, and people with disabilities and their families, this practical handbook helps readers support individuals as they choose what, where, when, and how they eat

“More local color than a steamed lobster wearing wild blueberry bracelets, along with a mess of wistful nostalgia for any reader raised in Maine or New England.” —Portland Press Herald Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul An award-winning collection of essays by internationally recognized and beloved foodies, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class. Here, you’ll find reflections from top literary talents and food writers like Award-winning novelist Lily King on connecting with her children over a tweaked chocolate chip cookie recipe Pulitzer Prize recipient Richard Russo on the Italian soup his mother snubbed that he came to enjoy Coauthor of Mad Honey Jennifer Finney Boylan on how cheese pizza holds her family together through the good and the bad Coauthor of About Grief Brian Shuff on how greasy takeout can be life-giving food for the grieving soul Award-winning writer Ron Currie on the childhood shame—and adult pride—of your mother being a “lunch lady” Author and homesteader Margaret Hathaway on building a community cookbook to bring food and family together in the early days of COVID-19 Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, and the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend. Rich and flavorful, Breaking Bread brings together some of the most influential voices in the literary and food worlds to show how we experience life through the foods we eat. Proceeds from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a Maine-based nonprofit founded by writer and Breaking Bread coeditor Deborah Joy Corey to combat hunger. The organization purchases food from local farmers and delivers it directly to families in need.

A Spectator Book of the Year It's fashionable to think of the writers of the past as irredeemably tarnished by prejudice. Aristotle despised women. John Milton, the great champion of free speech, wouldn't have granted it to Catholics. Edith Wharton's imaginative sympathies stopped short of her Jewish characters. But what if it is only through the works of such individuals that we can achieve a necessary perspective on the troubles of the present? Join literary scholar Alan Jacobs for a truly nourishing feast of learning. Discover what Homer can teach us about force, what Machiavelli has to say about reading and what Charlotte Brontë reveals about race. Not all the guests are people you might want to invite into your home, but they all bring something precious to the table. In Breaking Bread with the Dead, an omnivorous reader draws us into close and sympathetic engagement with minds across the ages, from Horace to Donna Haraway.

God Cares More About How You Eat than What You Eat Christians should have their heads on straight about food—but too often our eating is complicated by burdens and rules, by diets and dependencies. So how can we keep a spiritually healthy view of what we eat? Should Christians stop eating white sugar? Does the Bible ask us to go paleo? Most questions about food aren’t really about nutrition but about how we understand God. In Broken Bread, Christian Book Award–winner Tilly Dillehay challenges us to abandon the concept of good and bad foods and instead offers a way to… celebrate food without obsession make healthy choices without bondage to rules feed our families without feeling frazzled find satisfaction without using food as an emotional crutch This isn’t another diet book. You won’t find any system or plan for eating but rather a joyful call to develop a vision of Christ that informs the way you eat. Take delight in food again, and discover a feast for today that whispers of the eternal feast to come.

"Lynne Anderson's portraits of recent immigrant families capture a crucial truth about how real food connects us to our culture, our memories, and to one another. This is an important book." —Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Restaurant "Everyone loves talking about food. In this remarkable book, Lynne Anderson lets recent immigrants to America speak in their own words about the foods they most loved from their homelands. Her cook-storytellers use recipes for cherished foods as a way to recall childhood memories, the events that caused them to emigrate, and their efforts to assimilate—the bitter along with the sweet. For a delicious introduction to the immigrant experience in America, I can't think of a better starting point than Breaking Bread." —Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat and Food Politics "Good ol' home cooking that's not chicken and apple pie. A feast of stories and flavors." Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and the Bone Setter's Daughter "What's so lovely to me about this book is hearing the actual voices of the people and the unpredictable way their conversations about food capture life issues and truths that extend far beyond the kitchen. More than ever it seems critical to be finding and celebrating what we have in common and the connections between people."—Nikki Silva, co-author of Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters "Breaking Bread throws open a delightful window on the immigrant kitchen in America, capturing the voices, traditions and--yes!--recipes of a couple dozen different food cultures in a single volume." —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food "In 25 deeply moving first-person accounts from a wide range of immigrant families, each one sensitively introduced by the author, Lynne Anderson takes us straight to the heart of our common humanity. Sharing food and stories are what bind us all across differences in time, space culture, gender and identity. Apart from being an important cultural document, Breaking Bread is a rich, wisdom-packed experience for the scholar, for the casual reader and for all cooks who demand more than just recipes."—Niloufer Ichaporia King, author of My Bombay Kitchen

An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research, Alice P. Julier analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of hosts and guests at dinner parties, potlucks, and buffets. She finds that when people invite friends, neighbors, or family members to share meals within their households, social inequalities involving race, economics, and gender reveal themselves in interesting ways: relationships are defined, boundaries of intimacy or distance are set, and people find themselves either excluded or included.