NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The eagerly anticipated baking bible from America's most respected authority: 100+ recipes for cookies, cakes, breads, breakfast pastries, and much more. A Best Book of the Year: NPR, Los Angeles Times, Epicurious "Nancy Silverton baked a brioche so perfect that it brought Julia Child to tears...Nancy showed us how to strip away the extras and spotlight the essentials. She’s still doing that and we’re all still learning from her." —Dorie Greenspan, author of Dorie's Cookies Nancy Silverton made her reputation as the original pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Spago. Biting into a particularly delicious peanut butter cookie one day, she and had an epiphany: every single thing we bake should taste this good. And so she decided to return to her roots, and set to work perfecting the rest of the American baking canon. From Lattice-Topped Apple Pie to Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting (the secret? Carrot puree) to Cornbread (is it too much to ask that it actually taste like corn?), she shares recipes for the platonic ideals of our most beloved baked goods. Alongside the classics—Lemon Bars, Key Lime Pie, Layered Buttermilk Biscuits—Silverton includes a handful of her own inventions: Double-Decker Chocolate Cookies (double the fun!), Iced Raisin Bars (a better fig newton), and Chocolate Brandy Cake (chocolate and brandy!)—all sure to become future classics. With more than a hundred perfected recipes, The Cookie That Changed My Life is a veritable encyclopedia of the very best things to bake.

Now in paperback, a delightful collection of essays on the transformative power of reading In The Book That Changed My Life, our most admired writers, doctors, professors, religious leaders, politicians, chefs, and CEO s share the books that mean the most to them. For Doris Kearns Goodwin it was Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, which inspired her to enter a field, history writing, traditionally reserved for men. For Jacques Pépin it was The Myth of Sisyphus, which taught him the importance of personal responsibility, dignity, and goodness in the midst of existentialist France. A testament to the life-altering importance of literature, this book inspires us to return to old favorites and seek out new treasures. All proceeds go to The Read to Grow Foundation, which partners with urban hospitals to provide books and literacy information to newborns and their families.

Collects one hundred reflections by prominent authors, politicians, actors, musicians, and celebrities on a book that changed their lives, including Keith Carradine on The book of Daniel, Tim Gunn on Let us now praise famous men, and R.L. Stine on Pinocchio.

Silverton instituted many of these lighter menu recipes at her Los Angeles eatery, Campanile, the 2001 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Restaurant. Separate sections on spreads, condiments, and breads are accompanied by a list of suppliers. 41 full-color photos.

From the popular NYC cookie shop come eighty-nine tried, true, and scrumptious recipes for cookies, bars, and brownies—with a foreword by Jacques Torres. In Milk & Cookies, pastry chef Tina Casaceli shares classic family recipes, as well as favorites from her bakery. More than forty-five good-enough-to-eat photographs, can-do baking formulas, and a friendly Greenwich Village vibe make this cookbook too tantalizing to resist. Recipes include: Milk & Cookies Bakery Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies Mocha Latte Cookies Scotchies Tropical Sensation Cookies Snickerdoodles Ice-Cream Sandwich Cookies Biscotti Bride’s Cookies Kahlúa Brownies Crispy Rice Treats And more! “A wonderful recipe book jam packed of goodies . . . The book provides a number of basic base dough recipes; vanilla, dark chocolate, oatmeal, peanut butter and sugar cookie, and demonstrates how you can use each base to create a mouthwatering selection of cookies. Plus there is some great advice about just exactly how to create a perfect, never-fail cookie dough.” —Domestic Sluttery

From the beloved host and creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts comes an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of iconic and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Carrie Brownstein, Smokey Robinson, and Jeff Tweedy, among others—published in association with NPR Music. Is there a unforgettable song that changed your life? NPR’s renowned music authority Bob Boilen posed this question to some of today’s best-loved musical legends and rising stars. In Your Song Changed My Life, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), St. Vincent, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Jenny Lewis, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jackson Browne, Valerie June, Philip Glass, James Blake, and other artists reflect on pivotal moments that inspired their work. For Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, it was discovering his sister’s 45 of The Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.” A young St. Vincent’s life changed the day a box of CDs literally fell off a delivery truck in front of her house. Cat Stevens was transformed when he heard John Lennon cover “Twist and Shout.” These are the momentous yet unmarked events that have shaped these and many other musical talents, and ultimately the sound of modern music. A diverse collection of personal experiences, both ordinary and extraordinary, Your Song Changed My Life illustrates the ways in which music is revived, restored, and revolutionized. It is also a testament to the power of music in our lives, and an inspiration for future artists and music lovers. Amazing contributors include: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia, Wild Flag), Smokey Robinson, David Byrne (Talking Heads), St. Vincent, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), James Blake, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Sturgill Simpson, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Cat Power, Jackson Browne, Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Philip Glass, Jónsi (Sigur Rós), Hozier, Regina Carter, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, and others), Courtney Barnett, Chris Thile (Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers), Leon Bridges, Sharon Van Etten, and many more.

“The pastries we make are deliciously simple and rustic and never too sweet. Woven into many of them are my favorite flavors: butter, cinnamon, nuts, and fruit. They’re familiar, uncomplicated, and satisfying. One taste and you’re instantly comforted. Inspired by a sweet memory from childhood, a European classic, or a time-honored bakeshop standard, they are flavors you never tire of. Like my bread, these are pastries you want to eat every day.”—from the Introduction When celebrated pastry chef and baker Nancy Silverton decided to add sweets to the La Brea Bakery’s shelves of artisanal breads, she knew that they couldn't be just any sweets. Instead of baking fastidious and overelaborate desserts, she creates deliciously simple, rustic pastries, full of texture and flavor, that complement perfectly her hearty, country-style breads and have people lining up morning after morning. Now, in Pastries from the La Brea Bakery, Silverton shares her passion and expertise in more than 150 recipes of her most scrumptious favorites—virtually every pastry in the La Brea Bakery’s impressive repertoire. Silverton distills years of experimentation and innovation into simple and accessible directions. Many of her recipes are surprisingly quick and easy—not to mention incredibly tasty—like her crisps, cobblers, and crumbles, and her ever-popular scones, which run the gamut from Chocolate-Walnut to Ginger to Mushroom-Onion. Her muffins are moist and distinctive, from the healthful Bran to the rich Crotin de Chocolat. She offers an array of quickbreads and quickcakes for all tastes (including Madeleines, Canellés, and Cranberry-Almond Tea Bread), and her tarts bring out the best qualities of the finest ingredients, from the intense, fresh fruit of her Cherry Bundles to her elegant Triple Almond Tart. Beautiful cookies, such as Almond Sunflowers, Nun’s Breasts, and Swedish Ginger Wafers, are centerpiece desserts on their own. Silverton also deftly teaches the delicate art of confections—here you'll find Almond Bark, English Toffee, and Lollipops—and demystifies the sometimes intimidating technique of doughnut making. The crowning touch is her detailed section on Morning Pastries, where she guides us to mastery of the classic doughs: the quick and rich bobka, the fine-textured traditional brioche, the famous and flexible croissant, and the pièce de résistance: puff pastry. An important book from a baking and pastry icon, Pastries from the La Brea Bakery, like Nancy Silverton’s acclaimed Breads from the La Brea Bakery, is a bible of the craft for bakers everywhere.