7 new must-read books for November

Recipe for adventure

A new romance heats up in a foreign kitchen

For Canadian Jennifer Klinec, there is no international destination too remote, no recipe too esoteric and no cooking technique she can’t master and pass on.

In her new book, The Temporary Bride: A Memoir of Love and Food in Iran, she takes an extraordinary journey into the kitchens of the nation’s hidden women. On her list to explore are sensual Persian recipes like saffron-scented ice cream and long-simmered stews of chicken and plums and quinces.

She arrives in Yadz, Iran, where she meets Vahid — a traditional man six years her junior. He takes her to his mother’s kitchen, where she learns such local culinary techniques as how to “turn pistachio omelettes with her fingers.”

Soon Vahid and Klinec’s relationship takes a romantic turn (heightened by an unexpectedly intense visit to a camel abattoir). Their illegal love affair forces them to confront their own cultural values.

Klinec offers an insightful take on the status of Iranian women in a complex culture. At the same time, through her descriptions of fragrant herbs, salty plumsand the preparation of elaborate dishes, she fills the pages with the tastes and scents of Iran. Most of all, Klinec illustrates that what we eat is about more than what we put into our mouths — it’s a window into history and culture. Sometimes, it’s a path to love. The Temporary Bride, Jennifer Klinec, $23.

— Emma Waverman

Roaring 20s

Body lust

Growing up girl

The fictional counterpart to Caitlin Moran’s hit feminist manual, 'How to Be a Woman'

It’s 1990 and 14-year-old Johanna Morrigan lives in an overcrowded house in the English town of Wolverhampton. She has a mom suffering from postpartum depression, an endearing but alcoholic dad and four siblings. The Morrigans, on welfare, don’t have a lot, so Johanna must find ways to amuse herself, including over-sharing with a loose-lipped neighbour about the family’s financial situation. Panicked that the government will cut off her family’s aid, Johanna begins to write as a means of earning money. She enters a writing contest and wins, then discovers that it’s possible to make money writing about her other love, indie rock. Dissatisfied with herself, she creates a new persona, Dolly Wilde, and, at 17, lands a steady gig at a London-based music magazine. Her earnings help the family, and her experiences  with sex, drugs and  alcohol  inform the woman she is becoming. Johanna’s shtick as Dolly is to be cynical, self-indulgent and promiscuous — all in the name of research — until one day she is unrecognizable even to herself. She determines to build herself anew into the woman she wants to be, rather than someone she thinks will please others.

How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran’s first novel and a fictional follow-up to her memoir, How to Be a Woman, is a feminist coming-of-age story that skilfully captures the perks and perils of being female. It’s funny, frisky and an important reminder to girls to make decisions for themselves. How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran, $23.

– Maryam Siddiqi

Teen trauma queen

Belzhar is written in the wry, sympathetic voice of the emotionally troubled Jam Gallahue, who’s been relegated to a boarding school for troubled youth in the wake of tragic events. There, she finds her way out of a soul-crushing depression via her enigmatic English teacher’s special assignments — and a red leather journal that opens the door on a secret world. It’s an absorbing, wrenching and surprisingly funny read. Belzhar, Meg Wolitzer, $20.

— Lesley Livingston

Haunted on the job

Arthor Crandle doesn’t know what he’s in for when he takes a job as personal assistant to burnt-out, deathly sick horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. With every page of Jacqueline Baker’s eerie tale, set in 1936 in Lovecraft’s creaky old house, you’ll be drawn further into the mysterious world Crandle has entered, complete with visions of a girl in white and, at the centre of it all, his ever-elusive employer. The Broken Hours, Jacqueline Baker, $27.  

— Dominique Lamberton

Romance retold