Fans pick 100 books like Hot Dog Taste Test

By Lisa Hanawalt,

Here are 100 books that Hot Dog Taste Test fans have personally recommended if you like Hot Dog Taste Test. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Yummy

Blue Delliquanti Author Of Meal

From my list on graphic novels that make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing about food, and it appears as a motif in nearly every comic I've ever drawn. Comics are an exceptional medium for discussing food – a talented artist can render a drawing into something that looks delicious, but they can tie it into a story that gives the dish meaning or connects to a particular character's inner life. With Meal I had the opportunity to tell a story about a kind of cuisine that delights me, but that most people know very little about – and I turned to my favorite comics about food for inspiration on how to translate that joy from the plate to the page.

Blue's book list on graphic novels that make you hungry

Blue Delliquanti Why did Blue love this book?

This recent release is a deep dive for young readers into the history of popular desserts, from brownies to biscotti. The gorgeous colors and charming character design make Yummy a joy to page through, but it's a great way to introduce to kids that people are responsible for the foods that we love – and sometimes our favorite dishes were complete accidents!

By Victoria Grace Elliott,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Yummy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

Cake is delicious, and comics are awesome: this exciting nonfiction graphic novel for kids combines both! Explore the history of desserts through a fun adventure with facts, legends, and recipes for readers to try at home.

Have you ever wondered who first thought to freeze cream? Or when people began making sweet pastry shells to encase fruity fillings? Peri is excited to show you the delicious history of sweets while taking you around the world and back!
 
The team-up that made ice cream cones!
 
The mistake that made brownies!
 
Learn about and taste the true stories behind everyone’s favorite treats,…


Book cover of Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes

Blue Delliquanti Author Of Meal

From my list on graphic novels that make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing about food, and it appears as a motif in nearly every comic I've ever drawn. Comics are an exceptional medium for discussing food – a talented artist can render a drawing into something that looks delicious, but they can tie it into a story that gives the dish meaning or connects to a particular character's inner life. With Meal I had the opportunity to tell a story about a kind of cuisine that delights me, but that most people know very little about – and I turned to my favorite comics about food for inspiration on how to translate that joy from the plate to the page.

Blue's book list on graphic novels that make you hungry

Blue Delliquanti Why did Blue love this book?

Korean food has quickly become one of my favorite cuisines to make and enjoy, and I owe a lot to Ha's book for making that possible. This is an excellent visual guide for wannabe cooks who want to check how finely to chop their ingredients or identify unfamiliar vegetables at the store – and Ha's beautiful art showcases the bright, inviting colors of Korean banchan while making it personal to her own journey with the dishes.

By Robin Ha,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cook Korean! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times bestseller • A charming introduction to the basics of Korean cooking in graphic novel form, with 64 recipes, ingredient profiles, and more, presented through light-hearted comics.
 
Fun to look at and easy to use, this unique combination of cookbook and graphic novel is the ideal introduction to cooking Korean cuisine at home. Robin Ha’s colorful and humorous one-to three-page comics fully illustrate the steps and ingredients needed to bring more than sixty traditional (and some not-so-traditional) dishes to life.

In these playful but exact recipes, you’ll learn how to create everything from easy kimchi (mak kimchi) and…


Book cover of Silver Spoon, Vol. 1

Blue Delliquanti Author Of Meal

From my list on graphic novels that make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing about food, and it appears as a motif in nearly every comic I've ever drawn. Comics are an exceptional medium for discussing food – a talented artist can render a drawing into something that looks delicious, but they can tie it into a story that gives the dish meaning or connects to a particular character's inner life. With Meal I had the opportunity to tell a story about a kind of cuisine that delights me, but that most people know very little about – and I turned to my favorite comics about food for inspiration on how to translate that joy from the plate to the page.

Blue's book list on graphic novels that make you hungry

Blue Delliquanti Why did Blue love this book?

A manga artist from Hokkaido, Japan's breadbasket, Arakawa's series about a burnt-out city kid enrolling in an agricultural high school on a whim is a hilarious, unrestrained crash course on what it takes to grow our food and get it to the table. If you love the tropes and beats of a high school story but from the nuanced perspective of an author well-acquainted with backbreaking chores, unglamorous farm life, and razor-thin margins for error, Silver Spoon is the series for you.

By Hiromu Arakawa, Hiromu Arakawa (artist),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silver Spoon, Vol. 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Time for a change of pace.

Yuugo Hachiken flees the hustle and bustle of city life to enroll at Oezo Agricultural High School. At first he's just trying to outrun his problems, but instead he finds a place for himself in this quaint rural community. Between the classrooms and cowpatties, the boy becomes a man.


Book cover of Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 1

Blue Delliquanti Author Of Meal

From my list on graphic novels that make you hungry.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing about food, and it appears as a motif in nearly every comic I've ever drawn. Comics are an exceptional medium for discussing food – a talented artist can render a drawing into something that looks delicious, but they can tie it into a story that gives the dish meaning or connects to a particular character's inner life. With Meal I had the opportunity to tell a story about a kind of cuisine that delights me, but that most people know very little about – and I turned to my favorite comics about food for inspiration on how to translate that joy from the plate to the page.

Blue's book list on graphic novels that make you hungry

Blue Delliquanti Why did Blue love this book?

I'm no stranger to the tropes and pitfalls of the Dungeons & Dragons campaign or fantasy video game, but Delicious in Dungeon proves there is plenty of ground left to tread in this genre. A team of dungeon crawlers face a long journey in an ever-changing subterranean maze to rescue a comrade, but discover they can progress by eating the creatures they encounter on the way. By reimagining the dungeon as a vibrant ecosystem, and classic monsters like griffins and slimes as wild game with their own flavors (and nutritional value!), Kui subverts a tired genre and makes it fresh and unpredictable – and incredibly funny.

By Ryoko Kui,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When young adventurer Laios and his company are attacked and soundly thrashed by a dragon deep in a dungeon, the party loses all its money and provisions. They're eager to get right back to it, but there's just one problem: if they set out with no food or coin to speak of, they're sure to eat it on the way! But Laios comes up with a brilliant idea: 'Let's eat the monsters!' Slimes, basilisks, mimics, and even dragons...none are safe from the appetites of these dungeon-crawling gourmands!


Book cover of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Taylor Markarian Author Of From the Basement: A History of Emo Music and How It Changed Society

From my list on journalism and alternative culture.

Why am I passionate about this?

That’s a terrible question that gives me spiritual anxiety. But to get right down to it, I’m just someone who loves culture. I’m fascinated by why people do the things they do, from ethics to aesthetics. As a music journalist, I have interviewed everyone from local bands to Grammy award-winning artists for publications like Alternative Press, Kerrang!, Revolver, and Loudwire. My work as a freelance entertainment writer carried me to other types of lifestyle writing, including food and travel. I am a regular contributor for Reader’s Digest.

Taylor's book list on journalism and alternative culture

Taylor Markarian Why did Taylor love this book?

Culture critic Chuck Klosterman is essentially the next-gen Hunter S. Thompson. This book is a stream of consciousness foray into contemporary pop culture, ranging from essays on sports to music to reality TV. It’s an odd, brilliant, self-indulgent take on the American zeitgeist. Feel smart and have a laugh at the same time.

By Chuck Klosterman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, breakfast cereal, serial killers, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). Sex, Drugs and Coca Puffs is ostensibly about movies, sport, television, music, books, video games and kittens, but really it's about us. All of us.


Book cover of Monsters of the Gevaudan: The Making of a Beast

Benjamin Radford Author Of Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction and Folklore

From my list on (real-life) monsters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by monsters. Growing up I saw television shows and read books about famous ones like Bigfoot and Nessie, and always wanted to search for them and discover the truth. That led me to a degree in psychology to learn about human cognition and perception, and a career in folklore to understand how legends and rumors spread. But I also wanted field experience, and spent time at Loch Ness, in Canadian woods said to house Sasquatch, to the Amazon, Sahara, and the jungles of Central America looking for the chupacabra. Along the way became an author, writing books including Tracking the Chupacabra, Lake Monster Mysteries, Big—If True, and Investigating Ghosts

Benjamin's book list on (real-life) monsters

Benjamin Radford Why did Benjamin love this book?

There are many terrifying monsters, but few were as feared as the beast of Gévaudan, which terrorized the French countryside in the 1760s.

Said to be, variously, a werewolf, a dog-hybrid, a hyena, or some unknown beast, it was blamed for killing many dozens of villagers. The French government sent top hunters to kill the beast, and conspiracy theories ran rampant. I recommend Monsters of the Gevaudan because I love the way it blends history, folklore, and investigation into a compelling mystery.

Don’t believe the mystery-mongering TV shows offering wild theories: the truth is in this book—and it’s stranger than fiction. 

By Jay M. Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Monsters of the Gevaudan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a brilliant, original rendition, Monsters of the Gevaudan revisits a spellbinding French tale that has captivated imaginations for over two hundred years, and offers the definitive explanation of the strange events that underlie this timeless story.

In 1764 a peasant girl was killed and partially eaten while tending a flock of sheep. Eventually, over a hundred victims fell prey to a mysterious creature, or creatures, whose cunning and deadly efficiency terrorized the region and mesmerized Europe. The fearsome aggressor quickly took on mythic status, and the beast of the Gevaudan passed into French folklore.

What species was this killer,…


Book cover of Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics

Albert Glinsky Author Of Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution

From my list on iconic 20th Century figures in technology and arts.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am both a musician and an author: a Juilliard-trained professional composer who fell into writing after a Ph.D. in electronic music at NYU. Both of my biographies—a favorite genre—chronicle the lives of inventors who married music to electronics and altered the trajectory of music. But their lives each took strange turns—sometimes in almost fictional dimensions—demonstrating that leaving a technological and artistic mark on posterity often has a black side that history overlooked. I’m fascinated by the psychic profiles of my subjects, and I love books that show how character is not black and white—that those who moved the needle of human progress also harbored dark realms in their personalities. 

Albert's book list on iconic 20th Century figures in technology and arts

Albert Glinsky Why did Albert love this book?

If you’ve ever wondered (or haven’t) what Richard Nixon, Jane Fonda, Linda Ronstadt, All in the Family, and the films Chinatown and Shampoo share in common, and why it matters, author and political correspondent Ronald Brownstein connects the dots in a compelling examination of how the seismic cultural upheavals we attribute to the late 60s were in fact late bloomers, leaving their mark only in the early 70s.  

Part nostalgia, part pop and TV history, part political analysis, this book zeros in on the cast of personalities and classic artistic works that collectively made 1974 the pivotal year in the modern American zeitgeist. Something for everyone who lived through that time—I can attest to that—and a timely cultural history lesson for those who didn’t.

By Ronald Brownstein,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Rock Me on the Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times Bestseller

Editors' Choice -New York Times Book Review

In this exceptional cultural history, Atlantic Senior Editor Ronald Brownstein-"one of America's best political journalists" (The Economist)-tells the kaleidoscopic story of one monumental year that marked the city of Los Angeles' creative peak, a glittering moment when popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become.


Los Angeles in 1974 exerted more influence over popular culture than any other city in America. Los Angeles that year, in fact, dominated popular culture more than it ever had before, or would again. Working in film, recording, and television…


Book cover of The Mummy's Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy

Catherine Butzen Author Of Painter of the Dead

From my list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt – a remote era of history, but so well preserved! I love reading the old documents and finding out what they ate or why the worker Tilamentu was absent from the building site one day. (Turns out he had a fight with his wife). Pop culture likes to focus on the mummies, especially the cursed kind, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Where did those ideas come from? Did the Egyptians actually believe in curses? And what would someone like Tilamentu Q. Public think of it all? I hope you enjoy learning about it as much as I did!

Catherine's book list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed

Catherine Butzen Why did Catherine love this book?

The Victorians loved mummies and mummy stories... and before I read The Mummy’s Curse, I’d never heard of any of them! The nineteenth century’s obsession with Egypt and curses doesn’t get talked about much today. This book opened me up to a whole new world of stories, including some strange curse tales that never got quite as big as King Tut. (Which is a shame, because some of them are wonderfully creepy!)

By Roger Luckhurst,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mummy's Curse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the winter of 1922-23 archaeologist Howard Carter and his wealthy patron George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, sensationally opened the tomb of Tutenkhamen. Six weeks later Herbert, the sponsor of the expedition, died in Egypt. The popular press went wild with rumours of a curse on those who disturbed the Pharaoh's rest and for years followed every twist and turn of the fate of the men who had been involved in the historic discovery. Long dismissed by
Egyptologists, the mummy's curse remains a part of popular supernatural belief. Roger Luckhurst explores why the myth has captured the British…


Book cover of The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon

William M. Tsutsui Author Of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters

From my list on why we love monsters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I saw my first Godzilla movie when I was seven years old, and I immediately fell in love: what kid doesn’t want to be a giant radioactive monster with attitude? But unlike baseball cards, I never outgrew Godzilla and, over the decades, came to appreciate the cultural significance of one of the world’s most enduring film icons. In my writing on Godzilla, I explore my own fascination with monsters and contemplate why all societies, from the dawn of time to today, have compulsively created imaginary creatures that terrify them. The books on this list have helped me understand the human obsession with monsters, and I hope you will find them equally enlightening and enjoyable.

William's book list on why we love monsters

William M. Tsutsui Why did William love this book?

Dinosaurs are the gateway drug to kaiju: most Godzilla fans began as kids fascinated by T-rexes and brontosauruses. I was blown away when I discovered W.J.T. Mitchell’s wonky, geeky, and wonderfully eccentric exploration of why we love dinosaurs, actual monsters (albeit prehistoric ones we can only experience today as skeletons in museums) rather than monsters conjured from our darkest imaginations.

Mitchell’s book is lots of fun to dip into, like a jarful of monstrous candy, but reveals in wonderful detail how dinosaurs (just like the creatures of folklore or fiction) are blank slates onto which a culture’s anxieties and aspirations can be inscribed.

By W. J. T. Mitchell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Last Dinosaur Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This text addresses the question of how dinosaurs moved from natural extinction to pop culture resurrection, exploring the animal's place in our lives and the source of its popular appeal. In tracing the cultural family tree of the dinosaur there is discovered a creature of striking flexibility, linked to dragons and mammoths, skyscrapers and steam engines, cowboys and Indians. Here the dinosaur becomes a cultural symbol whose plurality of meaning and often contradictory nature is emblematic of modern society itself. As a scientific entity, the dinosaur endured a near-eclipse for over a century, but as an image it is enjoying…


Book cover of "There Is a North": Fugitive Slaves, Political Crisis, and Cultural Transformation in the Coming of the Civil War

James Traub Author Of What Was Liberalism?: The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea

From my list on the run-up to the American Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a journalist and NYU professor whose primary field is American foreign policy. As a biographer, however, I am drawn to American history and, increasingly, to the history of liberalism. I am now writing a biography of that arch-liberal, Hubert Humphrey. My actual subject thus appears to be wars of ideas. I began reading in-depth about the 1850s, when the question of slavery divided the nation in half, while writing a short biography of Judah Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederacy. (Judah Benjamin: Counselor To The Confederacy will be published in October.) It was the decade in which the tectonic fault upon which the nation was built erupted to the surface. There's a book for me in there somewhere, but I haven't yet found it.

James' book list on the run-up to the American Civil War

James Traub Why did James love this book?

Southerners rarely spoke of "the South" until slavery began to be threatened in the 1840s; slavery made the South. The North was far more fragmented--until an anti-slavery culture took hold in the 1850s. Brooke is highly sensitive to the role of popular culture in forging that consensus--not just Uncle Tom's Cabin, the most influential novel in American history, but local theatricals and the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier. Here was the original, unbridgeable division between red and blue states.

By John L. Brooke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked "There Is a North" as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How does political change take hold? In the 1850s, politicians and abolitionists despaired, complaining that the "North, the poor timid, mercenary, driveling North" offered no forceful opposition to the power of the slaveholding South. And yet, as John L. Brooke proves, the North did change. Inspired by brave fugitives who escaped slavery and the cultural craze that was Uncle Tom's Cabin, the North rose up to battle slavery, ultimately waging the bloody Civil War.

While Lincoln's alleged quip about the little woman who started the big war has been oft-repeated, scholars have not fully explained the dynamics between politics and…


Book cover of Yummy
Book cover of Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes
Book cover of Silver Spoon, Vol. 1

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