The Little Library Year: Recipes and Reading to Suit Each Season

by Kate Young

The Little Library Year takes you through a full twelve months in award-winning food writer Kate Young's kitchen. Here are frugal January meals enjoyed alone with a classic comfort read, as well as summer feasts to be eaten outdoors with the perfect beach read to hand.

The Little Library Year is full of seasonal recipes, menus and reading recommendations.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Books About Books, Cooking, Food and Drink, Culinary

Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2019

About the author

Kate Young is a writer and cook. Her award-winning Little Library Cookbooks (The Little Library Cookbook, The Little Library Year, The Little Library Christmas, and The Little Library Parties) feature food inspired by beloved works of literature.

Her debut novel Experienced, a queer romcom set in Bristol, was released in summer 2024.

After a sunny Australian childhood, spent indoors reading books, she moved to London, which suited her much better. She now lives in the English countryside.

Reviews

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book combines so many of my favourite things that I just can't fault it.

Yes, it's a cookbook but it's a beautiful cookbook that over the last couple of weeks I have sat down with, cup of tea in hand and read cover to cover.

Kate shares stories, experiences and anecdotes from her life in Australia, the Cotswolds and London, with her half-swedish adopted family, her friends and flatmates or her family back home in the southern hemisphere having almost seasonless years.

The book is split by seasons beginning in winter and the recipes are seasonal, homely, humble but also worldly, exciting and impressive (for little effort) sometimes. They all fit the time of year perfectly and transport you through your own past too.

The very best thing about these recipes is that they are inspired by or lifted straight from books which also evoke the seasons and celebrations of the year. There are classics, modern fiction and childhood favourites from British, Japanese and Scandinavian writers to mention just a few. There are books we've all read and books I'm now dying to get my hands on. There are books whose recipes passed me by when I read them that I'm definitely going to reread with a cooks mind! There are also lists of recommendations for each season too. There's a reading challenge right there!

Usually with a cookbook I use little sticky tabs to mark the recipes I am going to try out but there's no point in labelling this book, there'd be a tab on every page. The photography is stunning, the colour palette is gorgeous and getting spills and splatters on the pages while I cook couldn't possibly diminish that.

[Alice Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly the most delightful cookbook for book lovers. I love the cosy photography and the recipes are beautifully written and really easy to follow. Amazing Christmas gift for the bookworm/foodie in your life 🤓

[Reannon Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an absolute delight this book is! With all my favourites in it-stories, recipes & book recommendations- there’s so much to love. And Kate’s writing is so warm & filled with heart. Loved this.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this from a January summer to the spring of early November so that I could take this book in season by season. It's made for a fabulous reading and cooking companion and I loved how Young's cross Atlantic experiences from Australia to England meant that I could really enjoy multiple seasons at once. This book helped to securely settle me in to the harmony of seasonal mood reading and I feel that my reading life has been the better for it. Highly recommend for the wonderful essays, book recommendations and inspired recipes.

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to cookbooks, I'm generally a bit of a purist. Most of my favorites are chock-full of useful recipes and very low on genial chatter. I generally dislike cookbooks by bloggers for this reason--the recipes tend to be unoriginal and there is waaayy too much chit-chat for my taste.

But, of course, there are exceptions to every rule. I didn't save a single recipe from this cookbook and, instead, ate up Young's prose. This books exists at the very intersection of food, books, and seasonality that is where my own heart lives. I ate up her quixotic recollections of the first times she read favorite books and her associations of these stories with evocative times and places. And I loved the way food wove in and out of the stories in such an organic way.

So, I don't love this as a cookbook, but I loved it as a daydreaming book.

[Greta Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t know why I left this on my shelf so long. So beautifully written, devoured it in a day. So many recipes I can’t wait to try and books I want to read all strung together with the most emotive storytelling.

[Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept and format of this cookbook is charming and engaging. I found the recipes quaint. Solid, but quaint

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely delightful. Two of my favorite things melded together, recipes and book recommendations.

[Jessica Marquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A celebration of literature, memories, and good food that’s utterly delightful and just about perfect.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for myself after reading about it and falling in love with the idea of it. The book more than lived up to my expectation. I adore it. I've been reading it like a novel, eking it out over my morning coffee, making myself a book list of the books that Young recommends and making myself a recipe list of things to try. I finished this today but I know it will be a book I return to again and again. I made the smoked salt brownies this afternoon and they were delicious. The production value is high, the pictures are wonderful and the book is a delightful thing both to own and read.

[Sonia Bellhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute treasure of a book for anyone who enjoys browsing cookbooks and reading. The recipes sound like the sort of things you might want to cook. For me, the book was a revisit to my birthplace England and a homage to the seasons. This book combines seasonal recipes and recommended reading in a glorious mixture to inform, entertain and inspire.

[Soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of gentle joy in difficult times. Food I want to eat and books I want to read and acknowledgement of the seasonality of both.

[Manda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, my word. What a very special, clever and utterly beautiful book. It's been a while since I've read a cookbook cover to cover but this is just so much more than a cookbook. This is a book made for bookworms and kitchen witches, it is a truly enchanting read. It envoked some massive nostalgia, particularly of being a wee one crafting recipes from my favourite books. I remember as a little girl reading a passage in one of the Harry Potter books (apologies to mention she who shall not be named) where Molly Weasley serves Harry Potter a steaming bowl of onion soup on his first night at The Burrow. I remember being spellbound by this passage and wanting that soup, so I crafted this recipe, went back, and read the same passage with this glorious oniony broth in a mug in my wee hands and I was transported. It's one of my favourite childhood memories and I feel that Kate Young has managed to capture and bottle that magical, transcendent feeling and has dedicated an entire book to it.
I loved all of the beautifully selected quotes, the stunning pictures, the book recommendations, and the recipes themselves were very inspiring, although I'm a plant-based Lil' bean a lot of these omnivore recipes can be easily tweaked to make them so. I particularly loved the Japan in Bloom chapter to be transported yet again to one of my favourite memories of eating tempura in Tokyo and how eerily fitting was The end of the world as we know it dedicated to dystopian fiction and recipes for using pantry goods *eep* and so much inspiration from joy of toast I'll certainly be making those marsala mushrooms on toast and the Pepparkakor for seasonal gifts!
I could honestly go on forever about this dear cookbook (so much more than a cookbook) a book that has accompanied me throughout many cups of tea over the past few weeks and has brought me nothing but hope and joy. Dear Reader, I can't recommend it enough ♥

[SKP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really rated this higher than I wanted to: I would have given it about a one star, but it isn’t because it is a bad book. It just didn’t meet my taste in either food or books. But I can see other people really loving it, which is why I didn’t want to ruin the score for the author by giving it a low rating. It is obviously well-written, and the idea of mixing cooking and books thoroughly appeals to me. I didn’t read it cover to cover —more of a skim through it. I am a very well-read person, but most of the books mentioned are not ones I’ve read or would want to read with the exception of the children’s books. I’ve read most of them. It might be because I’m not British, but I felt her tastes are quite high-brow compared to mine. I’m not much into the so-called “classics” which a lot of her book recommendations were those kind of books, and the recipes were mostly for food I’d never eat. But, to end on a positive note, the idea of mixing food, books & seasons was brilliant, and obviously from the other reviews, I can see that a lot of people do love this book.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book because of the title. If the words library or bookshop are in the title, I am interested. I love books about books but this one is so much more. Kate Young takes the reader on a journey season by season with books and unique recipes. Little Library Year became a book of recipes I want to try and books I want to read or re-read. The dreary months of winter with Jane Eyre and broths and soups or with Panchinko and kimchi or anything pickled. Waiting for a cake to bake is a time to read the short stories of Conan Doyle. In spring she reads The Confederacy of Dunces while making Jambalaya. Summer is the time for tomato recipes or grilling or fresh Sangria and The Story of a New Name or A Streetcar Named Desire. I am barely scratching the surface of Young’s seasons with books and recipes. It is not just one recipe or book by season.. there are so many options! AND at the end with many pages Kate Young indexes the many, many books and recipes detailed within her book.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I was ever to write a book, it would be this one, or I hope it would resemble something of this beautifully realised book. This combines two of my favourite things, food and literature and how each can inspire the other. Kate Young certainly inspires on another level in this recipe cum wonderful book list and passionate declaration of love for literature as a life changing thing.

I loved everything about this book and devoured it in one sitting, pun intended. From the writer’s love of Japanese food and literature, her loathing of the summer heat to her understanding of the necessity of buttered toast to cure all ills, she couldn’t be more like myself than…myself.

I now dash off to consume, (pun intended again), everything that Young has ever written, of which I hope there is a lot.

[carrietracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was absolutely lovely. I adored the format of going through a year and cooking specifically for that season. I read it cover to cover and cannot wait to being trying the recipes. Poultry and fish recipes far outnumber the beef/pork/lamb which is perfect for my family. I've only made one recipe thus far - the buns from the Swiss Chalet school and can report that they are heavenly and the recipe works exactly as written.

Definitely a book worth own and lovely enough to give as a gift.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a beautiful book filled with recipes and suggestions of books to read for each season. Though many of the recipes didn’t appeal to me, the authors descriptions of what each season meant to her and the perfect books to compliment the changing weather make this a wonderful book for bibliophiles.

[Eilidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely don’t need any more books and especially not books that recommend other books to read, but this is lovely. The recipes are mouth-watering and even though I’m vegan, many of them can be easily made vegan. (Apart from eggs - how I miss them!) I love the fact that the recipes and books tie in with the seasons. Heaven.

[Katelyn]

Young, a chef, pairs seasonal reading recommendations with food pairings and recipes. She is from Australia but currently lives in England, so she has an interesting perspective on the seasons. Reading this book is like having a conversation with a bookish friend; I kept writing down titles that I’d like to read. This also made me think of what I would pair with each season.

[Magda]

So much meat, ugh. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the structure of this book and the entries concerning the seasons, reading, and the joy of cooking. This is the only cookbook I ever read in its entirety, so must be worth a few hours of one's time.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how the seasons are broken down into more nuanced parts. The book is seriously charming. I wished there was a book index broken down by season at the back, just for convenience…because there are a lot of suggestions to add a TBR.

[Darlene Messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foodie and Bibliophile alike will love this book

Filled with book references and recipes, this book is a perfect gift for any of the many celebrations you experience. Beautiful photos , list of seasonal books and heartwarming memoir entries make for an unforgettable book.

[Ruth Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming. Continues Kate's literary-bound recipes - as enjoyable to read as to cook with on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

[Diane Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming with all the literary references and interesting recipes too.

[Ella Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful writing about the different periods of the year and the weather, the food and the books that accompany them. Very cosy-feeling book crammed with delicious looking recipes and enticing reading lists.

[Ratih Cahaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabungan antara buku resep dan rekomendasi buku sesuai musim.

[Tabbetha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading AND food? What's not to like.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect literary palate cleanser (and I have four pages of new books to read!)

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I doubt that I will fix a single recipe from this book, but I loved reading the pairing of books with food and the seasons.