Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

There's something so gentle about Kitchen, especially considering it's about grief, loneliness, friendship, and the transient nature of emotions. It's about moving forward, and moving through it all with food and care. Food is friendship in this book. It's also love, thoughtfulness, community.

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Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

This one felt like a coming-of-age story, which is a funny thing to say about a vampire. Our mixed-race protagonist moves away from her mum to go work in the arts, navigating her identity and a deep longing for humanity. She's consumed by human food, though she can't eat any of it.

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Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Funny, sharp, erotic. Milk Fed is about Rachel, who is always hungry and living with an eating disorder and mommy issues. She finds herself in the arms of a 'straight' Orthodox Jewish woman who helps her break out of her calorie-counting obsession, one bite of food at a time.

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You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

This book is hot, scandalous, and horny. It follows a DILF-y bi chef who feeds Feyi SO WELL. So different from Emezi's other work, being a true romance and all, but it still deals with grief, loss, and hunger, written in the gorgeous way only Emezi can.

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Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

An emotional one about Yasmen and Josiah, a newly divorced couple navigating life as co-parents. With themes of grief, strength, and reconciliation, this book left me with so many feels. An important part of healing in the book comes from Aunt Byrd's recipe book. Yasmen bakes from it as a little ritual to mourn her aunty, and that stuck with me, right alongside the really wholesome character development.