Hardcover
1Not Afraid of Flavor, by Ben and Karen Barker (UNC Press, $29.95). Owners and chefs of Durham’s award-winning Magnolia Grill restaurant share recipes.
2Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, $26). Three stories and their characters come to terms with nature in three different ways.
3Roses Are Red, by James Patterson (Little Brown, $26.95). In this sixth book of Patterson’s Alex Cross detective series, Cross attempts to nab a murderous bank robber.
4American Places: Encounters with History, edited by William Leuchtenburg and Sheldon Meyer (Oxford University Press, $30). Historians discuss the importance of several historic sites throughout the United States.
5Carolina Preserves, by William Mangum (Carey-Mangum Gallery, $95). A collection of watercolors by Mangum and commentary by famous North Carolinians.
Paperback
1The Congressional Experience, by David Eugene Price (Westview Press, $26). Congressman Price shares his experiences working in the U.S. House of Representatives.
2Plainsong, by Kent Haruf (Vintage, $13). A group of small-town Colorado inhabitants begin to see things in a different light when a new schoolteacher comes to town.
3In Helen’s Kitchen, by Helen Whiting (Regulator Bookshop, $17.95). A former food columnist shares her love of food and her cooking secrets.
4Family Gathering, by Fred Chappell (LSU Press, $14.95). A collection of poems by North Carolina’s poet laureate.
5Galileo’s Daughter, by Dava Sobel (Penguin, $14). Sobel compiles a series of letters sent between the scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste.
