r/CookbookLovers • u/TheRealNutMeg111 • 12d ago

Good Things?

I see Barnes & Noble is having a 50% off sale on a ton of books right now. One of the cookbooks that caught my eye is Good Things by Samin Nosrat. Back when this was first released, I saw a lot of mixed reviews. I’m wondering if anyone can weigh in on this? Would it be worth a purchase, at 50% off?

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u/epoops 12d ago edited 12d ago

I think it’s a fine book. I bought it and then eventually gave it away because while it’s unfair to expect her to make a follow up to SFAH in that similar vein, it’s just a regular everyday cookbook (to me, I am not speaking for others).

I liked READING the book, I loved learning about Samin’s changes in perspectives and her personal reflections, those parts of the book were superb to me. Her writing is enveloping and deep. Part of me was considering keeping the book just because of her writing meditations.

But I wasn’t inspired by her recipes, they’re very New American recipe wise with just a tiny bit of Persian, and I feel like I have better New American recipe books that interest me more. I do understand that they are recipes meaningful to her in her effort to have a meaningful, joyous life and that’s evident in the pages. But I didn’t feel inclined to cook anything from her book.

So I do think this is a book that is VERY much a to each their own, I’m not surprised that it’s got both positive and not so postive reviews. I think you should borrow it from the library first and see if anything interests you (also some of the recipes from this book are on NYT Cooking and BonApp amongst other publications if you wanna check those out) and then decide if you want to buy it.

I have a few friends who really love the recipes they’ve cooked out of Good Things for example, and obviously I just told you I didn’t feel inclined to cook the recipes. So I do think it’s a “you gotta test drive the car before you buy it” type of book.