A Perfect Example of Community

Communities come in all shapes and sizes. There are local geographic communities, athletic communities, arts communities and the list goes on and on. In other words, when we talk about a "community" cookbook it could refer to a locale or to a group of followers devoted to a particular subject.

In the case of new cookbook, That Sounds Good, A Cookbook Celebrating 30 Years of WWOZ, it is the latter. This spectacular cookbook (which is available for purchase later this month) was put together by Friends of WWOZ, a community radio station in New Orleans dedicated to preserving and showcasing the music of Louisiana. This book is a perfect example of telling a story through the subject of food. It is loaded with recipes from local musicians, writers, and industry talent. The photographs take the reader through a 30-year time period that saw great changes in the music and art, as well as radio itself.

If you like good Louisiana cuisine and enjoy jazz music along with great "behind the music" stories, check out That Sounds Good - you'll be glad you did.

Testimony to Community Cookbooks

Two wonderful media articles were recently shared with me regarding the ongoing popularity of community cookbooks.

The opening sentence of the first article, from Madison, WI, captures the essence of the article and subject itself - "If there’s a better way to remember vacations spent in faraway places than returning home with a cookbook featuring regional recipes, it is well beyond my imagination."

The article goes on to describe the writer's experience in discovering the three League community cookbooks from Panama City, FL, and her journey to a bookstore which markets them.

The second article is from Austin, Texas and is headlined by "Community cookbooks as historical relics: Detailing the past, present and where our community is headed".

We all understand that the world is changing and admit that how consumers purchase their books has changed drastically over the last two years; however, that does not mean that the genre has changed or is going away. In today's world the opportunities are still there, but we need to uncover how to take advantage of them.