The Year in Review – 2017

The sun is fading outside my window as the minutes tick away what is left of 2017.  Our friends on the other side of the world have already welcomed 2018, while we are making plans to celebrate New Years Eve. To be honest, I don’t believe I’ve ushered in a new year since the birth of my youngest child in 2004. There is always hope (with enough caffeine) that one year I will be rockin’ in the New Year.

Before this year falls into history, I thought it would be nice to do a short review of what we have been up to here at Eat Your Books. 

December’s posts were ladened with the word “best”.  I prepared my best of 2017 list, Jane spent many sleepless nights compiling the best lists from around the world both by book sellers and media sources. The Best Cookbooks of 2017 as well as prior years: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 can be found at those respective links.

The best book of 2017 was Ottolenghi’s Sweet written with pastry chef, Helen Goh. There is an errata sheet for the Americanized version of this book and information on who to contact regarding the corrected edition coming out in early 2018. The UK version has no reported issues and Helen and Yotam are working hard to make sure the errata sheet is complete as well as making sure that those who purchased the book will receive a corrected version. Be sure to follow the email instructions on our post.

Even in the mad rush of year end responsibilities, I couldn’t help myself and prepared a preview of 2018 titles. That list will continue to grow and we will keep you in the loop on new releases, as always. One of the biggest jobs here is making sure the library is complete and that books are indexed correctly and efficiently. Our indexing manager and team of indexers are amazing, not to mention our wonderful member indexers who contribute to the success of this site. 

Darcie’s daily posts keep us current with culinary and cookbook news such as the most Googled recipe of 2017, keeper cookbooks and the next Royal Wedding Cake. Darcie’s Spice Support columns are a great resource. 

We had over 250 promotions in 2017. Giveaways are now tagged with the regions they are open to as follows:

• #US
• #UK
• #NZ
• #AU
• #CA
• #worldwide

Each link above will take you to the giveaways for those specific regions (bookmark them for easy reference). If you are having any difficulties with entering our giveaways, our how-to post should be able to steer you in the right direction. I will continue to work on providing more worldwide promotions in 2018. 

In September, we launched the Eat Your Books Cookbook Club and we share roundups each month highlighting photographs from members as well as their notes on those recipes – those roundups are tagged with #EYBCookbookClub. We announced our monthly selections for early 2018 – come and join us. Our Eat Your Books Sweet Ottolenghi Cookbook Club is growing and the photos of the creations from Sweet are stunning. Don’t forget to upload your photographs at EYB, learn how here.

Christine’s weekly posts on Fridays keep you up-to-date on all the recipes and happenings here on EYB and our home page provides links to our forums, categories of posts, author and cooking school events and links to giveaways and more. Tips & Tricks, Essentials for Cooks and our social media icons can also be found on the right sidebar of the home page. 

This year, I started Friday Flashbacks which feature a look back at favorite titles and Cookbook Stackup posts that highlight members’ and authors’ cookbook collections along with a few question and answers. I look forward to bringing you many more of these types of posts in 2018. 

Personal pieces this year include, Darcie’s touching article about cookbooks being her friends and recovering from baking mistakes. I challenged the best cookbooks for home cooks, the making of a Cookbook Collector (me), a piece on the makings of a good cookbook  as well as how to manage your collection and make them (and things) work for you.

The team here at Eat Your Books appreciate your support. Your comments on posts and on social media, the sharing of our articles and giveaways and spreading the news of our site – all help to make our cookbook loving community grow.

We wish you all the best for 2018!