Read it and eat: The YWRC Book Sale has a cookbook for every kitchen. (Photo: Michael Morain) By Haley Scarpino Few things thrill me more than discovering a good old cookbook. I love them for the recipes but also for the stories they tell — the familiar names on the covers, the eras preserved i n their photos, the bits of wisdom tucked on each page. So when I went to the Young Women’s Resource Center book sale last weekend at the state fairgrounds, I made a beeline for the cookbooks and found some irresistible bargains, including a Julia Child classic and a practically unused book from Sohla El-Waylly. The YWRC Book Sale tradition stretches back more than 60 years, and its proceeds benefit YWRC’s programs to support, educate and advocate for local girls and young women. The sale’s organizers accept donations year-round, which I highly encourage as an act of generosity — and because I’d like to buy your old cookbooks next year. Here’s what I hauled home last weekend: A $45 cooking lesson, with $35 left for groceries “Start Here” by Sohla El-Waylly (2023) I couldn’t believe I found a practically new copy of this $45 book for $10. El-Waylly organizes more than 200 recipes around essential techniques, so it feels like a cooking course I can work through at home. Dinner with the March sisters “The Little Women Cookbook” by Wini Moranville (2019) I couldn’t pass up a “Little Women” cookbook by Des Moines food writer and dsm contributor Wini Moranville, who brings the famous novel’s foods into the modern kitchen with more than 50 recipes, literary quotations and anecdotes about Louisa May Alcott. A very 1970s dinner party “Julia Child Company” by Julia Child (1978, out of print) The colorful cover immediately transported me to a ’70s dinner party hosted by Child herself. Created as a companion to her television series, the book offers complete menus for entertaining, plus advice on planning and shopping. A trusty collection of home-cooking favorites “The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook” by Deb Perelman (2012) Not every great find needs to be rare or unusual. I grabbed Perelman’s first cookbook because it’s filled with approachable, dependable recipes I return to again and again. The $2 cookbook that made the whole sale worthwhile “The New York Times Cookbook” by Craig Claiborne (1961, out of print) Finding this hefty classic for $2 made the entire trip worth it. First published 65 years ago, it rounds up hundreds of American and international recipes and kitchen fundamentals. Whenever you’re hunting for secondhand cookbooks at a sale, I’d recommend a few tips: Skip the wish list. Searching for a specific title can distract from other good books that catch you by surprise. I like to scan the tables with an open mind and let an intriguing title, author or cover pull me in. Research the names and credits. I always like to learn about the author’s background and other work. Check the title page and acknowledgments, since interesting contributors don’t always receive prominent credit on the cover. This is especially true with celebrity cookbooks. I always check to see who developed the actual recipes. Shop first, edit later. I pull everything I might want into my cart, then pare it down before checkout. But I’ll confess this is a dangerous strategy: Cookbooks enter the cart much more easily than they leave it. Haley Scarpino is a chef, home cook, recipe tester, food editor and graduate of the Iowa Culinary Institute. ...read more read less