Forget the dire predictions that the online world spells the end for printed cookbooks. People still seem to love having a cookbook to spread open on the counter.
On Sunday, I picked five for the book-gifts roundup. You can find those on my blog; the address is at the bottom. Here are eight more.
Basic to Brilliant, Y'all
Virginia Willis (Ten Speed Press)
I love this concept by Atlanta author Willis: Every recipe includes a variation or a way to dress it up. And her recipes bring fresh perspective to basic Southern cooking.
Cooking in the Moment
Andrea Reusing (Clarkson Potter)
Reusing, the chef of Lantern in Chapel Hill, racked up honors this year, including a James Beard medal as Best Chef: Southeast. But there's no pretension in her book, aimed at home cooks trying to make the best use of locally grown, heirloom foods.
The Homesick Texan Cookbook
Lisa Fain (Hyperion)
Homesick Texan, Fain's blog about re-creating Texas food when she moved to New York, found a huge following online. You don't have to be from Texas to appreciate her down-home recipes.
Paula Deen's
Southern Cooking Bible
Paula Deen with Melissa Clark (Simon & Schuster)
This is a solid book, a reminder that at heart, Deen is still a cook from Savannah who knows how to turn out crowd-pleasing food.
Cook This Now
Melissa Clark (Hyperion)
Between exploring ingredients in her New York Times column and co-authoring with Paula Deen, Clark was writing her own inventive cookbook, geared to home cooks.
The Food 52 Cookbook
Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs (Morrow)
The website Food52.com aims to create a "food community" by letting members post weekly recipes while other members vote on them. Skip all that and you end up with a solid collection of sophisticated home cooking.
The Italian Baker
Carol Field (Ten Speed Press)
After it came out in 1985, "Italian Baker" became a classic, a serious yet approachable guide to bread, pizza, focaccia and sweets. The revision is even better.
Momofuku Milk Bar
Christina Tosi (Clarkson Potter)
While David Chang's Momofuku restaurants were taking over New York, his pastry chef, Tosi, was staging her own revolution with desserts. Now Tosi shares the recipes for things like Cereal Milk and the crazy good Crack Pie.
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I go to Guglhupf for lunch, brunch, dinner, and of course, bakery items. LOVE them. They have one dish I love even more than the rest. It’s the Alsatian Potato-Leek Torte – sliced potatoes layered with fresh herbs, leeks and cave-aged Gruyere cheese. Can you request the recipe? 
Here are some opportunities to learn to cook brunch, make pasta and mix cocktails. 
Chef Tom Ferguson is looking for a space for Rise, a doughnut and biscuit restaurant. 
What’s not to like about shrimp sauteed in butter with garlic? 
Lemon juice, olive oil, fresh mint and parsley are sunny flavors from the sun-drenched hills of the Eastern Mediterranean where these products grow in abundance. 
We got a note from Deborah Weschler with the N.C. Strawberry Association that farmers are predicting the strawberry crop will continue into June. Here’s what she says: “Several growers have reported that plants are flowering nicely and they expect to harvest on into June. Jim Warenda of Dean’s Farm says, “Volumes have dropped but we should have berries through June 2.” 
Can the barbecue sauce make the cookout? Sure, it can – if the cook makes the right sauce. Read our feature stories on your time. We'll deliver our best work right to your inbox, for free!
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