Books

Books by Jessica B. Harris


My Soul Looks Back – 2018 Pen Open Book Award Finalist 
In the Technicolor glow of the early seventies, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan’s West Side to the restaurants of the Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day—luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. My Soul Looks Back is her paean to that fascinating social circle and the depth of their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other.  Read more >>

Purchase from your preferred bookseller:

The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent

In The Africa Cookbook, culinary historian and cookbook author Jessica B. Harris takes you on a tour of the Motherland, exploring the extraordinary diversity of the cuisines of the continent.

Beyond Gumbo
For most Americans, Creole cooking is permanently and exclusively linked to the city of New Orleans. But Creole food is more than the deep, rich flavors of Louisiana gumbo. In reality, its range encompasses foods spread across the Atlantic rim. From Haiti to Brazil to Barbados, Creole cooking is the original fusion food, where African and European and Caribbean cuisine came together in the Americas.
High on the Hog
An utterly engaging history of African American cuisine, taking the reader on a harrowing journey from Africa across the Atlantic to America, and tracking the trials that the people and the food have undergone along the way.
 
Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons
Cajun, Creole, and Caribbean dishes all have their roots in the cooking of West and Central Africa; the peanuts, sweet potatoes, rice, cassava, plantains, and chile pepper that star in the cuisines of New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Brazil are as important in the Old World as they are in the New World.
 
A Kwanzaa Keepsake
A day-by-day guide to celebrating Kwanzaa that honors and affirms African-American culture, food and family.
 
Rum Drinks: 50 Caribbean Cocktails, from Cuba Libre to Rum Daisy
With recipes for 40 of the Caribbean’s classic and contemporary cocktails and 15 traditional snacks to accompany them, Rum Drinks provides a tropical taste vacation.
  
Sky Juice and Flying Fish
A truly authentic guide to down-home traditional Caribbean cooking, the kind you’d find at roadside stands, Ski Juice and Flying Fish captures the feel of the Islands, bringing the blue-green sea, the tropical breeze, and the exotic scents of the Caribbean into the American kitchen.
 
The Welcome Table
The African-American way with food combines the improvisational techniques that gave the world jazz with the culinary techniques and piquant tastes of the African continent.