Book Summary and Reviews of The Anthony Bourdain Reader by Anthony Bourdain

The Anthony Bourdain Reader by Anthony Bourdain

The Anthony Bourdain Reader

New, Classic, and Rediscovered Writing

by Anthony Bourdain

  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

The definitive, career-spanning collection of writing from Anthony Bourdain, assembled for the first time in book form, with an Introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Anthony Bourdain represented many things to many people—and he had many sides. But no part of his identity was more important to him than that of a writer; it was one of the central ways he saw himself. Revealing Anthony Bourdain's observant, curious, and hungry mind, The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a collection of Bourdain's best writing and touches on his many pursuits and passions, from restaurant life to family life to the "low life," from TV to travel through places like Vietnam, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai.

With pointed opinions on the specific use of brioche buns, the devastation of Western foreign policy, and the pain and pleasure of hot pot, this new collection encapsulates the unique brilliance of a once-in-a-generation mind and one of our most distinctive writers. After Bourdain's years of traveling the globe in search of the very best of cuisine and culture, The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a testament to the enduring and singular voice he crafted, with eclectic and curated chapters, including visceral graphic novel excerpts, some of his most well-loved recipes, and never-before-published pieces.

Edited by Bourdain's longtime agent and friend Kimberly Witherspoon, and with a new Introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is an essential reader for any Bourdain fan as well as a vivid and moving recollection of his life and legacy. 

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"A delectable treat for those heavyhearted devotees, as well as a phenomental introduction for those who have yet to discover Bourdain's creative, curious, charismatic voice...The collection...is large and luscious, full of fun, variety, insight, and wonder--just like the man himself...A worthy scrapbook of Bourdain's big, bold life...vivid, evocative, and ample helpings of Bourdain's joy, sharp humor, and wonder...An endless buffet from a giant, voracious, soul-searching talent." —BookPage (starred review)

This information about The Anthony Bourdain Reader was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain was the author of the New York Times bestsellers Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, World Travel, and Appetites and the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo. His work appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker. He was the host of the popular television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Bourdain died in June 2018.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Anthony Bourdain Reader, try these:

  • How to Read Now jacket

    How to Read Now

    by Elaine Castillo

    Published 2022

    About this book

    An exploration and polemic that redefines the power and potential for reading by a novelist whose "prose is as good as it gets" (NPR) and who has "a real voice: vernacular and fluid, with a take-no-prisoners edge" (Kirkus).

  • Townie jacket

    Townie

    by Andre Dubus III

    Published 2012

    About this book

    An acclaimed novelist reflects on his violent past and a lifestyle that threatened to destroy him - until he was saved by writing.

  • Manhood for Amateurs jacket

    Manhood for Amateurs

    by Michael Chabon

    Published 2010

    About this book

    The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.

We have 10 read-alikes for The Anthony Bourdain Reader, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Biography/Memoir

Browse all Biography/Memoir books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
Who Said...

He who opens a door, closes a prison

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.