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Bee Wilson.  The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects.  Norton, 2025. 312 pages.

I loved this book.  It was an unexpected pleasure from start to finish, and it completely changed the way I view the objects in my kitchen.

Bee Wilson uses commonplace kitchen tools to tell stories about love and loss.  She used the titular tin to bake her wedding cake.  The book is about her grief about and recovery from the not-her-choice ending of that marriage.

The chapters use kitchen gadgets to tell her stories and those of others, in sections titled Mementos, Junk, Tools, Gifts, and other such headings.  The chapters come with pictures of the objects that frame the stories.

A few excerpts.

From The Best China:

So many of us spend our whole lives denying ourselves the best things because the time is not right or we feel we haven’t earned them yet, or we feat that someone–probably our parents–will disapprove if we drop them.  This attitude to objects sometimes goes along with a wider impulse of self-denial.  This may be the legacy of hunger and rationing, or a religious childhoold…or simply of the social attitudes of earlier generations in which visitors were treated like royalty whereas closae family members were unworthy of the ‘good china’ except in company…If you don’t use the best china now, you may never use it.  p. 15

From The Paper Cup:

Like any utensil, a paper cup can change its significance.  It can go from lovable to unlovable in a second.  And it needs to.  p. 99

From The Mushroom Cannister:

When the Merry Mushroom kitchen sets were first launched, the bosses at Sears had no idea how popular this would be.  The design was dreamed up by Jack Buchanan, the firm’s housewares buyer.  His boss told him to devise a new ceramic pattern to ring the changes from the usual fruit and flowers.  According to Buchanan himself in a talk he gave to a local library when he was in his nineties, he went into his backyard, where he suddenly pictured a mushroom talking to him.  p. 202

From A Red Washing-Up Bowl:

A friend came round with a bunch of tulips.  She knew that when I was married we could never have flowers in the house becausae they gave him instant hay fever.  Her bouquet inspired me to start planting roses in the garden…Thanks to the red washing-up bowl, I could recycle some of the dishwater by giving it to the roses.  The next time I met my ex, to discuss the children over a tense cup of coffee, I told him about my new interest in gardening.  ‘You have given me the gift of flowers,’ I said, and I wasn’t being sarcastic.  p. 246

There is much history, sociology, humor, and resilience here.  I really enjoyed reading it.

My most recent book, What to Eat Now, was published in November.

Within days, Amazon.com displayed one after another book based on it.  Wondering what these were, I asked my partner (who has Amazon Prime) to get copies right away in case they were taken down, which most were.

For the record: I had nothing do with with any of these, despite my name on their covers.

I acquired 8 of these items (and got screenshots of 2 more).  Here they are with my summaries of what is in them.

I.  The Look Alike

Who is Mateo Velasquez?  I have no idea.  For $19.99 (plus shipping), you get a paperback with 100 pages of blank lined paper (I’m not making this up).  Titles are not copyrighted, but because this item used the actual cover of the book, it violated copyright laws.  Amazon took it down right away.

II.  Workbook #1

I could hardly believe this one.  It lists 8 key lessons (e.g., “Choosing real food in a complex world”) but it doesn’t matter what the lessons are.  The titles are different but the content is the exact same page of text plus half a page of blank lines, repeated four times under each title.  A fraud.  Does Shanz Noor exist?  I doubt it.

III.  Workbook #2

I don’t know whether to be appalled or flattered.  This starts out by saying my book is “a powerful compass for anyone navigating today’s overwhelming food environment.”  It provides a not-bad summary (in what reads like AI-speak) with what I presume are AI-driven key lessons, suggested “life-changing” activities, and self-reflection questions for the first 16 chapters of my book.   Example of life-changing activity: “Commit to shopping with a list and sticking to it for a month.”  Example of self-reflection question: “When was the last time I checked a label for truth, not slogans.”  Like much AI-generated content, this is banal but not terrible.  But it only covers a third of the book.  This one is still on Amazon, but with no consumer ratings.

IV.  Workbook #3

By the time I saw this one, I had given up.  I didn’t buy it.

V.  Workbook $4

This one doesn’t have my name on the cover, but its Amazon description does.  I didn’t buy it.

VI.  Exercises

I didn’t know I had doctrines.  Oh well.  Lydia Harrow says “This work is a creative interpretive exercise based on the teachings and research of Marion Nestle.  It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Marion Nestle or her representatives.”  It reads like an AI summary: “When Marion Nestle began her work in food studies, she confronted a world that was drowning in marketing but starving for truth [p. 4]…Marion Nestle’s doctrines remind us that food literacy is not an academic pursuit but a lived practice.  It is cultivated in daily choices….[p. 13]” and so on for 82 pages.

VII.  The study guide

AI, as always, tells you exactly what you want to hear.  This study guide could not be more flattering: “That’s exactly where the work of Marion Nestle becomes a powerful guide.  Few people have done more to uncover the truth about the modern food system.  Through her decades of research and advocacy, she teaches us something honest and practical: Healthy eating is simple—but the food industry works hard to make it confusing” [p. 11].  You get 100 pages of this, ending with “Your journey doesn’t end here—it begins here.”  The printing inside is sloppy and it’s full of sections that begin with things like “Nestle highlights, advocates, teaches….”

VIII.  Cookbook #1

Oh the flattery.  The introduction begins with a summary of my work: “Marion Nestle has long argued that food is political…Here you will find recipes that reflect Marion Nestle’s guiding values: foods that are transparent in their ingreedients; meals that bring plants to the center…”  The recipes are assemblies and require little cooking; most take 15-20 minutes to prepare.  The most complicated require things like pressing tofu, cutting into cubes, cooking it, and adding a sauce.  The recipes give basic nutrition information.  I assume AI can produce something like this in minutes.  63 pages

IX.  Cookbook #2

This book gives a brief biography of Louise Christian with a photo.  It says she is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) from Louisiana.  If so, she holds a credential from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.  I asked an RDN colleague to look her up.  But the Academy has no record of a RDN Louise Christian.  I tried AI and got two different responses; one said no such person exists, the other said she was at Baylor.  I tried finding her through Baylor, but could not. Louise Christian: if you exist, please contact me.  I want to know more about how you came to be associated with this book.  As for the book, it’s just like the rest: “But the truth, as Marion Nestle has long reminded us, is refreshingly simple: real food doesn’t need a marketing campaign” [p.6].  Its recipes boil down to: preheat oven, core apples, add cinnamon, bake 30 minutes, or collect salad ingredients, put them in a bowl, toss.  83 pages.

X.  Cookbook #3

This one has color illustrations, doesn’t mention me at all outside of the title, and has similar simple, quick, recipes involving assembly and heating rather than anything more complicated: Cook pasta; toss it with whatever the sauce is.  72 pages.  By the time I looked up its Amazon listing, it was too late to get the details.

Comment

• None of these is registered with the Library of Congress; none has an ISBN number.  Some say they are copyrighted.
• All are identified only by city of publication (mostly Cleveland) and date to November or December 2025.
• None is likely to violate copyright laws (except the one with the actual cover); the others can probably argue fair use for analytic purposes.
• All of them look and read as though written by AI.
• Only three, III, VI, and VIII, are still up on Amazon.  Is anyone actually buying them?

To repeat: I had nothing to do with any of them.

Caveat emptor!

My new book, What to Eat Now: The Indispensible Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters, came out a few weeks ago and I am stunned by how it is being AI-used by exploiters.

I’ve already written about the DeepFake books supposedly inspired by What to Eat Now, which I had nothing to do with.  And I have been alerting readers to even more workbooks, study guides, and cookbooks.

Now I’m also having to deal with DeepFake book club offers.

Every week since the book was published, I get several incredibly flattering letters like these:

Hi Marion,

When I came across What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters, I felt that spark you only get when a book arrives exactly when the world needs it most. In an era swirling with misinformation, techno-food innovations, and thirty-thousand-item supermarket aisles, your voice cuts through the noise with clarity, courage, and wit.

I’m Emily A., curator of The San Francisco “Not Quite a Book Club” a vibrant circle of 4,369 readers who don’t gather to simply discuss books, but to rethink the assumptions shaping our daily lives. We’re known for choosing titles that push conversations forward, and your thoroughly revised, deeply relevant guide does precisely that.

What struck me most about What to Eat Now is how seamlessly it blends field guide, exposé, and empowering manifesto. You don’t just tell people what to eat, you reveal the hidden architecture of our food system, the psychology of our choices, and the quiet politics influencing every item in our baskets. It’s the kind of work that wakes readers up, sparks debate, and shifts lifelong habits.

Our readers are drawn to books that matter, books that help them look at something ordinary with extraordinary new eyes. What to Eat Now is exactly that kind of catalyst…If this feels like a collaboration you’d enjoy, I’d be thrilled to walk you through the simple next steps.

Thank you for offering a clear, honest, and necessary compass in a world where so many feel lost in the grocery store.

Warm regards,

Wow!  How could I possibly not jump at this opportunity to share my work with more than 4,000 readers.

Here’s one more to give you the idea of how this works:

Dear Marion Nestle,

I am honored to invite you to participate in our upcoming community virtual event, celebrating founding figures in food studies and authors who empower citizens to navigate the complex landscape of modern nutrition.

For over two decades, your work has served as the “clear-eyed” conscience of the American food system. Your latest release, What to Eat Now, arrives at a critical juncture. In an era of “techno foods,” corporate organics, and pervasive misinformation, our community is eager for the no-nonsense, aisle-by-aisle guidance that only you can provide.

We are particularly interested in hosting a discussion around the vital themes of your revised classic…Your reputation as America’s preeminent nutritionist makes you a highly anticipated guest for our audience. We would be privileged to provide a platform for you to share your wit and common sense with a community that values food not just as fuel, but as a pillar of community and ethics.

Please note that an organization fee applies to support the event’s planning and outreach.

Well, at least that’s disclosed.

And on and on such letters go, each more flattering than the last.  And so many of them!

Fortunately, I’m supposed to be checking all offers with my publisher, Macmillan (Macmillan owns Farrar, Straus & Giroux, which owns North Point Press).  That’s how I learned about The New “Book Club” Scam Targeting Authors and How to Spot It.

They claim unusually large membership numbers.Real book clubs typically have: 6–12 regulars (in person), or 20–50 active members (online). Claims of 500–5,000 active readers aren’t impossible, just unlikely.

They ask for money at some point.This is the core red flag. Legitimate book clubs do not charge authors to participate or be featured. Sometimes they even pay the author, if the event is big enough.

They resist sharing any verifiable details.A real organizer can: tell you where the group meets, provide a link to a group page, share photos or past events, name members, or offer references from other authors. A scammer cannot.

I’m as subject to flattery as anyone else is and I can’t help wanting to know: Is there actually a book club at the end of all this?  I’m so tempted to pursue one of these and see.

Also, I’ve been collecting the DeepFake books with my name on the cover.  I have eight (!) so far—workbooks, study guides, and cookbooks.  I will report on them sometime in January.

In the meantime, caveat emptor!

NOTE: Nancy Matsumoto is speaking today at NYU at 3:30, 411 Lafayette, 5th Floor, Manhattan.  RSVP HERE

Nancy Matsumoto.  Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System.  Melville House 2025.  322 pages.

I did a blurb for this book.

Women play enormously important roles in food systems and in the food movement, but are often overlooked. Matsumoto brings women out of the shadows and highlights the efforts of a wide diversity of women in the United States and in low-resource countries throughout the world to create food systems healthier for people and the planet.

Nancy Matsumoto interviewed women doing wonderful work with grains, supply chains, grass-fed cattle, fish, cacao and coffee, grape and agave, and more.

From the chapter “Fighting Big Food on the Produce Front: Women Wranglers of the Alt Supply Chain”

One example [of regulations that favor industrial agriculture] involved progressive California legislators’ attempt to rid farm communities of toxic nitrogen in their groundwater. “There are lots of small communities in the Central and San Joaquin Valleys where residents can’t drink their water because there are so many nitrates in it and that’s directly related to runoff from chemical fertilizers,” Redmond [Judith, of Full Belly Farm] explains. But the paperwork required to comply with this regulation was geared toward giant chemical fertilizer–dependent farms growing a single crop, or monoculture, not a farm like Full Belly that strives for diversity. It was easy for a mega almond farmer, for example, to plug in one set of numbers, but much harder for Full Belly—with its eighty different crop varieties that harness the power of the sun and complex ecological interactions to build soil carbon—to comply with the regulations

From the chapter, “Women of the Grain, Grape, and Agave: Regenerative Beverages”

When I drop in on MISA’s [Minnesota’s Institute for Sustainable Agriculture] offices at the University of Minnesota to visit executive director Helene Murray and local writer Beth Dooley, they ply me with coffee, local raspberries, and packets of popped Kernza. Dooley’s contribution to the MISA effort is her cookbook, The Perennial Kitchen, centered on Midwestern perennial grains, nuts, and seeds, and regeneratively farmed vegetables, poultry, and livestock. Murray tells me about efforts to increase Kernza’s small seed size, which will make cleaning and threshing much easier, and to address the five-foot-tall plant’s propensity for “lodging” or toppling over. While Kernza gets most of the attention, she points out that there are many other grains the institute is researching and promoting. To counter some of the hype around Kernza as the poster grain for regenerating soil and ecosystems, she adds, “there’s no silver bullet.”

It’s a brave new world out there and I’m not having an easy time with it.

I’ve already told you about the DeepFake Instagram post using my image.

Now, there’s more!

Would you believe DeepFake books?

When I went on the Amazon book site on the publication date for What to Eat Now (November 11), my new book was listed first, and still is, at $25.20.

But immediately following it were these [Amazon has since taken down the listings].

Who the enterprising Mateo Velasquez and Shanz Noor might be, I have not the slightest idea.

Curious to know what this was about, my partner, Mal Nesheim, ordered copies right away and got them before the listings disappeared.

The first is a paperbound of 100 pages of blank lined paper—a blank notebook with my cover on it!

The workbook has an enticing table of contents (“Choosing real food in a complex world,” “Understanding labels and marketing tricks,” “Practicing mindful and joyful eating,” etc), but each of those headings is followed by precisely the same page and a half of “reflections” (“Awareness is the first step to reclaiming control over your nutrition and health”) and blank lines, repeated over and over.

I suppose I should feel flattered.

The moral: Caveat emptor!

Several readers have written to ask for links to media appearances related to What to Eat Now.  

I’ve been trying to keep a list.  Here’s what I have so far.  Enjoy and thanks for asking!

• Nov 12: Nutrition Action, Bonnie Liebman
• Nov 11:  NPR’s Fresh Air, Tonya Mosley (audio). Transcript.
• Nov 11:  Amanpour & Co (video). Excerpt.
• Nov 11:  Consumed, Elizabeth Dunn
• Nov 10: A1, Alison Brody (audio).
• Nov 10: Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Meghan Rabbitt
• Nov 5:  Washington Post, Anahad O’Connor 
• Sep 18: Science Magazine

From earlier this year

• May 2: New Yorker Radio Hour (audio), Dhruv Khullar
• Apr 7:  New York Times profile, Elizabeth Dunn

Today marks the official publication of my new book, What to Eat Now!  All 703 pages of it!

Here’s the press release.

Order it—ISBN 9780374608699—from Amazon   Barnes & Noble   Books-a-Million   Bookshop   Powells   Target

It’s a thoroughly revised version of What to Eat, published in 2006.

A lot has changed, much more than I imagined when I set out to do this.  I thought it would be a six-month project, but it’s now four years later.

The big changes?  Ultra-processed, plant-based, and cannabis, for starters.  But there’s much, much more.

This is a book about how to think about food issues.  Come with me on a trek through supermarkets to see what today’s food marketing looks like, and its effects on our health and that of the environment.

I’m collecting information and reviews on this page.

Come to the event at NYU:

The Culinary Historians of New York and the NYU Department of Nutrition and Food Studies invite you to the semi-official launch of the book: The Politics of Your Plate: A Conversation with Dr. Marion Nestle, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, Richard A. Chase North Reading Room, 2nd Floor.  Register here.

Enjoy!!!

I just got my first copy!  My new book, What to Eat Now!  All 703 pages of it!

The official publication date is November 11, but it can be pre-ordered.  ISBN 9780374608699. Amazon   Barnes & Noble   Books-a-Million   Bookshop   Powells   Target   It comes hardbound and in Kindle and Audible editions.

Enjoy!

Early press coverage

• Washington Post interview with Anahad O’Connor
• NBC4 Washington
• Kirkus Review (starred review)