Writer: Mary Boldinova
Photos: Duane Tinkey
Cookbooks, like vinyl, never go out of style. Despite the wild variety of recipes online — in food blogs, YouTube tutorials, Instagram reels — cooks are after print. Kathy Leonard and Carrie Anderson, the two librarians managing acquisitions for the Des Moines Public Library system, add more than 400 cookbooks to the city’s collection each year.
“It’s worth putting significant money into cookbooks because the public is genuinely interested and really wants them,” Leonard said.
If you’re wondering why people still make their way to the library when most recipes can be found with a few clicks, Leonard and Anderson have a theory. “We were talking about this,” Leonard said. “If you want a specific recipe, going online is probably easier. But if you want the visual element, print often outshines digital. Or if you want to learn more about a culture or really delve into a topic, it’s easier to do in book form.”
We stopped by the Central Library to learn more, and lightly edited the following Q&A for length and clarity.
L-R: Carrie Anderson and Kathy Leonard
With thousands of books published every year, how do you decide which ones earn a spot on the library shelf?
Leonard: We look for new selections in many different ways. We read lots of reviews to find new releases. Our vendors send us monthly lists on different topics, so we find out about different upcoming titles that way, too. And we accept customer suggestions. We find out about a lot of local titles from them. Or if we missed something, they help us fill the gaps. Last year, someone reached out to let us know we didn’t have any books on how to make your own pet food. Now we do!
What do you look for in those reviews? What makes the final cut?
Leonard: First, we want to know it’s well written. We also look at how the publisher is promoting the book. If it will be on a television show, for example, or if it’s going to get reviewed a lot, that means people will hear about it. These are the cookbooks people are likely to ask for, rather than just browsing the cookbook section.
Anderson: If a review mentions that the author is a popular blogger or a celebrity, that clues me in the same way — people might look for this because they’ve heard of the author, even if I haven’t. Sometimes, if it’s Ina Garten or Taste of Home, I just buy it. We know people will want it based on the name alone.
What cookbooks are Des Moines readers loving most right now?
Anderson: “Good Things” by Samin Nosrat is the most popular cookbook right now, with nearly twice as many requests as the next one on the list. Her earlier book, the New York Times bestseller “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,” was also one of the most popular cookbooks of 2025 despite being several years old. The second most requested title and most checked out in the last year is “What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” by Caroline Chambers. “Baking Across America” by B. Dylan Hollis is another top title, following up on the popularity of his 2023 title “Baking Yesteryear.” About eight of the 10 most requested cookbook authors are social media influencers. It’s a trend we see. Both Chambers and Hollis had large TikTok followings before they ever published a cookbook.
Have you spotted other trends about cookbooks and recipes?
Anderson: We see a thousand different variations of quick and easy weeknight dinners. As long as I’ve been doing this job, those are always at the top of the list. Some topics ebb and flow a bit — ethnic cooking like Mexican, Mediterranean diet, that kind of thing. Anything with a Des Moines connection does really well. “Classic Restaurants of Des Moines and Their Recipes” came out a few years ago — everybody wanted that. State fair recipes, anything with a local tie-in, is really popular here. And, of course, healthy eating in general is always popular.
Leonard: Sometimes we see a little uptick in interest in healthy recipes in the first couple months of the year, tying into New Year’s resolutions. But overall, it stays pretty steady.
Do cookbooks wear out or get dirty, considering how people use them?
Anderson: Not as much as you’d think. You can tell over time if something’s been checked out a lot — the pages get kind of worn. But also, cookbooks are generally made better than a lot of our other collections. Some topics come to us pretty cheaply bound from the get-go, whereas cookbooks tend to be pricier — hardcover, sturdy pages — so they hold up longer. Sometimes a cookbook has been checked out 10 times, and it’s still beautiful. I cook and bake enough to know that my actual cookbooks get food on them. This is one of the reasons we think people aren’t always using them to necessarily cook from them. It’s inspiration.
