Southern culinary icon Nathalie Dupree has died. The celebrated cookbook author and television host’s obituary says she died Monday at her home in North Carolina.

There are a lot of cooks at NPR. Every time we ask our staff for recommendations for our annual, year-end books guide, we get back a veritable smorgasbord of cookbook offerings.

A lot has been said about the joy of cooking, but what about the fury? A host of new cookbooks right now aim to help cooks pound, grate and shred their feelings about the state of the world.