Bite By Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees is a 2024 book by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, a collection of lyrical, illustrated essays that explore memory, identity, and culture through food. Each chapter focuses on a specific food (like mangoes, shave ice, or lumpia) and weaves together personal anecdotes, botanical facts, and cultural history, creating a "personal and natural history" that connects the everyday act of eating to larger themes of family, heritage, and the natural world.

Let's read this book together, discussing our own food stories and food history. We'll talk about food, what it means to us and where it comes from, while we prepare to unearth a treasure in our vegetable garden this Summer. Light refreshments will be served. This is a BITE INTO BOOKS Program.*

*Heights Libraries is leading the 2026 Cuyahoga County NEA Big Read (“BITE INTO BOOKS”) in collaboration with Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, East Cleveland Public Library, Euclid Public Library, Rocky River Public Library, Shaker Library, Westlake Porter Public Library, and various community partners. Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Dig in at cuyahogareads.org.