This is a short book, full of suggestions, advice, and even sample itineraries. I’ve gotten a bunch of good ideas from it, as well as reinforcing others.
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal (translated by Sam Taylor) is a fictional biography of Mauro, a young man who dreams of working as a cook / chef.
Four Soldiers is a short novel about members of the Russian Army fighting the Civil War in 1919. Mr. Mingarelli won the Prix Medici prize in 2003 for this novel