A Cookbook Auction for The Invisible Child

Last week, hurrying about my errands and to-do lists, in between work and answering emails, I clicked on a link on Twitter that led me to this article, this epic piece really, a 5-part series about a homeless family in New York City. The article focused on one of the family's daughters, a little girl named Dasani. Dasani, born into a different kind of life, would have the regular bright things ahead of her that we all, most of us at least, take for granted. Home-cooked dinners, new clothing and the ability to go to the bathroom alone and without fear to start, followed by regular school attendance, a high school diploma probably, college and a life - stable, regular, quotidian - thereafter. Instead, Dasani lives a life that would crush most of us. If you haven't already read about Dasani and her family, I urge you to. It will take some time, but it is worth it.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the family - and the thousands like it - since. When I take a shower alone and unmolested, when I watch Hugo eating his dinner that I have no trouble putting on the table, when I lie back in my clean, quiet bed at night to read, I think about all these silly little things that make up my everyday life and how completely out of reach they are for a girl, and a family, that has simply had the bad luck to be born into different circumstances than I have.

I've also been thinking about how to help, which is where you come in. I've decided to auction off a good portion (about half!) of my cookbook collection and will be donating all proceeds to the Invisible Child Fund at the Legal Aid Society of New York. There are a lot of great books in the collection, like the much-coveted and out-of-print The Last Course by Claudia Fleming, a signed copy of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, M.F.K. Fisher's The Cooking of Provincial France set that she did for Time-Life, and Alice Medrich's cult favorite, also out-of-print, Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Desserts (one of the first books I scored on eBay way back when because of a food blog).

After much thought, I decided not to use eBay for the auction - I don't want anyone to hesitate to bid because they don't have an account. Instead, I'm going to auction the books off right here. I think it should go relatively smoothly. Here's how it'll work: I'm going to list the books up for auction below, with author name, title, condition of the book, and a bidding price. If you want to bid on a book, just leave a comment or send me an email or a tweet with the amount and I'll update the bidding price. The auction will end on Friday.

Please help by spreading the word far and wide. While I can't guarantee that the books will arrive in time for Christmas, depending on where you live, I do promise to ship them into the postal system the weekend before Christmas. The books are all in new or almost-new condition, with the exception of the few vintage ones among them. Bonus: Deb Perelman, the author of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, will be matching the winning bid for her book, no matter how high it goes.

And: If you spend over $50 on any book, you'll also receive a copy of My Berlin Kitchen as a gift.

Thank you, sweet readers, for reading and for participating.

1. Susan Herrmann Loomis's French Farmhouse Cookbook - paperback, like new. $15 (Lisa)

2. Barbara Kafka's Roasting: A Simple Art - hardcover, gently used. $50 (Sarah G.)

3. Deborah Krasner's Good Meat - hardcover, new. $35 (Heather)

4. Alice Medrich's Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts - hardcover, gently used. $75 (Emily Harris)

5. Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking - hardcover, like new. $100 (liza)

6. Claudia Fleming's The Last Course - hardcover, new. $165 (Julie)

7. Sara Forte's The Sprouted Kitchen - hardcover, new. $100 (amanda)

8. Gourmet's Cookie Cookbook - hardcover, like new. $50 (Deb)

9. Jamie's 15-Minute Meals - hardcover, new. $35 (Sarah G.)

10. Jamie's Great Britain - hardcover, new. $35 (Heather)

11. Lisa Fain's Homesick Texan Cookbook - hardcover, like new. $40 (Heidi)

12. The Nepenthe Cookbook - hardcover, new. $10 (Terry Covington)

13. Alton Brown's Good Eats 1 & 2 - hardcover, new. $30 (Rosie)

14. Food52 Cookbook, Volume II - hardcover, like new. $40 (Karey)

15. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough's Ham - hardcover, new. $10 (floribunda)

16. Clotilde Dusoulier's French Market Cookbook - paperback, like new. $25 (Hannah)

17. Liana Krissoff's Grains for a New Generation - paperback, like new. $15 (Ali T)

18. MFK Fisher's Cooking from Provincial France - hardcover with spiral bound recipe booklet in slipcase, vintage. Good, clean, unused condition. $150 (saffronandhoney)

19. Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook - hardcover, new. Winning bid will be matched by Deb. $50 (Rebecca vw via email)

20. Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, dedicated and signed - hardcover, new. $100 (Rebecca vw via email)