A book celebrating the cuisine of the Kootenays has topped B.C. bestsellers list for all of 2021, according to the Read Local BC website.

Whitewater Cooks Together Again (Alicon Holdings) was written by Shelley Adams and features plenty of recipes along with gorgeous photographs. 

It's the latest in a series that dates back to when Adams ran the Fresh Tracks Café in the family-owned Whitewater Ski Resort near Nelson. In those days, she was often being asked for recipes by skiers and snowboarders.

"What this collection of books demonstrates is that cooking great meals doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated and you don’t need to be a trained chef to make fabulous, healthy and delicious food," Adams writes on the Whitewater Cooks website. "These recipes can be prepared with ingredients most of us stock in our fridges and cupboards and can be made in a short amount of time if you have done a little bit of planning and preparation beforehand."

The second-highest bestselling B.C. book in 2021 was A Is for Anemone: A First West Coast Alphabet (Harbour Publishing), by Robert Budd with illustrations by Roy Henry Vickers. It makes use of memorable images of the West Coast to promote early literacy and an appreciation of nature for readers from one to three years of age.

Number three was Mushrooms of British Columbia (Royal B.C. Museum), which is a beautifully photographed guidebook to help hikers identify fungus on their journeys around the province. Two mushroom experts, Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther, offer enlightening descriptions of many species.

The fourth-highest B.C. bestseller is a selection of nonfiction writings by deceased Kamloops-based Ojibwe writer Richard Wagamese. Douglas & McIntyre published Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit, includes an introduction by Drew Hayden Taylor.

Number five on the list and the bestselling B.C.-published novel of the year was A Lethal Lesson: A Lane Winslow Mystery (TouchWood Editions), by Iona Whishaw.

Rounding out the Top 10 were cartoonist Adrian Raeside's The World According to Dogs: An Owner's Manual (Harbour Publishing), Howard White's Here on the Coast: Reflections from the Rainbelt (Harbour Publishing), Stephen Hui's Destination Hikes: In and Around Southwestern British Columbia (Greystone Books), Marion McKinnon Crook's Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin (Heritage House), and Peter Wohlleben's The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature (Greystone Books).

To read about the other B.C. bestsellers from 11 to 20, visit the Read Local website.