Fall used to be when all the show-pony cookbooks were published, waiting to be propelled into holiday best-sellerdom. Spring? You know. It was nice. Something for Mom. Don’t forget that grilling Dad. Well, those rules no longer hold. Just as Beyoncé can drop an album out of the sky one morning, or leaves can start turning color well before Labor Day, cookbook publishers have upended the game, unleashing Chrissy Teigen in March and quietly launching word-of-mouth juggernaut Samin Nosrat in, like, June.

And so this year’s fall releases are a hodgepodge of deliciousness at every level, from hyperdork Nathan Myrhvold’s five-volume, $562 Modernist Bread to a taco book from a dude with a truck; home-cooking hand-holders from a certain Redzepi, and Bon App’s own Alison Roman. There’s even a very stylish and oversized “book” that would look great stacked with the latest issues of Apartamento and The Gentlewoman. I’m trying to remember what the biggest celebrity release is. Kristin Kish? Hugh Acheson’s slow-cooker book? Ah, right: Ottolenghi’s Sweets. #obsessed

Here are some of our very objective favorites.

Photos by Peden + Munk

Will Yotam Ottolenghi’s and longtime collaborator Helen Goh’s Sweet: Desserts from London’s Ottolenghi (Ten Speed) turn your kitchen into The Great British Bakeoff, Notting Hill Edition? Will it become the Plenty of baking? If you’re not starting as an amateur, it definitely could. As much as I admire Ottolenghi (an early fan, I was lucky to be his editor at Bon Appétit), I will sheepishly say that, for the most part, these recipes require a bit more skill and commitment than my American attention span can muster at the moment—though I want to change! While recipes like tahini and halva brownies, almond butter cake with cardamom and baked plums, and the cover star, cinnamon pavlova with praline cream and fresh figs will certainly make it into the rotation, I’ll have to work my way up to hazelnut crumble cake with gianduja frosting and apricot-thyme galettes with polenta pastry. That said, the recipes in Sweet are considered and elegant; grown-up productions for kitchens with counter space, well-calibrated ovens, and a deep pantry. I aspire.