12 New Cocktail and Spirits Books to Read in Spring and Summer 2022

In traditional publishing, the cycle for shepherding a book from start to finish can take up to two years, meaning that most of the books mentioned here were conceived and executed during the height of the pandemic, when many bars, restaurants, clubs and entertainment venues were closed or just doing their best in survival mode. 

Amid that uncertainty, some publishers put cocktail book projects on hold, while others roped in bartenders (from The Violet Hour, The Dead Rabbit, and the former Nitecap, to name just a few) and big-name celebs who suddenly had time on their hands (we’re lookin’ at you, Sammy Hagar).

A new book celebrating Black and Brown mixology should make some welcome waves. Look also to a book that mixes cocktail chemistry with the accessibility of pop-culture references from a YouTube personality. A guide to NYC bars should beckon to those who are thinking about travel (or armchair travel).

For those who are seeking deep-dive reading that spans beyond recipe collections, look to forthcoming volumes on the medicinal history of favorite beverages and a look at the socialist politics of alcohol. 

Peering even further ahead, a more robust roster of new book titles is anticipated for the fall/holiday season—typical in any year, but likely to be even more apparent this year in particular, as the book industry limps out of a third year impacted by the pandemic. We’ll look forward to those titles too. But for now, these are a dozen books to inspire pouring and mixing—and, dare we say, entertaining?—all spring and summer long.