Hi, there are a couple of book clubs that center around fiction books that have food in them. For example, "cook the books" seems to be an internet book club where anyone can read any of the books and then write their own blog post response, kind of Tumblr style comment linking.

You might also enjoy fiction books that are heavily inspired by food like the Julie and Julia my year of cooking dangerously. Another book that I have been thinking about is called sourdough by Robin sloan.

There are all kinds of gimmicky cookbooks out there where you make everything there is one style. For example, one pot cookbooks where you make everything using minimal dishes, or where are you make everything inside of a slow cooker or a smoke cooker or inside of a steam cooker etc. They are also other cookbooks that have cutesy themes like cook like a man and the dude diet

I've seen a lot of cookbooks while trying to shop for family members and holiday gifts but I just don't really recommend very many of them at all. So many of them like you said are just rehashed and it's kind of expensive to pick up a cookbook just for the pictures. Normally I would consider checking out your local library and renting books that way as well but when there is food around I feel hesitant with a borrowed book.