We’ve all heard stories – usually intended to be inspirational in some way, shape or form – about people who have died and come back. People who have suffered some sort of catastrophic accident or health-related incident and briefly passed away, only to, through some combination of quality treatment and pure luck, return.

The thing is, that’s often where the story stops – with the return. But what about what happens next? And what about the other people, the friends and family who, if you’ll pardon me, lived through it?

Those questions and their answers serve as the foundation for Drew Magary’s “The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage” (Harmony, $27). It’s the story of a fateful night a few years ago when the author suffered a massive and still-unexplained brain injury, one that led to his brief (but very real) death, followed by a medically-induced coma. It’s also the story of what happened when he woke up, as well as of the people who were there to witness what happened during that stretch of time before he came back. Not to mention his ongoing efforts toward some kind of recovery.

As you might imagine, there’s a lot of darkness to be explored here. And make no mistake – the shadows run deep in some sections of this book. But here’s the thing – Magary has developed a unique voice over his years of online writing (you can currently find him doing his thing on the excellent collectively-owned website Defector, which you should 100% subscribe to), a voice that is sharp and sly and self-aware and perfectly capable of mining humor and heart from the bleakest of ores.

If you’re a Food Network viewer of any regularity, you’ve seen Jeff Mauro demonstrate his skills and humor in the kitchen and on “The Kitchen,” the cooking-themed talk show, now in its 28th season, co-hosted by Mauro with Sunny Anderson, Katie Lee, Geoffrey Zakarian and Alex Guarnaschelli. Winner of the seventh season of the competition series “Food Network Star,” Mauro got there with an eggplant parmesan sandwich, which led to three seasons of his own show, “Sandwich King.”

The Chicago-born Mauro, 42, is one of the most relatable of all Food Network personalities thanks to his keep-it-real personality and sense of humor, which occasionally extends to the self-deprecating variety. His new book, “Come on Over: 111 Fantastic Recipes for the Family that Cooks, Eats and Laughs Together” (Harper Collins) has a lot of that personality spread across each page. It’s an unconventional cookbook in that each recipe is accompanied by a story – some funny, some simply meaningful – that ties into the dish at hand. The recipes and anecdotes are complimented by some truly impressive photography and easy to follow step by step directions.