A sampling of new and favorite books.

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	What the World Eats  •  Peter Menzel CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 160 PAGES • FAMILY D'alluisio and Menzel, authors of the poignant Material World, chronicle diverse families in this portrait of global nutrition. The 25 featured clans, each strikingly photographed surrounded by a week's worth of food, range from hunters in Chad to subsistence farmers in Ecuador to abundantly well-fed Americans. This engrossing read raises the issue of world food supply. Includes recipes. (GEN478, $22.99)
	Biba's Italy  •  Biba Caggiano FOOD •  2006 •  HARD COVER  • 320 PAGES Cookbook, travel guide and how-to-eat in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan and Venice, the satisfying, appetizing Biba's Italy presents not just recipes but also menus, cultural notes and recommended restaurants, cafes and markets in each city. Chef-owner of Biba Restaurant in Sacremento, Biba focuses on regional, seasonal food. With 100 recipes. (ITL777, $29.95)
	The World Atlas of Wine  •  Hugh Johnson  •  Jancis Robinson FOOD •  2007 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES An invaluable, illustrated guide and atlas, covering wine-producing regions around the world. This revised fifth edition takes in new grapes, new wines and new wine-producing regions. Although France is given emphasis, California, Spain, Italy, South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other regions are also well covered. With hundreds of color photographs, illustrations and excellent full color maps (which vary in scale according to region). (GEN244, $50.00)
	The Atlas of Food  •  Erik Millstone REFERENCE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 128 PAGES An invaluable resource for understanding global food and agriculture, now in its second edition. Featuring handsome illustrations and informative maps, this book confronts issues of global inequality and calls for a more sustainable system. (WLD147, $19.95)
	The Best Recipes in the World  •  Mark Bittman FOOD •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 757 PAGES A how-to culinary tour of over 40 countries, from the exotic (the Balkans) to the expected (France, Italy). It gives full weight to Asian cuisines as well. With over 1,000 recipes, many of which can be prepared in under 30 minutes. We love Mark Bittman's approach to food, which is unpretentious, practical and committed to deep flavor. This book joins Bittman's How to Cook Everything on our essential shelf. (GEN116, $29.95)
	The Accidental Connoisseur, An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World  •  Lawrence Osborne FOOD •  2005 •  PAPER  • 262 PAGES Oh, what a quest -- and what great fun. Osborne journeys across the world to places like Provence, Tuscany and Sonoma on an animated quest of what makes wine and what makes it good. He stops by New York, San Francisco, Paris, Florence, and Rome to see what people are drinking. He meets plenty of interesting characters along the way (like Robert Mondavi), revealing much about the pleasures of wine (and travel!) We're hoping for a southern hemisphere sequel. (TVL31, $14.00)
	Apricots on the Nile, A Memoir with Recipes  •  Colette Rossant FOOD •  2004 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES Rossant enlivens her warm tale of an extended Egyptian-Jewish family waiting out WWII in Cairo's Garden City with family photographs and recipes. (EGY213, $12.00)
	The Tuscan Year, Tuscan Life and Food in an Italian Valley  •  Elizabeth Romer FOOD •  1996 •  PAPER  • 182 PAGES • FAVORITE An intimate portrait of life on a Tuscan farm, as seen primarily through the robust food. Romer captures the goings-on in the countryside, and especially in the Cerotti kitchen, where traditional Tuscan rural food is prepared with loving care. Every chapter includes concisely described recipes. The index makes it easy to look up recipes if you're inspired to use this wonderful account as a cookbook. (ITL131, $14.00)
	Made in Spain, Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen  •  Jose Andres FOOD •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 254 PAGES Andres takes in the great diversity of Spain, its culinary traditions, regional specialties and modern innovations in this cookbook and culinary tour, featuring dozens of superbly illustrated recipes. Each section is introduced with an excerpt's from the roving chef's Spanish journals -- Valencia, Extremadura, Madrid, Galicias, Aragon, Asturias and La Rioja. (SPN366, $35.00)
	Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink  •  David Remnick FOOD •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 582 PAGES These entertaining and stylish essays, fiction, and cartoons collected from the pages of The New Yorker over the last 80 years includes contributions by such delightful, delectable prose masters as M.F.K. Fisher, A.J. Liebling, Calvin Trillin, Joan Didion, John Cheever and Roald Dahl. (GEN453, $30.00)
	Beyond the Great Wall  •  Jeffrey Alford  •  Naomi Duguid FOOD •  2008 •  HARD COVER  • 376 PAGES The globe-trotting duo weaves their own tales of travel with contemporary politics, commentary, carefully documented recipes and stunning photographs for this sumptuous overview of the food and culture of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and other far-off regions of ethnically diverse China. (CHN475, $40.00)
	Food, The History of Taste  •  Paul Freedman FOOD •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 368 PAGES Editor Paul Freedman has gathered essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians for this richly illustrated, comprehensive history of taste from prehistory to the present. The authors explore the early repertoire of sweet tastes; the distinctive contributions made by classical antiquity and China; the subtle, sophisticated, and varied group of food customs created by the Islamic civilizations of Iberia, the Arabian desert, Persia, and Byzantium; the magnificent cuisine of the Middle Ages, influenced by Rome and adapted from Islamic Spain, Africa, and the Middle East; the decisive break with highly spiced food traditions after the Renaissance and the new focus on primary ingredients and products from the New World; French cuisine's rise to dominance in Europe and America; the evolution of modern restaurant dining, modern agriculture, and technological developments; and today's tastes, which employ few rules and exhibit a glorious eclecticism. (GEN395, $39.95)
	Climbing the Mango Trees, A Memoir of a Childhood in India  •  Madhur Jaffrey BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2007 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES • NEW Jaffrey closes her warm tale (peppered with sepia-toned photographs) of coming of age in a sprawling homestead in Old Delhi with 32 savory family recipes. (IDA327, $14.95)
	Untangling My Chopsticks, A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto  •  Victoria Abbott Riccardi TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES The appetizing memoir of Victoria Abbott Riccardi's experiences in Kyoto, where she studied the ancient culinary art of kaiseki, the ritual which precedes the Japanese tea ceremony. Riccardi writes with a good-natured humor that could only come from someone who has fought the uphill battle of learning the local language from scratch, and a wide-eyed appreciation for all that she learned about Japanese culture, history, and, of course, food. She includes 25 recipes for traditional and less traditional Japanese dishes. (JPN135, $12.95)
	Making Sense of Wine  •  Matt Kramer FOOD •  2004 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES A thoroughly engaging guide to the production, selection and pleasure of a good glass of wine. Journalist and food writer Kramer tackles corks and glasses and cellars, food grapes, geography and taste with admirable clarity.This is a revised edition of a classic, including a section of recipes. (GEN286, $12.95)
	Between Meals, An Appetite for Paris  •  A.J. Liebling BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2004 •  PAPER  • 182 PAGES • FAVORITE Liebling unleashes his stylish prose on his own coming-of-age in Paris in this elegant memoir. A large man with an even larger appetite, he recalls many great meals, fine wines and unforgettable companions. Beware, it will send you straight to the nearest restaurant. (FRN32, $14.00)

	The Food Lover's Guide to Florence, With Culinary Excursions in Tuscany  •  Emily Wise Miller   • GUIDEBOOK  •  Miller polled neighbors, friends, cooks and ordinary folk for this delectable guide to 125 eateries, organized by neighborhood. (ITL841, $14.95)
	A History of the World In 6 Glasses  •  Tom Standage   • FOOD  •  A high enjoyable chronicle of the prestige, power, politics and pleasures of key beverages through the ages. Standage argues that the drinks that have mattered, since the Stone Age, are, in chronological order: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Each chapter is a vivid history of politics, prestige, colonialism, commerce and society. (GEN333, $15.95)
	Arabesque, A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, And Lebanon  •  Claudia Roden   • FOOD  •  Roden leavens 150 well-chosen, classic recipes of North Africa and the Middle East with scraps of history, culture and tales. With 93 color photographs. (MED99, $35.00)
	Around the World in 80 Dinners, The Ultimate Culinary Adventure  •  Cheryl Jamison   • FOOD  •  The entertaining, enterprising cookbook writing duo include memorable meals -- with recipes -- in a whirlwind, 10-country odyssey that takes them to Bali to Australia, New Caledonia, Singapore, Thailand, China, Southern India, South Africa, Provence and Salvador, Brazil. (WLD142, $24.95)
	Choice Cuts, A Savory Selection of Food Writing from around the World and throughout History  •  Mark Kurlansky   • FOOD  •  A witty collection, organized thematically, with a rich selection of writing by the likes of Liebling, MFK Fisher, Escoffier and Alice B. Toklas. (GEN253, $16.00)
	Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors  •  Lizzie Collingham   • FOOD  •  This cultural history with recipes is appetizingly organized as a menu (biryani, vindaloo, chai, etc.). Curry explores the origins and spread of Indian food and the interplay between Muslim, Hindu, Portuguese and British traditions on the Subcontinent. (IDA319, $15.95)
	How to Eat Around the World  •  Richard Sterling   • FOOD  •  Sterling takes particular joy in describing his more bizarre encounters with exotic foods in this entertaining gourmand's world tour. He covers everything from table manners to drinking around the globe to what he calls "The Holy Trinity of Cuisine" (China, India and the West). (TVL87, $12.95)
	Mangoes & Curry Leaves, Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent  •  Jeffrey Alford  •  Naomi Duguid   • FOOD  •  In this latest book the roving, food-loving authors (Hot Sour Salty Sweet) travel the seven countries of the Indian Subcontinent: Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, collecting not only 200 recipes but also engaging tales of the people, history and adventures. With color photographs of food and places throughout. (IDA320, $45.00)
	Piano, Piano, Pieno  •  Susan Mckenna Grant   • FOOD  •  The title, "slowly, slowly, full" in Italian, sums up the cooking style advocated by Grant, an organic farmer in Tuscany, who brings together 200 authentic recipes in this lovingly-produced cookbook. (ITL975, $40.00)
	Spice, The History of a Temptation  •  Jack Turner   • FOOD  •  Turner wonderfully evokes the romance, lust and mystery of pepper, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, cloves and ginger in this lively cultural history of spice. (GEN334, $14.95)
	The Art of Eating  •  M. F. K. Fisher   • FOOD  •  A 50th anniversary edition of Fisher's influential memoir on the pleasures of food (and family and travel and life). It includes Serve it Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets. It's all pure pleasure: the prose, the settings and, not incidentally, the food. (TVL91, $24.95)
	The Oxford Companion to Food  •  Tom Jaine  •  Alan Davidson   • FOOD  •  Well worth browsing, this refreshingly opinionated, quirky book is also a pleasure to read. Organized A-Z (and much of it written by Davidson himself) the book covers everything: ingredients and foodstuffs, national cuisines, famous chefs and food writers. (REF07, $65.00)
	The True History of Chocolate  •  Sophie D. Coe  •  Michael Coe   • FOOD  •  This scholarly history of pre-Columbian chocolate by these married archaeologists reveals chocolate's origins as a ceremonial beverage in ancient Olmec and Maya society. The Coes trace the treat's evolution from a food of the gods to the salons of Europe down through the masses to Hershey Pennsylvania. (CAM57, $21.95)
	Material World, A Global Family Portrait  •  Paul Kennedy  •  Charles C. Mann  •  Peter Menzel   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  An inspired idea, this book documents 30 families around the world with all their possessions arrayed around them. (GEN02, $25.00)
	The Spice Route, A History  •  John Keay   • HISTORY • NEW  •  John Keay draws on ancient logs, traveler's accounts and maps for this rousing history of trade in cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pepper, gums, resins and other costly goods from antiquity to the 17th century. (ASA52, $16.95)
	The Taste of Conquest, The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice  •  Michael Krondl   • HISTORY  •  Weaving travel and history, Michael Krondl a world where pepper, cinnamon and cloves were as valuable as gold -- and Venice, Lison and Amsterdam jockeyed for global control. (EUR279, $16.00)
	My Life in France  •  Julia Child   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • NEW  •  Child's characteristically ebullient record of Paris and Provence, her many friends, family and memorable meals, in the years after WWII. (FRN596, $14.95)
	Everything but the Squeal, Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain  •  John Barlow   • LITERATURE  •  Barlow, his wife (from Galicia but a vegetarian) and young son gallavant from roadhouse to fine dining establishments, villages and cities in this endearingly offhand, loving account of travels in honor of pork. A delightful, witty guide to the traditions, culinary and otherwise, of the region. (SPN368, $25.00)
	The Measure of Her Powers, An M.F.K. Fisher Reader  •  M. F. K. Fisher   • LITERATURE  •  A fat, judicious selection of M.F.K. Fisher's writings, which spanned a lifetime and chronicled adventures (culinary and otherwise) in France, Switzerland and Italy, on shipboard and in her native California. (CUL01, $22.95)

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