A cookbook you couldn't put down?

I think the food porn comment can only come from someone who hasnt read may of Nigella's cookbooks. When I cook I want the full story, how the recipe came about, what its inspirations were, what to expect as it bakes as well as when you eat it. Nigella is the best at doing this and has fail safe recipes that I know will work, and I can make even if I have visitors coming and its the first time ive attempted the recipe.

Stewart said:

You could make dumplings and pie.

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"warm apple pie"

oops! goofy person at the keyboard here ;0)

I can think of several great cookbook reads:
The Tex-Mex Cookbook : A History in Recipes and Photos
by Robb Walsh- I checked it out for the recipes, but read it for the history of the Tex-Mex industry. Very well written. And the recipes look good too.

Square Meals : America's Favorite Comfort Cookbook )
by Jane Stern and Michael Stern- another book of teriffic recipes-some I've actually used..but the stories behind those recipes are what make the book worth buying, rather than just copying out a few recipes.

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances
by Laura Schenone - very interesting!

Eat My Words : Reading Women's Lives Through the Cookbooks They Wrote )
by Janet Theophano- This one was NOT just about the food. I was specially interested in learning about how women used to use their men's old discarded books to make recipe books/journals. They'd copy out a recipe or notes and paste them over the pages in these old books.

I'm extremely inept when it comes to cooking. My sister in law bought me a recipe book that a local high school FHA group put out. I make things from time to time, but only, and only if, I have a lot of time to clean up and to try again should I burn something.

A cookbook that I enjoy is "Biscuits, Spoonbread, and SweetPotato Pie" by Bill Neal. It has some pretty good recipes and a little story to some of the recipes.

And then there is Laurie Colwin:

Laurie Colwin

This page is devoted to my favorite author, the late, great Laurie Colwin, who wrote about food, love, and domesticity with amazing accuracy. Before her untimely death she wrote five novels, three volumes of short stories, and two memoir/cookbooks.

Ms. Colwin, much like Jane Austen, wrote about society and manners. Her novels are short on plot and long on character. She knew how to take the reader inside the life and mind of a single person and make the reader know that character like an old friend.

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I'll calm down here soon, I promise.

I like Nigella Lawson - not for that reason - her recipies always work. Most cookbooks tend to be more factual, but I found that Nigella's How To Eat had alot of (irrelevant) information about aunts that I found funny.

Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook
AKA: funniest cook book ever. never cooked anything from it, but i've read it cover to cover. haha

Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen
AKA: the book my kitchen would be lost without. it's entertaining, informative and generally indespencible. i've given it to a few people for bridal showers and whatnot-- and to my mother-in-law who swears the book changed her life

Hannibal comes to mind.