Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine
(Non-Fiction) A cookbook is not a shopping list: Clear, precise, engaging prose matters, and The Gourmet Cookbook has it. These 1,200 recipes, culled from 60 years of Gourmet magazine, are practical, approachable and delectable. It includes classics like Oysters Rockefeller and Lobster Newburg, but it's far from stodgy: Contemporary American cooking is spicy, lean, and cosmopolitan, and The Gourmet Cookbook keeps up with the times. (Grilled Korean-Style Steak with Spicy Cilantro Sauce, anyone?) It's also handsome: pose this stately sunflower-yellow volume on your countertop with some ingredients, and you have an instant culinary still life.