The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press ($35)

Even if you have avoided learning the art of baking in the past, this book could change your mind in short order. The text is engaging, the photography first rate and the recipes too intriguing to ignore. Not only does the author give the ‘how-to’ with different techniques, ingredients and styles, he also delivers the “why.”While this book is a treasure trove for any baker, it is also fascinating reading, a surprise in itself.

Peter Reinhart, co-founder of the legendary Brother Juniper’s Bakery, was one of Sonoma County’s first artisan bakers, and in his opening words he acknowledges his debt to the time he spent there. Even though he has moved on to become an instructor at a culinary academy in the East, it is obvious that many of his practices and procedures harkens back to the time he spent in Sonoma. From his recipe for basic sourdough and the Poilâne-style Miche, a sourdough bread made famous in Paris’ Latin Quarter, he pays homage to breads of almost every shape and flavor. Turn to the section on bagels and you have a history of sorts, the logic behind different types of bagel baking. With the recipes for brioche (“Rich Man’s Brioche” and “Middle-Class Brioche” and “Poor Man’s Brioche” among them) you also get an anecdotal history that includes Marie Antoinette’s famous quote. Which should have been, we are told, “Let them eat brioche.” It’s little things like this that make The Bread Baker’s Apprentice not just a valuable kitchen tool, but an enjoyable one as well.

With recipes that are straightforward and photography that both illustrates and beautifies, this is a book that a beginner (okay, a beginner with a dream) or an experienced baker can use and enjoy. In fact, simply looking through the book will make you a better consumer even if you never roll out a single sheet of dough. But that would be a shame, since the author vividly imparts the fact that making the bread is at least as satisfying as the final consumption of the end result.

Kindred Spirits
By Allen M. Schoen D.V.M.
Broadway Books ($14)

How good is this book? Everyone that read it went out and bought copies to send to friends, to relatives, and some sent it to not just their veterinarians but to their own doctors as well. It is that good and more. Without sounding too New Age, what the author does, and does with consummate skill, compassion and experience, is explore not just the way we deal with animals in modern veterinary medicine, but the interaction between animals and humans and the benefits to be gained from this interaction. There is a portion of James Herriot and equal parts kindly professor and dynamic modern day medical practioner. As the back cover says, in a statement refreshingly free of hubris, the book is “a remarkable new synthesis of science and spirit … reveal(ing) the many ways our animal friends can help us lead happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives.”

In Kindred Spirits the author gives not homilies but case studies to bolster, explain and expand on his philosophy of combining modern medicine, diet and homeopathy, traditional and alternative approaches and what could be considered the spiritual components of healing. This is not floating carpet mysticism, it is more like a checklist, or trial and error, of ask this question, a “let’s look at it this way” style of medicine that happens to bring positive results.

Who should read this book? Probably everyone, but certainly pet owners and animal lovers. Schoen does not make promises, and when he offers hope he does it in cautious terms. Still, it is fascinating, touching and ultimately useful, and worth every minute of time you spend with it.

A Portrait of Napa and Sonoma
By Andy Katz
Frequent Flyer Press ($29.95)

Over the past few years we have been lucky to have some of the photographs of the talented Andy Katz appear in Destination. As one of the pre-eminent photographers of wine regions around the globe he brings a near perfect perspective and tremendous technical skill to his subject, be it St. Helena or San Gimignano. In this book he divides his time between Napa and Sonoma Counties, to the benefit of both. It is page after page of stunning photography that simply does not need words, it is that thoughtful a collection of images.

In the introduction, Robert Mondavi writes “The Napa Valley and Sonoma regions … are truly twice blessed - they produce some of the finest wines in the world and the beauty of their landscapes and architecture also rank with the most attractive anywhere.” In this book, Andy Katz proves these words to be indisputably true as he shows off the two valleys with artistic finesse and genuine affection for his subject.

Wok Fast
By Hugh Carpenter & Teri Sandison
Ten Speed Press ($17.95)

We admit it, we’re addicted to the cookbooks turned out by the husband and wife team of Napa Valley residents Carpenter and Sandison. They are imaginative, a dream to use, and the photographs by Teri Sandison are never short of spectacular. No wonder readers keep clamoring for more, which they are happy to provide it seems.

Interspersed among the recipes are useful tips, which makes the book enjoyable to glance through as you look for the bits and pieces that make us all better cooks. Recipes such as Rainbow Chicken with Thai High Sauce do refer back to such things as marinades and sauces, but overall they do not slow things down. And learning the sauces only adds to your creative ability. The same can be said for the pages on wok technique, cutting vegetables and other quick tips that Carpenter presents in an easy-to-follow style. If you have been intimidated by cooking with that wok that has been gathering dust in your pantry, now is the time to dust it off, buy this book and begin exploring a whole new realm of culinary magic.

Andrea Immer’s Wine Buying Guide for Everyone
By Andrea Immer
Broadway Books ($12.95)

Andrea Immer has credentials that few other wine writers can equal, and she has an engaging personality and a fluid writing style. With that said we could only have hoped that this, her latest book, had a bit more substance to it. It is still a useful volume, especially for the reader who is either in a hurry or new to wine, and it is designed to fit handily in a side pocket so the reader can take it to a store or restaurant, or as it says on the back cover, to the local supermarket. But like a couple of the pinot noirs she mentions, it comes off a bit too light and thin and spends too much time at the lower end of the spectrum. Not bad, just not as filling as you had hoped. On her 30-point scale we give it a 16: good but not outstanding.

Boonville
By Robert Mailer Anderson
Creative Arts Book Company ($21.95)

If you’re looking for a guidebook to Northern California, look somewhere else. This first novel by the talented Robert Mailer Anderson is anything but. In fact, if I were staying in Boonville for the weekend I would not want to leave this book sitting on the dashboard of my car. It is that off the wall. But it is also a showplace for a new author with a keen – if slightly skewed – view of life and the lost-in-time Mendocino County spot called Boonville. If some books are a nice quiet ride down memory lane this is more like falling into a blender filled with a combination of characters from Kafka, Kerouac and the local loony bin. Blind shoplifters, psychotic softball players, hippie colonies, artists who work with stolen road signs as a medium, pot farms, squirrel sculptures, a clueless and love-sick yuppie from Florida and a bumbling deputy are just a few of the players in this novel. The others are even stranger.

Luckily Anderson is able to portray (if not contain) the freneticism of his characters with a skill that leaves them just as much out there on the fringe of society while also allowing the reader to enjoy each page without feeling exhausted.

As a caveat to anyone about to invest twenty-two dollars in this book, turn first to what might be called the disclaimer. It’s the long paragraph before the title page. If you’re still intrigued after you read this, buy the book and prepare for a strange trip into this little piece of the state. You won’t forget it anytime soon.