As far as I’m concerned, the bible of cooking is ‘The Joy of Cooking’ by Irma Rombauer. The recipes are simple and easy to follow along with while I’m cooking. If you want a recipe for sofrito, an authentic Chinese stir-fry, or an old fashioned New England slump, it’s all there.

I would recommend anything written by Michael Pollan. A good start is with ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma‘. He describes what is going on with food in this country.

‘Healing with Whole Foods’ by Paul Pitchford is a way of looking at cooking through the lens of the Chinese five elements.

‘The French Laundry Cookbook’ by Thomas Keller is amazing. He is one of the best chefs alive. He has a way of taking food from the source and transforming it into a gourmet.

All of the Beautiful cookbooks, like ‘Southwest: The Beautiful’ by Barbara Fenzel and ‘Mexico: The Beautiful’ by Susanna Palazuelos are gorgeous, authentic, and creative.

‘Creating a World Without Poverty’ by Muhammad Yunus. This book is a must read for those interested in the developing world.  Yunus created the Grameen Bank and is considered the father and creator of micro-credit lending.

‘The Starfish and the Spider’ by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom is about a decentralized organizational business structure and the power of having a leaderless organizations.