The book goes vegetable by vegetable, alphabetically, so you can easily find a use for whatever you find in your garden or CSA box for the week. The recipes are simple and they combine ingredients that are available fresh and locally simultaneously. The book also includes tips for home food preservation, although it is by no means an exhaustive source of knowledge for canning, pickling, or any other preservation method. Be warned, it's not specifically a vegetarian or vegan cookbook.

I discovered World Vegan Fusion Cuisine on a trip to Kauai. My hostel was across the street from the restaurant that created the cookbook, Blossoming Lotus. After eating there for three meals a day during the entire trip, I had to get the book. The recipes are not simple, but they are worth it - especially for anyone interested in live or raw diets.

The following books are ones I have not used personally but I have heard them highly recommended:

• Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
• La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer
• How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer
• The Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer

Other Books

SuperfoodsRx single-handedly changed my diet. The book describes in detail the 14 foods you should eat to stay healthy. Of the 14, 12 are vegetarian: blueberries, beans, tomatoes, yogurt, broccoli, spinach, walnuts, oats, pumpkin, soy, tea, and oranges.

Instead of telling you what not to eat, the book tells you what to eat and how to eat it (and enjoy it!). In each chapter, the author, a physician, describes why the featured superfood is good for you.

Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe authored three winners between them - Diet For a Small Planet, the sequel, Hope's Edge, and Anna's new book, Grub. They advocate eating sustainably and provide fun ways to do so (such as recipes and party ideas).

Every American should read Fast Food Nation. If you are already vegetarian or vegan, you will be glad you are. When I read it, I'd gone vegetarian only a few months before, but I hadn't eaten fast food in years. I was horrified that I used to eat it - and consider it a treat!

If you haven't read it, read it - or go see the movie.

Marion Nestle, an NYU professor with degrees in molecular biology and public health nutrition, wrote three books I enjoyed.

Food Politics covers the tactics used by food producers to influence scientists, government, and consumers. Nestle details the creation of the USDA food pyramid and nutritional guidelines and discusses food-related topics ranging from nutritional supplements to infant formula.

Safe Food focuses on bacteria, biotechnology, and bioterrorism. If you enjoyed Fast Food Nation and you want to see why our system is so screwed up, read it.

Her most recent book, What To Eat, answers just that question. Ok, so you're in the grocery store. What do you eat? Of her books, this one was the most fun to read for me.

Do not miss reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. This book clarified for me, more than any other book, what goes into the food we eat today. Pollan traces four American meals - fast food, Whole Foods "industrial organic," locally & sustainably grown, and hunted & gathered - from the earth to the table.

Pollan writes non-fiction about food with the sort of descriptive sensory detail usually reserved for novels. If you enjoy is writing, check out his other book, The Botany of Desire