How to Cook Like a Man: A Memoir of Cookbook Obsession by Daniel Duane

Duane dealt with the birth of his first child in a unique way: he took over the dinner preparation for his family, but rather than focusing on simple food preparation and nutrition or sustenance he went off the deep-end into obsessive cookbook mania (never repeating the same recipe twice, checking recipes off toward an epic unattainable goal).

This isn't a cookbook - you'll have to find the books Dan's reading to replicate his progress. More, it's a story about his obsessive-compulsive cooking saga and the ups and downs of his life that drive it.

The book's entertaining, and Duane is a smooth, talented writer who blends the cooking mania and food preparation stories into the tale of his personal growth and family life. He twines things together in a rare way: one paragraph of biography on a famous chef may also somehow tell you about the progress of the remodeling of the Duane family home.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and both envied and pitied his wife throughout. Early on in the book (and in their relationship) Liz explains her preference for simple, uncomplicated food - which Dan resolutely and dramatically ignores for years.

The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones

If you're a food channel and cookbook addict, this book is for you!

I'd never heard of Jones, but she's a big-wig in the publishing industry, along the way working with and becoming friends with many of the biggest names to publish cookbooks: Julia, Jacques, Lidia ... She's also co-written a couple cookbooks, too.

Here, Jones talks about her own growth as a "foodie" and the things she learned from each of her famous authors: how she discovered Asian cooking as she published with notable Asian chefs, how she explored game meats as she helped with the L.L. Bean cookbook, etc. One of her favorite tricks was to bring these chefs home to cook in her kitchen - forcing them to adapt to non-commercial equipment and thereby learning how we may all reproduce their culinary magic later.

You'll be hungry almost the whole time you read this book, and thankfully Jones includes a section of recipes at the end. Although I'm not sure I'll try the calf's brains anytime soon, there are others I'm definitely interested in reproducing!

Two Dudes One Pan by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo

For all the hype, I wanted a book on fun regular food with no fuss. "One pan" - and "dudes" - it can't get too complicated with a name like that, can it? Oh, yes it can.

The title is a misnomer. The contents page breaks the book down into these sections: the big bowl, nonstick skillet, classic skillet/frying pan, dutch oven, roasting pan, and baking dish. And the dudes? Trained chefs with a catering company.

Admittedly, the recipes are much simpler than, say, Martha. And the "dudes" really do seem to have fun in the kitchen. But the cover photo with a tattooed arm plucking chicken pieces from a skillet? Just slick marketing from another set of Food Network starts.