must read

It's almost Halloween, and I have a treat for all you vampire-crazed home cooks: it's The Complete Vampire Lover's Cookbook, Love at First Bite ($10). This ghoulishly good paperback is a festive cookbook with over 300 "suckulent" recipes. Although there are no pictures of the dishes, the tome is full of great ideas and delightful inspiration. Read on for more details!

Earlier this year, Slow Food queen Alice Waters released her 12th cookbook, In the Green Kitchen. I recently got my hands on the small hardback tome and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! Since the subtitle is "Techniques to Learn by Heart," the book focuses on teaching culinary basics like washing lettuce, poaching eggs, and roasting meat. The idea is that these simple methods are the building blocks to create countless dishes. The techniques are not shown by Waters, but her friends — Rick Bayless, David Chang, and Charlie Trotter to name a few — from the gastronomic world. To learn more about the book, keep reading.

From the flowers to the music, there are a number of crucial elements to every wedding, but in my opinion, there's nothing more exciting than planning the actual cake. Regardless of whether or not she's looking into cake toppers, the cake tower is sure to be at the top of the bride's mind, and a new book, Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach by Toba Garrett ($50), is here to help. I had a chance to preview the book. See my assessments of it when you read more.

Cinco de Mayo is a little more than a week away, and I've got Mexican cuisine on the brain. So imagine my surprise and delight when I received a copy of a new title, Amor Y Tacos: Modern Mexican Tacos, Margaritas, and Antojitos, by Deborah Schneider. With cocktails and simple food suggestions, the small, portable cookbook focuses on the sort of party food that's perfect for Cinco de Mayo, or any other warm weather celebration. To find out if it lived up to my high party girl standards, read more

If you're not sure what to do for Earth Day, raise a fork to Mother Earth today with a brand-new book title, Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods ($20), written by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, the two founders of Edible Communities. Edible is an organization that publishes magazines throughout various regions of North America that focus on the local food industry; its just-published eponymous book gives readers a glimpse of communities across the United States. Is it worth buying? Decide when you read more.

Watching her as a judge on Iron Chef America, I always thought Donatella Arpaia was cold and snobby.

However, after reading her hints for romantic cooking and seeing her up close and personal at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, I've changed my mind. I think the independent Italian restaurant owner is fabulous!

Naturally I was excited to get my hands on her hot-off-the-presses cookbook, Donatella Cooks ($32). Did the book live up to my high hostess expectations? Find out after the break.

Although Passover lasts for only a few more days, its occurrence is always a reminder (for Jews and non-observers alike) of how much Jewish culture has shaped contemporary culture and cuisine. What's the origin of dill pickles, and how did cream cheese come to be paired with salmon? Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking ($24) tackles such questions, all while offering more than 100 traditional Yiddish recipes. Learn more about it after the jump

Upon realizing that March is National Noodle Month and National Sauce Month, I've been obsessed with learning more about Eastern noodle dishes and Asian sauces. So I swore it was culinary kismet when I got sent a copy of Easy Asian Noodles ($18). The title is by Helen Chen, a writer with three other Chinese cookbooks under her belt and the founder of an Asian cookware line. For an established Asian cooking figure like Chen, would this new book live up to its expectations? Find out when you read more.

If you're well-read in the food blog department, chances are you've come across Steamy Kitchen, a haven for East Asian-inspired recipes. A friend once described Jaden Hair, the mastermind behind the site, as "the Asian version of Rachael Ray," because her recipes are simple, straightforward, and speedy to prepare at home. Recently, she released her first-ever cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook ($19), a compilation of 101 of her top recipes. Is her Eastern take on modern cuisine a good bet when celebrating the Lunar New Year? Find out when you keep reading.