Summer reading should be easy to plow through. The last thing you want to do when you're sitting in a pool of sweat--or on a breezy beach--is to have to keep flipping back a page because you couldn't follow. If you have to struggle, you'll just end up taking a nap.

That doesn't mean you have to read trash. It just means the writing should be clean, compelling, and a little sexy--even if you're reading a cookbook.

With this criteria in mind, we submit our summer reading list, broken down by Smile and Act Nice categories. We'll add categories throughout the month of June.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
by Deborah Madison
Divided into handy and easily referenced chapters by type of vegetable, this cookbook has become a lovely staple in my kitchen. In addition to sharing the most succulent recipe for a potato and onion spiked Spanish tortilla, and numerous ways to serve lasagna most unconventionally, Madison manages to sneak snippets of educational mantra into her savvy pages. You'll learn which grains work best for risotto, how to herald tomatoes, and turn out French fries that rival McDonald's any day of the week. Ideal for those who eat nothing but veggies, but really, a divine addition to any kitchen as all the recipes can be modified to include meat, poultry, and seafood. -malin hansson
amazon.com buy Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Cook's Ilustrated
Bi-Monthly Magazine
The epitome of a culinary magazine, this treasure, under the knowledgeable and hands-on editorship of Christopher Kimball, is easily devoured from beginning to end. Each recipe is presented along with a full-page essay, explaining how the author came up with or tested the recipe, why each ingredient is used, and exactly how the proportions were determined. You'll savor treats like traditional pasta carbonara, the perfect way to grill corn, and which party dips are ideal for a summer rendezvous. Additionally, each issue luxuriously includes a product test on some sort. So far I've discovered which grill is most superior, what kitchen knives passed the muster, and what brands of store-bought pasta sauce far excelled. Subscribe now. You'll count down the days till each copy arrives. Oh, and did I mention--this is completely advertising-free. -malin hansson
cooksillustrated.com subscribe or preview

The Pizza Book
Evelyne Slomon
Sloman's Pizza Book is hands down the cookbook that I've learned the most from and has also made the biggest difference in the food I cook at home. Granted, it's pizza, and not everyone lives in central Texas and aches for the pizzas of her native north east as much as I, but this book has taught me to make pizza at home with crust that wows me every single time. And it's really easy. Using rapid rise yeast and a food processor, the crust is mixed in seconds (literally) and only needs about 25 minutes total rising time (I swear). Add few simple techniques for stretching the crust (or tossing if you're ambitious) and optimum baking (use an oven fitted with a pizza stone or cheap quarry tiles preheated for an hour on 500 degrees) and you won't believe the results you achieve either. Plus, this is only one recipe. Not only does Slomon provide history and recipes for every version of pizza ever invented, she gives away the secrets of famous pizza joints all over the country, from John's in New York City to Pepe's (of New Haven, CT), famous for his white clam pie. -jen scoville
amazon.com buy The Pizza Book

The New Food Lover's Companion, Second Addition
Sharon Tyler Herbst
A very easy to use dictionary of food and wine terms, this little culinary resource may not be Gastronomique, but for its comparative weight-it's a light little paperback--it definitely cuts the mustard. As a new editor of food articles, the Food Lover's Companion got me up to speed fast, and I found that I used it at home just as much as at the computer. Now I know that spaetzle, a German dish of tiny noodles or dumplings, is named for a sparrow, and that the bitter batter-fried greens my Italian grandmother used to call "gardoons," are really the vegetable broccoli rabe, which in America are predominately used for animal fodder. There's also an extensive appendix in the back which includes a ton of valuable information from measurement equivalents and substitutions to butchery charts, an additives list, addresses to consumer information sources for every piece of produce and natural foodstuff available, and much more. -jen scoville
amazon.com buy The New Food Lover's Companion

You Say Tomato
by Joanne Weir
Finally. A luscious book devoted entirely to one of the most popular fruits of the garden. From pasta and eggs to more exotic fruits and cheese that do well alongside this ripened red round, you'll find the ideal pizza dough recipe in the midst of this paperback. I've made it twice already, and marvel at the ease with which I've effortlessly mastered the art of creating the perfect Italian pie. Weir's recipes are, for the most part, quite simple and basic, though the result is magically inspirational, and will encourage you to stock your bottom refrigerator drawer full of tomatoes. You never know when you'll be called upon to make a slow-simmering sauce, beautifully versatile as the base for any evening meal or Sunday lunch. -malin hansson
amazon.com buy You Say Tomato

The Complete Meat Cookbook
Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly
Who ever thought a reformed vegetarian would be so into a total meat cookbook? I had always prided myself on being a decent cook, but the embarrassing truth of my twenties was that save a couple of Thanksgiving turkeys, I had no earthly idea how to cook meat. And then when I did finally give it a whirl at home, nothing tasted like it comes to you in a restaurant, everything was bland and dry.

The Complete Meat Cookbook turned all that around. Not only does it guide you in selecting specific cuts, but it gives you a whole meat anatomy lesson and explains that today's meat is being bred for leanness which makes it less tasty. Aidells and Kelly compensate with simple marinades and brining techniques that they call the "flavor step" to prepare meat for cooking, and then offer a master recipe for each cut. Additional recipes build on that base with both continental and ethnic seasonings and distinct pan sauces. Marinading and brining require a little forethought, but then all you have to do is put the meat to the heat source and your done! So far I've tried the pork tacos al pastor, sauteed filet mignon with artichoke and mushroom ragu, and sauteed pork chops with vermouth and mustard sauce with great results-this book is bound to take its place among staples like the Joy of Cooking and Chez Panisse Vegetables. -jen scoville
amazon.com buy The Complete Meat Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, or Chez Panisse Vegetables.