With Father's Day just nine days away now, it's time to offer some great book recommendations in earnest. Reading tastes vary widely, of course, so what one person loves the next may totally, completely and unabashedly reject. But here's my pledge. Starting today and up until Father's Day, I'll offer one great book pick a day -- a hot new title, a recent standout, or a beloved favorite that I just can't live without -- for the dad in your life. Counting the Rick Bragg Prince of Frogtown recommendation in my last Book Fare post, that'll make a total of 10 book choices that would make great gifts. Somewhere in this list should be the perfect book for you. (I'll hold off on suggesting any clothing or candy ideas for dads -- that's not in my orbit.)

    OK. Let's get to it. My first pick involves a divorced man, a broken heart, and a desire to learn how to cook seriously delicious food -- plus plenty of adventure and wonderful writing talent. I'm talking about The Saucier's Apprentice by Connecticut-based author Bob Spitz (Norton, May 08). His rollicking tale describes a series of trips he took to some of the best cooking schools in Europe and how, through his traveling, cooking, learning and musing, he came out on the other side -- wiser, saner, and with his kitchen skills much improved (and his heart very much healed). 

    This author was born to write about all things gastronomic. Here's a typical passage:  "Waiters served wild duck in a crust of Indian spices nesting on a plump roasted peach half. Mounds of puffed potatoes studded with girolles had been sweetened with dried apricot. [French chef Yannick] Alleno presented a sea-bass fillet with aromatic herbs, sweet-pepper fondue, and sardine cream. If you were lucky, there was room for one of his signature desserts. I did hand-to-hand combat with creme brulee ice cream swaddled in an orange-flavored biscuit and decorated with tiny wild strawberries that someone had shipped from Andalusia." (Yes, you will gain 10 pounds just reading that.)

    Spitz is well known for his fine biography of the Fab Four a few years back, which he spent eight years working on; we excerpted that book, The Beatles, as a major cover story in our November 2005 issue. So this rapturously written book about food, and life, and the joy of being able to share what he learned with his daughter, Lily, was a delightful surprise. "And it was a lovely, gorgeous way," Spitz told me, "to get away and cook a little three times a week."

    I'll say. And something tells me he's cooking a lot more than three times a week now -- or should be.