In its roughly 50 parts, all written by experienced cooks and cook book writers, HP Books' "The Book of ... Cooking" series takes you to the cuisines of various regions of the U.S. and around the world; all in easy to follow, well-explained recipes.

This installment, the Book of Claypot Cooking, presents recipe suggestions for all major courses, from soups to desserts and breads. Special chapters are dedicated to fish and seafood, poultry, (red) meat, vegetables, rice, grains, pulses and microwave recipes. Classics such as beggar's chicken, boeuf Bourguignonne, clam chowder, ratatouille, coq au vin, duck, German Sauerbraten, glazed ham, Irish stew, jambalaya, roast turkey, lamb, paella, oysters Rockefeller, pot roast, mulligatawny, shepherd's pie and stuffed peppers appear next to unique dishes such as marinated tuna with lime, potatoes with pine nuts, pumpkin with chorizo, sweet 'n spicy game hens and tarragon scallops.

From apple pie puff to zucchini loaf, this collection of recipes, while not all-encompassing, is a great introduction to the endless ways of preparing a meal with the claypot method (which is much healthier and less calory-laden than traditional stovetop and roasting methods) - and at a relative bargain price, to boot.

Comes across a bit like watered down Burroughs, but this writing is interesting because it's so stripped down--acoustic Burroughs--lacking the electrical force of the explosion of images, and rape and plundering of words which typifies Burroughs--but while retaining Burroughs' subject matter.

This first piece in this book however is the exception--"Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986"--lays out Burroughs' position on America rather sweetly.

This book displays an in depth analysis on a tiny Mexican village on how people make their medical decisions. The authors did a superb job on analyzing intricate details. However, the level of this book is beyond the average reader. If one is not familiar with statistics and the medical anthropology jargon used here, then it is basically worthless to read this book. It is so dry that one would have a better time chewing cardboard. However, if medical anthropology is your cup of tea, then the book may just be the thing you need to explore the world of Mexican curers and phyisicians.

While alternative treatment is often considered the exception to the rule in the United States, this is not the case in many areas throughout the world. This book documents a study which examines why residents of Pichataro (a small, traditional, predominantly poor, Mexican town in Tarascan) choose one type of health treatment over another. The authors use their study to develop a set of rules which can then be used to predict what type of treatment the average villager will choose in any given situation.
I liked this book. It has any easy to read writing style, making for quick reading, and does not have the incessant statistics and jargon found in most anthropological studies. However, being an Anthropology book, I thought it talked down to its intended audience a little too much, in that I didn't like the way the authors used first person references to 'talk' to the reader or refer them to what they've already read.
Yet overall, I would say that this is a good beginner's Anthropology book, which offers great insight into the traditional Mexican community and the factors which contribute to their medical treatment choice.