Boozehound

Part travel diary, part investigative reporting, part recipe book, and wholly entertaining, Boozehound ($16) is quite the read for any sauce-loving creature. Written by Jason Wilson, spirits writer for The Washington Post, this 240-page hardback chronicles Wilson's adventures in Europe and the Americas as he searches for the answers to such primal questions as why we drink what we drink and where does it come from, all while offering up simple yet obscure recipes using the hooch described in each chapter.