This Just In: Passionate Vegetarian is a Passionate Book About Vegetarian Cooking! 5 Peas out of 5.

Passionate Vegetarian, by Crescent Dragonwagon

My mother brought me this book as a gift just after I announced my newfound vegetarianism. Over lunch at a local diner, I began scanning the pages, and soon I was guiltily ignoring my mother and reading Passionate Vegetarian instead. I read the book over the course of one day, and boy, was there a lot to read. You wanna make a salad? Crescent Dragonwagon will show you how to make a salad! But there's more- beyond her recipes (which are fun to read)- there's a story here. Crescent shares her home and work life in tiny, eloquent snippets. A cook book never made me cry before- unless I was chopping onions at the cook book's request.

You get the feeling, when you read Passionate Vegetarian, that you're receiving a condensed version of Crescent Dragonwagon herself. Here's the deal: own Passionate Vegetarian, and you feel like you've made a friend. A wise, exuberant, passionate friend. It's a great cook book, even if the recipes seem intimidating (or even impractical) at times-the writing is magnificent, the atmosphere is haunting, and the food, when done right, is delicious. Buy it, buy it, buy it.