A few titles worth your consideration:

Mary Karlin's Artisan Cheese Making at Home is beautiful and inspirational. Home cheesemaking requires a little more dedication than breadmaking or ice pops, but Mary brings the mysterious within our grasp and I can't wait to get started.

With 1493, Charles Mann continues his New World history. I recommend reading 1491 first.

Here in California, it seems we all want to pretend we're from Italy and somehow our collective past is Tuscan. Maybe not but it seems that way sometimes. I'm intrigued by the era of the missionaries and their complicated legacy. The California Missions is just about perfect, performing a balancing act between coffee table book and history.

Lourdes Castro is apparently a very good cooking teacher in Miami. My only exposure was from the cover of her book Simply Mexican, which looks simply awful from the photo of her looking as if she's never handled a cob of corn before. I'll cut her some slack because her Spanish-English cooking dictionary is excellent. Eat, Drink, Think in Spanish: A Food Lover's English-Spanish/Spanish-English Dictionary would be handy for a professional working with a Latin staff but we at-home cooks who love noodling around with Mexican and other Latin foods will find it invaluable. I'm embarrased to find words I thought I was using correctly, only to find I've been making huge mistakes. Not surprised, but embarresed.