Softcover. NY, Aperture Foundation, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 80 pages. A large, beautifully designed photography publication with many full page photographs in black and white and color. Glossy wraps. "The Universe is nothing without the things that live in it, and everything that lives, eats" wrote Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in the preamble to his 1825 Physiology of Taste, or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy. Brillat-Savarin suggested that the forgotten tenth Muse was Gasterea, who presided over all the pleasures of taste. The feast of superb imagery related to both eating and the edible certainly attests to the possibility of such inspiration. And so inspired, for the first time Aperture serves up food . . . for thought. Here you'll find mouth-watering photographs by Bruce Davidson, Nan Goldin, Horst, Barbara Kruger, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sylvia Plachy, Cindy Sherman, Nick Waplington, Andy Warhol, William Wegman . . . and more! Accompanying these treats are interviews with fifteen great cooks and chefs, including: Rose Levy Beranbaum, Daniel Boulud, Julia Child, Marcella and Victor Hazan, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Wolfgang Puck.

Softcover. US, ILR Press, 1st, 2009-08-06, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 142 pages, illustrated throughout in color. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers. Since 2001, Candacy A. Taylor (a former waitress herself) has traveled more than 26,000 miles throughout the United States collecting stories of these "lifers," as many waitresses aged fifty or over playfully call themselves. She interviewed fifty-seven waitresses in thirty-eight towns and cities. Their compelling stories are complemented and enhanced by Taylor's striking color photographs of the waitresses at work.Taylor expected that the waitresses she'd meet would feel overworked and underappreciated, but was surprised and delighted to find that the opposite was true. The proud, capable waitresses Taylor interviewed loved their jobs and, even if given the opportunity, "wouldn't do anything else." Nearly all the waitresses said that the physical labor of waitressing helped them to age more gracefully and that the daily contact with customers and coworkers kept them socially engaged. Lifers generally make more money from serving regular customers with whom they forge bonds over decades and their seniority earns them respect from their coworkers and managers. Taylor's sensitive and respectful portrayal of career waitresses who have turned their jobs into a rewarding lifetime pursuit turns Counter Culture into an invaluable portrait of the continued importance of community in our changing society.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 2nd printing, 1985-10-12, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 122 pages, illustrated with b&w photos. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on front end paper. Light edgewear to dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy.

Softcover. New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 160 pages, color plates throughout. The blue plate special, meatloaf, a cheeseburger deluxe, a milkshake in a frosty mixing canister, a hot cup of joe--all served by a friendly face in a well-lighted aluminum tube. Such are the special joys of the American diner. And it was just these pleasures that photographer Stephan Schacher set out to document when he left New York on a journey through North America that would test both his stomach and his resolve. Schacher's mission: to feed his hunger only at diners, and to photograph both his meal and his server every time. The result is a unique and deeply human story--quirky and nostalgic and generous--of one man's quest to discover North America's diner culture and his own place in it. Traveling from a Jersey diner to the Canadian Rockies to a shoreside clambake shack on the Pacific Ocean, Schacher's culinary adventure is documented here with a wealth of visual materials. The author's arresting photographs of succulent steaks and greasy fries, of smiling waitresses in uniforms or jeans, and brightly colored plastic dishes and table mats are supplemented by maps showing the photographer's route across the continent.