In Back to Basics: 2011's Simple, Summery Cookbooks (NPR, June 5) T. Susan Chang picks 10 titles, 2 of which I already mentioned here, A Southerly Course (Clarkson Potter) and Maine Classics (Running Press).
She piqued my curiosity with 2 of the other 8 titles.
The first one, Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast (Sasquatch Books) by Becky Selengut has echoes of Fish Tales (Kyle Books) by Dutch fishmonger Bart Van Olphen who I interviewed.
A few details on Good Fish gleaned via The Elliott Bay Book Company:
"The book is divided into three sections: finfish, shellfish, and little fish. There are fifteen chapters, including: clams, mussels, oysters, crab, shrimp, scallops, wild salmon, pacific halibut, black cod, rainbow trout, albacore tuna, arctic char, sardines, squid, and caviar. The author's partner is a wine sommelier and has contributed wine pairings for each recipe."
You might know Seattle based Becky Selengut under her Chef Reinvented blog and Twitter moniker.
Second title, Radically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease: 325 Inspiring Recipes (Rodale Books) by Rozanne Gold.
There is a tendency in the U.S to think that more is better whether portion or ingredients wise when concocting a dish and Rozanne Gold proves it need not be.
You will find salads and soups that take 5 to 10 minutes to create and Rozanne is as spare in her use of words as she is in the number of ingredients and steps.
In addition to Radically Simple you might want to check Take 5 Ingredients (Kyle Books) by James Tanner.