Book: One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish

In One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish (Smithsonian Institution Press; $23) Smithsonian marine biologist Carole Baldwin and research assistant Julie Mounts have combined tasty recipes from the country's top chefs with enlightening and sometimes stunning information about the nature, origin, and condition of America's seafood. Dozens of chefs contributed to the book, including Charlie Palmer, Alice Waters, Jacques Pepin, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Todd English, and Livingston's own Dan Shapiro of the Pine Creek Cafe.

One Fish, Two Fish is an opportunity to become more aware of the world's oceans and sea life too. You might be surprised to learn that most shrimp sold in the U.S. is imported and often treated with chemicals prohibited in domestic shrimp operations because of their toxicity. You might be revolted by the news that scallops are often coated with preservatives to make them absorb water and therefore weigh more. And you may not know that it takes 2-3 pounds of wild fish to make enough feed to produce a pound of farmed salmon, or that for every pound of "target species" harvested, trawlers catch three to 100 pounds of ocean creatures they don't want.