Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (The Penguin Press, 2005)

If you have to pick one work of non-fiction to read this year, “Garlic and Sapphires” should be it. Reichl worked as a food critic in Los Angeles and then New York; this tale encompasses the lengths she went to in order to be able to fairly judge a restaurant’s quality. It’s also a very personal tale of the pressures her job as a premiere food critic placed on her life, her family and her relationships with others, both in the workplace and out. Plus, there are all those great recipes.