reading suggestions please?

Heat is an excellent book; if going straight food related one must read the "soul of a chef" by Michael Ruhlman; a great book and a must read for future chefs and true foodies.

I read very little fiction, with a preference for history, bios and current events...among my favorites:

A Bright and Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Theodore Rex
John Adams
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate
Truman
The Brethren
Mask of Treachery
Dispatches
Mayday
The Crisis Years: Kennedy & Khruschev, 1960-1963
No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

Pick up more Mark Twain, he was an awesome writer, and I've seen big compilations of his work at half price books and the library before.