Imbibe! by David Wondrich is an interesting book about cocktails.

It starts off with a history - a lot of it centered around Jerry Thomas, the legendary bartender from the 19th and early 20th century and author of the first book about cocktails.

Following that, it turns into a book of recipes, including variations and notes on how it was originally written, broken down into categories.

The jump might be a bit surprising to some readers.  I had been given a head's up about it, and after wrapping my head around the concept of what Wondrich was doing, thought that it made sense.  It reminded me of Joseph Early Dabney's book Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, a great folksy book that talks about how the food evolved over time and gives recipes that illustrate many of the old things.

Not all of the recipes in Imbibe! are the most practical; but that's really neither here nor there, you can make most (if not all) of them, and the ones that you can't or don't want to make will often show you more of the history and thinking behind other cocktails.

Towards the end of the book he includes 16 recipes from mixologists from around the world.  My favorite so far has been the "Horseradish Egg Sour", which encouraged me to make a bottle of horseradish infused vodka (using Fris, as per suggestion of the writer) and made more than a couple of those.  The vodka has worked well for Bloody Marys, too.

It's definitely a good book for people looking to learn more about the history of Jerry Thomas and cocktail books, as well as people who may be looking to experiment.