by Beth Goehring

How clever are Cheryl Benton and Roni Jenkins for collecting all that Martini Wisdom for us? If their hard work has made you hanker for a Hanky Panky (more on this intriguing cocktail in a mo’) or some other adult beverage, here are a few informative and stylish guides that make great gifts or useful additions to your own home bar.

Here for the Drinks

Sother Teague is a magician mixologist and, if you’re in the East Village, New York Tomatoes, you can sample his elixirs at Amor y Amargo. This cocktail book includes his own concoctions, as well as classics. The Hanky Panky was devised by London’s Savoy Hotel’s first female head bartender, Ada Coleman. A sweet gin martini with Fernet-Branca, anyone?  Get thehttps://amzn.to/2RBHpcY book.

Beginners Wine Guide

If you enjoy wine and want to know more about it, there is no more comprehensive or readable course-between-two-covers than this newly revised and updated modern classic. There’s everything you expect, plus Kevin Zraly’s own personal, poignant story of that beautiful, elegant Manhattan destination atop the World Trade Center, Windows on the World.  Get the book.

Beer Lovers Guide

Who could be better than the editors of National Geographic to compile an information-packed, photo-filled world atlas of beer? Learn how to order a beer in 14 languages! Get the book.

Surviving Parenthood with Wine

And finally, a hilarious book that any godparent, grandparent, or concerned friend will want to give the new parents in their lives. Once the new and utterly precious little bundle starts to toddle, the need to self-medicate grows as quickly as the child does! Get the book.

Beth Goehring believes, with apologies to Lorelei Lee, that rather than diamonds books are a girl’s best friend…and a boy’s, a man’s and a woman’s. For more than twenty-five years, through Book-of-the-Month Club and its related clubs, she’s sold popular fiction, mysteries, romances, cookbooks, children’s books, play scripts, behind-the-scenes tales of the movies and theatre, and lifestyle books. She lives with her husband in Manhattan.