"Bean by Bean" is my go-to. Those recipes are so reliably delicious that I follow them -- the meatist variation, when offered -- 100% of the time.
The Time-Life Bean book from the series is the first one I ever looked at, in the kitchen of a vacation rental in Ocean Grove, NJ. Seriously -- I brought it to the beach with me.
It was so wonderful that it (along with some subsequent research here) induced me to buy the whole series off of ebay the following week.
No regrets.
I've given "Grist" as a gift, and I like the author's voice. But I haven't cooked from the book.