Published last fall, Apples of New England is a rich guide to a topic close to my heart.
The small volume is somewhere between a coffee-table book, a primer, and a reference.
The author, Russell Steven Powell, is the former executive director of the New England Apple Association; he keeps his own apple blog. Documentation of each apple includes meticulous photos by Barr Lois Weeks, the current director.
In addition to a catalog of hundreds of varieties, Powell tells us some of the central stories about apples, with an emphasis on their New England roots in America.