A fat, judicious selection of M.F.K. Fisher's writings, which spanned a lifetime and chronicled adventures (culinary and otherwise) in France, Switzerland and Italy, on shipboard and in her native California. A supremely wise woman and an unsurpassed prose stylist, M.F.K. is here represented in all her witty, sad and celebratory incarnations. Edited with minimal interference by Dominique Gioia, this volume also includes a brief introductory memoir of Fisher by her acolyte Ruth Reichl, who once went on a pilgrimage to Fisher's Sonoma cottage -- only to find that Fisher herself cooked simply, not extravagantly at all.  (CUL01, $21.95)