Look for an extensive Mexican cookbook

I would love a Mexican cookbook that talks about the history of the cuisine, regional differences, and has recipes that are very thorough and tasty. Gourmet or peasant style would be fine but preferably both.

Any experience with Mexican Cookbooks would be appreciated.

Try Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick Bayless. He's pretty well known for having done extensive research in Mexico on regional cuisine and culture. He runs a restaurant in Chicago that has a good reputation for this type of cuisine

The Food and Life of Oaxaca: traditional recipes from Mexico's Heart, by Zarela Martinez has quite and extensive history of the Oaxaca area. Her recipes are details and intensive, but well worth the effort.

From My Mexican Kitchen is a good book. There are not a ton of recipes, but it covers all of the ingredients and techniques for the base sauces and tortillas. My favorite part is the extensive description of all the different peppers. I don’t think it is a good all purpose cookbook, but it would make a nice supplement to one with more recipes.

1,000 Mexican Recipes by Marge Poore.

Diana Kennedy's The Cuisines of Mexico is really too specific for me, but she has a lot of chatty comments about the recipes, ingredients, etc. In spite of the title, it is not set up to allow you find recipes of a specific region. She's written several, so you might want to browse several of them to see which would suit you best.

wow these all sound good, for some reason non of my bookstores have good Mexican selections (kind of odd) so I will have to order one.

Try: Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine, by chef Rick Bayless. Written in 1996, it's comprehensive, and the only Mexican cookbook I could find that explains how to make tortillas, step by step.