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My search for making good pizza at home began with THE ART OF MAKING PIZZA by Dominick DeAngelis. I gave the book a good review, but since reading Reinhart's AMERICAN PIE, I have to say, unless you just don't have the extra money for this book, skip THE ART and get AMERICAN PIE. You may find that AMERICAN PIE is the only pizza book you need. Comparisons against THE ART are difficult for me to avoid. DeAngelis basically instructs on making one style of pizza - what Reinhart would call a New York style or Americana. Reinhart teaches you to make Napoletana pizza, New York style pizza, Americana pizza, Roman style (thin crust) pizza, grilled pizza (Yes! It's what it sounds like!), Chicago deep dish pizza and a few breads that you may not consider pizza at all, like pita, carta di musica and focaccia. DeAngelis INSISTS that you need to use high-gluten flour (good luck finding it locally) and complains of the inadequacy of the home oven. Reinhart uses (mostly) available ingredients and writes the book knowing that it's going to be used within the limitations of a home kitchen. But until recently, I've had problems with the recipes. I've tried the Napoletana crust, the Americana crust, the focaccia, the carta di musica, and the prebaked crusts. Despite following his recipes (nearly) to a "T," the dough just did not act as described in the book. It was not as elastic as described, and could tear apart from its own weight. Despite this, if I could get the dough formed into a crust at all, the results were still pretty good! There are two pages on "Ten Tips for Making Pizza Dough." These may be the two most valuable pages in the book, and should be expanded and not relegated to the reduced type size. The recipes call for "instant yeast." I've never found anything in the store called "instant yeast." The ten tips include substitutions for active dry, which I could find everywhere. I tried the following these instructions with no improvement. I had to research "instant yeast." With help from Alton Brown's I'M JUST HERE FOR MORE FOOD and other sources, I discovered that the stuff in the store called "yeast for bread machines" was in fact, instant yeast. Reinhart should discuss this more. Differences in yeasts may seem common knowledge for someone as himself, who is, by all accounts, one of the nation's leading experts on baking, but can confuse the home baker to whom the book is directed. I finally discovered my problem, again, with help from Alton Brown while watching his bread episode of GOOD EATS where he used the same Kitchenaid mixer as I and momentarily ran the mixer to high to spread the dough when it wrapped around the dough hook. I was dutifully following Reinhart's instructions to knead on medium-low, and my Kitchenaid Artisan really needs medium, if not a bit more to knead. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that I tried to half the recipes (most make a half dozen 12" crusts) and the dough just spun around on the hook for a ride, not kneading at all. Once I corrected this other day, I got the most incredible New York style pizza out of my very oven that would compete with any I've ever had from a pizzeria. Oh - and be warned, depending on the size of your garlic cloves, you might find his sauces to be pretty garlicky. Of the many doughs, my wife actually liked the prebaked freezer crusts the best. I don't think Reinhart intended this and offers the recipe as an alternative to the popular par-baked crusts in the supermarket. They are great to have on hand when you want a pizza, but could not plan ahead to defrost a dough before you left for work in the morning. The first third of the book is the author's travels around the world studying the art and types of pizza. He waxes quite philosophical. I expected that this wouldn't appeal to me, but it ended up drawing me in, and I stayed up late finishing the section. He dispels some popular myths. Pizza is NOT traditionally made by spinning it in the air, and it was not invented in America. My brother's copy of AMERICAN PIE also had the artsy, rough-cut pages, so we think that's normal. Again, this is the only book on pizza you'll probably ever need. My only suggestions are to add more "diagnostics" should you have problems. Although I usually eschew the idea that a cookbook need glitzy color photos, a few black and white showing, for example, what a focaccia is supposed to look like, would be very helpful. (Some of us have lived sheltered lives!) I am still trying to find my personal holy grail, though: the Pizza Hut thin crust! I'm looking forward to getting Reinhart's BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE. If it's as good as AMERICAN PIE, it will serve as several Christmas gifts this year.