Drinks: Study up on your libations

The kids are hitting the books and so should you.

Relax with an apropos beverage while doing so.

Kelley Lilien's "Mrs. Lilien's Cocktail Swatchbook" (Potter Style, $14.99) fans out with recipes for the blended and the shaken, as well as the punch bowl.

More leisurely: Marco Pasanella's "Uncorked: My Journey Through the Crazy World of Wine" (Clarkson Potter, $24) -- an easygoing, sometimes contrarian, index-free look at the wineshop business. The author opened Pasanella & Son Vintners at South Street Seaport.

Oz Clarke's "Bordeaux: The Wines, The Vineyards, The Winemakers" (Sterling Epicure, $35) outlines the region that produces so many of the world's great wines. Good profiles on the châteaux and a section on the newer influences on the market. Illustrated.

And unwind with "The New York Times Book of Wine" (Sterling Epicure, $24.95), edited by Howard G. Goldberg, with a foreword by Eric Asimov. The almost 600-page anthology compiles articles from more than 40 years, starting with the premier cru work of Frank J. Prial, the reporter-turned-wine columnist. He clearly loved both jobs and made them one.