Sauces; gravies; glazes, book recommendations?

I haven't personally read it, but James Peterson's book "Sauces..." is usually recommended as the seminal work on sauces: 

http://www.amazon.com/Sauces-Classical-Contemporary-Sauce-Making/dp/0471292753

Peterson is great.  You might also want to check out David Larousse's book, The Sauce Bible.  Depending on the cuisine, most good cookbooks do lots of sauces. 

If you want to learn to make the more basic and common sauces, this is a very good place to ask.  There are some outstanding people with differing viewpoints.  You'll get a lot to choose from.

Is there anything in particular?

BDL

Petersons book one of the best. Stay away from food network celebrity chef books. Most recipes the ratios are wrong.

Que,

Sources like Peterson and Larousse may be a bit more... well... Euro/technical than you want. 

Why not start with asking a bunch of questions here?  Of course, you're going to have narrow things down before your questions will make sense to others.  That narrowing is a good place to start.

Most sauces are put together in building block steps.  First you do some generic prep (like making a roux or sauteing aromatics), then you make a generic sauce, finally you make it a specific sauce with a few ingredients and technical additions. 

As a preliminary, there are limits to how well you can do with boxed stocks and bases; if you really want to push quality for sauces (including gravies) -- no matter how simple or basic -- you need to start with stock making. 

BDL

Quetex, I strongly suggest to buy a good food magazine every now and then. In my country and in France, many magazines have an extra seasonal issue with recipes only. I would guess it's the same in your country. That is such a good source for trying out the modern way how different seasonal product work together. I just bought a fall issue with 100 exciting top recipes for 8€.

Sauces are so important. It's the final finishing touch of a dish. It ties everything on the plate together. I have to admit that it's imo probably the most difficult thing in cooking. The wrong sauce will simply kill a dish. The right sauce will do magic. And, most of all, a dish without a sauce is not nearly finished.

The days of standard heavy sauces from old cookbooks are so over. Today, cooking is about light but very tasty, including sauces and jus. That's what you'll find in magazines. On the other hand, it never hurts to have a quick browse in the dusty old cookbooks to learn something about classic techniques. You will discover that many modern sauces are contemporary, easier and lighter versions of the classics.

A very good book on spices with a good deal of recipes; Spice Market by Jane Lawson - Murdoch Books Pty Limited

The Peterson Sauce book is an incredible reference. His soups and vegetables books are also essential reading. Don't forget Larousse and the original Silver Palette, they're both packed full of useful stuff.

Ken Harper

http://www.chopchop.ca

A good simple straight forward book on sauces is, "The Complete Book of Sauces", by Sallie Y. Williams.  She gives you good basic information.  Hints on substitutes for hard to find ingredients.  More than 300 recipes.  An index in the back that lists the dish and what sauces would be proper for it as well as a name index for the sauce.  Not expensive on Amazon.