Firstly, this is a pleasure to read whether you are a cook or not.  Thompson loves Thai culture and explains how much of Thai culture, their identity and history is within their food and approach to ingredients and cooking.  This is also cooking for people who are serious about ingredients and preparation and for when you have time to love what you are doing.  And when you do have the time and actually make it through one of these recipes, the sense of achievement is reward in itself.

This is literally a kitchen bible.  Apart from extremely well written recipes ranging from high end cuisine to simple peasant food, it has a fantastic section on kitchen, recipe and ingredient basics and an invaluable measurements section.  The best thing about this cookbook is that it is laid out by ingredients in alphabetical order.  Each ingredient is described in detail along with advice and instructions for buying, storage and preparation.  There's always a sidebar listing the companion ingredients in each chapter (eg. "apricots go with almonds, barley, brandy, cardamom, chicken, cinnamon..."), so...