After reading about Silver Spoon here this morning, I went to my local Barnes & Noble today to see if they had it. They did, and I had some credit remaining on a gift card from Christmas, plus my B&N member discount, and got the book for under $5 out of pocket. Seems about half the Italian cookbooks they had are either by Giada or Mario Battali.... at least I avoided those ones.
I already made my first dish with it (just some simple chicken roulades), and it was great. I'm looking forward to many more great Italian meals.
Batali has learned to respect the fresh local ingredient whatever it is and wherever he is. But he also has an innate sense of "what works together" and what doesn't. He is one of the few TV chefs I enjoy watching.