WHILE STANDING at the bar perusing the cocktail list, don't think for a minute that what you order doesn't speak volumes about who you are. James Beard Award-winning writer Eric Felten, who pens a weekly cocktail column in the Wall Street Journal, explains it all in his new book, How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well (Agate Surrey, 200 pages; $20). In it, Felten explores the historical and social significance of a number of well-known and long-forgotten cocktails. Felten also includes 50 recipes - each thoroughly researched and taste-tested - so that even the amateurs among us can create (and tweak, and interpret, and personalize) many of the drinks for ourselves. The book (and Felton's column) takes its title from the question Frank Sinatra was known to ask when checking in on his guests. How's Your Drink?, which we love for its truly academic take on alcohol, begins with a discussion of the origin of the term "cocktail," before delving into the way booze has played a role in movies, music, and literature - plus stodgier subjects such as business scandals and court cases. Felten muses on what it means for a guy to order a so-called girly drink (appletini, anyone?) and even explains how booze had an impact on ending the Civil War. When all was said and done, we were fascinated - and dying for a martini. The book hits stores at the end of the month; pick it up locally at Barnes & Noble (Prudential Center, 800 Boylston Street, Boston, 617.247.6959).
