Hey Barb!

One of the best cookbooks on the topic (and it was my introduction to veggie cooking) is still Mollie Katzen's The Moosewood Cookbook. Latest editions have full colour photos now, so you can have an idea of what the "finished product" is supposed to look like.

Another great line of cookbooks comes from that excellent chef in California who owns the Greens restaurant--Alice Waters, I think, is her name. She's written the The Greens cookbook (older, but still a to-die-for find at yardsales!! or, pay full price cause it is still selling well), and has continued to put out first quality work.

One other option: pick a favourite cuisine, a good cookbook in that cuisine (good writing and well-tested recipes which use fresh ingredients and are true to the methods to be used) and just don't make the meat dishes! If you like Italian or French cuisines, get a cookbook that breaks the cuisine into courses--that way the meat dishes will be in the minority. Bibba Caggiani writes an excellent regional Italian cuisine book; and Julia Childs (yes, believe it or not) writes great French cuisine books. You will find that you can make substitutions quite easily for some of the meat ingredients--vegetable stocks instead of beef or chicken stocks; rich oils instead of butter (if you must); soy liquids instead of creams in soups, if necessary. Most of these writers incorporate vegetarian suggestions (if they are not outright veggie books) anyway.

Enjoy!
Divina