The Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch (1995, Paperback)

I felt the book was very helpful in understanding the actual process that creates soap. I have read some other books, but they did not have the scientific basis of this one. One weakness, or advantage, depending on how you look at it, is that the author only uses vegetable based oils in her soap recipes. The primary oils that she uses are coconut and palm oils, which may be difficult to find easily if you are in a remote area. Of course they are always available online but that means that if you are inspired to make soap after reading the book, you may lose some of your enthusiasm before you can actually make it.

If you only can purchase one soap making book, I would recommend the authors other book The Soap Makers Companion as being that one book. It gives you the information that you need to be able to substite different oils, and how to make the proper adjustments based on those oils. If you can afford both, they do work well together. I just received them yesterday, and have already made my first batch of soap. Time will tell how it turns out, and no, I didn't use a drop of coconut or palm oil, although I did stay strictly vegetable in the recipe. Using the two books together made it possible to come up with a variation of the basic soap recipe given. Here's hoping it worked!!!