Mitsue Stout knows cookbooks. Especially Island cookbooks.

She knows because Stout, a retired school librarian, devotes each Thursday to sorting cookbooks at the headquarters of Friends of the Library of Hawai'i, in Kaka'ako. The books are then stockpiled for the annual Friends of the Library book sale (held each summer; the dates this year are June 27-July 6) or are sold at Bill's Bookmobile. (This year-round operation, at the Friends' center, 690 Pohukaina St., is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays and also first Saturdays of each month.)

Last year, Stout packed more than 160 boxes of cookbooks for the annual sale — and those are just the tomes that made the cut. It's a lot of work: Dusty boxes, donated by individuals or remaindered from libraries, must be unpacked, organized by subject, paged through, priced, then repacked. Stout, in her blue Friends of the Library T-shirt and bright red smock apron, wielding a red pencil, works pretty fast.

"It's mostly my gut," she says when she's asked how she determines a book's price. After six years, she's pretty familiar with what buyers are looking for. Histories and essay collection? Forget it. Even at 50 cents, they don't move. The "Our Favorite Recipes from the Island of Maui" series? Can't have enough of those; they go for $3 each or more. Also the "Favorite Island Cookery" series from Honpa Hongwanji Betsuin on O'ahu.

Still, the books are a bargain. "I don't price them high," Stout says. "We have so many books and we want them to move." Most are priced under $2.

Here's a tip from Stout: The best Chinese chicken salad recipe — Sam Choy's, from one of his early cookbooks. "Because of the sauce," she said. I found the recipe online.

CHICKEN SALAD CHINESE-STYLE WITH 'DA BEST' SAUCE

For the salad: