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Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:

• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. While I'm generally not big on Chinese cookbooks not specializing in one or two regional cuisines, this book gets a pass because it's so organized and pedantic. It builds itself up from simple to complex and includes recipes which build on each other. It also features a large section on ingredients. An additional pro is that it includes the Chinese characters which makes it easier to find the proper product at your Asian grocer. I love it so much that I lugged this book to Taiwan with me and used it as my cooking guide/reference.
  
• Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Of all the regional Chinese cuisines with which I have experience, I love the multi-layered flavors of Sichuan the most. It was through Dunlop's book that I first discovered this magnificent cuisine and it encouraged me to discover some of the Sichuanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Instructions are clear and she does a great job bringing Sichanese food to life. An absolute must own if you are at all interested in regional Chinese food. Her book on Hunanese food is also pretty killer.
  
  In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
  
  
• Thai Food by David Thompson. This is the bible of Thai food for English speakers. It's nearly 700 pages long and not a page is wasted on fluff. It's more than just a cookbook, it's a anthropological study on Thai people, their history and the way they eat. An immense book. If you are more into pictures, check out his book on Thai Street Food.
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. This was the book that really unlocked Vietnamese food for me. I adore how many fresh herbs/veggies are used and how it creates a complex, yet light, cuisine. And don't get me wrong when I say light...it's as full flavored as can be, but without heaviness. In the interim since this book came out, others have showed up on the market which are as good (see Charles Phan's recent book), but Nguyen's book will always have a special place in my heart.
  
• ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. Thomas Keller is arguably the most important American chef of the past 20 years, so when he turns his sights on homestyle food, you can be sure it's done with correct technique and style. While this book isn't as notable as TFL cookbook or his sorta primer on sous vide cooking, I'm including it because it has recipes which people will actually use. Unparallelled technique, good recipes and delicious food equal a winning cookbook. One note: it's not dumbed down and some of the recipes take time, but everything I've ever made from it has been great.
  
• Alinea by Grant Achatz. {Disclaimer: I worked for Grant Achatz for a couple of years.} Everyone should own at least one cookbook which is completely out of reach, but serves to inspire. When you flip through this book, your jaw will drop and you will wonder, multiple times, "WTF?!?!?!" It's an amazing testament to how open and possible American cuisine is at the moment and you'll do yourself well to flip through it. Additionally, the photographs and the book itself are phenomenal. The paper, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. It's sexy shit, yo.
  
  Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.

Jane Grigson's English Food (1979) is probably as close as you'll get to an English Mastering the Art. It's as much a history and anthrolpological study of English food as it is a collection of recipes, but its recipes are extensive and excellent.

Elizabeth Luard's The Old World Kitchen (1987), which ranges across the European continent, nonetheless contains a fine, idiosyncratic collection of English recipes in its midst (and is probably the best single-volume reference of old world peasant cooking traditions).

The incomparable Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) covers every inch of the English bread-making tradition, from milling wheat to presenting at the table. David's attentions were usually focused in a more southerly direction -- the foods of France, Italy -- but she treats the baking traditions of her home nation with as much detail and respect as she does those of more foreign locales

If you want a more contemporary, chef-y book, check out Fergus Henderson's more recent The Whole Beast (2004), which is delicious, detailed, and delectable.

And finally, if you want something a lot more chef-y, Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck Cookbook (2009) will show you contemporary English gastronomy at its most ambitious (but also, maybe, its most pretentious). It sure is pretty to look at, tho.

If you are looking for basic cooking information the Joy of Cooking is obligatory.

A couple things I've learned along the way is first to start slow and work through cookbooks. It's easy to keep buying book after book but they are just decoration if you don't know them well. Secondly, be wary of books with lots of pretty pictures! In my experience they are full of single-purpose recipes that don't teach you the true nature or source as you spoke of above.

As far as source recipes I'd second everything mentioned so far but if you are looking to blow people away with Italian and Mexican dishes (my particular favorite styles)... look no further than:

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan - Possibly my favorite author of cookbooks of all time. This is definitely the one to start with in my opinion.

The Art of Mexican Cooking - Diana Kennedy - If you are looking for real mexican food this book is a great place to start.

Bonus Book... not a cookbook but a great way to learn about cooking

I have a number of cookbooks (99% of which were hand-me-downs from random family members) that I don't really use because I prefer the internet, but the two physical books I've gotten the most use out of are these:

How to Cook Everything
-Especially if you're just starting out this book is excellent. It doesn't list tons of complicated recipes sprinkled with cooking jargon. It holds your hand through the simplest versions of many, many recipes and then tells you why you're doing what youer' doing.

The Flavor Bible
-Because while it's better to have experience to be able to just know which flavors work well together, this is just easier. The book has some explanatory stuff in the front, but most of the book is basically a huge index of different ingredients and all of the other things that go well with them. Especially if you're a broke student, spices are going to be the big thing that keeps you from eating bland-ass ramen all of the time (though this book doesn't just cover spices).

As an avid cook and collector of cookbooks, I have three recommendations -

1. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
   
2. The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez Alt
   
3. The Flavor Bible
   
   The first two will teach you the essentials of cooking. How salt, fat, acid, and heat work together to make delicious food. J Kenji Lopez Alt has a popular serious eats blog and his book will teach you everything you need to know about cooking perfect meat, eggs, burgers, etc.
   
   Once you learn all of the basics from those books, use the Flavor Bible to be creative.

One of the most beautiful books / series is Patisserie at Home by Melanie Dupuis. There are a couple more like The Complete Guide to Baking: Bread, Brioche and Other Gourmet Treats, French Cooking at Home and The Ultimate Book of Party Food. They are simply stunning!

If you're looking for basics, it's hard to beat Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything The Basics.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-The-Basics/dp/0470528060

It's exactly what you're looking for. It covers the basics of cooking, with 1,000+ photos.

Another go-to recommendation is Jacque Pepin's New Complete Techniques, a fantastic 2012 update of his epic masterpieces La Technique and La Methode, with 1000 new photos.

http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110

Both books are great. I prefer Pepin's book since it's based solely on classic French technique, but Bittman's book would be better for an absolute beginner.

well, it's not 'only' pictures, but it does have a lot of pictures - New Complete Techniques by Jacques Pepin. it's very comprehensive & easy to follow. there are photos for just about everything, in both color & black & white. and whatever text there is, is presented in digestible bits, alongside the photo illustration.

Mark Bittman's Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying & Cooking is pretty decent. If I can recall it does have info on frozen seafood as well

This one does a really great job at Mediterranean/Lebanese, since one of the cooks is from Lebanon and moved to England. There are lots of gorgeous recipes that are more of a fusion, but check it out:

Honey & Co.: The Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316284300/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2F2rybXATJKWG

For a more lyrical taste on it, I'd recommend Brillat Savarin's Physiology of Taste

Fuschia Dunlop also wrote a cookbook, Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. It has recipes but also plenty of information about the history of tastes, ingredients and techniques used in Sichuan cooking. I believe this is exactly what you're looking for.

I ended up getting Gran Cocina Latina. So far seems like exactly what I was looking for - a little bit from each region. The author seems to have quite a bit of experience with the various areas (or at least to my inexperienced eye). My only complaint is that she calls for very specific ingredients that are not readily available where I currently live, and doesn't often mention more accessible substitutes.

The one I have for Asia is The Complete Asian Cookbook, which doesn't address 'Asian' cooking as a whole, but has a chapter for each country, each with an intro about the style and ingredients of the area.

Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques

French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David

[Desserts $0.99] (https://www.amazon.com/Desserts-Authentic-Middle-Eastern-Cooking-ebook/dp/B071G4RND6/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1497873174&sr=1-3)

[Appetizers (Mezza) $0.99] (https://www.amazon.com/Appetizers-Authentic-Middle-Eastern-Cooking-ebook/dp/B071JQS8TZ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1497873174&sr=1-1)

The Flavor Bible is, I think, exactly what you're looking for.

The recipes in The Mile End cookbook are totally up my alley. How to preserve, smoke, bake, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cookbook-Everything-Today/dp/0307098222/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=STDPQRZ99NXBF5M3HA1Z

The Yul Brynner Cookbook!

Also:

Steamdrunks

The Forest Feast (not unusual, but it's gorgeous)

Alice Eats

Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt or the site Serious Eats (sub /r/seriousseats)