I adore my 'Understanding the Grunfeld' by Jon Rowson. It's choke full of verbal explanation of what the plans are, where weak squares are, which pieces are important, etc.
It is good enough that after reading it attentively you can just play the opening with confidence, and if your opponent goes out of book you'll still know what to do. It's ten years old but that doesn't matter unless you're a top GM. The moves may go out of date (or fashion) in some lines but the plans are unlikely to change.
And a bonus is that Rowson writes with flair, it's simply fun to read. Chapter titles include 'A pint of Carlsberg', 'The Eager Lady' and 'The cake and the cookie'.
I have few openings books, they show lines for every opening but, what I'm interested in is know the essence of the opening not the lines, for example, what you're looking for with a french defence, to mention one of course, dominate some file, rank, diagonal, square, take the queen side. Is there any book that can teach that??