2book multi

PhotographyArt

Capturing moments in time

Feature by Alice Cary

Discover the glorious Renaissance days of Florence, peek at Picasso’s paintbrushes or catch Mick Jagger poised between boyhood and manhood. Whether you’re a serious art scholar or a casual admirer, these books offer something for everyone.

ITALY'S GOLDEN AGE OF ART
Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes, 1250-1743 is an art lover’s dream come true—a collection of nearly 2,000 images that includes every painting and fresco on display in the Uffizi, the Galleria Palatina of the Pitti Palace, the Accademia and the Duomo, and works from 28 additional museums and churches. Arranged chronologically, the masterpieces are accompanied by seven comprehensive essays by art historian Ross King, as well as shorter discussions by art history professor Anja Grebe of the University of Freiburg in Germany.

It’s fascinating to see these treasures of the Western world collected in one volume, with page after page of magnificence, including the works of Uccello, da Vinci, Correggio, Titian, Michelangelo and more. You won’t have a better tour unless you visit the city itself—and even then, reading this book first would be worthwhile. 

PORTRAITS OF A CENTURY
Near the end of photographer Cecil Beaton’s life, Sotheby’s acquired 100,000 of his photographs and negatives. Editor Mark Holborn sifted through this vast studio archive to create the truly monumental Beaton Photographs. The deservedly weighty volume is not only an amazing record of a brilliant career, it’s a history lesson as well, beginning with 1920s portraits of Beaton’s sisters at the beach and stretching into the ’60s and ’70s, with mesmerizing photos of Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and Tom Wolfe. In between, this photographer of remarkable range captured the royal family, Fred Astaire, Truman Capote, Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor and more. Particularly fascinating are his shots of London ruins during World War II (sometimes with a model in their midst) and portraits of Pablo Picasso in his studio. 

As Annie Leibovitz writes in her introduction, Beaton “was a journalist, an artist, a set and costume designer, a memoirist, a historian, an actor. All of this went into his portraits. How can one not be impressed with what he accomplished?”

EVERYDAY DRAMAS
When Brandon Stanton started photographing strangers on the streets of New York City in 2010, he was certainly onto something. He follows up his best-selling first book with the similarly titled Humans of New York: Stories. It follows the same format, with a variety of anonymous photographs accompanied by the subjects’ own words, offering intriguing glimpses into the worlds of strangers: young, old, parents, children, rich, homeless. These “stories” never stray from Stanton’s winning format of anonymity and brevity. For instance, one woman discusses the stark contrast between her sister’s manic and depressive episodes, admitting that she envies her sister’s freedom during the mania: “I’d almost like to join her and run around the city if only she could keep it from spinning out of control.” These longer stories contrast nicely with one-liners, such as the photo of a man’s wrist encircled by a hospital bracelet. “They told me I was fine,” the man says.

This is people-watching at its best, without the guilt of being discovered. 


Copyright © 2015 Brandon Stanton. From Humans of New York: Stories, reprinted with permission from St. Martin's.

WORDS ABOUT PICTURES
British novelist Julian Barnes didn’t start out as an art lover, but over the years he evolved into one, as revealed in Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art. Each of the 17 essays in this collection explores an individual artist, ranging from Géricault and Delacroix to Magritte and Barnes’ personal friend, British abstract painter Howard Hodgkin. 

Barnes often muses on the relationship between viewing art and discussing it: “Braque thought the ideal state would be reached when we said nothing at all in front of a painting. But we are very far from reaching that ideal state. . . . Put us in front of a picture and we chatter, each in our different way.” He writes about art in a perceptive and often humorous way. He contrasts how Manet told his models to be natural, talk, laugh and move, while Cezanne demanded “guardsmanlike” stillness. As a result, Cezanne’s portraits are like still lifes, unintended “to catch a mood, a passing glance, a fugitive moment which releases the sitter’s personality out towards the spectator.”

Art enthusiasts will find Barnes’ artistic journey edifying and enjoyable.

CRASH COURSE IN ART
Art historian Robert Cumming acts as an efficient museum guide in Art: A Visual History, an updated version of the previously released Eyewitness Companion: Art. While working in London’s Tate Gallery, Cumming learned that museumgoers want answers to three questions: “What should I look for?”; “What is going on?”; and “How was it made?” This handy compendium concisely answers these questions about more than 650 artists, arranged chronologically and interspersed with short discussions of Western art periods and movements. Key works are listed for each artist, which is uniquely helpful for those wanting to investigate further. As with all DK books, the visuals are striking; the volume’s sturdy slipcase, shaped like an artist’s palette, adds to the appeal. Art can be used as a refresher course for rusty art lovers, as well as a comprehensive starting point for serious beginners.

Discover the glorious Renaissance days of Florence, peek at Picasso’s paintbrushes or catch Mick Jagger poised between boyhood and manhood. Whether you’re a serious art scholar or a casual admirer, these books offer something for everyone.
NonfictionMemoirCookbooksBiography

Books for the well-read gentleman

Feature by Martin Brady

Sports heroes, military giants, one handsome movie star and savory recipes to satisfy even the burliest man’s appetite—these are the hooks that drive this holiday season’s selection of gift books for guys.

INTO THE WAR ROOM
Best known for his novel Forrest Gump, Winston Groom is also a well-published historian. His latest project, The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II, is a multi-tiered yet wholly accessible examination of the intertwined careers of three brilliant American soldiers: George Marshall, George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. All three were born in the 1880s, gained critical experience in World War I and became key players in World War II. Groom outlines each man’s personal life and military exploits with special focus on the Second World War, where Marshall excelled as an army administrator, Patton as a fiery commander of forces on the European front and MacArthur as an inspirational leader in the Pacific theater. Groom balances the strictly biographical data with well-researched historical accounts, and along the way he offers invaluable perspectives on the world politics that critically influenced his subjects’ lives.

PIGGING OUT
Accomplished author and competitive hunter Jennifer L.S. Pearsall serves up Praise the Pig: Loin to Belly, Shoulder to Ham—Pork-​Inspired Recipes for Every Meal, a comprehensive collection of more than 50 pork recipes. Pearsall’s culinary celebration begins with a thorough overview of pork cuts and styles of preparation and cooking (roasting, smoking, etc.), plus an excellent discussion of bacon brands and pork-savvy kitchen tips. Then come the recipes, with inviting full-color photos, starting with Chili-Rubbed, Salsa-Braised Chops with Spiced Rice, moving to Roasted Pork Tenderloin Chili and ending with Connecticut Clam Chowder. In between are hearty sandwiches, soups (porkestrone!), breakfast dishes, puddings, mac and cheese variations and appetizers to die for, including a Bacon and Roasted Corn Salsa that demands the immediate gathering of ingredients. No self-respecting pork lover could ever refuse this book of porcine delights.

MAN BEHIND THE MUSTACHE
Man’s man Burt Reynolds has had a hit-or-miss acting career. Yet his life has certainly been eventful, as his new memoir, But Enough About Me, clearly attests. Penned with veteran author Jon Winokur, Reynolds’ book is frankly revealing but rarely mean-spirited. For example, Burt’s short-lived marriages to Judy Carne and Loni Anderson were admittedly rocky, but he always takes the high road when he can. More enlightening are his reminiscences of his close friendships with Bette Davis and Dinah Shore, both women of substance whom Burt cherished. Coverage here is chronologically ordered, from Reynolds’ youthful days as a Florida football star to his early acting adventures in New York City to his arrival in California in the 1950s, where small television roles eventually led to feature films, including the critically acclaimed Deliverance (1972) and Boogie Nights (1997), for which he received an Oscar nomination. The enduring Reynolds turns 80 in February, and his surprisingly entertaining show-biz retrospective should find a wide audience.

HEAVYWEIGHT HERO
Journalist Davis Miller’s obsession with Muhammad Ali has spanned from his childhood to the present day, and his book Approaching Ali: A Reclamation in Three Acts represents the culmination of that relationship. The heavyweight champ first inspired Miller when he was a sickly, depressed child. As a teen, Miller had an opportunity to spar with The Greatest, an event that spawned a short news account for Sports Illustrated and helped point him toward a writing career. In this latest testament to his hero, Miller blends new material on his more recent experiences with Ali with reworked excerpts from his previous writings, presenting what he believes to be “the all-time most intimate and quietly startling portrait of Ali’s day-by-day life, as well as the only deeply detailed look at his enormously rich years after boxing.” Ali, now 74 and courageously battling Parkinson’s disease, remains one of the great figures of 20th-century sports, and this profile finds the boxer’s playful good nature and magnanimous personal spirit intact.

TALLYING THE SCORE
Veteran sportswriter Gary Myers recounts the careers of the game’s marquee quarterbacks in Brady vs Manning: The Untold Story of the Rivalry That Transformed the NFL. Myers successfully achieves a dual biography of these iconic figures, focusing not only on what the pair have meant to the National Football League but also what they’ve meant to each other. The relationship between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning emerges here as one of keen mutual respect—both on and off the field—despite the differing nature of their media personas. When Myers isn’t connecting the dots of the Brady-Manning friendship, he serves up thorough profiles of their separate lives, including their college football careers and their arrival on the pro scene: Manning as the coveted #1 draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1998 and Brady as an unheralded 6th-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2000. There are no shocking revelations here, just good information, solid quotes from important football folks and interesting viewpoints on two important athletes.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Sports heroes, military giants, one handsome movie star and savory recipes to satisfy even the burliest man’s appetite—these are the hooks that drive this holiday season’s selection of gift books for guys.
NonfictionFictionLiterature

Sweet holiday selections for serious readers

Feature by Julie Hale

Merry and bright: that’s the forecast for bibliophiles this holiday season. Inspired gift ideas for lovers of literature are as plentiful as snowflakes in December. Our top recommendations are featured here.

OUR BELOVED DETECTIVE
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world in 1887 in A Study in Scarlet, a novel for which he earned £25—not even peanuts compared to the bucks being generated by the lucrative sleuth today. Somehow, a century and a quarter after his debut, the detective has become an entertainment-industry titan as the star of a successful movie franchise and two popular TV series. Doyle’s detective is undoubtedly having a moment, so the timing couldn’t be better for The Sherlock Holmes Book, a handsomely illustrated volume that provides background on every case Holmes ever faced, starting with A Study in Scarlet and ending with The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place. Each case is accompanied by an easy-to-follow flowchart, which breaks down the deductive process Holmes used to crack it. In-depth character profiles, a Doyle biography and fascinating chapters on forensic science make this the ultimate Sherlock scrapbook. It’s a must-have for devotees of the great detective.

BIBLIOPHILES TRAVEL GUIDE
Perfect for the armchair traveler or the reader who enjoys hitting the road, Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Writing America: Literary Landmarks from Walden Pond to Wounded Knee is a meticulously researched, beautifully written survey of the nation’s most beloved literary sites. From the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington Station, New York, to the Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the dream destinations of every book lover are included in this fascinating tour. Along with stops at familiar spots like Hannibal, Missouri, and Walden Pond, the narrative includes visits to South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation and sites in South Texas. Fishkin considers the storytelling traditions of these and other parts of the country, highlighting the great writers native to each, and the result is a vivid mosaic of the cultures, voices and geographies that inform America’s literary inheritance. Packed with photographs, this book features more than 150 National Register historic sites. It’s the ultimate trip advisor for lovers of literature and history. 

CHARTING THE CLASSICS
In Plotted: A Literary Atlas, Andrew DeGraff interprets classic narratives as maps. Not the Google kind, mind you. DeGraff isn’t a conventional cartographer, he’s an artist, and his maps—subjective, frequently surreal topographic renderings of narratives both epic (Moby-Dick) and miniature (“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”)—rather than orienting the viewer, often have the opposite effect. DeGraff’s depictions defamiliarize well-known works, uncovering facets the reader never imagined. In his treatment of Hamlet, he tracks the path of the prince’s madness as it contaminates the palace of Elsinore. Inspired by the social factors at play in Pride and Prejudice, he maps the novel as a series of precarious catwalks between family estates. In all, DeGraff charts 30 narratives. He’s a genius at identifying and connecting a work’s key coordinates, then using them as the basis for remarkable visualizations. Each of his colorful, ingenious maps is accompanied by an introductory essay. With Plotted, he guides literature lovers off the beaten path and into newly charted territory.

THE MARCH CLAN REVISITED
There’s comfort to be found in the pages of a classic. A tried-and-true title holds out the promise of pleasure to a reader and never fails to keep the contract. Case in point: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott—surely one of the most reread works in all of American literature. The story of the March sisters, first published in 1868-69, receives the royal treatment in The Annotated Little Women, a deluxe edition of the novel filled with rare photographs, illustrations and other Alcott-related memorabilia. This lavish volume features notes and an introduction by John Matteson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. Matteson offers insights into the author’s creative life and provides context for the novel, finding new dimensions in the familiar classic. Arriving in time for Christmas—the same holiday the Marches celebrate so memorably in the opening chapters of Little Women—this treasure trove of a book is the perfect gift for bibliophiles who fancy old favorites. 

VINTAGE KEYS
We may be living in an age of featherweight laptops and magic tablets, but the typewriter—that clunky classic—remains the most literary device of all. It’s an icon of the writing life, the truest emblem of an author (nothing says “vagabond novelist” like an Olivetti or Underwood). Journalist Tony Allan honors the PC’s stately precursor in Typewriter: The History, The Machines, The Writers. Providing a compact overview of the instrument’s evolution, Allan’s quirky volume is filled with typewriter trivia, retro posters and ads, vintage photos of classic machines and quotes—now golden—from those who pecked their way to fame (including, of course, Ernest Hemingway: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”). With a foreword by Paul Schweitzer, owner of the Gramercy Typewriter Company, this uncommon little stocking stuffer is the sort of thing literary types live for.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Merry and bright: that’s the forecast for bibliophiles this holiday season. Inspired gift ideas for lovers of literature are as plentiful as snowflakes in December. Our top recommendations are featured here.
PhotographyNatureLiterature

The peace of wild things

Feature by Alice Cary

There might be water on Mars, but we still only have one home, and it’s constantly surprising us. These imaginative books offer a lively look at our world—and beyond.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER
Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future brims with information so intriguing that it begs to be read in one lengthy sitting. It’s a visual treat, featuring Lauren Redniss’ arresting, atmospheric artwork, plus an original typeface she calls Qaneq LR, after the Inuktitut word for “falling snow.” Every aspect of this creation has been carefully considered by Redniss, a Guggenheim fellow and finalist for the National Book Award for her vivid biography of Marie and Pierre Curie, Radioactive. 

Redniss reports extensively, beginning with a mind-boggling stop at a Vermont cemetery where coffins, bodies and bones were washed away by Hurricane Irene’s floods. She discusses weather staples such as rain, fog, wind and cold, finding unexpected treats for each topic and weaving together seemingly disparate strands, such as a conversation with endurance swimmer Diana Nyad and a visit with a wind engineer at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque.

This is hardly an ordinary weather book. Like a tornado, Thunder & Lighting will blow you away.

HUNDRED ACRE WOOD
A.A. Milne would have been pleased as punch with The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood. Landscape designer and historian Kathryn Aalto combines historical photographs with biography to explore the places that inspired Milne and his artistic partner, E.H. Shepard. 

Throughout his books, Milne recreated many of the wonders he experienced as a boy, “hunting butterflies along the coast, bicycling across many shires, and climbing peaks in Wales.” The Hundred Acre Wood is based on Ashdown Forest, “a landscape of sweeping heathland and atmospheric woodlands thirty miles south of London.” In 1925, Milne and his wife bought Cotchford Farm as a country haven on the edge of the forest. (The property was later bought by Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, who eventually drowned in its pool.) Every March, people gather at a nearby bridge for the World Poohsticks Championship, a game from The House at Pooh Corner that involves racing twigs downstream.

You’ll yearn for a real walking tour of this enchanted forest.  

PROTECTING THE SEA
When oceanographer Enric Sala sees swarms of sharks, he happily jumps in, knowing they’re a sign of healthy seas. In 2007 he left academia to actively help protect the ocean, founding an organization that shares its name with his book, Pristine Seas: Journeys to the Ocean’s Last Wild Places. It’s a gorgeous pictorial tour of 10 diverse ocean spots that remain untouched by human activity, ranging from Arctic waters to coral reefs, where vibrant colors abound in seemingly ethereal ways.

On an atoll south of Hawaii, Sala encounters a twinspot grouper with fangs “like an underwater vampire” who surprised him by tugging at his ponytail. Sala and his team discover that pristine seas feature an inverted food chain, with an abundance of predators like sharks, polar bears, seals and crocodiles, which thrive when safe from fishermen and hunters. 

Sala’s writing is snappy and informative, while the photos offer glorious, magical glimpses into underwater worlds seen by so few.


Young blacktip reef sharks of Millennium Atoll. Copyright © 2015 Enric Sala.
From Pristine Seas, reprinted with permission from National Geographic.

SNAPS FROM SPACE
You won’t see photographs like the ones in Earth and Space: Photographs from the Archives of NASA anywhere else. Photographing space, known as stellar astrophotography, is the result of collaboration among NASA’s many engineers, scientists and artists. Tour the universe with more than 100 brilliantly colored photos, starting with scenes of Earth, such as a satellite view of the massive debris field created by the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Venture farther into space and see stars being born amid Milky Way dust, an intergalactic “dance” performed by two faraway galaxies and a taffy-like strip that’s the supernova remnants from an exploded star. Detailed captions explain the science behind these unimaginable sights.

As Bill Nye remarks in the book’s preface, “The views amaze and astonish us; the images themselves are artwork.”

OVER HERE, BIRDWATCHER
Nextinction is a colorful, zany follow-up to Extinct Boids, a collaboration between filmmaker and bird lover Ceri Levy and gonzo artist Ralph Steadman. Dubbing themselves “Gonzovationists,” Steadman and Levy focus on the 192 critically endangered birds on the IUCN Red List, all of which can be saved. As with their first book, this one features both the aforementioned real as well as some imagined species.

All of Steadman’s avian caricatures ooze personality and attitude, while Levy’s descriptions are similarly lively. Accompanying the large illustrations are side panels filled with their emails, diary entries and phone conversations about the birds and the making of the book. Nextinction is a memorable, unique book that manages to infuse fun and fancy into a very serious subject.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

There might be water on Mars, but we still only have one home, and it’s constantly surprising us. These imaginative books offer a lively look at our world—and beyond.

Stunning maps tell humanity’s story

Feature by Sheila M. Trask

Who among us hasn’t used Google Maps to get a detailed aerial survey of our neighborhood, right down to the tricycle in the driveway? We no longer need anything as old-fashioned as a map to navigate our world. Or do we? We may think we’re getting the whole story with our digital access to up-to-the-minute street scenes, but no satellite image delivers the artistic elegance and historical context of the maps reproduced in these four gorgeous collections. 

A GLOBAL APPROACH
If you think of maps as antiquated and utilitarian, maybe even boring, prepare to reconsider. Map: Exploring the World, an attention-grabbing collection of more than 300 maps, brings the art of cartography to life with meticulously reproduced, full-color maps ranging from a Catalan atlas manuscript on parchment to modern digital data maps that trace airline flight paths with light trails. The editors play with the expectation that maps are historical documents, and thus should be presented from earliest to latest. Instead, they follow a gold-highlighted 1547 map of Java la Grande from the Vallard Atlas with a 1997 painting of the sacred Baltaltjara site by Australian aboriginal artist Estelle Hogan. Turn the page and you’re in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie-the-Pooh, courtesy of Ernest H. Shepard’s 1926 drawing. A new scene unfolds on each page, accompanied by just enough text to give context, while encouraging readers to make their own connections between art and history.

URBAN SPACES
Jeremy Black, University of Exeter history professor and author of more than 80 books, sheds a different kind of light on humankind’s history as it is reflected in our mapmaking ventures. In Metropolis: Mapping the City, Black focuses on a single subject of cartography: the cityscape. Noting that as civilization developed, so did the human desire to control and organize the rapid pace of change, Black suggests that maps are perhaps the perfect tool for urban planning, allowing people to measure, navigate, plan and protect their newly organized cities. A mapmaker’s vision could affect an entire culture, as evidenced by examples like side-by-side planning maps of New York City in 1815 and 1867. The former shows a relatively featureless grid of streets, while the latter allows the lush, green space of Central Park to dominate, a factor that shapes the settlement of the city to this day. Black’s maps range from bird’s-eye views and panoramas to skyline profiles and schematics, giving readers multiple visual perspectives along with his ample and authoritative text describing each map in its historical context.

THE COURSE OF WAR
Focusing the historical lens even more closely than Black are Richard H. Brown and Paul E. Cohen in Revolution: Mapping the Road to American Independence, 1755-1783. This unique collection illuminates the battles—physical and political—that defined America’s fight for independence. Brown and Cohen carefully curated this collection, scouring sources from the King George III collection at the British Library to the archives of Revolutionary War map printer William Faden and previously undiscovered family collections. Many of the maps are published here for the first time, with full-page reproductions and enlarged insets providing astonishingly detailed accounts of each battle. The 1777 “Plan of New York Island,” for instance, allows readers to see the “carefully placed British forces, twenty-one-thousand strong,” as they “attacked the poorly organized and ill-equipped rebels.” The authors’ lively commentary runs throughout the book, but as they take pains to note, the maps are the focus. Where other history books might use maps to support the narrative, Revolution uses narrative to support the maps themselves.


A "Map of Video Websites" from Vargic's Miscellany of Curious Maps, courtesy of Martin Vargic.

A MAPMAKER’S WORDPLAY
The maps are the narrative in the wildly original Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps: Mapping the Modern World, in which 17-year-old Slovakian artist Martin Vargic reimagines our planet not just geographically, but culturally, too. Famous for his viral “Map of the Internet,” which remapped the world in terms of website popularity (countries like Facebook and Google dominate North America, for example), Vargic takes his near-obsessive attention to detail to new heights with atlas-style maps that contain vast alternative vocabularies for describing the globe, with thousands of words in each entry. Vargic’s meticulousness was not always obvious when huge pieces like his “Map of Stereotypes” made their way around the Internet. Here, though, full-page, two-page and even foldout maps, along with insets, allow us to see every word he has imposed upon our previously well-ordered vision of the globe. Do you recognize the island relabeled with words like Cigars, Vintage Cars and Uncle Fidel? Would you sail on the Jack Sparrow sea? There’s a sly sense of humor to everything Vargic does, which lets us laugh at ourselves a bit while we contemplate the larger truths he’s telling.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Who among us hasn’t used Google Maps to get a detailed aerial survey of our neighborhood, right down to the tricycle in the driveway? We no longer need anything as old-fashioned as a map to navigate our world. Or do we? We may think we’re getting the whole story with our digital access to up-to-the-minute street scenes, but no satellite image delivers the artistic elegance and historical context of the maps reproduced in these four gorgeous collections. 
Religion & Spirituality

Many paths to God

Feature by Heather Seggel

Several new books on religion and spirituality look at faith and God with both fresh and traditional views. From irreverent humor to pure devotion, these books follow Dorothy Day’s edict to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

THE ULTIMATE BEST-SELLER
The Bible is a holy text but also a revered work of literature; as such, it is open to consideration and interpretation by all. In The Good Book: Writers Reflect on Favorite Bible Passages, editor Andrew Blauner collects musings that run the spectrum from irreverent to heartbreaking. Lois Lowry’s tale of family love and a tragic loss that has parallels to the Book of Ruth is absolutely wrenching, while Reverend Al Sharpton’s take on the Book of Psalms connects it to the lamentation over black lives lost today and ends with a bracing, “No justice. No peace.” Daniel Menaker mines the Book of Jonah for humor in a manner that must be read to be believed (a sample: “In truth I was much relieved later to learn that Jonah hath not gone, yea, all the way through the whale, if you knoweth what I mean.”). An introduction by Adam Gopnik, the inclusion of a poem by Robert Pinsky and a short story by Colm Tóibín break up the march of the essays. If one piece sings God’s praises, the next may well argue that He doesn’t exist. This is substantive reading that casts the Good Book in a new light.

OLD STORY, NEW TWIST
Another fresh vision of a central religious text comes in artist Sandow Birk’s American Qur’an. This illuminated rendering of Islam’s holy text—which took 9 years to complete—is hand-lettered in an angular style reminiscent of graffiti, with each passage superimposed over a scene painted by Birk and bordered in ornate blue, red and gold accents. It’s gorgeous, and will most likely be controversial. Some of the paintings depict people, which in Islam can be considered a form of idolatry. Yet Birk’s goal was never to rewrite the Qur’an, but to make connections between the text and the daily lives of Americans; without seeing representations of ourselves, that connection would likely remain tenuous at best. Scenes at a funeral or a beach feel inhabited and abandoned at the same time, and an aerial view of a city looks like a tweedy New Yorker cover but for the block of text in its midst. 

Religious scholar Reza Aslan writes in the introduction about how, lacking a central authority like the Vatican, Islam is not the same from one place to the next. “Religion is water and culture is the vessel; Islam takes the shape of whatever culture it encounters.” Whether this American view helps to foster understanding remains to be seen; it is, however, a stunning work of art.


Reprinted from American Qur'an, artwork by Sandow Birk. Copyright © 2016 by Sandow Birk. With permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
This Moment Is Full of Wonders: The Zen Calligraphy of Thich Nhat Hanh captures the Buddhist author and meditation teacher’s brushwork, much of which contains simple messages that grow in meaning with consideration. “You have enough” is surrounded by a circle that’s just slightly open at the bottom, as if to allow a little more in or out as needed. A single panel with just the word “Look” on it, is followed by a panel reading, “Look deeply,” with the second word much smaller and placed below the first as an almost literal instruction. These beautiful messages, rendered with care and a spirit of play, offer a gentle path to focus and contemplation. For their sparse design and construction, they’re remarkably rich.

Two pocket-sized volumes, The Illuminated Book of Psalms and The Illuminated Life of Christ, pair Bible verses with classic paintings that were either directly inspired or strongly influenced by them. The Life of Christ follows the gospels, and the paintings are by turns lush and romantic, then suddenly stark and frightening, bringing the story home with power; a rendering of the ascension that depicts two feet disappearing up into the ceiling would almost be funny, were it not for the fear and wonder on the faces of the witnesses. The flexible cloth binding, end papers and ribbon bookmark make these beautiful keepsakes, and the juxtaposition of art and text offers material for deep reflection. 

LIFE-CHANGING LESSONS
Finally, all this talk about religion can make a person itchy. Commandment this and thou shalt not that, but how do you put all these lessons into action? Lori Deschene’s got you covered, with a little help from her friends in the Tiny Buddha community. Tiny Buddha’s 365 Tiny Love Challenges offers daily suggestions for a more friendly, loving and socially connected life. Ideas include making a small sacrifice for someone else (such as giving up your spot in a slow-moving line), people-watching with the intent to compliment everyone rather than judge them and passing along praise instead of gossip. There are questions for reflection, a cue to review at the end of the day and illustrative stories of the big results that can come from small actions.

While they’re not Buddhist per se, these practices put a practical spin on spiritual ideas, beginning with self-care and carrying it forward into the world, from friends and family to strangers. Take these challenges and help create more for yourself and those around you.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Several new books on religion and spirituality look at faith and God with both fresh and traditional views. From irreverent humor to pure devotion, these books follow Dorothy Day’s edict to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
NonfictionPop CulturePhotographyFilmDesignBiography

Heading to Hollywood for the holidays

Feature by Pat H. Broeske

An unstoppable film franchise. A luminous Golden Age star. A beloved oddball actor. This season’s standout entertainment-themed books run the gamut from design to drama, from stand-up to the stage. 

THE NAME'S BOND
Whatever your take on the Bond films—including the vastly differing opinions on which actor is the best Bond—the franchise’s production value is not up for debate. The large-format Bond by Design salutes the behind-the-scenes artists—including renowned production designers Ken Adam, Syd Cain and Peter Lamont—and features a copious display of artwork, sets, costumes and embellishments, making this hefty tome a must-have for 007 fans and devotees of production design. 

With many sections written by Meg Simmonds, the archivist for the Bond empire’s production company, the book moves film by film, featuring storyboard sequences, costume illustrations, gadgetry ruminations and more. Styles vary from artist to artist. Adam, whose Bond career dates back to the 1962 debut title, Dr. No, liked to work with a Flo-master felt tip pen. Jump ahead many decades, and the artists embrace digital design; what is consistent is the quality and attention to detail. No wonder Bond is the most successful franchise in film history, with the 24th entry, Spectre, now in theaters and thoroughly represented in this elaborate collection. 

A HOLLYWOOD LEGEND
Though she won three Academy Awards, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman is best known for her role opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Published to commemorate the centenary of her birth, the lavish and loving Ingrid Bergman: A Life in Pictures takes readers on a journey through her career, including her downward spiral and triumphant encore. 

With daughter Isabella Rossellini serving as co-editor, this book boasts more than 350 photos—some from Bergman’s private collection—an introduction by her co-star and friend Liv Ullmann, a lengthy Bergman interview and texts by various acquaintances. 

Her highly controversial liaison with Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini is detailed alongside the image that sparked the media frenzy: Bergman and Rossellini, who were both married to other people, walking hand in hand on the Amalfi coast. Published by Life magazine, the photo established Bergman’s reputation as a loose woman. When she became pregnant with Rossellini’s child and delivered the baby prior to their marriage, she became a Hollywood pariah. 

Beauty, talent, choices and sacrifice—they’re all on display here in Bergman’s intriguing story, all of it captured by the camera.

THE CULT OF BILL
Whether he’s battling gophers, ghosts or zombies, Bill Murray is the quirky king of offbeat humor. As Robert Schnakenberg puts it in The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray, his on-screen persona is that of “the sardonic slacker-trickster who charms his way out of precarious situations.”

Topics are arranged alphabetically: Under “cats,” we learn that he’s allergic to them; under “Chase, Cornelius ‘Chevy,’ ” we hear about his rocky relationship with his fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum, including their fistfight prior to a February 1978 taping. His movies are all featured, as are the roles he turned down (like porn producer Jack Horner, subsequently played by Burt Reynolds, in Boogie Nights).  

As the book observes, the beloved Murray is a complicated guy. (See the listing under “Ramis, Harold,” about his two-decade estrangement from his former pal and director.) Comedians usually are. 


Photo of Bill Murray in Caddyshack from The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray, reprinted courtesy of the Everett Collection.

MAKE ’EM LAUGH
Speaking of comics, more than a century of stand-up gets the spotlight in The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy. Author Kliph Nesteroff, a former stand-up comic, conducted more than 200 interviews for a book that manages to be both encyclopedic and hugely entertaining. 

Did you know that the term “stand-up comic” was invented by the Mob, which owned the early clubs? Or that it was Redd Foxx, of TV’s “Sanford and Son,” who triggered the comedy album boom in the 1960s?  

Nesteroff takes us through the history of stand-up, with vivid stop-offs in burlesque, radio, early television, Vegas and the talk show circuit. Of course, comedy has a dark side. Nesteroff uses Robin Williams to remind us that the funniest guy in the room is sometimes hiding a world of pain. 

BROADWAY'S BEST
Celebratory and jam-packed with facts and great imagery, Musicals: The Definitive Illustrated Story focuses on more than 140 great musicals of stage and screen from the past century. The enduring classics are all accounted for, from Show Boat to The Phantom of the Opera, from Jesus Christ Superstar to Hair. Lush production photos, fascinating essays and facts about the genre’s geniuses, including Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, make this a choice coffee-table tome. There’s much to sing about here, in what could easily become a favored reference work.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

An unstoppable film franchise. A luminous Golden Age star. A beloved oddball actor. This season’s standout entertainment-themed books run the gamut from design to drama, from stand-up to the stage.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Festive picture books celebrate the season

Feature by Julie Hale

There’s no topping the sense of excitement that comes with the countdown to Christmas. And there’s no better way to celebrate the season than snuggling up with a holiday story. Surprise the little reader in your life with one of the delightful books featured below, and let the countdown begin!

SANTA AT THE FARM
Duck and the rest of the barnyard rascals get caught in a Christmas jam in Doreen Cronin’s hilarious Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho!. Spruced up for Christmas Eve with a sprig of holly in his hat, Farmer Brown is hanging stockings by the fire. All is merry, bright and quiet, until he hears noises on the roof. Must be Santa, right? Wrong! It’s Duck, stirring up Christmas mischief. He’s hoping to deliver a gift to Farmer Brown in the style of Saint Nick. But upon seeing Santa in the sky, Duck dives into the chimney and gets stuck. Sheep, goats, cat and cows come to the rescue, but they get trapped, too. Luckily, Santa’s on hand to set them free, and soon they’re making merry around Farmer Brown’s tree. Betsy Lewin brings the Christmas revelry to life in spirited watercolor illustrations. As usual, Duck and friends deliver big fun. 

REUNITED FOR THE HOLIDAYS
With Over the River & Through the Wood, Linda Ashman offers an inspired update of Lydia Maria Child’s beloved 1844 poem. In this contemporary take on the classic, a group of widespread relatives—all very different—reunite for a seasonal celebration. Summoned by Grandma and Grandpa (“Come to our house for the holidays—and bring your favorite pie!”), the family members make the journey from various corners of the country by train, car, plane and ferry. When unexpected obstacles delay the travelers, a surprise sleigh ride saves the day. Brimming with holiday cheer, Ashman’s festive tale pays tribute to the modern family in all its varied configurations, and Kim Smith’s dynamic digital illustrations make this a holiday journey worth taking. 

GIFT-GIVING AT ITS BEST
In David Biedrzycki’s Me and My Dragon: Christmas Spirit, the boy-and-beast team are preparing for the holidays. Lacking the funds to buy Christmas gifts, they take on odd (very, very odd) jobs for cash. Dragon’s fire-breathing abilities prove lucrative: He broils up menu items at the Burger Barn and toasts marshmallows, which his enterprising little partner sells for 50 cents. But when it’s time to go shopping, the boy has a change of heart, and he donates his money to a worthy cause. As for Dragon, he contributes homemade cookies (although his baking skills are questionable). Biedrzycki’s clever digital illustrations are crammed with Christmas goodness—snowy sidewalks, costumed carolers and two happy friends. 

MEDIEVAL MERRIMENT
Filled with holiday witticisms, The Knights Before Christmas is a clever send-up of Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Joan Holub’s playful adaptation features three bumbling noblemen—Brave Knight, Silent Knight and Polite Knight—who are guarding the king’s castle on Christmas Eve. Peace reigns, but not for long: A clatter on the drawbridge signals the arrival of Santa. Mistaking the jolly old elf for an invader, the knights set out to repel him, swords drawn and flourished. But Santa has gifts that he’s determined to deliver, and he launches a special attack on the castle—with sugarplums and chewing gum. Packed with Christmas wisecracks and colorful digital illustrations by Scott Magoon, this is a very merry olde Yuletide tale.

NEIGHBORHOOD CHEER
“Sesame Street” alum Sonia Manzano tells a big-city Christmas story in Miracle on 133rd Street. In their cramped apartment, José and his parents celebrate the holidays, although they pine for their native Puerto Rico. When Mami discovers the stove’s too small for her roast, José has a solution: cook the roast at the neighborhood pizzeria. As José and Papi embark on this tasty mission, they encounter cranky grownups and quarreling kids, none of whom seem happy about the holidays. But on their return trip, a bit of Christmas enchantment occurs, and the tempting aroma of the cooked roast works like magic. Marjorie Priceman’s whimsical illustrations, with swirling eddies of color, are perfect for this tale that will make readers believe in the power of Christmas.

CLASSIC COME TO LIFE
No Christmas would be complete without a few rounds of “Jingle Bells,” the timeless sleigh-ride tune composed by James Lord Pierpont in 1857. In Jingle Bells: A Magical Cut-Paper Edition, artist Niroot Putta-pipat brings the holiday gem to vivid life through precise cut- paper montages. A pair of sweethearts—shown in dramatic, dark silhouette against a snow-filled backdrop—takes off on a sleigh ride through a 19th-century winter wonderland. Song lyrics run along the bottom of each spread, and at the end of the ride, there’s a pop-up surprise the little ones will love. A sing-along is definitely in order!

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

There’s no topping the sense of excitement that comes with the countdown to Christmas. And there’s no better way to celebrate the season than snuggling up with a holiday story. Surprise the little reader in your life with one of the delightful books featured below, and let the countdown begin!
Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Treasured books to wrap in brightly colored paper

Feature by Alice Cary

Take a fresh look at some age-old classics, or stash away some ideas for family fun. It’s a bumper year for children’s gift books, and the stars of this year’s crop include something new for Harry Potter fans, a Star Wars extravaganza and an ingenious offering from David Macaulay for budding engineers.

There’s something extra special about passing along your favorite books to a new generation of young readers. Classic children’s tales really are gifts that keep on giving.

Whether you’re a longtime Harry Potter fan or are introducing a new reader to the series, check out the superbly illustrated edition of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Award-winning British illustrator Jim Kay has created more than 100 illustrations for this gorgeous book, full of colorful visualizations of Harry’s first adventure. Kay didn’t have an easy task, as so many fans already have fully formed images of these beloved characters and scenes. Never fear: His art glimmers with all the excitement, joy, mystery and thrills of this magical tale. Rowling has given her approval, saying she loves “his interpretation of Harry Potter’s world,” which “moved me profoundly.” This special edition features an attractive layout with text that’s easy on the eyes, a bonus for young and old alike, making it perfect for reading aloud. Avid Potter fans will want—no, need—to add this book to their collections.

Another classic tale gets a redo with Gillian Cross’ retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, with striking illustrations by Neil Packer. The duo previously collaborated on The Odyssey, and both books make an excellent introduction for middle schoolers discovering these ancient tales for the first time. Cross’ text is riveting, elegant and accessible, bringing epic battle scenes to life: “The Greeks threw huge rocks down onto them, but the Trojans replied by hurling bigger stones at the wall. They flew like snow in blizzard, clanging against helmets and shields and covering the ground.” Packer’s artwork is contemporary, colorful, dramatic and just right for luring in a preteen audience. A helpful introduction, an informative afterword and a reference spread showing the names and faces of major characters and their allegiances are also included.

Tales from the Brothers Grimm features the artwork of famed Swiss poster designer Herbert Leupin. After taking the advertising world by storm in the 1940s, the late graphic artist began illustrating fairy tales. Leupin’s legacy is given new life here, and his illustrations are indeed poster-worthy. These nine fairy tales include classics like “Hansel and Gretel” and “Snow White,” along with less familiar choices such as “Hans in Luck” and “The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids.” As noted in the book’s epilogue, Leupin infused his illustrations with humor and a magical glow, and most importantly, he made sure that when “danger threatens . . . children are not just afraid but also have something to laugh at.” Leupin’s creations burst with personality and color, and children as well as adults will delight in these offerings.

MOVIE NIGHT MADNESS
Star Wars fans eagerly awaiting the release of The Force Awakens will want to get their hands on Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know. This is a book made for perusing and quizzing fellow enthusiasts, with graphics galore and numerous statistics, quotes, questions and trivia. Do you know what a nerf herder is, or the name of Hondo’s favorite ship? My favorites are the “Peek behind the scenes” tidbits, such as the fact that Han Solo was a big green alien in the original rough draft. Who knew that a termite infestation in George Lucas’ house inspired the buzzing swarm of Geonosians, and that he brought in specimens for his art designers? An index helps readers keep track of all of these facts and figures.

Planning a family movie night can be challenging, but things just got easier with 101 Movies to See Before You Grow Up: Be Your Own Movie Critic—The Must-See Movie List for Kids. Instead of trying to strong-arm your kids into watching an old favorite of yours, just hand them this book and let them decide. Suzette Valle’s interactive guide is aimed at third- to seventh-graders, but there’s something for everyone in a wide range of categories that includes everything from classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and Toy Story  to discussion-provoking choices like Life Is Beautiful and Super Size Me. Each page-long entry contains a synopsis, rating and run time, a variety of fun facts and space for viewers to make notes about their own reactions to the film. (A few classics, like The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music, get two-page spreads.) Natasha Hellegouarch’s illustrations and graphics add just the right touch of color and fun.

LESSONS THEY’LL LOVE
David Macaulay, celebrated for his best-selling The Way Things Work, has created a unique exploratory adventure in How Machines Work: Zoo Break!. First, it’s a story about two animals, Sloth and Sengi (a little elephant shrew), trying to break out of the zoo. More than that, however, it’s an interactive pop-up book that brings six simple machines to life in a wonderful way: wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw and pulley. Sloth and Sengi try to put these simple machines to work, and the book succeeds grandly as both a fun story and an educational experience just right for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum. Macaulay is a Caldecott Medal winner and a MacArthur Fellow, and his trademark humorous illustrations hold everything together with spreads that are equally intriguing and enlightening. A glossary at the end helps solidify the scientific concepts, while the madcap ending is perfectly pulled off.

Kids of all ages will enjoy SENSEational Illusions, an engaging book filled with quick and quirky activities to test your senses, as well as simple scientific explanations for each. Readers will find a variety of optical illusions, including a large pop-up sculpture with three hidden animals waiting to be found. There are scratch-and-sniff quizzes and directions for easy taste tests that require only simple ingredients. Experiments involving touch and balance include two mazes to be completed with one finger at the ready and both eyes closed, as well as a maze full of booby traps to be navigated by three small ball bearings (included). Chock-full of fun, it can be enjoyed solo or with buddies. Either way, it’s sure to be a hit.

ON-THE-GO FUN
Planning a road trip? Bring along The 50 States, a large book of fact-filled maps that allows young geographers to get lost in the many details. A two-page spread for each state includes the map, an introductory overview, a chart of key facts (capital, largest city, etc.) and a timetable of memorable moments in history. Also included are brief mentions of famous people from each state, from familiar faces to contemporary notables. Alabama’s pages spotlight Rosa Parks and Helen Keller, as well as track-and-field athlete Carl Lewis and actress Octavia Spencer. Author Gabrielle Balkan’s research and writing draws readers in with a fun mash-up of history, geography and pop culture, while Sol Linero’s illustrations make every spread a delight. I even learned a few new tidbits about my beloved West Virginia.

If you need to occupy a preschooler or an early-elementary student, grab a copy of Making Faces!: Star in Your Own Works of Art by Jacky Bahbout and illustrated by Momoko Kudo. This large, placemat-sized drawing pad has a simple, silly concept: Each page has a hole in the middle and contains drawings and a theme (party time, clown, soccer player, dragon, etc.) to which young artists can add their own details. The page titled “Moose on the loose!!!” encourages youngsters to draw their own antlers and add extra trees to the forest. Once complete, kids can tear out the page, put their face in the hole and pose for a photo. This is a great choice when waiting for restaurant meals and appointments, a creative alternative to video and phone distractions. Send the photo to Grandma and everybody’s happy!

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Take a fresh look at some age-old classics, or stash away some ideas for family fun. It’s a bumper year for children’s gift books, and the stars of this year’s crop include something new for Harry Potter fans, a Star Wars extravaganza and an ingenious offering from David Macaulay for budding engineers.
YA NonfictionYA FictionYA

Gifts for ravenous teen readers

Feature by Cat Acree

LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
Two classic fairy tales combine with a trademark Neil Gaiman twist in The Sleeper and the Spindle. Originally published without illustrations in the anthology Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales, edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt, Gaiman’s tale melds the darkest elements of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White for something familiar yet wickedly updated. Warrior queen Snow White (though she’s not named outright) has just survived her yearlong sleeping curse and is preparing to marry a man she’d much rather not. When three dwarfs warn her that a sleeping curse spreads toward her lands, she and her short-statured companions take off to save Sleeping Beauty and the many, many people who have fallen victim to the curse. While Gaiman’s short tale offers moments of whimsy and humor, the black-and-white illustrations by Kate Greenaway Award winner Chris Riddell, gilded here and there with metallic details, make this book worthy of any bookshelf. From the delicate spiderwebs that spread over the sleeping citizens to the sagging, loose skin of a creepy old woman who guards Sleeping Beauty, Riddell’s illustrations elevate The Sleeper and the Spindle to nothing less than an object of art.

WOMEN OF SCIENCE
Women have more access to education and career advancement than ever before in history. However, they certainly haven’t achieved parity with men, with women making up only a third of scientific researchers worldwide. And all too often, the scientific contributions of women throughout history have gone unacknowledged. Following up the award-winning Magnificent Minds, Pendred E. Noyce’s Remarkable Minds spotlights 17 more pioneering women in science, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Spanning seven countries and three centuries, the brilliant heroines of Remarkable Minds are forgotten no more, from a French noblewoman to the granddaughter of slaves, from women who hesitated to call themselves scientists and those who became winners of the Nobel Prize. For all the many advancements highlighted here, perhaps what readers will remember best of all is the stories of women helping women, advising and advocating for each other and celebrating each other’s achievements.

ROOKIE’S SENIOR YEAR
Rookiemag.com is an online, independent magazine written by young women, for young women, and Rookie Yearbook Four is the latest compilation of the very best art, essays, photographs, playlists, DIY tutorials, guides and interviews from June 2014 through May 2015. In the tradition of yearbooks, this is also the last in the series, as editor and founder Tavi Gevinson grows up, graduates, moves out and waves goodbye to this format of Rookie—while promising that the mag and its community will continue. In Rookie’s senior yearbook, readers explore essays on rape culture, heartbreak, humility, role models, college admissions, sex, crushes and love; on honoring yourself, your body, your BFF and your creativity; on transitions big and small. There are themed playlists with power anthems, poetry and photography by teens, interviews with Donna Tartt, Laverne Cox, FKA twigs and Genevieve Liu (the founder of Surviving Life After a Parent Dies, or SLAP’D), plus so much more. In Yearbook Two, Tavi wrote that “the closest thing I have to the sense that someone, somewhere is watching over me is the knowledge that everything I could possibly feel has been articulated by another human being in art.” Here it is, as powerful as it is playful—everything a teen girl’s heart has ever felt and may ever feel.

Do you have a teen on your gift list whose bookshelf holds their most prized possessions, who has crushes on fictional characters and who seems more interested in make-believe lands than the real world? You’re in luck: These three new books make ideal gifts for the book-obsessed teen.

Children's & YA

Never bored with board books

Feature by Alice Cary

Since the arrival of our twin girls on Easter, board books are once again in vogue at our house. On this rainy day while the babies are napping, I've been perusing the latest crop. Here's what we'll be reading—not to mention chewing—in months to come.

Babies love to look at other babies, which means Copycat Faces is sure to be a hit. Those familiar with DK's publishing style know what to expect: vivid, enticing photographs set against a white background. There's also a fold-out mirror in which babies can imitate the eye-catching expressions of the children photographed within boys and girls costumed as a king, burglar, jester, explorer, pirate and, at the very end, a sleeping boy.

Dav Pilkey's Big Dog and Little Dog: Making a Mistake is one in a series of board books about two dogs and their adventures. Both text and illustrations are simple and cheery, showing the duo as they follow an animal they believe to be a kitty, but which turns out to be a skunk. As an adult reader, I greatly appreciate board books that manage to have a plot, simple though it may be.

Miss Spider's New Car is a superb example of a picture book that translates well to board format. The text is a short verse, describing Miss Spider's shopping expedition with her ant buddy to buy a new car. Kirk's outstanding illustrations are luminous, even in board book format.

Pooh's Pitter Patter Splash! is double fun. Not only is there a rhyming tale about rain, but attached to the book is a clear plastic case containing colorful beads. Shake the book or turn it upside down, and the beads become a rattle imitating the sound of raindrops. This is one of the cleverest board books I've seen, one bound to entertain.

More fun is waiting in Bow Wow: A Pop-up Book of Shapes. Each page contains a black and white flap showing a different shape. Lift the flap to discover a colorful pop-up illustration incorporating that shape amidst a menagerie of canines. Save this whimsical book for older, gentle toddlers who won't destroy the flaps and pop-ups.

Fill your child's day with sunshine with the Portable Universe series from Abrams. Sun, for instance, is a bright sun-shaped book containing a cheerful rhyme and illustrations about our great star.

Other easy-travel books are Fisher-Price's Move-Along Bead Book series, board books with attached carrying handles and big, colorful beads which slide along the handle. For example, Rise and Shine, Busy Bugs features bug-shaped beads in purple, yellow, blue, and pink, and the stories of bug behavior is told in clever rhyming couplets. Wonderful books to develop color recognition and eye-hand coordination, and to carry along on vacation! Yet another novelty can be found in Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around: A Spin-Me-Around Book About Opposites. Each page contains a cut-out oval that spins to reveal pictures on each side good for developing manual dexterity, not to mention just plain intriguing for little tikes. Kathy Couri's illustrations of a frolicking teddy in sailor suit garb are sweetly executed in pastel tones.

What do you call a pig's nose? A snout, of course. These and other Funfax are included in a novel series of Fold Out Floor Books from DK, one of which is Pig. A page asks a question, the next answers it, and meanwhile the book unfolds to form a large square picture of a pig surrounded by related photos. And the pigs are pink, cuddly, and cute, I might add, undoubtedly related to Babe. Finally, those with fond memories of Pat the Bunny will enjoy The Happy Book, a touch-and-feel book with such things as scratch-and-sniff flowers, a kitty's fur, a pig's tail, a boo-boo to kiss, and sandpaper to rub. My goodness, even board books are interactive these days! With luck, they'll keep my little duo happy and busy.

 

Alice Cary writes from her home in Groton, Massachusetts.

Since the arrival of our twin girls on Easter, board books are once again in vogue at our house. On this rainy day while the babies are napping, I've been perusing the latest crop. Here's what we'll be reading—not to mention chewing—in months to come.

NonfictionBusiness & Finance

Targeted self-help solutions for building a better you

Feature by Lynn Green

Anyone entering the new year with a list of resolutions needs advice on how to kickstart their commitment to personal change. We’ve looked at stacks of new self-help books and chosen six of the clearest, most practical guides to help you meet your goals, whether it’s a fitter physique or a more adventurous life.


If your resolution is to be more active:

Consider the sensible and achievable plan outlined in Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program. Building on their popular series, Chris Crowley and physician Henry S. Lodge devote the bulk of the book to the “whys” of exercise: why it works (the science) and why we should do it (the benefits). By the time you get to the actual exercises in chapter nine, you’ll presumably be so fired up you’ll plunge right into the “25 sacred exercises” of strength training. Pair those with the “magic bullet” of aerobics and you’re on your way. If you need more motivation, ponder this: People who do some kind of aerobic activity regularly have a 40 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.


If your resolution is to lose weight:

Check out Thinner in 30:  Small Changes That Add Up to Big Weight Loss in Just 30 Days. “Today” fitness correspondent Jenna Wolfe breaks the big task of weight loss into 30 small chunks that seem doable, from drinking 20 sips of water as soon as you wake up to making at least three of your everyday activities more challenging (for example, when you’re watching TV, get up off the couch and do a quick exercise during each commercial break). Yes, some of the 30 changes are harder than others, but Wolfe’s helpful tips and tricks will give you added impetus to succeed. 


If your resolution is to manage your money: 

Use your cash on hand to buy a copy of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated. Authors Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack argue that the best financial advice for most people would fit on a 3-by-5-inch index card. The tenets of their 10-point system are surprisingly simple but effective: Saving 10 to 20 percent of your income, paying your credit card balance in full each month and making the maximum contribution to your tax-advantaged retirement savings plans are at the top of the list. The index card system started with Pollack, a public health professor at the University of Chicago who faced financial problems as a result of overspending, under-saving and accumulating costly debts. He put his family on sound financial footing with the new regimen, and the step-by-step guidelines in this book can help you follow the same path to financial freedom. 


If your resolution is to be more giving:

Explore the philanthropic ideas in Simple Giving: Easy Ways to Give Every Day. Jennifer Iacovelli, who has worked for nonprofits and writes the blog Simple Giving Lab, argues that we can all help to make the world a better place by incorporating giving into our daily lives. You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg to make a difference—even small donations or simple gestures of support can have an impact. The author offers six “models” of giving: everyday acts of kindness; traditional philanthropy, such as donating your time or money to charity; shopping with a conscience; taking action on issues you’re passionate about; giving as a business model; and “giving it forward” by inspiring others to give when you do. Whether you’re holding a door open for a stranger or donating to the Red Cross, you’re demonstrating your concern for others. One satisfying note: Psychological studies have shown that giving not only helps others but ourselves, making givers both happier and healthier.


If your resolution is to live more mindfully:

You’ll be intrigued by the suggestions in 52 Small Changes for the Mind by wellness expert Brett Blumenthal. He offers one small change you can make each week to improve your mental well-being and explains how each step will help you feel less stressed and more content. During Week 1, for example, readers are advised to “Put pen to paper” and start a personal journal. The act of recording your feelings will leave you “calmer, happier and more capable of moving past negativity.” Other weekly recommendations include: sip green tea, silence your inner critic, say yes to new experiences and spend more time outside. Attractively designed and well-organized, this inspiring volume is a pleasure to browse and peppered with thought-provoking quotes. As Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says, “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”


If your resolution is to live your dreams:

Pick up a copy of Gin Sander’s The Big Bucket List Book: 133 Experiences of a Lifetime. Sander’s goal is to help each of us pursue a “well-lived life,” full of rich ideas and adventures. “Participate in life, rather than observe or drown in the dreaded feeling that it’s just passing you by,” she advises. Since the well-lived life means different things to different people, she encourages readers to define their own terms for a bucket list and to think creatively about living their wildest dreams on a budget. (Travel with a group, crowdsource your project or do volunteer work at a desired destination.) The ideas listed are wide-ranging and fun to daydream about, from having dinner in a Napa Valley wine cave to ordering a pair of custom-made shoes. Before you write down your own list, the author recommends setting the mood with a glass of wine and a scented candle and letting your mind run freely. Whether it’s running a marathon or starting a humanitarian movement, adventure is right around the corner.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Anyone entering the new year with a list of resolutions needs advice on how to kickstart their commitment to personal change. We’ve looked at stacks of new self-help books and chosen six of the clearest, most practical guides to help you meet your goals, whether it’s a fitter physique or a more adventurous life.
Nonfiction

I read the (health) news today, oh boy

Feature by Sheila M. Trask

Health news: It’s everywhere. Our smartphones, televisions, friends and relatives are all standing by with updates on the latest research, though we’re often left more confused than ever. Luckily, several new books by doctors, scientists and nutrition experts take us much deeper into the science behind the headlines so we can make informed decisions about promoting and protecting our health.

Shall we start with the good news or the bad? It’s up to you in journalist Jeff Wilser’s entertaining analysis of the health claims we hear every day. Depending on which side of his lively book you start with, you’ll get The Bad News About What’s Good for You, or, alternatively, The Good News About What’s Bad for You. Wilser takes on topics from breakfast to retirement and challenges the conventional wisdom. Eat breakfast, lose weight? Maybe, Wilser finds, but most studies don’t bear that out. Think retirement will bring freedom and adventure? Possibly, but it’s also linked to higher risks of depression, divorce, stroke and heart attack. Wilser’s background as a writer for publications as diverse as The Chicago Tribune and GQ serves him well here, as he shares pop culture anecdotes and hard science side-by-side, with equal parts sincerity and humor.  

TURNING THE TABLES ON FAT
Though Wilser touches on the surprising news that some fats are, in fact, good for you, physician Steven Masley and nutritionist Jonny Bowden devote their full attention to the topic in Smart Fat: Eat More Fat. Lose More Weight. Get Healthy Now. Although a generation of Americans grew up hearing that margarine was better than butter and that carbohydrates should form the foundation of our food pyramid, that wasn’t necessarily good information, Masley and Bowden write. Their astute survey of the situation delves deeply into the question of what fats really do to our bodies and how certain “smart” fats might do much more good than harm. The science here is comprehensive but never boring; the authors write clearly and elegantly, leaving space for interesting “smart fat facts.” (Did you ever stop to think that there are no vegetables in vegetable oil, only grains and seeds?) Practical plans follow the scientific explanations. A 29-day menu, meal-by-meal advice and “diet” recipes that sound like no diet you’ve ever been on—beef stew, anyone?—round out this informative and useful volume.

OUR PREHISTORIC LEGACY
Of course, we don’t have conscious control over everything that affects our health; many traits have been passed down for generations and persist even though they’re no longer useful in the modern world. That’s the fascinating concept behind Too Much of a Good Thing: How Four Key Survival Traits Are Now Killing Us by Lee Goldman, head of Columbia University Medical Center. The habits that lead us to develop obesity, hypertension, mental illness, heart disease and stroke may have once been valuable to the continuation of the species. Some of Goldman’s examples seem like common sense—humans are designed to eat whatever’s in front of them, because not so long ago the next meal was far from a sure thing—but others are surprising. For instance, he makes a convincing case that our attraction to salt was once useful for staving off dehydration, but now serves mostly to raise our blood pressure. You may have never thought about how protective Paleolithic blood-clotting plays out in modern times (think heart disease and stroke), but this world-renowned cardiologist explains it plainly and suggests an important role for medicine in bridging the gap between our lifestyle and our genetic heritage.

SELF-HELP SOBRIETY
One thing our ancestors were not prepared to deal with was the prevalence of alcohol in everyday life. It’s something most adults today have to contend with, and something that gets many of us in trouble. Here with The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home are Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Dave Andrews, an experienced sobriety coach. Using positive psychology and systematic instructions, the authors guide readers through each of the 30 days of their program. It might be daunting to see how much work is involved in getting and staying sober, but the upbeat tone of the book, along with a generous sprinkling of quotations and cartoons, makes it seem not only doable, but enjoyable. Don’t expect “how I hit rock bottom” stories here, but rather inspirational reports from folks who have beaten alcoholism. Canfield and Andrews cover the biology behind addiction, but their focus is on empowering people to overcome it.

LIFELONG NUTRITION
What we really want to know, of course, is indicated in the title of Michael Greger’s book, How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease, written with Gene Stone. Greger may not be able to promise actual immortality, but as a physician, author and keeper of the popular website NutritionFacts.org, he is qualified to draw connections between the foods we eat and the diseases we do or do not develop. Meticulously well documented, Greger’s guidebook provides evidence on everything from the pesticide-Parkinson’s connection to the role of antioxidants in breast cancer prevention. Gregor also offers up friendly tips, like his favorite smoothie recipe and a turmeric tutorial. Follow his advice and you may not live forever, but you’ll almost certainly live a healthier life.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Health news: It’s everywhere. Our smartphones, televisions, friends and relatives are all standing by with updates on the latest research, though we’re often left more confused than ever. Luckily, several new books by doctors, scientists and nutrition experts take us much deeper into the science behind the headlines so we can make informed decisions about promoting and protecting our health.

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Trending Features

All Features