April 2022 Prime Picks
The
Culinary Corner
Berber&Q: On
Vegetables
Josh Katz
Kyle Books
9780857839879 $29.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Berber&Q: On Vegetables puts flavor and excitement into a
vegetable cookbook that profiles techniques for cooking vegetables in new ways.
The author traveled
around the world in search of new flavors, and his dishes represent this
international zest, offering main dishes based not on meat, but on veggies.
These range from Grilled Corn-On-the-Cob spiced with lime juice, cumin, agave
syrup and dill to a Cauliflower Shawarma Kebab and slow-cooked Pearl Barley
with Butternut, Barberry & Saffron Aioli.
Anyone interested in
putting vegetables at the center of the meal needs this outstanding cookbook's exploration
of different styles and cooking methods superior, original results.
The Brownie Diaries
Leah Hyslop
Bloomsbury Publishing
9781472982780 $22.00
www.bloomsbury.com
The Brownie Diaries: My Recipes for Happy Days, Heartbreak and
Everything In Between is recommended for cooks who enjoy brownie recipes
and stories, and links life's issues and challenges to baking, employing an
unusual approach to both.
There's a brownie
recipe here for every experience, whether it be love, rainy days, or dietary
limitations. Recipes range from a cookie/brownie marriage (when Leah Hyslop
couldn't decide which she wanted to make) to a glitzy celebration brownie
created to celebrate payday.
Color photos compliment
a whimsical set of original creations which will tempt brownie bakers looking
for something different.
The Camping Cookbook
Annie Bell
Kyle
9781914239151 $14.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The Camping Cookbook: Fabulous Campfire Feasts for Outdoor Adventurers
features varied camping recipes that go far beyond hot dogs, beans, or campfire
coffee.
These employ a traveling
barbecue, one-ring burner, or a tripod and pot, embracing international cuisine
with an unusual fervor usually not associated with campfire food.
Think Hummus or
Guacamole, a Lamb, Barley and Rosemary Hotpot, or a Chicken Tagine with Pine
Nuts and Raisins for just a few of the campfire cookouts illustrated (in full
color throughout) in this cookbook.
While camping
enthusiasts will be the obvious audience for this fare, anyone interested in
one-pot portable cooking, whether for picnics or backyard parties, will find The Camping Cookbook an appealing
collection.
Natural Flava
Craig & Shaun
McAnuff
Bloomsbury
9781526631879 $30.00
www.bloomsbury.com
Natural Flava: Quick & Easy Plant-Based Caribbean Recipes comes
from cooks raised in London and of Jamaican descent, and will especially
surprise readers who know that Caribbean food tends to be meat-based.
The dishes here use
the fresh fruit and vegetables the Caribbean is also noted for, featuring
plant-based recipes from curries and stews to traditional fare such as Bangers
and Mash, which use vegan-based 'meats' as a staple.
Vegans who look for
authentic vegan recipes paired with natural foods steeped in other cultures
will find that the McAnuffs create appealing fare, from Root Vegetable Stew
with Dumplings to Coconut, Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Curry.
The emphasis on
'flava' assures that a wide audience, including non-vegans, will find these
dishes healthy and appealing, packed with exciting innovations not to be found
in other cookbooks, whether vegan or non-vegan.
Reviewer's Choice
Crochet in a Weekend
Salena Baca
Stackpole Books
9780811739696 $24.95
www.stackpolebooks.com
Crochet in a Weekend: 29 Quick-to-Stitch Sweaters, Tops, Shawls &
More belays the notion that crochet projects are complicated and
time-consuming, offering almost thirty designs that can be tackled in a weekend
and created for any time of the year.
Wraps, ponchos, tops,
shrugs, and cardigans are among the many projects suggested for easy and quick
production, with overviews of recommended yarns, measurement adjustment, and
instructions all assuming that the crocheter knows crochet abbreviations.
The full-page color
pictures and easy directions will appeal to those who want to undertake a
project for quick completion and assured success.
Goose Lane Editions
www.gooselane.com
Two new arrivals from
Goose Lane Editions provide readers with excellent titles that will appeal to a
wide audience.
Catherine Bush's
novel Blaze Island (9781773101057,
$27.95) tells of a Category Five hurricane that brushes over Blaze Island in
the North Atlantic in the near future.
Miranda and her
scientist father, climate researcher Allan Wells, face an outcome he'd
predicted years ago. The storm not only challenges their lives, but dredges up
memories of the frustration of fighting for a truth that climate deniers
quashed.
Miranda finds herself
in a much-changed world, re-facing these truths in a story that is vivid,
evocative, and reflective of both modern times and future dilemmas.
Andrew Hunter's It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia
Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada (9781773102191, $24.95) is
especially recommended for world history collections strong in social and
political examinations of slavery's history.
It uses the story of
enslaved 19th century woman Sophia Burthen to reveal centuries of slavery in
Canada—a history that rarely reaches the public eye, in modern times.
Readers interested in
systemic racism and its impact on a society over a long period of time will
find the history, artworks, and discussions in It Was Dark There All the Time lends to history and social issues
classroom discussion and insights.
Ilex Press (Octopus
Publishing, Distributor)
www.ilex.press
Three new photography
how-to books are top recommendations for aspiring photographers looking to
improve their work, and libraries catering to them.
Michael Freeman On Composition (9781781578360, $24.99) tackles the
basics of building images and understanding how photographic composition in
modern times involves different approaches and methods.
His discussions
include templates that translate theory to action, providing photographers with
visuals and illustrations that clarify the process of understanding
photographic composition and how it applies to real-world experiences.
Composition makes all
the difference between an ordinary photo and an extraordinary, noteworthy
piece. Michael Freeman packs color image examples throughout as he discusses
shapes, static lines, Fibonacci points, salience, and other concepts that
change the direction and nature of image production.
Ben Hawkins and Liza
Kanaeva-Hunsicker's Shooting Film:
Everything You Need to Know About Analogue Photography ( 9781781578346,
$24.99) is recommended for photographers interested in film photography, and
makes the case for going analogue in a new, creative way.
Photography
journalist Ben Hawkins and professional photographer Liza Kanaeva-Hunsicker
team up to consider the special challenges and opportunities of working with
film, covering basic to advanced techniques and showing how all types of cameras
can produce amazing images.
Unlike older discussions
of shooting using film, this book's focus on the history and changing concepts
of different types of film and their applications creates a contemporary
perspective that contrasts digital with analogue approaches and surveys
contemporary trends in analogue productions.
The result is an
engrossing coverage with an artistic and historical twist that modern
photographers will find inviting.
Demetrius Fordham's How to Photograph People (9781781578247,
$24.99) is a basic guide by a professional photographer who shares his
experiences and techniques from portrait sessions.
From different types
of portraiture and approaches to posing to specifics on how he shot each photo
and why he chose his particular pose or approach, readers gain insights into
not just the basics of portraiture, but the purpose and influences behind
crafting particular shots.
All are highly
recommended acquisitions for aspiring photographers and libraries catering to
them, representing discussions that stand out from the crowd of photography
how-to guides.
The Love That Dares
Rachel Smith &
Barbara Vesey
Ilex Press/Octopus
Books
9781781578292 $19.99
www.ilex.press
The Love That Dares: Letters of LGBTQ+ Love & Friendship Through
History is a gathering of love letters reflecting gay relationships that
were pursued against all odds, gathering the passion, social issues, and
historical confrontations they represented.
Letters include those
written by famous personalities from John Cage, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg
and others, as well as lesser-known individuals who pursued the questions
surrounding these relationships.
Each receives a
historical introduction that explores the cultural and social backgrounds of
these exchanges. The result is a powerful set of reflections on passion,
perseverance, and changing social norms that should be in any library strong in
social issues and psychological explorations.
The Modern Gardener
Frances Tophill
Kyle Books
9780857839435 $26.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The Modern Gardener: A Practical Guide to Gardening Creatively,
Productively and Sustainably packs in projects that gardeners can use as
templates for success, revising traditional approaches to gardening to create a
space that works in better harmony with the environment.
From choosing the
right plants to creating new products from them, The Modern Gardener excels in discussions of eco-friendly gardening
indoors and out as it surveys plant propagation, apothecary efforts, and using
plant dyes.
The result goes far
beyond the usual cookbook/gardening guide, expanding both approaches to
gardening and the purposes plants can be used for.
Ventura & Zelzah
J.G. Bryan
Santa Monica Press
9781595801005 $12.99
www.santamonicapress.com
Ventura & Zelzah is a study in Southern California culture, and
is a novel about growing up in the 1970s in the San Fernando Valley. It follows
author J.G. Bryan's childhood in the 1970s in this area, but fictionalizes the
characters to add drama and action to his tale of evolving teen friendships and
relationships.
Readers will find Ventura & Zelzah the perfect example
of a fictional milieu reinforced by real-world experiences as Douglas and his
three friends come of age in a changing California culture.
California libraries
seeking a fine representation of these times and a sense of place and cultural
evolution in a coming-of-age story will find the vivid scenes, adventures, and
contrasts between four different lives and homes in Ventura & Zelzah to be inviting and revealing.
Very Bad People
Patrick Alley
Monoreay (Octopus
Publishing, Distributor)
9781913183486 $24.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Very Bad People: The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World's
Network of Corruption presents a memoir and expose of corruption by the
co-founder of Global Witness, surveying the global issue of how banks,
politicians, and warlords often work together to maintain corruption.
It's also the story
of how three friends joined forces to organize against injustice and
corruption, creating a scheme to attack the Khmer Rouge by cutting off their
funding and thus ending the war in Cambodia.
The evolution of
Global Witness and its battle against these entities and the blue-chip
companies funding them makes for thoroughly engrossing reading recommended for
a wide audience and libraries catering to them, from general-interest readers
to those who like memoirs, stories of true crime, and world-changing events
that operate on a global scale.
Wildflowers of North
America
Damian Fagan
Falcon Guides
9781493057818 $29.95
www.rowman.com
Wildflowers of North America provides a colorful field guide to
wildflowers that pairs small but sharp color photos of each flower with details
about its habitat, range, and uses.
It is written by a
naturalist with a BS in botany who presents an identification guide of some 600
wildflowers, organized both by color and alphabetically for quick and easy
identification.
Anyone looking for a
field guide that is easy to consult and lends to fieldwork will find this guide
useful and important.
Women of Walt Disney Imagineering
Mel Malmberg, Editor
Disney Editions
9781368021951 $29.99
www.disneybooks.com
Women of Walt Disney Imagineering: 12 Women Reflect on Their
Trailblazing Theme Park Careers gathers the extraordinary experiences of
women who participated in and contributed heavily to the creation of Walt
Disney Imagineering.
Each woman played a
key role in the expansion of the Disney brand name, parks, and themes. These stories
of experiences cover typical projects, history from the 1960s to modern times,
and the rules, issues, and changes that evolved from their interactions.
Libraries interested
in Disney history and womens' achievements will find these lively stories,
experiences, and history attractive to a wide audience of patrons.
Young Adult/Children
Candlewick Press
www.candlewickpress.com
Two wonderful new
picture books are top picks for discriminating library collections, and are recommended
for their blend of compelling illustrations and evocative reflections.
Somewhere by Robie H. Harris (9781536207354, $17.99) features
lovely art by Armando Mariño as it surveys a young girl's
adventure without her father at her side. Her discovery of a colorful, private
place in nature outlines the rewards in experiencing somewhere "new"
even without him...a place she can bring back to share with him.
Troy Wilson's Hat Cat (9781536213669, $17.99) enjoys
beautiful drawings by Eve Coy as it tells of an old man who lives alone.
One day, he discovers
a kitten under his hat, and they become best friends. Still, there's one
activity he won't allow the kitten to participate in.
When everything
changes, little Hat is confused...and also sees new opportunity in his revised
environment.
Both are beautifully
rendered stories, highly recommended for lasting library lending value.
Disney/Hyperion
www.DisneyBooks.com
Three new titles will
appeal to middle school to high school leisure readers with inviting stories of
discovery and action.
J.J. Gilbert's The Mouse Watch in Space (9781368052207,
$16.99) tells of tiny heroes on a mission to save the world. Advanced
elementary to early middle grade readers will relish the whimsical tale of the
Mouse Watch's adventures in outer space, accompanied by a famed hamsternaut on
a mission to tackle global warming.
The unexpected tale
is lively and fun.
Brian Zepka's The Temperature of Me and You
(9781368064712, $17.99) tells of teen Dylan Highmark, who is facing a boring winter
of work at the Dairy Queen until he falls in love with a boy who may be
trouble.
As they spend time
together and grow their affection, the unexpected happens as Dylan begins
coughing flames and finds he is latching onto more than just a romance.
Fantasy and reality
mingle in a love story that takes a different turn than most, proving
delightfully unexpected.
Dhonielle Clayton's Shattered Midnight (9781368046428,
$18.99) is a young adult story set in 1928 New Orleans. It tells of Zora
Broussard, who is on the run from an accident she caused by using her errant
magic.
She's just trying to
blend into her relatives' family life and be normal, but Zora faces a final
decision about her evolving powers and her role as a young Black woman living
in the South.
The weave of fairy
tale and cultural insights during segregation makes for a revealing, unusual
story with facets that defy the usual staid categorization of a fantasy read.
These are excellent,
original choices leisure readers will find inviting.
Little, Brown
www.lbyr.com
Three new books for
young readers offer very different themes that set them apart from most, making
them recommended choices for elementary-level collections.
Molly Bloom, Marc
Sanchez and Sanden Totten's Road Trip
Earth! (9780316459365, $18.99) adds to the Brains On! series of adventures
that explores a team traveling through the oceans, land, clouds, and more in
their explorer vehicle, to uncover facts and mysteries about the planet.
What better way to
learn the latest scientific research than via a collection of trivia, jokes,
and fun-filled facts exploring the earth in an inviting manner to engage young
readers?
The trio also provide
another book in the series Earth Friend
Forever (9780316459419, $17.99), which enjoys appealing illustrations by
Mike Orodán as it explores a problem the Earth has.
Based, too, on the
award-winning science podcast for kids, the blend of humor and serious
inspections invite kids to consider human impacts on the planet and efforts to
save it by altering choices, behaviors, and perceptions.
The full-page
drawings are particularly inviting embellishments to the tale.
Sherri Duskey
Rainker's Roto and Roy: Helicopter Heroes
(9780316534963, $17.99) receives fun drawings by Don Tate as it profiles a
helicopter, Roto and his pilot, Roy, who fly to the rescue and fight fires.
While the book is
packed with action and adventure, it's also a survey of helicopter rescue
operations that teaches kids about real-world helicopter rescue activities via
a rollicking rhyme and a lively series of adventures.
These are all
excellent choices holding lasting lending value, highly recommended for
elementary-level collections.
Random House/Penguin
www.penguin.com/kids
New arrivals from
Penguin's children's books publisher provide elementary-level collections with
a variety of strong choices.
The board book
biography series "Big Ideas for Little Environmentalists ($8.99 each) features
the biographies of four different individuals who worked for environmental
causes, presenting each in a board book for young readers and read-aloud
parents. Lovely drawings by Robin Rosenthal attract a younger audience than is
usually presented with either biographies or environmental stories.
Maureen McQuerry's Preservation With Aldo Leopold
(9780593323724) surveys Leopold's ideas about preserving wilderness areas. His
ideas ("...we should treat our
world—the water, sky, ground, and animals—like we would treat a neighbor.")
are quite accessible to the very young as kids are invited to consider their
own connections to nature.
Ecosystems with Rachel Carson (9780593323649) presents links
between how Carson viewed the world around her and how she established
important research connections between ecosystems and human lives.
Restoration with Wangari Maathai (9780593323687) surveys a Kenyan
environmentalist who planted trees to make peoples' lives better. Her story and
efforts demonstrate how individuals can improve both the land and human society.
Conservation with Jane Goodall (9780593323601) follows Goodall's
love for all animals and chimps in particular. Her decision to help save them
also asks big questions and encourages kids to reflect on them, providing
answers to help young readers understand their connections to the world around
them.
These books will best
be enjoyed by read-aloud parents and educators who take the time to help the
board book reader understand the relationships between humans, nature, and
taking the time to observe and reflect on one's place in and impact on the land.
Yes! No! by Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli & Isabel Roxas
(9780593383322, $8.99) is a little board book covering a big subject: consent.
It provides parents and educators with an opening discussion that moves from
identifying body parts to understanding the roles and choices of grown-ups in
their lives, absorbing how safety involves setting boundaries.
The heart of the
story lies in identifying what "yes" and "no" really mean
and how to practice their delivery and impact for maximum results.
Kari Percival's How to Say Hello to a Worm: A First Guide to
Outside (9780593226797, $17.99) introduces the very young to a garden by
reviewing its insects, blooming wonders, and care and cultivation.
Kids who venture into
a garden for the first time will do so more effectively with this book in hand,
which provides basic instructions on how to plant seeds, welcome worms and
ladybugs, and understand the attractions and benefits of a garden.
Pat Zietlow Miller's In Our Garden (9781984812100, $17.99)
receives simple but appealing illustrations by Melissa Crowton as it explores a
little girl's move from a big city to a place "more than an ocean
away." She misses the family garden in her new urban environment, but
comes up with an idea that involves not just visionary thinking, but hard work in
involving a community in her efforts.
She finds that
"gardens take hard work," but also reward in community-building ways
in this fine picture book of discovery.
Supreme Court Justice
Sonia Sotomayor's Just Help! How to Build a Better World
reflects the narrator's mother's key question: "How did you help today?"
Picture book readers will
enjoy a true story that evolves into a discussion of civil rights and efforts
to help others in a tale enhanced by Angela Dominguez's illustrations.
As the story embraces
a neighborhood in which people help one another, an important message evolves. Adults
will want to add this to any picture book collection about community-building.
I'm Not Scared, You're Scared! by Seth Meyers enjoys whimsical,
attractive illustrations by Rob Sayegh Jr. as it explores the dilemmas faced by
a bear who is easily scared.
Bear has one friend,
Rabbit, who is uncommonly brave. When they embark on an adventure together, the
lessons learned by each will educate and enlighten the young picture book
reader through a story about adversity, perception, and courage.
All are excellent choices for discriminating libraries.