August 2019 Prime Picks
Reviewer's ChoiceThe Culinary Corner
Authentic Egyptian Cooking
Nehal Leheta
AUC Press
9789774167430
$29.95
www.aucpress.com
Authentic Egyptian Cooking From the Table of Abou El Sid provides newcomers to Egyptian fare with a collection of dishes from one of Cairo’s most famous restaurants, offering over fifty authentic Egyptian dishes paired with appealing full-page color photos.
Americans might think such cuisine requires access to specialty ingredients; but many of the dishes are quite basic, from an Oriental Fuul (Fava Beans with Bell Peppers and Onions) which uses canned fava beans and is seasoned with cumin, chili power and lemon to a Veal and Pearl Onion Tagin, made with cardamom pods, pearl onions, cinnamon, carrots, and other veggies.
The result is a top recommendation for home cooks looking to explore Egyptian fare.
Burn the Place
Iliana Regan
Agate
9781572842570
$25.00
www.agatepublishing.com
Burn the Place: A Memoir provides memoir of a Midwestern chef named one of the Best New Chefs of 2016. Readers might anticipate that the subject would require some familiarity with the Midwest restaurant scene or Regan's cooking, but in reality Iliana Regan's feisty memoir will attract anyone interested in not just the evolution of a fascination with food and cooking, but a struggle with gender identity.
From her early childhood on the farm and the challenge of her adolescence to how Regan became a celebrated chef against all odds, her engrossing memoir Burn the Place is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the world of food and wine in general and how this particular Best New Chef overcame many obstacles to arrive at a celebrated position in the food world.
Milk & Cardamom
Hetal Vasavada
Page Street Publishing
9781624147746
$21.99
www.pagestreetpublishing.com
Milk & Cardamom: Spectacular Cakes, Custards and More, Inspired by the Flavors of India comes from a chef, author, and blogger who is a first generation Indian-American in New Jersey, who recreates the Indian sweets of her childhood.
Since Indian sweets typically receive only basic, minimal attention in Indian cookbooks, this opportunity to focus on Indian sweet inspirations that blend various cultures will be of special appeal to cooks who want to expand their repertoires of Indian desserts.
Full-page color photos pack a survey that includes many recipes that would be hard to find elsewhere, from Thandai Cake Ruses (part of India's pre-partition past) made with raw nuts, spices, and a chai-spiced chocolate drizzle to Desai Sweet Potato Pie, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger.
The variety and inspiration will appeal to Indian cooks seeking more than the usual small selection of Indian dessert dishes.
Provencal
Alex Jackson
Pavilion
9781911641124
$35.00
www.pavilionbooks.com
Provencal: Simple Seasonal Southern French Cooking adds another to the host of French cookbooks on the market, but represents dishes from an author who is also the owner and head chef of an acclaimed French restaurant in London, Sardine, which focuses on Provencal dishes.
Full-page color photos embellish such recipes as a Black Fig & Tomato Salad, Poached Halibut, Spinach & Saffron Butter Sauce, and a Tuna, Potato, Egg & Fried Pepper Sandwich inspired by a market in Marseille.
Introductions offer insights on Provencal culture, the origins and influences of various dishes, food history, and more, adding cultural insights to a recipe collection that will prove easy to reproduce at home and different than the usual French cookbook.
RHS
Botanical Illustration: The Gold Medal Winners
Charlotte Brooks
ACC Art Books
9781788840149
$45.00
www.accartbooks.com
RHS Botanical Illustration: The Gold Medal Winners comes from a society which has held flower shows that include judging paintings of botanical art. Their gold medal is awarded only to the best of modern botanical artists, and represents the gold standard of the field of botanical art.
This collection opens with a fine survey of the history and features of the RHS, helping newcomers appreciate judging standards and the background history of botanical art before providing full-page (and sometimes two-page) spreads of such art.
Notes from the artists on plant research, the process of crafting each award-winning painting, and botanical art challenges round out this excellent collection of winning productions and lend to an outstanding work that's recommended not just for arts holdings, but for botanical collections.
Unforgettable Portraits
Rosamund Kidman Cox
Firefly Books
9780228101833
$29.95
www.fireflybooks.com
Unforgettable Portraits belongs in both science and nature and arts holdings, but is reviewed in this section for its outstanding animal portraits that represent the best of winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition.
These images were taken by over 50 award-winning photographers in some 20 countries and are accompanied by photographer notes explaining their subject, the photographic challenges involved in capturing it, and the natural history of each bird, mammal, fish, or insect.
Stunning full-page images and many close-ups pair with interesting insights on natural history and the art of photographing wildlife to keep readers engrossed on many levels.
Unforgettable Portraits is highly recommended for a wide range of readers and collections, from specialty arts and science holdings to general-interest libraries.
The Book of M
Peng Shepherd
William Morrow
9780062669612
$16.99
www.harpercollins.com
It first occurs in an outdoor market in India: a man's shadow vanishes. But this strange phenomenon isn't limited to India alone, and it involves more than just missing shadows. because those afflicted also experience both new powers and amnesia.
Ory and his wife Max live in a much-changed world two years later: one in which the Forgetting has affected all of humanity. They've hidden in an isolated hotel to escape this ailment, but when Max's shadow vanishes, they know time is running out.
An engrossing story of love, missing memories, and fading connections, The Book of M will keep readers engrossed and thinking right up to its surprising conclusion.
The Need
Helen Phillips
Simon and Schuster
9781982113162
$26.00
www.simonandschuster.com
The Need blends thriller, horror, the story of a mother's love, and psychological suspense under one cover as it tells of mother Molly, who experiences a home invasion when alone with her two young children and finds herself confronting a savvy intruder who seems to know too much about her family.
Her response and efforts to survive result in an unexpected examination of motherhood, love, and choices and their costs that keeps readers on their toes as the story evolves.
As secrets are revealed and hidden dangers come to light, a reader are treated to an engrossing story packed with unexpected twists and turns right up to its surprising conclusion, making The Need a top recommendation for novel readers seeking a story that's satisfyingly unique.
All the
Names They Used for God
Anjali Sachdeva
Spiegel & Grau
9780525508687
$17.00
www.spiegelandgrau.com
Fans of speculative fiction short stories who appreciate literary gems from the genre will find All the Names They Used for God a thoroughly engrossing collection that focuses on fate and human interactions.
Each story at first appears quite different in subject, setting, and approach; but Anjali Sachdeva's ability to weave powerful, compelling stories about choice and magic shines in each story.
Even more notable is her ability to inject a surreal overlay to everyday scenes that leads them to beautifully capture the irony, angst, and oddities of daily life. The injection of speculative elements into this mix of literary gems creates an outstanding collection highly recommended for readers who relish the unexpected.
Harvard Business Review Press
www.hbr.org
Art Markman's Bring Your Brain to Work: Using Cognitive Science to Get a Job, Do It Well, and Advance Your Career (9781633696112, $30.00) takes the latest cognitive science research a step further than the usual education-based approach and enters the business world with a career-advancing approach to brain research.
It comes from a professor who links cognitive science findings to specific stages in the job cycle (getting a job, making it a success, and leaving it for a better position), and it provides a blend of the latest research and business examples from different professions that show how to put one's brain to work for optimum results.
Business readers receive discussions of how employers make decisions and how to influence them and get noticed; how to move from candidates to considering offers and negotiating terms; and how to lead, grow, and move up from a given position.
No professional should be without this revealing survey.
Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We're Thriving in a New World of Possibility by David Weinberger (9781633693951, $30.00) comes from a technologist and internet leader who considers the pros and cons of technology and machine learning, reviewing how new pressures on predicting and understanding chaos has changed daily life and approaches to living it.
Too many possibilities and thoughts lead to further unpredictability about the future, and Weinberger explores this phenomenon and how the human need to define, describe, and understand may be the very force undermining the benefits of learning.
As chapters show how the Internet and machine learning are changing human perceptions of the future, they also offer insights into management systems and the roots of chaos.
Social issues, psychology, and science and technology collections alike will find Everyday Chaos an astute, revealing discussion of chaos, change, and human reactions to evolving conditions and technology.
Lands of Lost Borders
Kate Harris
Dey Street
9780062846662
$16.99
www.harpercollins.com
Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road tells of a woman who longed to be an explorer, but soon realized that the career goal of her dreams might be unattainable because the world had already been mapped and discovered.
Her solution was to become a scientist who dreamed of traveling to Mars.
While this might sound like a fictional story, Lands of Lost Borders is more about a detour from an original dream and how Kate Harris eventually found her way back to a life of exploration that she'd thought all but vanished.
Armchair travel readers and others who dream of exploration and discovery receive a travelogue about a journey not just on the Silk Road, but into worlds where borders are vague and possibilities great.
Lands of Lost Borders is an epic story of inward and world travels that will captivate readers with engrossing dilemmas and descriptions.
The Vagabonds
Jeff Guinn
Simon & Schuster
9781501159305
$28.00
www.simonandschuster.com
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Trip reveals the journey taken by two Americans who took time each summer, between 1914 and 1925, to explore America's changing roadways.
"The Vagabonds" comes from the name the two called themselves. This book shows how they fostered in the era of the automobile through personal example, traversing the country even as their own personal fortunes and lives changed.
From changing business and innovation models for success to the evolution of highways and the culture they fostered, The Vagabonds provides a lively slice of American life and is a top recommendation for American history, transportation, and general-interest readers alike.
Young Adult/Children
Candlewick Press
www.candlewick.com
Three winning titles from Candlewick deserve a place on any elementary-level bookshelf, providing picture book readers that are bright and fun.
Patricia Toht's Pick a Pumpkin (9781536207644, $16.99) is illustrated by Jarvis and features lovely, colorful art as it follows a very basic story of picking the perfect pumpkin from a patch.
A simple rhyme accompanies the action and provides a fun embellishment to a tale that includes details on how to carve a pumpkin and what to do with it afterwards.
Parents seeking seasonal reads for the very young will find Pick a Pumpkin a fun introduction to pumpkin festivities.
Michelle Robinson's The Pawed Piper (9781536201659, $16.99) is illustrated by Chinlun Lee and tells of a small girl who wants a cat, but finds she lures in too many possibilities.
As a side effect of her strategy, she also faces a host of owners who have lost their cats.
If none of the 67-plus warm, wonderful, cuddly felines can be hers, how will she ever attract a cat of her very own?
The Pawed Piper's gentle, fun story of attracting, giving, loss, and gain will delight kids and read-aloud parents; especially those with a prior affection for cats who want to read a celebration of them.
What Does an Anteater Eat? by Ross Collins (9781536205916, $16.99) considers the dilemma of an anteater with a problem: he can't recall what he should eat!
Pages of simple text (and some with no words at all) follow Anteater's journey through the animal kingdom in search of a meal befitting his appetite.
Other animals try to help, but each have their own ideas of the perfect food in this hilarious story of self-discovery, especially recommended for young picky eaters and their read-aloud parents.
Disney/Hyperion
www.DisneyBooks.com
Three new picture books will delight kids and read-aloud parents with bright, colorful drawings and original, fun stories.
Bob Shea's Unicorn Is Maybe Not So Great After All (9781368009447, $17.99) tells of a unicorn who expects to make a big splash at the first day of school. The only problem is: nobody seems to care about the glittery façade of Unicorn.
It's obviously time for a makeover; but what can be better than a splashy, colorful, mythical beast? And how can a "super-special" unicorn regain its reputation?
A fun story about fame and fitting in gives unicorn-crazy kids a zany laugh and an unexpected lesson.
Greg Pizzoli's The Book Hog (9781368036894, $16.99) tells of a greedy hog who loves books, but maintains a close secret about his stash.
He's always hunting for new books and can smell a good book from afar, but when a new door opens from a librarian's efforts, the Book Hog discovers an easy answer to his problem in this warm story of a book lover with a big secret.
Linus the Little Red Pencil by Scott Magoon (9781368006279, $16.99) tells of a pencil who wants to make his mark on the world, and his eraser friend Ernie, who isn't sure about such efforts.
In many ways, the pencil and eraser are on the same page; but in other ways, they cancel out each others' efforts. How can Linus and Ernie join forces to thwart the mighty Pen despite the doubts that are breaking their hearts?
These engaging, warm stories are standouts thanks to their bright illustrations and unique approaches to life.
Nugget & Fang Go to School
Tammi Sauer and Michael Slack
Clarion Books
9781328548269
$17.99
www.hmhbooks.com
Nugget & Fang Go to School tells of shark Fang's first visit to the Mini Minnows Elementary School, where he finds he's not exactly comfortable for many reasons (and, not just because he's a shark among minnows!).
For one, he's not good at school subjects. He is very different from his classmates. And his teacher is, quite literally, a crab. Frankly, Fang doesn't see why his best friend Nugget and others think that school is so great.
He doesn't really need it. Or, does he?
A fun story of friendship, perseverance, and changing attitudes creates a read recommended for the very young fry.
Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com/kids
Four new titles from Simon and Schuster are very highly recommended picks for their engaging drawings and engrossing stories.
Megan Wagner Lloyd and Phoebe Wahl's Paper Mice (9781481481663, $17.99) tells of two paper mice who explore their dark new home. Even paper mice know that nighttime is their friend, but their adventurous explorations lead to a surprising discovery in a fun story which will require good reading skills or read-aloud assistance, for the very young.
Emily Granett's Cyril and Pat (9781534439504, $17.99) tells of a squirrel and a rat that also have adventures together. But unlike the paper mice of the tale above, nobody thinks these two have anything in common—or should be friends.
Their adventures and ability to dovetail interests and personalities says otherwise in this fun tale of urban discovery and very different explorers.
Nelly Takes New York: A Little Girls' Adventures in the Big Apple by Allison Pataki and Marya Myers (9781534425040, $17.99) benefits from lovely drawings by Kristi Valiant and an oversized format that nicely captures the many adventures Nelly experiences in the big city.
The sights, sounds, smells, and culture of New York City come to life, but really heat up when a girl and her dog decide to get to the bottom of the City's name, The Big Apple.
This is the first in a projected series for ages 4-8, and excels in oversized drawings and big, attractive ideas.
Stephen Savage's Sign Off (9781534412101, $17.99) provides a fun wordless picture book about what happens to the animals and figures on road signs when nobody is watching, at night.
From deer who abscond from their warnings to walking stick figures who exchange danger for romance, this is a lovely and intriguing survey that all ages will find attractive and appealing.
All are unique picture books that stand out from the crowd.
Sleeping Bear Press
www.sleepingbearpress.com
Two picture book stories are lovely, exceptional stories recommended for early picture book viewers and their read-aloud parents.
Jennifer Sattler's One Red Sock (9781534110267, $14.99) tells of a little purple hippo who is getting dressed when she looks for her red socks, but can only find one.
All the other colors show up, but not red! An easy rhyme accompanies the story about a little hippo who won't let a wardrobe malfunction ruin her special day.
Frank Murphy works with illustrator Kayla Harren in A Boy Like You (9781534110465, $16.99), a tribute to boys and how they, too, can be more empowered, equal, safe, and as engaging as their female counterparts.
As the story explores what it means to be a boy and a man, parents will ideally wish to interact with their children over the message of this very special book, which encourages strength, resiliency, and also vulnerability.
Tundra Books
www.penguinrandomhouse.ca
These three new picture books are solid picks for libraries seeking lasting elementary-level reads to attract leisure audiences.
Lesley-Anne Green's Fox and Raccoon (9781101917961, $17.99) tells of best friends who live next door and spend every day together. One day, Fox is too busy to play. Raccoon tries to help her out, but Fox remains too busy to spend time with her friend.
This gentle lesson on friendship, flexibility, and fun will require adult assistance unless youngsters have good reading skills, but rewards such participation with a fine message that parents will want to reinforce.
Benjamin Flouw's The Golden Glow (9780735264120, $17.99) tells of a rare plant that grows high in the mountains, and Fox's search for the elusive flower, which requires a camping trip and great preparation.
Fox studies all the familiar plants he encounters during his trek, but none are the fascinating flower he seeks.
Again: good reading skills or parental assistance will lend to this nature-oriented story of discovery and teamwork.
Elly MacKay's Red Sky at Night (9781101017831, $17.99) gathers weather folklore for kids and uses a simple rhyme and large-size, exceptionally colorful drawings to link folklore about the weather to insights gleaned from nature.
The sayings ("Frogs will call before the rain,/but in the sun are quiet again." "If seabirds fly to land/there truly is a storm at hand.") provide fine weather and nature connections that parents will find perfect for teaching youngsters about the world around them.
Viking Penguin
www.penguin.com/kids
Teens and picture book readers will find Viking Penguin offers numerous, engrossing stories worthy of reading and acquisition. These two titles are standouts from recent publications.
Mature teens will relish Arvin Ahmadi's Girl Gone Viral (9780425289907, $17.99), the story of seventeen-year-old Opal, whose world revolves around coding virtual worlds and experiences.
However, nothing can lead her to her father, who vanished when she was ten, and she's spent the years since trying to forget him—until now. The world's largest virtual reality platform is having a contest that may lead her to the one wealthy man who might know where her father went. This gives her the motivation to investigate beyond her own dreams in a riveting techno-thriller which is hard to put down.
Picture book readers will appreciate Joy Steverwald's The Peculiar Pig (9780399548871, $17.99), in which piglet Penny is very different from the other piglets.
All of them have some small differences, but Penny is entirely different, from her looks to the sounds she can make.
Kids and read-aloud parents will relish this story of a pig who stands out from the crowd and grows into someone who saves the day, thanks to these differences.