November 2021 Prime Picks
The Arts
Comic Book Artist
Bullpen
Jon B. Cooke
TwoMorrows Publishing
9781605491059 $24.95
www.twomorrows.com
Comic Book Artist Bullpen gathers every issue of a fanzine
published in the early 2000s by John B. Cooke, and includes in-depth interviews
with major comic artists as well as previously-unpublished contributors and the
never-released issue in the series, #7.
The black and white
art, a peppering of color, and the in-depth comic approach will appeal not just
to arts holdings strong in comics history, but to pop culture collections looking
for representation of comic greats.
The personal nature
of the interviews, the insights on baseball art, and the diverse discussions
will delight avid comic book enthusiasts with history and inspections that are
revealing and unparalleled.
Sensation
Arnold Lehman
Merrell
9781858946962 $35.00
www.merrellpublishers.com
Sensation: The Madonna, The Mayor, The Media, and the First Amendment
selects works from controversial collector Charles Saatchi's contemporary
British art collection. Its opening in 1999 at the Brooklyn Museum drew a
firestorm of protests and anger over its bold depictions.
Never before had an
art exhibition sparked a museum to sue the mayor and the city, attracted bomb
threats, and prompted a social and political battle that immersed not just the
art world, but New York City as a whole.
The in-depth history
of this event, accompanied by letters, discussions by a museum director with
forty years experience, and cultural, legal, and social insights makes for a
powerful eyewitness story that is thoroughly engrossing.
Many will find Sensation: The Madonna, The Mayor, The
Media, and the First Amendment eye-opening and surprising...a discussion
worthy of not just New York collections strong in the arts, but wider-ranging
gatherings that consider the social, political, and legal impacts of art
display decisions and content.
The
Culinary Corner
10-Minute Sourdough
Vanessa Kimbell
Kyle Books
9780857839794 $22.99
www.octopusbooks.com
10-Minute Sourdough: Breadmaking for Real Life is a top pick for
those who would make sourdough bread, but have little time for bread making.
Any home bread baker
knows of sourdough's reputation for being finicky and time-consuming. So, to
see a title which promotes a 10-minute process is somewhat surprising—and
attractive.
The variety of
recipes is also intriguing, moving from a basic sourdough loaf to spice and
herb-enhanced productions such as a Sage & Onion Sourdough Pan Loaf, an
Orange Curd Cake, or an Asparagus & Blue Cheese Bake.
The result is
deliciously quick, and will delight bread bakers who want quick results.
Asian Salads
Maki Watanabe
Tuttle Publishing
9780804854993 $9.99
www.tuttlepublishing.com
All that cooks need,
in order to use Asian Salads: 72 Inspired
Recipes from Vietnam, China, Korea, Thailand and India successfully, is a
well-stocked supermarket and an interest in Asian cuisine and international
salads.
The rest is a snap
with a cookbook filled with appealing color photos and discussions of classic
dishes that range from a Green Papaya Salad to Chicken & Green Onions with
Spicy Sesame Dressing or Fried Green Banana Salad with Thai Basil.
Many of the salads
are exceptionally simple productions, yet filled with flavor. The color photos
that accompany each provide mouth-watering attraction, enhancing a collection that's
highly recommended for any Asian food or salad cook.
The Modern Larder
Michelle McKenzie
Roost Books
9781611805703 $40.00
www.roostbooks.com
The Modern Larder: From Anchovies to Yuzu, a Guide to Artful and
Attainable Home Cooking will turn on end anybody's idea of what constitutes
a pantry collection, utilizing the "odd" ingredients often given as
gifts which then languish in the larder.
These include
buckwheat flour, miso, fish sauce, and other ingredients which too often enjoy
one-time use and then are set aside.
An A-Z pantry section
accompanies discussions of what new staples should be added, and how to use
them. Two recipes are provided for each staple.
From Smashed Peas
with Preserved Lemon and Herb Oil to Ghee-Roasted Parsnips and Caramelized
Cabbage for Many Occasions, these diverse, unusual recipes won't necessarily appeal
to traditional eaters, but will delight those who harbor a storehouse of
unusual ingredients and look for attractive ways of using them.
Rare Whiskey
Patrick Mahe
Octopus Books
9781840918229 $55.00
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Rare Whiskey takes a rare in-depth look at the world's whiskies and
their history, but stands out from any other book on the subject by presenting
these examinations in an oversized format packed with color photos of rare
bottles of vintage whiskey.
These visuals set
this book apart from competitors in a world-ranging study that selects and
contrasts rare productions and whiskey makers in the U.S., Scotland, Japan, and
even India.
It also excels in
providing a lovely slipcase, in addition to the high-quality art and hardcover
format, making Rare Whiskey a
keepsake history and collector's choice that narrows the focus beyond whiskey
alone to profile the industry's rarest (and finest) productions.
No beverage history
or culinary arts holding should be without this oversized specialty compilation.
There's simply nothing like it on the market today.
Hugh Johnson's Pocket
Wine Book 2022
Hugh Johnson
Mitchell Beazley
9781784727963 $16.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Every year, for
decades, Hugh Johnson has published a pocket wine guide meant to be a
take-along tote for wine buyers who need a quick, handy reference while browsing
the contents of a wine shop.
This year's edition
has been fully revised and updated for 2022, includes an illustrated supplement
on the ten best wines today, and offers tips on where to drink, vintages to
look for, and the latest details on winemaking and the industry.
Of necessity, all
this is presented in small type, to create a book that fits in the pocket.
Older wine lovers may find the format visually challenging, but those who don't
mind small print will find it packed with the latest information buyers need to
make decisions about vintages and the changing world of fine wines.
World Atlas of Beer,
3rd Edition
Tim Webb and Stephen
Beaumont
Mitchell Beazley
9781784726270 $39.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
The third edition of
the World Atlas of Beer: An Essential
Guide to Beers of the World is a country-by-country examination of brewing
techniques and traditions that will appeal to readers interested in the latest
brewery trends around the world.
Destination visitors,
in particular, will appreciate the travel details which encourage in-person
visits and tours of regions, complete with itineraries for visiting both bars
and breweries.
Also included are
culinary notes on matching beer with food and pouring brews correctly. The
result is an outstanding survey that updates information on breweries and
brews, which should be a stable in any definitive food and wine collection.
Novels
The House of Dust
Noah Broyles
Inkshares
9781947848870 $18.99
www.inkshares.com
The House of Dust is a horror novel set in rural Tennessee and tells
of a once-grand plantation house that is abandoned, decrepit, and filled with a
waiting evil.
A crime writer and a
former prostitute who turn to the house of refuge find, in it, a hidden horror
that reveals itself through odd manifestations and symbols.
Something awaits
them. And it's as much engrained with their pasts as it is part of their future
and the house's psychic imprint.
Ghost and horror
story readers will find The House of Dust
satisfyingly chilling and powerful: a story of growing realizations about
history and horror that is hard to put down.
Nazaré
JJ Amaworo Wilson
PM Press
9781629639086 $14.95
www.pmpress.org
Nazaré
is a story about social justice and provides a literary inspection of
oppression, resistance, and redemption.
The political story
takes place in the city of Balaal, opens with a miracle and an omen, and
follows a homeless boy whose adoption portends a confrontation with a dictator
who rules the city.
Battles between the
dictatorial forces and the peasants begin to change the nature of Balaal as
various characters find themselves embroiled in an uncommon revolution powered
by a disparate group of individuals, from a giant turtle to a witch and a nun.
Readers who enjoy
diverse social inspections will find the story's magical realism unexpected and
its literary roots surprising, but even though Nazaré
is hard to easily categorize, it's a winning, unique social inspection
filled with wonder, realization, and social struggle.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
Bloomsbury Publishing
9781635577808 $17.00
www.bloomsbury.com
Piranesi offers a lovely fantasy novel about an extraordinary
building with holds a labyrinth of halls, an ocean, and tides which fascinate
inhabitant Piranesi, who explores this kingdom.
Only one other person
lives in the house: The Other, who is researching A Great and Secret Knowledge.
As evidence mounts
that suggests another influence and world, Piranesi's journal entries
chronicling his practices change.
Readers who enjoy
fantasies replete in magical realism and innovative description will find Piranesi hard to categorize or put down.
Reviewer's Choice
The Best Peace Fiction
Robert Olen Butler
and Phong Nguyen, Editors
University of New
Mexico Press
9780826363039 $24.95
www.unmpress.com
The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology features
fourteen short stories that explore the outcome of violence, whether in
communities under siege or in family life. It provides a literary inspection of
how physical, psychological, and political violence influence not just the
directions of lives, but the choices that individuals perceive as being open to
them.
The Best Peace Fiction represents a new breed of "peace
fiction" that examines these decisions and their influences with a
literary and social eye to detail that creates and captures compelling
inspections of individuals who survive varying conditions.
Take Dan Pope's
"Bon Voyage, Charlie," for one example. Here, the men of Charlie
Company are shipping out to Iraq. Reporter Blair is on assignment to interview
company members for his paper's Sunday magazine edition.
From the difference
between heroic attitudes and brainwashing to an unexpected personal encounter
with the devastating results of a military approach to finding peace, readers
will find this story of Blair's erosion of professional distance to be
involving and thought-provoking.
The Best Peace Fiction is a powerful inspection that offers
diverse stories about peace, war, love, and evolution. Its literary,
psychological, and social lessons make it highly recommended for any collection
strong in social justice issues and literary short stories.
Cogs and Monsters
Diane Coyle
Princeton University
Press
9780691210599 $24.95
www.press.princeton.edu
Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, And What It Should Be explores
the problems and promise of economics and its challenges by big tech, digital
tech, and AI.
While most of these
arenas are explored in the milieu of science, here, it is considered in light
of economic approaches and traditions. This results in a consideration of how
economics can help policymakers by adopting new techniques that differ from
mainstream assumptions and definitions.
In treating people as
"cogs," economics does a disservice. Coyle examines the new digital
economy and its revolutionary impact on economics objectives and analysis, offering
a solid connection between economics and the new potential of 21st century
technology.
It's a book that no
social issues, economics, or policymaking collection should be without.
Freewaytopia
Paul Haddad
Santa Monica Press
9781595801012 $21.95
www.santamonicapress.com
Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles might initially seem
to be a selection for Southern California collections alone, but this history
and inspection holds value and lessons for any place in the U.S. that is
affected by freeway systems and proposals.
Construction in
Southern California began during the Great Depression, joining Los Angeles communities
via systems that ultimately comprised some 527 miles of roadway.
More than a survey of
physical building alone, Freewaytopia discusses
individuals who were a major part of freeway decision-making and construction,
including minority and lower-class residents who faced community destruction
and displacement due to eminent domain processes.
Giving voice to these
often-ignored experiences elevates Freewaytopia
to a discussion of minority and resident rights in the face of what is making
for a thought-provoking addition to the issues and history surrounding Los
Angeles's twelve main freeways.
Each system receives
its own chapter, which allows for close inspection. Each includes sidebars of
detail, lively discussions, and examinations of route proposals and changes
that ultimately shaped the city, its residents, and its future.
Both California and
urban planning collections should consider Freewaytopia
an important acquisition.
Grow Easy
Anna Greenland
Mitchell Beazley
9781784727352 $24.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Grow Easy: Organic Crops for Plots & Small Plots tailors its advice
on organic gardening to crops which may be grown in containers or a small
raised bed, opening the endeavor to urban and apartment dwellers who need to
work within the constraints of very small spaces.
No previous knowledge
of either organic systems or gardening is required in order to utilize this
book successfully.
From thirty selected
top crop choices (10 vegetables, 10 herbs, and 10 fruiting plants) that do well
under these conditions to details on seasonal planning, spacing harvests, and
troubleshooting pests and poor plant health, Grow Easy creates strategies that make crop-growing and harvests
easy affairs.
Anyone who has
dreamed of growing veggies and herbs, but thinks that a bigger space is
required, needs to consult Grow Easy
for its specific details on streamlining and understanding the entire small-scale
process.
Mind Into Memoir
Laura Kalpakian
University of New
Mexico Press
9780826363114 $19.95
www.unmpress.com
Mind Into Memoir: A Writer's Handbook provides a fine guide to
converting memories into stories, addressing characters and plot to dialogue,
and showing how to inject memories into material to make for more powerful
results.
Laura Kalpakian is
the author of thirteen novels. Her instructions for creating a memoir that is
an effective narrative features techniques that can apply to fiction and
nonfiction alike. She explores story development with an eye to giving examples
and research-backed directions.
From creating
conversations out of dialogue to enhancing a memoir and adjusting its pace and
momentum, these specific directions and examples provide authors with
everything needed to produce more effective writing of all kinds.
Plagues Upon the
Earth
Kyle Harper
Princeton University
Press
9780691192123 $35.00
www.press.princeton.edu
Perhaps at no other
time in recent history would Plagues Upon
the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History receive attention from
general-interest readers as in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
No light inspection
of disease history, Kyle Harper's is a sweeping human history of various
plagues and their effects on human history and technological response. It
should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of disease and
its concurrent impact on diverse political and social processes.
How do people react,
interact, survive, and change in the face of plagues? As Harper inspects the
role of disease and its spread and lasting impact on society, it's evident that
this is more than a medical story. It's a human history review that places the
COVID-19 pandemic and its evolution in a broader perspective which will be
needed in order to survive the choices it brings.
Medical, social
issues, and history collections alike should consider Plagues Upon the Earth an essential acquisition. It's far more
wide-ranging than competing titles published during the current pandemic,
reviewing questions of future trends and choices that need to be contemplated.
Storm
George R. Stewart
New York Review of
Books
9781681375182 $17.95
www.nyrb.com
Storm was published in 1941, and represents one of the first
eco-novels in print.
In this story,
California is facing a historic drought when a meteorologist notes a developing
storm that threatens the West Coast.
The reaction of
scientists and ordinary individuals to the disaster creates a novel that feels
all too real, given the climate changes of modern times.
Storm is highly recommended not just for literary and ecology
collections, but for any fiction reader interested in cli-fi stories of
survival and environmental adversity. Its literary countenance and special
relevance to modern times makes it a top recommendation.
Sunshine Warm Sober
Catherine Gray
Aster
9781783253395 $19.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Sunshine Warm Sober: Unexpected Sober Joy That Lasts comes from an
author now in her eighth year of sobriety, and charts the ongoing lessons and
experiences to be learned from this state, introduced in her previous
best-selling title The Unexpected Joy of
Being Sober.
Self-help collections
strong in recovery processes will find Gray's blend of expert insights, case
studies, and social and philosophical inspection provides a thought-provoking
consideration of alcoholism, sobriety, and change that is unexpectedly candid,
offering some surprises: "Let's not
pretend alcohol has no flipside. It does. For real. It takes jewel-colored
veils and dances them between you and your most anxious self."
Readers will find
that these discoveries will resonate in more than one way.
Young Adult/Children
Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com
Adam Jay Epstein's Have You Seen Gordon? (9781534477360,
$17.99) receives especially fun drawings by Ruth Chan as it tells of a
hide-and-seek game in which the main character, Gordon, plots a different
outcome.
Gordon doesn't want
to hide. He's proud of who he is. And despite the admonition to hide, he stands
out.
Fans of Where's Waldo? who enjoy fun animals and
hide-and-seek conundrums will relish the different approach of Have You Seen Gordon?
Nabela Noor's Beautifully Me (9781534485877, $17.99)
portrays plus-size characters drawn by Nabi H. Ali as it promotes beauty,
diversity, and empowerment.
These lovely drawings
support the story of Zubi, a Bangladeshi-American girl who observes Western
beauty standards and decides to make her own unique form socially acceptable.
This joyful cultural
and social inspection will delight ages 4-8, who will find in Zubi a spunky,
admirable heroine.
Both are wonderful
stories of celebrating differences and accepting self that parents and teachers
will want to include on their reading lists.
Skywatcher
Jamie Hogan
Tilbury House
Publishers
9780884488972 $18.95
www.tilburyhouse.com
Skywatcher tells of a boy who lives in a 'worn brick building' in a
big city. As Taman reads adventures of his comic book hero and longs to travel
the universe following in his hero's footsteps, he searches for the stars,
which pale against big city lights.
It's unusual to find
a picture book story that tells of an older boy's pursuits, but Jamie Hogan
provides a warm read about urban life, rural opportunities, and astronomical
observation that invites young readers to follow along as they learn about the
constellations.
This story of
discovery is simple, nicely done, and will appeal to a wider age range than the
usual picture book presentation.
Sleeping Bear Press
www.sleepingbearpress.com
Suzanne Slade's The Universe and You (9781534111080,
$16.99) reaches picture book readers ages 4-8 with the lively story of a young
girl who journeys through space each night. Readers and read-aloud parents
receive a fun astronomical journey through the solar systems and space which
links the young sleeper to the universe.
Stephanie Fizer
Coleman's engaging, colorful drawings bring this story to life, and read-aloud
parents will appreciate the supportive, colorful connections between outer and
inner space.
Barbara Joosse's Just Be Claus: A Christmas Story
(9781534111011, $16.99) receives warm drawings by Kim Barnes as it tells of
little Claus, who is different from anyone he knows, in many ways. From his
fondness for the color red to his lessons in his grandmother's workshop, Claus
seems destined for something great. He's different from all the other kids, and
his grandmother tells him to just be himself.
But, what does that
mean? It takes a snowstorm to drive home the lesson about his destiny in this story,
which receives delightful, colorful embellishment by illustrator Kim Barnes.
Both are excellent
picks for read-aloud parents looking for supportive stories for the very young.
The Town That Drowned
Riel Nason
Goose Lane Editions
9781773102313 $22.95
www.gooselane.com
The Town That Drowned first appeared in 2011, and earned awards and
acclaim at that time. It returns in an updated anniversary edition to provide
new audiences with a powerful contemporary examination of a girl who falls
through the ice, has a vision of the future of her town, is rescued, and then
finds that vision coming to life in an alarming way.
Haventon is
threatened by a massive dam project that will fulfill Ruby Carson's nightmare
and change everything.
As the astute
fourteen-year-old views the social and political ire, confusion, and suspicion
that come along with a massive project to rehome her entire town, readers
receive a powerful vision of community change and psychological challenge that
is hard to put down.
All ages will find The Town That Drowned a powerfully
compelling portrait of a community at siege both within and by outsiders, with
Ruby representing the perfect focal point of response to vast changes.
The Ugliest Monster
in the World
Luis Amavisca and
Erica Salcedo
NubeOcho
9788417673765 $15.99
www.nubeocho.com
The Ugliest Monster in the World features hilarious, appealing
little monsters who compete to be the ugliest monster in the world. What makes
them ugly? Each sports a physical countenance that emphasizes something ugly.
But, the question
remains: who decides who is ugly or uglier?
The surprise twist that challenges all these monsters will also appeal to the very young, who will find its fun drawings not scary at all, but brightly revealing.