Ten Can't Miss Gift Books
When only a book will do for the one and only in your life, choose one, three, or all of these, and make it a holiday they will always remember.
Firefly
Janette Jenkins
Europa Editions
Softcover $15.00 (156pp)
978-1-60945-140-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
From his beloved hillside retreat in Jamaica, superstar novelist Noel Coward and his manservant drink and smoke and grumble their way through delightful memories of glamorous friends, celebrity gone wild and crazy, and a London town that is gone forever.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
A Stitch in Air
Lori Marie Carlson
Texas Tech University Press
Softcover $24.95 (256pp)
978-0-89672-813-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Yes, the Inquisition had its lighter side. This acerbic novel is set in a Spanish convent inhabited by disgruntled, existentially exercised nuns—who do have a purpose on earth, it turns out.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
A History of Political Ideas
From Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Philippe Nemo
Kenneth Casler, translator
Duquesne University Press
Softcover $36.00 (665pp)
978-0-8207-0455-5
Context, grasshopper, adds depth and legitimacy to our grasp of 21st century politics. This masterful, approachable work will bring Plato and Cicero and Saint Paul as close as Reagan and Clinton and Obama.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
The Modern Art Cookbook
Mary Ann Caws
Reaktion Books
Hardcover $39.00 (330pp)
978-1-78023-174-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Much we can intuit when we know what someone et—Cezanne and Picasso revered the perfectly prepared omelette, and here’s their recipes to prove it. Beautiful food art, quirky artist recipes, and dinner table gossip make this book an epicurean treat.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
Winter Cocktails
Mulled Ciders, Hot Toddies, Punches, Pitchers, and Cocktail Party Snacks
Maria del Mar Sacasa
Tara Striano
Quirk Books
Hardcover $22.95 (160pp)
978-1-59474-641-3
Buy: Amazon
What better way to warm up than from the inside out. Fifty inviting, beautifully photographed drink recipes—just muddle then cuddle the winter blues away.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
The Secret Museum
Some Treasures Are Too Precious to Display
Molly Oldfield
Firefly Books
Hardcover $35.00 (352pp)
978-1-77085-257-0
Buy: Amazon
The world’s greatest museums necessarily hide thousands of objects that are too rare, too valuable, or too fragile to exhibit. This delightfully informative art book guides us to forgotten treasures around the world.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
Colette’s France
Her Life and Loves
Jane Gilmour
Hardie Grant Books
Hardcover $34.95 (220pp)
978-1-74270-535-4
Buy: Amazon
A legendary French writer, radical, and provocateur, Colette epitomized Belle Epoque Paris. Her beauty and brilliance are captured strikingly in this artful, sensual biography.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
The Art of American Book Covers, 1875-1930
Richard Minsky
George Braziller
Softcover $24.95 (136pp)
978-0-8076-1624-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In the 1870s, Americans began buying books as prestigious decorative objects (as well as literature), and publishers invested grandly in top artists and expensive production methods. The one-hundred-plus covers herein are stunning works of art.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
Lonely Planet’s Beautiful World
Lonely Planet
Hardcover $39.99 (224pp)
978-1-74321-717-7
Buy: Amazon
Nature photography at its highest level serves to both overwhelm our senses and deepen our relationship with this planet, our home. To describe this book as anything less than the end-all coffee-table book would be an injustice.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
Art and Place
Site-Specific Art of the Americas
Phaidon Press
Hardcover $79.95 (376pp)
978-0-7148-6551-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Five hundred professional photographs of jaw-dropping artworks that were conceived and created for a particular location, from Canada to Patagonia.
MATT SUTHERLAND (November 30, 2013)
