Gift Ideas Fall 2014: From One Book Lover to Another
The Architecture of Diplomacy
The British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington
Anthony Seldon
Daniel Collings
Eric Sander, photographer
Flammarion
Hardcover $65.00 (236pp)
978-2-08129902-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Washington DC’s Embassy Row, an avenue of unrivaled diplomatic importance, is anchored by the British ambassador’s residence, a massive neoclassical English country house—the haunt of kings and queens and countless other royalty and luminaries since 1930, including long visits by Winston Churchill during World War II, when England faced her darkest hours against the Nazis. With many dozens of historical photos of politicians and statesmen, as well as beautiful contemporary shots of the building’s interior, exterior, and gardens, this is the book to whet the whimsies of anyone who cares a whit about history, architecture, Anglo-American diplomacy, gardening, and exactly how to do a perfect coffee-table book.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
Beyond Trochenbrod
The Betty Gold Story
Betty Gold
Mark Hodermarsky, contributor
Kent State University Press
Softcover $19.95 (144pp)
978-1-60635-199-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
The sliver-thin silver lining of Holocaust denial is that deniers promote the subject of Nazi evil back to center stage where the Holocaust-ignorant might discover and never forget unspeakable things like how a whole village of five thousand Jewish civilians was machine gunned to death in rural Poland on August 11, 1942. Betty Gold would have been 5,001 but for the secret wall her father built and the survival skills she developed while hiding in a forest for many months that fall and winter. Intimate, mesmerizing, heartjarring, this short memoir will leave you cold to the touch but better for it.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
Lore of Running
Fourth Edition
Tom Noakes
Human Kinetics
Softcover $29.95 (944pp)
978-0-87322-959-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
What does it take to be a runner? Two legs and a pulse—no courts or lined ball fields, no rules, tools, skills, or opponents required. How cool is that?
This bible, this running companion, explains how to nurture your inner athlete to find joy, health, and serenity in running. Yes, you can also find advice from world-class runners to help you kick your sister-in-law’s butt in the Antarctic Ultramarathon, as well as superb stretching tips for staying injury free, but the real beauty of this book is Tim Noakes’s intuitive grasp of the runner’s mind set and motivation.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
Emaho Tibet!
Blessings from the Land of the Snows: A Photographic Pilgrimage of Ongoing Spirituality
Simhananda
Orange Palm Publications
Hardcover $59.95 (272pp)
978-1-928016-00-7
Buy: Amazon
The holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam take themselves very seriously. They are not funny. They do not use artwork or inviting design to attract readers. Scratch-and-sniff technology is definitely not the way to teach the tenets of Ramadan and eating kosher.
Buddhism, too, has its sacred texts, but the fundamentals of the religion, as taught by Guru Rinpoche (founder of Tibetan Buddhism), aren’t the stuff of sin and damnation. This “photographic pilgrimage of ongoing spirituality” is an homage to “marvelous” Tibet. The many dozens of stunning photographs of the land and people are often accompanied with Buddhist wisdom and teaching “as a means to transmit certain secrets, revelations, and meditations, thereby allowing for a greater comprehension of the game that is life.”
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
A Thousand Forests in One Acorn
An Anthology of Spanish-Language Fiction
Valerie Miles
Open Letter
Softcover $19.95 (717pp)
978-1-934824-91-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
That the Spanish language gave voice to the likes of Cervantes, Borges, García Márquez, and so many other greats of literary fiction is a fact not unlike poetry’s affinity for Russian. Lingua España is to daring tales of adventure and magical realism what sex is to erotica.
This outrageously valuable project asked twenty-eight Spanish-language heavyweights of the last half of the twentieth century to choose a favorite piece of their own work, accompanied by some personal words of commentary and reflection.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
Beyond Conflict
20 Years of Putting Experience to Work for Peace
Timothy Phillips
Brideswell Books
Hardcover $24.95 (108pp)
978-0-615-79057-2
Buy: Amazon
What the world needs is a book to help nations transition out of the hateful, retributory habits of war / repression / conflict and embrace the options of forgiveness and peace.
Whoop, here it is!
Herein, we learn how six extraordinary leaders from South Africa, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Israel, Chile, and Czechoslovakia sat down with their enemies, forged fair-minded agreements, and led their societies to peace. We’ll also hear from Timothy Phillips, the cofounder of Beyond Conflict, a hugely influential conflict-resolution organization soothing troubled spots around the globe.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
Crown of the Continent
The Wildest Rockies
Steven Gnam
Mountaineers Books
Hardcover $29.95 (192pp)
978-1-59485-772-0
Buy: Amazon
The Email of the Wild … Nope, Jack had it right: wilderness only calls.
Photographer Steven Gnam answered the call as a child of seven when his parents moved his citified family to the northwest corner of Montana and released him to explore the local environs: the 18-million-acre “crown of the continent” region where ice melt forms the headwaters to rivers reaching Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific. Gnam’s playmates included grizzlies, wolves, mountain lions, and wolverines—the most diverse collection of carnivores in North America—and his skill in capturing this majestic place with a pen and a telephoto is surpassed by no one.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
The Hills of Chianti
The Story of a Tuscan Winemaking Family, in Seven Bottles
Piero Antinori
Natalie Danford, translator
Rizzoli
Hardcover $26.95 (240pp)
978-0-8478-4388-6
Buy: Amazon
Late in the evening, Sangiovese teasing your palate, do you ever wonder how grape farming and winemaking emerged from a lineage of humble agriculture to become the modern, ultraprestigious craft of fine wine, an industry aligned with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Maserati? Here is the story of Tuscany’s noble Antinori family, winemakers since 1385, written by the most innovative Antinori of all. This is also the story of Tignanello, Solaia, Villa Antinori, Cervaro Della Sala, and three other iconic wines that helped the family bottle up their legacy.
MATT SUTHERLAND (August 27, 2014)
