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The Bookwatch
Table of Contents
Reviewer's Choice
Who Put the Beef Into Wellington?
James Winter
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781804193709, $12.99 HC, $7.99 Kindle, 144pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Who-Put-Beef-into-Wellington/dp/1804193704
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/who-put-the-beef-into-wellington-james-winter/1147516570
"Who Put the Beef Into Wellington?: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 Classic Recipes" is a culinary history that will delight cooks and food fans who wonder how such classics as Caesar Salad and Eggs Benedict came to be. It includes cocktail inventions, makes connections between history and culinary discovery and interpretation, and offers some delightful, fun insights alongside recipes for these classic dishes. Its delightful special blend will lend especially well to gift-giving to that cook who 'has everything'.
The Photography Shelf
Picturing Prince
Steve Parke
Cassell
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781788406611, $29.99 HC, 240pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Picturing-Prince-Intimate-Featuring-Photography/dp/1788406613
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/picturing-prince-steve-parke/1148468018
The very specific focus of Picturing Prince: An Intimate Portrait requires that readers hold a previous affinity for the musician. This is the best Prince coverage a reader could choose. It comes from his former creative director, the US edition includes 16 pages of lost photos which have been recently uncovered by the author, and the combination of full-page color images and personal reflections by Steve Parke make for an extraordinary, fun coverage which delves into the man behind the myth. Striking images and equally compelling descriptions make this study a standout above and beyond other Prince biographies.
The Art Shelf
RHS Watercolour Botanical Art
Sarah Howard with Rachel Pedder-Smith
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781784729844, $39.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/RHS-Watercolour-Botanical-Art-Artists/dp/1784729841
RHS Watercolour Botanical Art: The Complete Practical Guide for Artists by Sarah Howard with Rachel Pedder-Smith is a handbook created with a team of artists and botany experts. It offers an unusual balance between science and art which is not available in other art-focused books on the subject. The presumption is that artists want to be more informed about botany in order to enrich their botanical creations, and so chapters focus on this marriage with descriptions of variations, botanical structures, painting techniques, and step-by-step detail. Anyone interested in botanical illustrations, whether a how-to guide or a science survey of the fine art's connection to nature, will appreciate the full-page color photos and oversize presentation of this outstanding guide. A simply wonderful title unreservedly recommended for lending libraries and individuals alike.
The Gardening Shelf
Atmosfloric: Flower Colour in Home and Garden
Sean A. Pritchard
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781840919356, $39.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/ATMOSFLORIC-Flower-Colour-Home-Garden/dp/1840919353
Sean A. Pritchard's Atmosfloric: Flower Colour in Home and Garden comes from a designer who shows how to grow flowers for color and indoors atmosphere enhancement. The passing nature of the flower and its textures and color offers opportunities to enhance moods, however temporarily. Pritchard shows how as he places the flowers into chapters that explore both the process of cultivating them and the equally important nature of integrating them into an interior design. Lovely full-page photos offer eye-catching flower decor inspiration. A simply wonderful title unreservedly recommended for lending libraries and individuals alike.
The Jewelry Shelf
Women and Their Jewels
David Lelait-Helo
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781784729677, $39.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Their-Jewels-through-jewellery/dp/1784729671
Women and Their Jewels: 15 Iconic Women Through Their Jewellery by David Lelait-Helo examines a selected list of famous women and their jewels, from Jackie Kennedy to Elizabeth Taylor and Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth II. It's impossible to think of these women without their jewels, especially when this biographical history includes full-page color and black and white images accompanying the historical reviews of significant jewelry pieces and the circumstances in which they were displayed. Libraries strong in jewelry history and women's lives will find this survey unusual, revealing, and attractive. A simply wonderful title unreservedly recommended for lending libraries and individuals alike.
The Philosophy Shelf
The Book of Coffee: A Philosophy
Julian Baggini
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Publishing
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Coffee-philosophy-James-Hoffmann/dp/184601638X
Julian Baggini works with James Hoffmann to create The Book of Coffee: A Philosophy which blends philosophy with coffee insights in a gift book that can reach both schools of thinking with unusual insights into the brew. Readers may not think the science of drinking coffee deserves philosophical analysis, but will be delighted and surprised to learn how coffee reflects social and human activity in an unusual way: "To appreciate the primacy of each individual's phenomenology, nothing more is needed than your attention and something to attend to, such as a cup of coffee taken in a garden. Sitting down to drink it, you have a background sense of being located in a much wider world. Attend to that world." A simply wonderful title unreservedly recommended for lending libraries and individuals alike.
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
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