8 Splendid Gift Ideas
aster, Mother's Day, Birthdays, or Just Because
Yoga
The Art of Transformation
Debra Diamond, editor
Smithsonian Books
Hardcover $55.00 (360pp)
978-1-58834-459-5
Yoga has always attracted lots of yogis from lots of religions—some for quasispiritual reasons, others for the physical benefits, certain men drawn by hot rooms with leotard-clad women, and so on. This visual history represents the breathtaking yoga artwork contained in the Smithsonian’s massive Eastern art collection, and it will put you in marvel pose pronto.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Freedom Now!
Forgotten Photographs of the Civil Rights Struggle
Martin A. Berger
University of California Press
Hardcover $49.95 (192pp)
978-0-520-28019-9
Buy: Amazon
Back in the day, mainstream newspapers and magazines loved to present the civil rights struggle in photos depicting black activists as passive victims of Southern white racism, a fact that infuriates the many historians who know better. Many blacks did fight back, did scream at injustice, did hate their oppressors. The seventy-one black-and-white photos in this book don’t whitewash this nation’s greatest stain.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Outside
Barry Lopez
Trinity University Press
Hardcover $18.95 (120pp)
978-1-59534-189-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
With Arctic Dreams in his trophy case, Barry Lopez is free to reign as America’s top storyteller of a natural world only he has the language and intuition to inhabit.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Giving the Finger
Risking It All to Fish the World’s Deadliest Sea
Scott Campbell Jr.
Jim Ruland
Lyons Press
Hardcover $26.95 (264pp)
978-0-7627-9131-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
To fish the Bering Sea in January is scarcely short of suicide—equal parts insanity, courage, and incurable love of the water. A Deadliest Catch star, Campbell Jr. writes as well as he fishes, and that’s saying something.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Never Too Late to Go Vegan
The Over-50 Guide to Adopting and Thriving on a Plant-Based Diet
Carol J. Adams
Patti Breitman
Virginia Messina
The Experiment Publishing
Softcover $16.95 (384pp)
978-1-61519-098-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Whatever your vegan reason—deplorable slaughterhouse conditions, land degradation caused by monoculture farm practices to raise animal feed, overwhelmingly positive health benefits—eating plants exclusively is a profoundly positive decision, and this book just may close the deal for you.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Essential Equipment for the Kitchen
A Sourcebook of the World’s Best Designs
Charlotte Fiell
Peter Fiell
Goodman Fiell Publishing
Softcover $28.00 (320pp)
978-1-84796-054-2
Buy: Amazon
Chefs do cry, and this jaw-dropping photography book will cause such a bout of equipment envy, you’d be wise to hide the knives from your gawking gourmet. Luckily, the photos and descriptions include the designers’ websites.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Hemingway, the Red Cross, and the Great War
Steven Florcyk
Kent State University Press
Hardcover $45.00 (216pp)
978-1-60635-162-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Forget fishing, disregard drinking, ’twas war what wrought Ernest into a hardened, thoughtful, truth-be-told writer. To understand the man, take this book at its word.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines
Patricia Monaghan
New World Library
Softcover $29.95 (512pp)
978-1-60868-217-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Alas, where have all the goddesses gone? No doubt, they’re hiding from male monotheism, because scholars have long known that the primary deities of prehistory were feminine—fertile, life-giving Earth Mothers represented in countless cave drawings and buxom bone/stone/wood carvings. This fantastically inspiring compendium details the myths and attributes of nearly one thousand divinely feminine gods the world over.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 27, 2014)
