TO BE SHELVED

Never drop a book in the bathtub again

2013-05-10T20:15:00.001-05:00

Kids are awesome.

I'm not sure I ever want any, but that doesn't mean I'm not constantly in awe by their imagination and innovation.

Reddit user crash-from-space uploaded this photo of his eight-year-old daughter's brilliant idea for reading in the bathtub. Simply attach a your dog leash to your book... obviously.

I have to admit, the main reason I do not read in the bath is because I KNOW I will drop it in the water. Also why I very clearly do not read books on my iPad while in the bathtub. Also I'd just rather read on the beach.

So how long until someone has a Kickstarter up for a really nice model of this?

Also,
One of my favorite designers had a cover chosen by Reddit users. Pretty interesting idea.
And another example of kids being awesome: A mini cover critic.

Boston Magazine's May cover

2013-04-25T20:04:00.002-05:00

Boston Magazine's May cover is beautiful. I quite honestly can't think of a more appropriate way to make us all pause for a moment to reflect on the events of last week and remind us that America moves forward.

Today on their news blog, Boston Magazine's Editor in Chief John Wolfson explained the process behind the cover. Although it is always interesting to hear how a cover came to be, this one did make me tear up a bit:

We initially settled on the idea of commissioning Marathon-related essays from a number of Boston writers, and then set about brainstorming ideas for illustrating that package of stories. Should we create a photo illustration of a runner’s bib in the shape of a heart? Should we photograph a tattered marathon olive wreath on a black background? Then our design director, Brian Struble, and deputy design director, Liz Noftle, came up with the concept of taking shoes worn during the marathon and arranging them so that the negative space is in the shape of a heart. For reasons I’ll explain in a moment, I knew as soon as I heard the idea that we had our concept—not just for the collection of essays, but also for the cover. In fact, I quickly realized that the stories of the runners who wore those shoes would be even more powerful than the essays we’d commissioned. We quickly changed course and settled on the cover concept and the outlines of a feature package: We’d shoot the shoes collectively to form the heart, but we’d also photograph them as individual pairs to illustrate the stories told by the runners in the package (which we called “The Shoes We Wore,” and which you’ll find in the May issue).

Great idea! But how in the world were we going to execute it in time?

Read the rest of the story behind the May cover on Boston Magazine's blog.

The magazine hits stands on Friday and they are already working on putting out a poster of the cover, and of course all the proceeds will go to The One Fund-Boston.

&

On a side note of my own, as a person in the journalism and news design industry...

When I saw this cover, I felt almost a sigh of relief. I have handful of friends in Boston, many of them runners, and last week all I wanted was to be there with them, in total mom-mode hugging them tight and controlling how much TV time they had. Boston is a tough city. It takes care of it's own and there is no doubt in my mind that my friends are going to be stronger and braver, and more spirited athletes in the future. But we're all still healing. And after front page after front page of terrifying images, Boston Magazine's cover is like a big bandaid.

I think this cover is a reminder for all of us of the impact of images, the impact of print and the importance of local coverage. A national outlet couldn't have put together something this powerful, and even if they did, it couldn't have the same impact.

Media isn't always the bad guy, out to exploit a story. Often, and especially in the wake of tragedy, media is what pulls us back together in the biggest embrace and keeps us unified.

That's my jumbled, emotional two cents for the day. Share this cover. Read the stories. Hug someone you love.

Past & Present by Amy Azzarito

2013-04-17T11:30:00.000-05:00

One of my absolute favorite blogs is Design*Sponge and over the years I've loved seeing the different contributors that have come and gone from the blog. Amy Azzarito is currently the managing editor for Design*Sponge and I always love her contributions to the site.

This spring, Amy published her first book, "Past & Present: 24 Favorite Moments in Decorative Arts History, and 24 Modern DIY Projects Inspired by Them". It obviously has a beautiful cover.

The cover was illustrated, as well as the rest of the book, by the wonderful Julia Rothman and the book design is by ALSO. Lately a pop of pink (a color I've never really loved) has been so appealing to me so obviously I'm crushing pretty hard on this cover.

In a post about the book on Design*Sponge, Amy shared this little piece of insight on her love for art history, which I really enjoyed:

While researching all of the moments in decorative arts history for this book, I was continually reminded of my own personal design history memories. I remember stumbling across a book called "Life in a Medieval Castle" on my mom’s bookshelf. I was surprised to discover that rather than stories of fairy princesses and knights in shining armor, it was a book about how people actually lived in castles – what they ate, what they wore, what their furniture was like. It was the first moment that I discovered design history.

I also loved learning that Amy was previously a digital producer at the New York Public Library, which wasn't on my list of dream jobs before but it might be now.

"Past & Present" is available on Amazon.

More of my posts about Design*Sponge
and great book cover design to swoon over.

ooohhhaiku: A daily haiku blog

2013-04-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

Today, my friend Dylan and I are launching ooohhhaiku, a daily haiku blog.

Dylan and I met through our mutual best friend Britt during our freshman year of college. Since then, we've been mostly-internet friends but with Britt's upcoming wedding and both of us being bridesmaids, we've become so much closer. During the bachelorette party in Nashville, we bonded over our mutual love for whiskey, writing and spinach, and decided we absolutely wanted to be working on a project together. The idea of a daily haiku blog was born and now we finally both have a small bit of free time on our hands and are excited to be starting this project.

There's something else in the works coinciding with this, which we'll hopefully be able to reveal on Thursday. It just feels good, as much as I love To Be Shelved, to be working on something collaborative.

So I hope you follow our haiku blog, but if that's not your thing, that's okay too.

Further reading:
A few posts on poetry books
and what I'm currently reading.

Detroit notebooks from City Bird

2013-04-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

During my next visit home I'm definitely making at stop at City Bird in Midtown.

I've been following their Etsy shop for a while but I guess I never realized they had a storefront in Detroit. I love their collection of notebooks and pencils declaring love for Michigan.

They've also published a city guide, "Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit".

You can purchase the city guide in-store or online.

Some of their goods are also sold in a handful of Chicago stores so I'm tempted to scout them out tomorrow. Definitely one of my favorite Etsy finds.

More of my favorite notebooks
and another book about Detroit

Crescent City Books

2013-04-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

Well this is a post that is quite overdue. Back in January, I went to New Orleans for work (and beignets), but had some free time to explore. I visit the Big Easy at least once a year for the Jazz and Heritage Festival or volunteer work, but never have very much time to just wander or do "normal" tourist things.

I'm so glad to have found Crescent City Books on this trip. I'm definitely making a point to stop in on my next visit this May.

The selection of beautiful books was actually overwhelming and I could have spent hours in the store. I swear I pulled every book off the shelf in the mystery section just to see all the amazing vintage hardback jackets.

I walked away with only two purchases: A new book, "Errata" by New Orleans author Michael Allen Zell, which I'll review later this week, and a beautiful vintage copy of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory", printed in 1956.

I'm such a sucker for gold foil on book covers. I can't help it. Which is why I have complete regret over not buying this Louisiana guide. It was $50, but in retrospect I really think it would have been a worthy purchase. Not only did the cover have gold, it featured a beautiful fold-out map.

Instead, that $50 went towards delicious New Orleans cuisine and drinks so I guess it's not the biggest regret of my life.

Of course, no rare books shop would be complete without a cat. Meow.

Crescent City Books has definitely joined my list of favorite book stores.

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More beautiful vintage books
One of my favorite uses for old books

Pain, Parties, Work

2013-04-04T16:10:00.003-05:00

I get pretty lucky with books I'm supposed to review. Not only do most of them show up in my mailbox with nice covers, but I usually enjoy what I read. Like 4 or 5 star ratings.

But I just don't know if I can be best friends with Sylvia Plath.

Yesterday I finished reading Elizabeth Winter's "Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953" and I am so happy to be moving on.

I've never read very many poems by Plath, and I've never read the Bell Jar (which her 1953 summer was based on), so I guess I didn't have much of an interest in her when I started the book. There were also a few times where I felt like I was reading a book written by Sylvia's best friend and I had somehow insulted Sylvia and Winter was writing me to defend her.

I'm planning to hand this off to one of my friends who does adore Sylvia and see what they think.

I do have to say Winter's detailed account of Sylvia's summer in New York was incredible. Sylvia spent only a month as an intern at Mademoiselle, but the book is full of rich details of almost every day of her time there and you can truly picture what an interesting place the Barbizon would have been.

And of course, I did like the cover when it arrived. I loved the tones on the photograph and it was very "pretty" but now that I've read the story I'm not sure it was the best option. Something a little more New York probably would have been more fitting.

The book is available from Harper Collins on April 16.

Have you read much Sylvia Plath? Do you think you'll read this?

Charlie LeDuff's Detroit

2013-03-25T20:19:00.001-05:00

I'm a Michigan girl. I'd like to say I grew-up all over the state but went to sixth through twelfth grade over in the Metro Detroit area. (Just thinking about it makes me crave a Greek Salad from Leo's.)

I'll never tell you I'm from Detroit, because I'm not and no, I don't know Eminem, but I love that city like it's family. Which means I resent the ruin porn, like warm evenings spent on the sidewalk outside Cafe D'Mongo's and will drive 5 hours from Chicago for a Tigers game.

So naturally, I've been interested in grabbing a copy of Charlie LeDuff's "Detroit: An American Autopsy". I splurged during a visit to Sandmeyer's last weekend and made it mine.

I think it is a bit ridiculous how he's standing on the cover like that. And the cover itself is really nice. I might get rid of the jacket... is that blasphemy?

I haven't started on it yet, as I'm finishing up something else, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Plus,
love for baseball, because it is almost opening day (!)
it is so cold in Chicago I'm craving the warm Los Angeles weather

Marc Johns book drawings

2013-03-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

I love Marc Johns. His illustrations always make my day (ie: this little planet for Nat Geo). And in my usual annoying habit of trying to get my friends and family to love the same things I do, my dad is now a Marc Johns fan. He has two prints framed and hanging in his house, and I love seeing them when I visit.

This week, Marc posted two different book illustrations, which I obviously had to share here.

Marc writes:

I love going to bookstores and just looking at all the wonderfully designed covers (you can't do that on Amazon). Judging books by their covers makes me sound shallow, but I am in constant awe of the serious talent out there. It's an art form in itself.

That would be the best design job: cover designer.

I am in constant envy of book cover designers.

The original drawings have been sold, but you can still buy a signed print of the second drawing (I just did).

& More work from illustrators I admire.

Sandmeyer's Sundays

2013-03-17T19:57:00.002-05:00

Sundays are definitely my "catching-up" days for all the things I said I'd do the previous week. Laundry, reading, freelance work or even just finally unpacking from a trip I took weeks ago. But I also always make myself leave the house on Sunday afternoons and visit the bookstore or the library, or use one of my museum memberships. This week I decided to enjoy the rare bit of sunshine and walked up to Sandmeyer's Bookstore in Printer's Row.

Although Sandmeyer's is small, it is mighty. They have a wonderful selection of books and a sale section that is always worth taking a peek in. I especially enjoy that they carry the Art of the Novella series from Melville House and have a few of my favorite Penguin series, like the Civic Classics.

But my truly favorite part of Sandmeyer's is the incredible creaky wood floor. You just never know when the right step is going to break the store's silence.

After my trip to Sandmeyer's, I also visited the library. I'll share what I bought at the store and what I found at the library later this week.

And more posts on wonderful bookstores

Plus, a post I had to make using Google Maps of my favorite bookstores, back when this blog was for a class.

Pieces of Light review, or how I became interested in the amazing science of memory

2013-03-09T19:08:00.002-06:00

I have been brought here by imagination,
and now I am stuck with the memories.

Like many books I write about on here that I've come to love, I picked-up "Pieces of Light" because I loved the cover illustration and design by Pete Dyer. (thanks for the tip Dan!)

Over time, I've become increasingly drawn to non-fiction over fiction. I have a feeling it's because I miss being in an academic setting, which is where I would have loved to read "Pieces of Light: How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell About Our Pasts" because I'd love to discuss and debate what I've read.

Charles Fernyhough uses a great balance of personal anecdote with scientific findings so I rarely found a chapter too dense. "Pieces of Light" worked as a great commute read but I also knocked out 100 pages during a flight without feeling overwhelmed by stats and facts.

Reading "Pieces of Light" on an airplane actually made me realize that every time I fly, which is about once a month, I find myself recalling memories of past flights. Almost every departure, I think of how one of my childhood friends played with a mini-skateboard when our flight took off for a mission trip to Mexico because he was afraid of take-offs. During daytime flights, when I stare out the window at the clouds, I remember one flight I had down to New Orleans when the clouds reminded me of the Grand Canyon. And whenever food is served I seem to find myself reminiscing about numerous flights when I used to travel with my mom for business and they served McDonalds' kids meals. I loved analyzing my own memories, and considering which were recalled versus which were summoned involuntarily by a trigger.

Memory is an artist as much as it is a scientist.

Something else I really loved about "Pieces of Light" was the way it makes us think about autobiographical memory, and therefore, written autobiographies. Fernyhough writes:

When I read a memoir, I am always being told: This is how it was. Here is the vivid picture. Feel the weight of that vividness, its guarantee the authenticity. How could I be creating this wonderfully colorful picture if I was making it all up? But the memoirist is of course making it up. he or she is a storyteller, as we are all storytellers. I know that memory doesn't allow for that kind of faithful representation of past events.

... These fictions also have power because they matter. Stories and memoirs have political dimensions, and so do memories.

... We are natural-born storytellers; we engage in acts of fiction-making every time we recount an event from our pasts. We are constantly editing and remaking our memory stories as our knowledge and emotions change. they might be fictions, but they are our fictions, and we should treasure them. Stories are special. Sometimes they can even be true.

I really like this point because it bothers me when people feel betrayed by an author who may not have gotten all of the facts right. The pieces of their memory, 100% factual or not, are important because they are a reflection of how that situation felt to that person and what it meant. Which is also why I really love reading memoirs, especially the one I am reading now about Miss Sylvia Plath.

You can read more about "Pieces of Light" on Fernyhough's blog, or pre-order a copy on Amazon (release date March 19).

And if you do order it, read it and want to talk about it, let me know.

Edit: Huffington Post interviewed the Dyer about the cover art and design. Read it here. Thanks to Harper for the link!

Plus, more book reviews
& one of my favorite memoirs

Currently reading

2013-02-23T10:09:00.000-06:00

My nightstand is currently being taken over by books I can't wait to read.

Right now I'm in the middle of Pieces of Light: How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell About Our Pasts by Charles Fernyhough. Each chapter takes about as long to read as my one-way commute to work so I've been slowly getting through it. Pieces of Light is definitely interesting—how could memories not be?—but I've kind of been aching for something that's more of a story.

Perfect timing because Pain, Parties, Work and Serving Victoria just came in the mail two days ago.

What are you currently reading? Do you juggle multiple books or just tackle one at a time?

Julieta Felix for The Fox is Black

2013-02-20T16:57:00.001-06:00

The Fox is Black is one of my favorite blog, hands down. It's a collection of beautiful things and interesting ideas, created and curated by Bobby Solomon.

One of my favorite regular features on TFIB is the Desktop Wallpaper Project. An amazing array of illustrators, designers and artists contribute to the project and I can say that probably 80% of the time my desktop background comes from here.

The most recent addition to the project comes from Julieta Felix. I love it for pretty obvious reasons.

Bobby says it's a reminder that sometimes we need to disconnect everyone once in a while. Absolutely true and perfect for a desktop. Just shut your laptop and walk away.

Visit TFIB to download the right size for your desktop.

More posts with TFIB
& more work by wonderful illustrators

Annotated readings

2013-02-17T17:37:00.001-06:00

I recently subscribed to a couple of magazines and a flood of issues hit my mailbox this week. I spent this morning reading two of them, Fast Company and Chicago page-by-page and refused to get out of bed until I finished.

I love magazines. I love the short snippets of reading that come together to embrace you. I love dog-earing pages so I can research something I read later. I love sharing what I learned with my friends. I love the conversation that follows a great issue. There's something really special about this collection that has been packaged together for you. Sure you can find all of those articles and images online, but when it is all bound together it seems to have so much more purpose.

The February issue of Fast Company is a great example of this. The central idea of the issue is the power of creative conversation and how important it is to collaborate and share in order to grow. (I definitely recommend looking up some of the articles from this issue, starting with "From Facebook To Pixar: 10 Conversations that Changed Our World")

Another part of this issue that I loved was Baratunde Thurston's One More Thing on the future of reading (read that, too!). It starts out:

I loved that the original Kindle let me annotate a book. Being able to add and search for my own thoughts amid the previously locked words of others without physically damaging the original opened up a world of possibilities. What if you could download books that had been pre-annotated? I would pay extra to read Freakonomics with commentary by Paul Krugman,The New Jim Crow with notes from editors at The Nation, or the Bible annotated by the creators of South Park. A book could always inspire new layers of meaning, but now it can host that inspiration and a slew of associated conversations.

What a wonderful idea. I've definitely spent a better part of my day thinking about what annotated books I would want to read, and who I would like to have annotated them. I'm feeling overwhelmed by my list. There are definitely some books I'd love to have pre-annotated by people working in the same field, but as Thurston points out, the creators of South Park would have great Bible commentary. A few of my ideas:

The Jungle, annotated by Michael Pollan
The Graduate, annotated by John Updike
Any travel guides, annotated by Bill Bryson
My AP History books from high school, annotated by Stephen Colbert
Chuck Klosterman. Most books. Just annotate everything.

What about you? What pre-annotated book would you like to read, and who would you like it to be annotated by? The possibilities truly seem endless.

Michael Pollan's new book

2013-02-06T21:06:00.000-06:00

Right now I have a very overdue library book: Michael Pollan's Second Nature. I just can't really get into it, probably because I've never had a desire to garden, but it is quite the disappointment because Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food are two of my favorite books (I mean, I cried at the end of a non-fiction book about food gathering).

But I've been saved from Second Nature because Pollan's new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation is now available for pre-order.

With my great Google-ing skills I also found the cover for Penguin Books Australia, which is way better, but the US version fits a lot better with Pollan's other covers.

Also, it is Mr. Pollan's birthday. So, happy birthday and thank you for your contribution to society/my bookshelf.

Pre-order Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation now on Amazon for 42% off
& read more on Michael Pollan

Great Gatsby print by Aled Lewis

2013-02-03T13:00:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite Gatsby cover redesigns is now available as a print.

The print is A4 size and an edition of only 250. You can buy it here.

Aled Lewis is an illustrator, designer and author based in London. You may recognize his Toy Stories series (which I also love).

More Gatsby love
and more posters and prints I'd love to hang on my walls.

(all photos by the artist)

Updated: The Invader's Guide to NOLA

2013-01-29T09:47:00.000-06:00

So in case you hadn't heard, I love New Orleans. In fact, I was there last weekend. One of my favorite projects I've seen come out of New Orleans has been Invade NOLA, the "New Orleans guide for young professionals".

Their gearing up to publish their second book and are using IndieGoGo to help pay for publishing. The book, "The Invader's Guide to NOLA", sounds pretty wonderful and I can't wait to have a copy of my own:

Clocking in at more than 175+ pages, this volume will be the perfect guide of the people, places and projects of New Orleans featuring content from the blog and digital magazine as well as exciting new content just for the book.

Spanning a number of categories, The Invader's Guide is perfect for locals and tourists.

Sections include: Bars and Nightlife, Culture, Food, Fashion, Music, and LagniappeEach section includes places to visit, people to know, and quotes from locals.

I just purchased the Wallpaper* City Guide New Orleans (how did I not own this already?) and think it will be perfect coupled with the Invader's Guide.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Invader's Guide.

To learn more about the Invader's Guide and to fund the project, visit their IndieGoGo site.

Update: Here's a sneak peak of what the book will look like.

Plus, more love for New Orleans

and projects I've shared in the past.

The Little Book of Heartbreak

2013-01-28T22:53:00.000-06:00

I'm quite the cynic. Based on my circle of friends and coworkers I'd say it's what led me to journalism way back when and what has kept me in newsroom since. My cynicism also carries over to my bookshelf. I've always leaned toward non-fiction, and when I've chosen to read fiction leaned toward more realistic stories.

Which means no, I didn't read Twilight. Or Pride and Prejudice. Or anything that could be considered romantic literature.

But I was excited to read The Little Book of Heartbreak by Meghan Laslocky. When I read the back of the book, my immediate reaction was "Perfect! It's like SparkNotes for all those sappy stories I hate but should know about!" And it was way better than that.

The Little Book of Heartbreak: Love Gone Wrong Through the Ages is divided into five sections:

History
Culture
Music and Art
Film and Literature
Conclusion and Practical Advice

My absolute favorite was definitely Culture. I loved learning about how heartbreak really does mess with our minds and about detachement theory.

As far as design goes, I like the simplicity of the cover with the basic line icons. Especially the dead bird, which also appears on the side. I find it pretty funny.

Obviously another highlight was this Harry Potter reference on page 11. After reading this, I knew I'd love the rest of the book:

I do have to say my one complaint about the book is the little breakout boxes that are scattered between chapters. They kind of reminded me of reading a book in middle school about boys or becoming a woman. I think I would have rather had a movie list at the back or at the end of each chapter. But this is just person preference.

I can't say this book inspired me to read Pride and Prejudice or to see Twilight or suddenly believe these stories that I still find ridiculous. But I can say that I loved the historic side to The Little Book of Heartbreak and I'll be reading a lot more of Meghan's work.

You can learn more about The Little Book of Heartbreak on Meghan's website.

And because it is almost Valentine's Day, and almost February:
Field Notes Love
& one of my favorite pieces from an Augusten Burroughs book

By Blood

2013-01-21T13:54:00.000-06:00

I get a lot of email newsletters from publishing companies and various book-affiliated places. I should probably open more of them. I can't remember what particular email I opened that led me to "By Blood", but what a beautiful, wonderful thing I found.

Ellen Ullman's latest novel is the story of a professor who overhears the therapy sessions of a young lesbian in search of her adoptive family. The professor takes the quest as his own and sends information to the patient disguised as mail from an adoption agency. This sounds amazing. It just shot to the top of my "To Read" list (Sorry, Nate Silver).

But very obviously what first got my attention was the fantastic cover, not the story it binds.

Really lovely design work by Rodrigo Corral (as usual), with illustration work by Adly Elewa. The two have been working together on a number of other wonderful things, that I'm sure I'll need to feature again on the blog soon.

Plus, another wonderful Rodrigo Corral cover
& a post from exactly two years ago

Drinking With Men

2013-01-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

I spotted this cover on Pinterest yesterday and clicked through and added it to my "Want To Read" list on goodreads.

Here's a bit of the synopsis from Amazon :

In Drinking with Men, Schaap shares her unending quest for the perfect local haunt, which takes her from a dive outside Los Angeles to a Dublin pub full of poets, and from small-town New England taverns to a character-filled bar in Manhattan’s TriBeCa. Drinking alongside artists and expats, ironworkers and soccer fanatics, she finds these places offer a safe haven, a respite, and a place to feel most like herself. In rich, colorful prose, Schaap brings to life these seedy, warm, and wonderful rooms. Drinking with Men is a love letter to the bars, pubs, and taverns that have been Schaap’s refuge, and a celebration of the uniquely civilizing source of community that is bar culture at its best

I can't wait to read this. I can't say I've read much of Rosie Schaap in the past, but after clicking through her blog a bit, I think we'd be great friends. According to her bio, she has been a bartender, a fortuneteller, a librarian at a paranormal society, an English teacher, an editor, a preacher, a community organizer, and a manager of homeless shelters... so that's all pretty awesome. Now, she writes a monthly "Drink" column for for The New York Times Magazine, which is maybe my new goal in life.

You can pre-order "Drinking with Men: A Memoir" now on Amazon.

Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss

2013-01-05T11:05:00.001-06:00

I've been a fan of Olly Moss for quite some time, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a review copy (back in October, I'm a bit behind guys) of "Silhouettes from Popular Culture". Since it came in the mail, it has made a home on my coffee table. Everyone who visits picks it up and loves it, most likely for the perfect combination of simple art and nostalgia.

In the book's introduction, Olly writes that he's always been drawn to silhouettes.

"There is, in all of art history, no simpler way of capturing a likeness—and I'd always thought that making pop culture-infused silhouettes would be a devious way of sneaking girlfriend-safe nerd art onto the walls of my own home."

When offered his first solo exhibit Olly tested the idea. I remember seeing these silhouettes, titled "Paper Cuts", popping up everywhere on the internet, design nerds everywhere wishing they could attend the exhibit and order prints of their own.

To create each piece, Olly drew characters from the side and used powerful industrial lasers to cut them out of black paper, which just sounds awesome. 300 characters later a book was basically necessary, and now we have "Silhouettes from Popular Culture" (most of those 300 are included in the book).

More about Olly Moss / Order the book for your own coffee table

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One of Olly's book covers
More Batman, because why not?

Wallpaper* City Guides

2013-01-02T15:59:00.002-06:00

I absolutely love Wallpaper* City Guides.

I collect them for cities I've already visited, and hope to return to, and for cities I am planning to visit. They're helpful and small, so they fit easily in whatever bag you happen to be traveling with. Plus, they come in a lot of beautiful colors and look wonderful all lined up on my shelf at home. It's sort of like having a travelogue on my bookshelf.

For Christmas, I asked for any number of guides where I had already visited the city. My dad surprised me with Salzburg, Seattle and Venice.

So now my collection has reached 10. I think my favorite guides I've used while travelling have been for Los Angeles and Beijing . With Beijing in particular, the Wallpaper* guide really helped show us another side of the city that was underrepresented in other guide books, or just not mentioned at all.

If you look for restaurants, shops and landmarks that are aesthetically pleasing when you travel, and not just hip or historic, I definitely recommend the Wallpaper* City Guides. They also have apps now but I've found the small books easy enough to travel with. Plus each book has a space for notes and a map in the back, with basic conversions and such in the front.

What are your go-to travel guides? Have you used Wallpaper* City Guides before?

Plus,
I fell in love with these novellas because they reminded me to the city guides
The other travel guides I took with me to Beijing

Bitter Brew

2013-01-01T19:39:00.001-06:00

I like beer. I like books. I like reading about really ridiculous family histories that make my family seem super boring.

So when William Knoedelseder's (I'm so glad I can just type that and don't have to try to pronounce it) Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer came up on a list of options to review, I requested it immediately. And after a sort-of slow start, I loved it.

I mostly read Bitter Brew on the train during my 40-minute work commute and I loved seeing people take second glances at the cover, which pays tribute to the iconic Budweiser bottle label. And even after an intense 40-minute read, I couldn't put it down. I do not recommend doing so and potentially injuring yourself, but I continued to read as I departed the train and walked the block to my office in the morning.

I loved reading the history of the Clydesdales and the Budweiser brand, seeing prohibition from a brewer's perspective and learning more about the competition between American breweries. I also really enjoyed the chapter titles, which I would get so excited about I'd text photos of them to my friends... which isn't a normal habit I have while reading.

I think one of my favorite parts of Bitter Brew is how Knoedelseder takes you all the way up to present day. I'm not sure why that was an unexpected end to the book for me, but it was. I feel like maybe Budweiser is such a big part of America's history, at least brewing history, that it doesn't seem like it should be a living history. Kind of like how when my dad took me to see Bob Dylan and it felt weird because Bob Dylan is such a legend it seems like he should be dead by now (please don't die Bob).

I'm trying to decide which of my friends to pass this book on to now that I've finished it. I think if you like drinking alcohol, learning about family dynasties and watching HGTV shows about ridiculous homes, you'd enjoy Bitter Brew as much as I did.

Buy it here

Also, welcome to 2013. I'll have another post up shortly with my normal blogging resolutions about posting more regularly (aka not abandoning my blog like I have for the past two months). But this time I really mean it, especially because I just started Meghan Laslocky's The Little Book of Heartbreak and I'm already excited to post about it.

Election 2012

2012-11-06T15:21:00.000-06:00

Happy Election Day everyone!

I woke up super early this morning to vote before work and loved it. It was my first time not using an absentee ballot and I very nerdily enjoyed completing the arrows next to each candidate's name. I even wrote a super sappy piece about it for my local paper (which is also part of the company where I work), Chicago Journal.

After work I'll be joining the same friends I went to the polls with for an election watch party and some red, white and blue food and sangria (of course). But really, part of me just wants to choose a book off of Penguin's Election 2012 list and have myself a patriotic reading party.

There are a lot of great books on this list, from writers in both parties, but let's get serious. The real winners here are those awesome Civic Classics covers. According to Booketing, the cover design is by Sabrina Bowers of Penguin but that cover for the Declaration of Independence instantly reminded me of the work of Dan Cassaro.

Here's a closer work (via Penguin's Tumblr):

I love the lack of color and the simplicity of these covers. They also follow a lot of design trends we've been seeing so much of lately (ribbon, giant X's, diamond shapes, etc). Of course I'd love to own the whole set.

Okay, GO VOTE.

Plus, one of my favorite books with a warning message about government
and the importance of historical context.

An Extraordinary Theory of Objects

2012-11-05T13:00:00.000-06:00

I absolutely love receiving books to review but since I'm a book design blog sometimes the packages I open are a little disappointing. Uncorrected proofs and review copies tend to be sent out without finalized cover designs and I can understand why.

When I opened the envelope holding "An Extraordinary Theory of Objects" I was excited. The proof cover (from what my internet searching told me) is very similar to the final cover if not identical and was so pretty.

Stephanie LaCava's memoir of growing up in Paris as an outsider is sort of about the beautiful objects she collected and sort of about just growing up. Some of her collected objects adorn the cover but the illustrations continue throughout the book as well. The illustrations really help to give Stephanie's story a magical feel of adolescence and being in an unfamiliar space.

I actually read this book while I was in China and it was a perfect companion piece to my trip.

Plus, more autobiographies
and speaking of illustrations, remember that beautiful Charley Harper book?