December 2014
Happy Holidays from
Broadway Books!
Holiday Gift Ideas

Every year during the holidays we drool over our larger-than-usual assortment of jaw-droppingly gorgeous coffee-table books -- we want to own them all, but our coffee tables aren't nearly big enough! With this issue, we share some of those with you, along with a list of sweet gifts that are gentle to the pocketbook - all are under $20! And please keep in mind that for every book we blurb, there are thousands more titles in the store.

Yet to come are our newsletters featuring gift ideas for young readers, for cooks, and for readers of nonfiction -- so many wonderful books available in all of those areas! Stay tuned....

Sincerely,

 

Sally McPherson and Kim Bissell
Broadway Books
1714 NE Broadway
Portland, OR 97232
503-284-1726
bookbroads@qwestoffice.net   
www.broadwaybooks.net 


Books to Please the Eye
 
Vivian Maier: A Photographer Found by John Maloof ($85, Harper Design) One of the best stories in the art world in recent times is the discovery of the photographic works of Vivian Maier, a photographer with secretive tendencies, a propensity to hoarding, and an obsession with photography. (Have you seen the wonderful documentary, "Finding Vivian Maier"?) Two years after Maier's death, Maloof discovered a trove of negatives and roll upon roll of undeveloped film, which revealed a surprisingly accomplished artist. This new book is the most comprehensive collection of her work, created during the 1950s through the 1970s in New York, Chicago, and in her travels around the country. Most of the photographs in this book are previously unpublished, and the collection includes previously unknown color work.

 My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman ($35, Harper Design) This is one of OUR favorite things! We find Maira Kalman's work to be utterly charming. Her latest does not disappointment. With more than fifty original paintings and her engaging narratives, My Favorite Things explores the significance of objects in our lives, drawing from her own personal artifacts and selections from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. As a bonus, the book includes a pictorial index that provides photographs of the actual objects and a short description of them, enhancing the reading experience.

 A Bowl of Olives: On Food and Memory by Sara Midda ($18.95, Workman) Sara Midda is a watercolorist whose delicate and beautiful paintings shine like jewels, evoking the sweet purple taste of a summer raspberry or the silvery greens and gnarled burnt umber of an olive grove. By turns reverent and playful, A Bowl of Olives is a work of pure enchantment, celebrating food of the seasons, of family, of travel and memory. It is as richly layered as a favorite meal. The book is cloth-bound, jacketed, and printed on uncoated stock to convey the feeling of an artist s sketchbook.

The Legacy of Olmsted Brothers in Portland, Oregon by William J. Hawkins, III ($40) The Olmsted family, intimately involved in the design of New York's Central Park, Yosemite National Park, The Biltmore Estate, and other notable commissions, was also integral to the development of Portland's park system. Written and published by an author who has been an architect in Portland for more than fifty years, the book offers a treasure trove of photographs and historic maps, while tracing the development of Portland's system of parks and parkways from the establishment in 1871 of what was then called City Park -- now Washington Park.

Spineless: Portraits of Marine Invertebrates, the Backbone of Life, by Susan Middleton  ($50, Abrams) This book might be categorized as science and nature, but it is a seriously gorgeous book that would look great on anyone's coffee table. Acclaimed photographer Susan Middleton explores the mysterious and surprising world of marine invertebrates. These creatures are astonishingly diverse in their shapes, patterns, textures, and colors -- in nature's fashion show, they are the haute couture of marine life. This collection of more than 250 remarkable images is the result of seven years of painstaking fieldwork across the Pacific Ocean, using photographic techniques that Middleton developed to capture these extremely fragile creatures on camera. She also provides short essays that examine the place these invertebrates occupy on the tree of life, their vast array of forms, and their lives in the ocean. Scientist Bernadette Holthuis contributes profiles describing each species.

Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything by Theodore Gray ($29.95, Black Dog & Leventhal) Another science book that would feel right at home on the coffee table is Molecules, the follow-up book to last year's wildly successful book Elements by the same author. Gray begins with an explanation of how atoms bond to form molecules and compounds, as well as the difference between organic and inorganic chemistry. He goes on to explore the vast array of materials molecules can create: soaps and solvents; goops and oils; rocks and ores; ropes and fibers; painkillers and dangerous drugs; perfumes and stink bombs; colors and pigments; and controversial compounds including asbestos, CFCs, and thimerosal. Big, gorgeous photographs, as well as diagrams of the compounds and their chemical bonds, fill the pages and capture molecules in their various states.

Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time by Beth Moon ($49.95, Abbeville Press) This oversize art book offers remarkable black-and-white photographs of some of the world's most majestic ancient trees. Moon's fourteen-year quest to photograph ancient trees has taken her across the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of her subjects grow in isolation, on remote mountainsides, private estates, or nature preserves; others maintain a proud, though often precarious, existence in the midst of civilization. This handsome volume presents nearly seventy of Moon's finest tree portraits as full-page duotone plates. The pictured trees include the tangled, hollow-trunked yews -- some more than a thousand years old -- that grow in English churchyards; the baobabs of Madagascar, called "upside-down trees" because of the curious disproportion of their giant trunks and modest branches; and the fantastical dragon's-blood trees, red-sapped and umbrella-shaped, that grow only on the island of Socotra, off the Horn of Africa.

Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them by Isaac Fitzgerald and Wendy MacNaughton ($22, Bloomsbury) With an introduction by Cheryl Strayed, this book offers us intimate access to the thought behind people's decisions to "scar oneself with a symbol and a story." Curated and edited by Isaac Fitzgerald, who sports ten tattoos himself, each story features Wendy MacNaughton's stylish, full-color illustrations of the tattoos on black-and-white drawings of the bearer's body. Writers, rockers, and everyday Joes tell their tattoo stories. Colin Meloy, author and lead singer of the Decemberists, says "This gorgeous, gorgeous book will, like its subject, alter you permanently."

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns ($60, Knopf) This stunning coffee-table book expands on the hugely acclaimed seven-part PBS documentary series, bringing readers even deeper into the extraordinary lives of one of America's greatest political families and exploring their enormous impact on our nation. The lavishly visual book includes almost eight hundred superbly curated photographs, some never before seen. The three Roosevelts presented here -- Theodore, Eleanor, and Franklin --  were towering personalities, but this shows that they were also flawed human beings who confronted in their personal lives issues familiar to all of us: anger and the need for forgiveness, courage and cowardice, confidence and self-doubt, loyalty to family and the need to be true to oneself. This is the true, complete story of the Roosevelts -- no other American family ever touched so many lives.

Maps by Alexandra and Daniel Mizielinska ($35, Big Picture Press) This book isn't new this year, but we've fallen in love with it all over again. More than an atlas, and not just for kids, this book of maps is a sumptuously illustrated, full-color visual feast for readers of all ages. It features not only borders, cities, rivers, and peaks, but also places of historical and cultural interest, eminent personalities, iconic animals and plants, cultural events, and many more fascinating facts. It reminds us of those cool state-specific postcards illustrated with signature products and activities, like potatoes in Idaho, the Space Needle in Washington, and Haystack Rock in Oregon. Presented in an oversize unjacketed format with heavy matte pages, this book is fun to browse, rich with trivia, and an inspiration to travelers -- armchair or otherwise. At the end of the book you'll find illustrations of maps from around the world. While you're here, check out the newest book from the same publisher: Animalium, which does the same for the animal kingdom. What great gifts these books would make -- fun entertainment for the whole family.

I Have Heard My Praises Sung in Screams: The Paintings of the Mincing Mockingbird, Volume II by Matt Adrian ($39.99, The Mincing Mockingbird, Inc) If you've seen the beautiful avian artwork on the cards, postcards, and magnets we're stocking (my favorite being the little bird who declares "I am three ounces of whoop-ass"), you know what a treat you have in store for you with the coffee-table collection of bird paintings from Matt Adrian, most with entertaining captions such as the peacock -- "overdressed and underappreciated" -- and the bird who announces "I didn't finish high school, but I once kept some sea monkeys alive for two and a half weeks so give me a break." This volume continues the success of Volume I: It is Folly to Assume My Awesomeness Lies Dormant. You'll laugh out loud while admiring the charming artwork. 

  


And to Please the Pocketbook -- $20 or Less!

 Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will by Judith Schalansky and translated by Christine Lo  ($20, Penguin). With gorgeous illustrations and deeply personal accounts of the islands that have held a place in the author's heart throughout her lifelong love of cartography, this nifty little book has captured the imaginations of readers everywhere. Using historic events and scientific reports as a springboard, Schalansky creates a story around each island: fantastical, inscrutable stories, mixtures of fact and imagination that produce worlds for the reader to explore.   

  An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, by Ali Almossawi ($14.95, Experiment) A wonderfully cogent and easily digestible guide to the fundamentals of logical discourse, this book will help you to recognize faulty arguments in discourse ranging from congressional debates to barroom brawls to family discussions over the holidays. Using furry animals as the antidote to fuzzy thinking, this book illustrates the "straw man" fallacy, the "ad hominem" attack, the "slippery slope" argument, and more. "A flawless compendium of flaws," according to one reviewer.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo (translated by Cathy Hirano) ($16.99, Ten Speed Press) This bestselling guide to decluttering by Japanese cleaning consultant Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her methods for simplifying, organizing, and storing, taking tidying to a whole new level.  What a sweet gift this would make -- a book that can open the door to greater simplicity and calmness in one's life.

Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders ($14.99, Ten Speed Press) A charming collection of more than fifty drawings featuring unique, funny, and poignant foreign words that have no direct translation into English. Did you know that the Japanese language has a word to express the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees (komorebi)? Or that there's a Finnish word for the distance a reindeer can travel before needing to rest (poronkusema)? Often these words provide insight into the cultures they come from, such as the Brazilian Portuguese word for running your fingers through a lover's hair (cafune), the Italian word for being moved to tears by a story (commuovere), or the Swedish word for a third cup of coffee (tretar). And then there is naz, the Urdu word for the pride and assurance that comes from knowing you are loved unconditionally.

Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation by Jan Morris ($19.99, Liveright/Norton) In the course of writing Venice, her 1961 classic, Jan Morris became fascinated by the historical presence of a sometimes-overlooked Venetian painter, Vittore Carpaccio. Thus began a lifelong infatuation, reaching across the centuries, between a renowned Welsh writer and a great and delightfully entertaining artist of the early Renaissance. Morris returns to Venice in a delightful exploration that ranges from biography to art interpretation to Morris's genre of expertise: personal odyssey. The book includes seventy photographs featuring Carpaccio's work. Morris throws in digressions about Venetian animals, courtesans, babies, ships, architecture, and history, and caps it all with thoughtful analyses of Carpaccio s spiritual convictions. Morris has given us book that is as handsome as it is fun.

 Ultimate Signspotting: Absurd & Amusing Signs from Around the World by Doug Lansky ($9.99, Lonely Planet) Speaking of lost in translation, miscommunications, garbled messages, and perplexing signs abound in this latest compilation of hilarious signs found around the world. Not too much to say about this book; we're too busy laughing our you-know-whats off! 

 Shake Puppiesby Portland photographer Carli Davidson ($17.99, Harper)  
This highly anticipated follow-up to last year's bestselling book Shake features more than 130 photographs of adorable puppies. The brightly colored photos truly capture the squishy cuteness of a puppy -- its tousled fur, floppy ears, and endearing expression -- in the moment when our tiny, wide-eyed companion is mid-shake, with jowls, ears, and drool flapping and flying. Shake Puppies also includes a message of support for animal rescue and tips for creating an environment in which all dogs, young or old, can succeed in their new homes. A roster lists the names and ages of all the dogs featured.

Know anyone who loves to eat? We sure do! The new edition of The Food Lover's Guide to Portland by Liz Crain ($17.95, Hawthorne Books) is just the ticket. A great gift for residents and visitors alike, this book is a road map to finding the best deliciousness in the Portland do-it-yourself foodie mecca. An indispensable guide to navigating hundreds of producers, purveyors, distillers, bakers, food carts, and farmers markets, this edition offers new listings, new businesses, and new chapters written by experts on specific topics such as food carts and Hispanic markets. 

 For only $14.95, give the gift of top-notch stories and/or essays on a wide range of topics with the Best American series (Mariner Books) -- stories, essays, science and nature, sports, poetry, and mystery -- a little something for everyone. 

Specifically for the holidays but fun year-round is Everything I Need to Know about Christmas I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow ($9.99, Golden Books) The Poky Little Puppy, the Gingerbread Man, and many other classic Golden Books characters help illustrate this wise and witty guide to the holidays. Delightfully retro yet utterly of the moment, this companion to the bestselling Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book will delight fans of those gold foil-spined treasures. Featuring iconic art from Golden Books luminaries including Eloise Wilkin, Richard Scarry, J.P. Miller, Garth Williams, and more -- this collection is a must for maintaining ever-important holiday cheer! 

The dice game Tenzi ($15) is fast-paced fun, easy to learn, and can be played by anyone who can count. (We predict the grand champs are likely to be ten-year-olds.) The inventors provide several variations -- Stealzi is particularly addictive -- and no doubt you can come up with a few more. A perfect way to pass the time while waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven -- far better than getting into heated discussions over politics, religion, or lifestyle with family members who don't always agree. 
 
We also offer a full array of booklights, journals, book-themed coffee mugs, magnets, and more -- all perfect for filling stockings or providing small gifts. 

Help Build a Library!

Through our book drive, you can

 continue to build the Roosevelt High School Library - 

one book at a time

 

Broadway Books will give you 20% off the price of any book
you purchase for Roosevelt and/or we will add 20% to any
gift certificate you purchase for the book drive.