No crafter’s book collection is complete without this wonderful title.
Stacey
I love Italy, the place, and Italian, the cuisine - this book is a gorgeous amalgamation of both. The essence of the book is recipes, but it is chock-full of food culture (pieces about great chefs, restaurateurs, Italian food movies), gastronomy (everything you want to know about Italian breads, olives, pastas, etc.), geography (the ingredients, specialities and wines of the different regions); in short, everything you want to know about Italian food with magnificent photographs and gorgeous graphics to increase the salivation factor. An Encyclopedia Italica of food.
David
Bear gets a taste of his own medicine in this delightful sequel to last month's staff pick. Silly, surprising rhymes make this another read-aloud winner.
Katie
More than a recipe book, Grist is a (mostly vegetarian) guide to cooking with beans, grains, and legumes. Berens offers seasonal variations, versatile condiments to keep in the fridge, and endless inspiration for cooking one big pot and eating all week. I've made some recipes exactly as written and used others as jumping off points, and all have been delicious.
Katie
Lesbian necromancers in space! If that tagline didn't get you already, this book is perfect for anyone who loves impossible storylines. In this futuristic empire, what's left of humanity has settled across nine planets. As protectors of the Locked Tomb, the inhabitants of the Ninth are practitioners of necromancy, and its Reverend Daughter, Harrowhark, is in need of a cavalier so she can become one of God's hands. Gideon has a sword but wants nothing more to do with the Ninth. It's dark in a funny way, aesthetic--if you have a thing for skeletons, swords, and academia--and is one of my favorite books of all time. Gideon and Harrowhark are sure to stay in your brain forever (that's a little joke for Book 2).
Engel
Irene Smit - Kids’ Book of Paper Love – is back with another activity book full of great paper projects, and this time with stickers! Clever, creative, and lots of fun!
Robin
If reading the book before watching the movie/TV show is your thing, you'll definitely want to check this out as the upcoming Netflix series is set to come out next year. Beyond that, Sandman is an incredible episodic story of Dream, one of the "endless" as he navigates everything from a quest to the underworld to a centuries-long friendship with a man he has made immortal. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, sometimes heartfelt, always wild story, and the art is rad. You should probably get it.
Dave
If you've ever felt confused about the plotline of Hayao Miyazaki's movie and want more of Howl's overdramatic eccentricities, check out the book it was based on! It has the same vibes but it's funny, contextual, and this version of Howl and Sophie are, dare I say, better than the movie!
Engel
I like cookbooks a lot for the beautiful photography, but as someone who treats recipes more like suggestions than gospel, I find a lot of them limiting. "Best Ever Mac and Cheese!" Oh yeah? By who's criteria? How do you measure that? This book is focused on technique and bringing a spirit of experimentation into the kitchen. Including multiple versions of many dishes as well as explanations as to why they work, it's a wonderful resource for anyone who loves to cook.
Dave
If you, like me, are perhaps more-than-casually but less-than-professionally interested in dinosaurs - what we know and how we know it - this dense little volume will fascinate and delight. Darren Naish is one of the best science writers out there, clear and funny and endlessly readable, and WHAT is cooler and more interesting than dinosaurs? A lot of grownups who are not already dinosaur scientists may think of dinosaurs as essentially a Kid Interest, but while this book can certainly be enjoyed by a precocious dino enthusiast child, it was written with adults in mind. The kids were right all along: dinosaurs are cool as hell.
Piera
