Looking to cut down or eliminate sugar and still bake delicious desserts? Joanne Chang shows you the way with her easy to follow recipes and mouthwatering photos. My favorite: Apple Walnut Maple Cake. YUM!
Dina
More than just a collection of beautiful maps from around the world and throughout history, this book uses critical juxtaposition to create new perspectives on history, politics, and geography. Easily the most interesting coffee table book this year.
Josh
An entertaining and fascinating look under the hood of the experience of reading. What, exactly, happens when we look at words on a page? How do words become images in our minds? Do we all see the same images when we read the same words? With images, quotes from other sources, and brilliant insights, Mendelsund reveals everything about reading we normally take for granted.
Josh
Anthony Kennedy's majority decision ("The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation.") now in a beautiful gift edition.
Sarah
Sarah Vowell is certainly not your typical historian. There's been some great colonial history published in the past few years, but hers is chatty, sassy, snarky, and hilarious and thus eminently readable. Lafayette really was as great a friend of the United States as he's chalked up to be, and this unconventional and insightful recounting of his adventures is combined with a larger view of the dysfunction of the early US government and its often inept political and military establishments.
David
Take a break from the current political drama with the insightful, hilarious, and much-missed columnist.
SARAH
Whether you're a longtime NPR junkie, or a recent devotee of any of the hundreds of captivating radio and podcast audio stories that have proliferated in the past few years, you owe it to yourself to read Abel's excellent behind-the-scenes exploration of narrative radio. Ira Glass, Roman Mars, Glynn Washington, and other familiar voices share thoughts on how stories are made, how radio is crafted, and how pictures are painted with words.
ALEXANDER
Motown rhythm itself narrates this road trip through the glory days of the Temptations, the Supremes, the Vandellas, and the Miracles.
Sarah
