Awesome Books

Take your cooking to the next level with Saucy, a cookbook filled with 50 yummy sauce recipes. Written by Ashley Boyd and Maren Caruso, the book is organized by flavor profile, including sweet, spicy, savory, herbaceous, and more. Each recipe is accompanied by appetizing color photography and ideas about dishes to pair them with.

We’ve been watching Fallout, so a post-apocalyptic wasteland is top of mind. Should such a catastrophe come to pass, the latest Worst-Case Scenario book has got you covered. Whether it’s robots, nukes, aliens, or a pandemic that ends the world as we know it, you’ll find useful pointers from experts to help you not only survive but help rebuild civilization.

Writer G. T. Karber is the mastermind behind Murdle, a series of logic puzzles that challenge amateur sleuths to solve murder mysteries. You’ll need to suss out the suspects, identify what weapon they used, and where they committed their evil deeds.  Volume 1 and Volume 2 are out now, with Volume 3 pre-orders shipping in April 2024.

There are a few items you should always carry in your pack when camping or hiking, among them a multitool, duct tape, a firestarter, and paracord. Bryan Lynch’s book offers 60 projects that can help you survive, along with creative ways to carry paracord wrapped around tools, worn as a bracelet, or woven into a pouch, and more.

Tech journalist and print historian Glenn Fleischman teamed up with other experts to create How Comics Were Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page. The book takes readers through 130 years of newspaper cartoons with the help of high-resolution original art, newspaper reproductions, and interviews with cartoonists.

For over 40 years, legendary music producer Rick Rubin has been helping a diverse array of artists create their seminal and most significant works. The Creative Act: A Way of Being sees Rubin share his observations on creativity and how being creative isn’t about what you make but how you see the world.

Just because your clothes have holes in them doesn’t mean you need to throw them away. Kiriko put together this bundle of Jessica Marquez’s craft tutorial book Make and Mend and a set of unique, assorted textiles for patching torn jeans, worn elbows, and other repairs. The fabric squares come in sizes from 3″ x 3″ to 9″ x 9″.

Stanley Kubrick created cinematic masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. Before his work in motion pictures, he was a staff photographer for Look magazine. Taschen’s coffee table book Through a Different Lens showcases nearly 300 of his black-and-white stills, which he started shooting in New York City at age 17.

Author Shane Carley follows up on his True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t with a new trivia book focused on world history. Inside, you’ll find 500 facts that seem too strange to be true, like how Pope Gregory IV declared war on cats and an Indiana state representative tried to legally change the value of Pi to 3.2.

We love Hacksmith Industries’ YouTube channel. They also have a store that sells gadgets, toys, brand merch, and books. The Handyman Pocket Reference Book belongs in every home, workshop, and work site. It’s packed with facts and figures used in carpentry, construction, and repairs, info about hardware, wiring, building techniques, and more.

Author Brian Barrett looks back at the history of the LEGO Minifigure and how it has evolved from a simple yellow figure into a pop culture icon. The 144-page hardcover book examines the evolution of the Minifig, along with interviews, essays, photos, infographics, and archival visuals celebrating these beloved plastic people.

The “extreme edition” of Joseph D. Connelly’s comprehensive survival guide covers 13 topical areas, from prepping your pantry to creating a sustainable garden to building a bomb shelter. It’s packed with practical techniques for urban and wilderness survival. Available as a 261-page paperback or a Kindle digital edition.

This expansive reference guide from Chronicle Books provides detailed information on hundreds of tools. The 288-page book catalogs their uses and the differences between similar tools, arranged by function: measuring, cutting, fastening, and shaping.

Bring the flavors of Tokyo home with Maori Murota’s wonderful cookbook, Tokyo Cult Recipes. It’s packed with more than 100 recipes for Japanese dishes inspired by local restaurants and home cooking. You’ll learn to cook gyoza, ramen, tonkatsu, miso soup, and more. It’s even got sweet treats like mochi and yuzu sorbet.

Amanda Schuster’s elegant cocktail recipe book deserves a spot on your bookshelf. The book catalogs 200 signature cocktails from bars and restaurants around the world. Each drink recipe is accompanied by details of its origins and an artful photograph of the cocktail. It’s packed with both classic cocktails and lesser-known specialty drinks.

With all of the movie fan art and adult parodies of Little Golden Books out there, the kid’s book series decided to make their own book based on a decidedly non-kid-friendly movie. A Is for Alien: An ABC Book offers a lighthearted retelling of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi/horror classic while teaching the alphabet. Pre-orders start shipping 7.2023.

Want to fix a drink but don’t know what to make? Shane Carley’s book The Home Bartender offers recipes for more than 200 cocktails, all of which can be made with four ingredients or less. In addition to classics like Cosmos and Old Fashioneds, you’ll get lots of new and creative cocktail ideas.

Packed with biographical insight, the graphic novel Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound is also jazz for the eyes. Author/cartoonist Dave Chisholm — a Jazz Trumpet doctorate recipient from the Eastman School of Music — takes readers on a visual journey through Davis’ dynamic evolution from childhood through his mastery of jazz improvisation.

Tools: A Visual Exploration of Implements and Devices in the Workshop is a wondrous guidebook filled with stories and explanations of 118 different kinds of tools. Author Theodore Gray and photographer Nick Mann teamed up to create the 256-page hardcover edition, which includes a pull-out Periodic Table of Tools poster.

The hardcover book is filled with 100 Star Wars illustrations for you to embellish with crayons, colored pencils, or markers. The images include fanciful scenes inspired by classic movie moments, along with mandalas and other repeating Star Wars patterns to color in.

Insight Editions offers a glimpse inside the mind of filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron. The 392-page coffee table book is packed with exclusive images from Cameron’s personal archives, revealing concepts that led to classics like The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic, Avatar, and other films that were never produced.

Budding artists are often encouraged to draw trees for quick sketching success. Drawing Trees branches out from that lesson with 30 meditative guided drawings of trees, leaves, and other identifiers. Trace the images with a pen or pencil to grow your skills and knowledge of tree species from Black Walnut to White Ash.

This practical survival guide offers an entertaining approach to a serious topic. Its 212 pages are filled with techniques to survive encounters with wildlife and natural disasters, along with practical skills like starting fires, building shelters, and navigating outdoors. Written by documentarian Rob Nelson and science show host Haley Chamberlain Nelson.