Dan Vyleta, the Edmonton-based author of the excellent thriller PAVEL & I, has been interviewed by Harriett Gilbert, for The Word on the BBC’s World Service!

Click here for The Word website.

It’s taken us a little while, but we finally have all of Spring 2008 catalogues available as downloads from our website!

As part of our effort to make Raincoast greener, we’re trying to send out fewer catalogues this year, so if you are a web-savvy book reviewer or book buyer, please do download the catalogues or browse online - it’ll save a few trees!

Of course, if you would prefer actual catalogues in your hands (and believe me - we know there are many good reasons to want a bound catalogue) then do let us know and we’ll get one out in the mail to you ASAP.

Book stores, you can just let your reps know you would like a catalogue. Reviewers, you can email us at (and by all means send your review copy requests to that email address too).

Enjoy! 

Click here for the Spring 2008 Catalogues

Crafty? Creative? Curious? Here are some books that will delight anyone with a passion for crochet, knitting, sewing, or anything hands-on.

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KYUUTO! JAPANESE CRAFTS! AMIGURUMI! (Chronicle Books).

Kyuuto! = Cute! Japan crafters know their stuff, especially when it comes to cute crafts like amigurumi (small crocheted creatures so cute you could cry). Chronicle’s Kyuuto books are translations of Japanese craft books, so you won’t have to order the books from overseas—and then try to figure out the patterns based on pictures alone!

Also check out KYUUTO! JAPANESE CRAFTS! LACY CROCHET!

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SOFTIES: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals by Therese Laskey, foreword by Leah Kramer (Chronicle Books).

Softies, plush, stuffed animals… whatever you call them, SOFTIES is an adorable collection of sewn creations from acclaimed artists from around the world—plus instructions and patterns to make your own! SOFTIES was compiled by Therese Laskey, the creator of the blog Softies Central, with a foreword from Leah Kramer, founder of Craftster.org.

* See some photos from the book on Not Martha.

*Download a pattern for one of the softies from Craft magazine’s blog.

* Meet some of the colourful characters in the book in this SOFTIES video! Ha!

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FIELD GUIDE TO KNITTING: How to Identify, Select, and Create Virtually Every Stitch by Jackie Pawlowski (Quirk Books).

FIELD GUIDE TO KNITTING is a great little stocking stuffer ... that will also teach you how to darn those stockings! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) This is a great little comprehensive guide full of tons of stitch patterns plus other essential knitting advice.

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CRAFT INC.:  Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco (Chronicle Books).

If you’re thinking of turning your craft from a hobby into a business, CRAFT INC. will be your guide. It’s full of information on business basics like setting prices, plus inspiring interviews with craft superstars such as Lotta Jansdotter and Jill Bliss, who offer real-world advice.

* Read Print & Pattern‘s review of the book (with some great photos of the lovely interiors).

* Read an interview with the author, Meg Mateo Ilasco, on WhipUp.

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THE GUERILLA ART KIT: Everything You Need to Put Your Message out into the World by Keri Smith (Princeton Architectural Press).

For a good dose of inspiration, check out THE GUERILLA ART KIT. Created by artist Keri Smith, THE GUERILLA ART KIT is full of fun ways to make your mark on the world, though always in a non-harmful and non-intrusive way. Rather than grafitti, Keri Smith’s ideas of guerilla art are things like throwing seed bombs to plant random gardens in the city, or creating fortune-cookie-style fortunes for other people to find. Just the kind of things that brighten up someone’s day.

* You can see a sneak peak inside the book on Book By It’s Cover.

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Still crafting the perfect present? Perhaps our other Gift Guides will help.

Here are some of the most creative and visually interesting books of the year—perfect the “right brain” thinkers on your list.

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HAND JOB: A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry (Princeton Architectural Press).

Easily one of my personal favourite books of the year, HAND JOB is a collection of hand-drawn type. It’s becoming more and more popular, used in design work, advertising, album covers, clothing design and more. Michael Perry, who is himself a creator of fantastic hand-drawn type, has compiled top hand-drawn typographers from all over the world in one visually stunning package.

Click here for some photos of the book’s interior, and an interview with the Michael Perry on Book By It’s Cover.

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TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance by Joshua Glenn and Carol Hayes (Princeton Architectural Press).

Everybody has one of these: an seemingly ordinary object that you treat like the crown jewels. TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY features 75 of these items--from a soda bottle to a rubber pig, from a death mask to a shrivelled artichoke--that people have collected and kept. If you’re looking for quirky, original and compelling book, TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY is it.

Many of us invest ordinary objects with other sorts of extraordinary significance, too. My friend Tony crams a U.S. Navy 100-pound practice bomb into his tiny workspace for much the same reason that Greg, a colleague of mine at the Boston Globe, displays a wobbly wooden Santa in his kitchen year-round. These doohickeys are actually fossils, petrified evidence of a vanished epoch (young adulthood). Other writers, thinkers, designers and artists of my acquaintance cherish things—sunglasses found at a yard sale, a colored-sand-filled glass clown, a one-eyed ceramic frog—for equally irrational reasons.

--Joshua Glenn on DesignObserver

Here’s a short excerpt from the book on DesignObserver.

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TO INFINITY AND BEYOND: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios (Chronicle Books).

Every movie I see from Pixar just amazes me. Did you see how REAL the rats’ hair in Ratatouille looked? (Yeah, I know, a little TOO real for rats in the kitchen...) TO INFINITY AND BEYOND is the definitive book on Pixar, chronicling it’s 20 year-history. The book is (of course!) gorgeous to look at, full of concept art, storyboards, and snapshots, plus interviews with the people who made it all happen.

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WHITE RAPIDS by Pascal Blanchet (Drawn & Quarterly).

For another visual treat, open up WHITE RAPIDS. Written and illustrated by award-winning Québécois cartoonist Pascal Blanchet, WHITE RAPIDS is graphic novel that blends fact and fiction to tell the story of a Canadian town is forced to shut down after the local water and power company closes. WHITE RAPIDS is retro artwork at its best.

Click here to read some reviews and here for a sneak peak.

UPDATE: Pascal Blanchet was interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi on CBC Radio One’s ‘Q’ on Monday Dec 5th. Click here to listen to the interview (it’s towards the end of the podcast).

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Still designing the perfect gift? Maybe some of our other Gift Guides will help.

Are you in the holiday spirit yet? Here are some books that will bring that holiday glow into all parts of your home, from your rooftop to your dining table to your bedside table.

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HOLIDAY HERO: A Man’s Manual for Holiday Lighting by Brad Finkle (Chronicle Books).

Want to be the brightest house on the block? HOLIDAY HERO is a humourous and helpful book that shows you, step-by-step, how to out up your Christmas lights, from a simple string to full-on Rudolph and all his reindeer pals prancing in lights across your rooftop.

Watch the Holiday Hero video interview with the author, which shows off some of his bright ideas.

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SERIOUSLY SIMPLE HOLIDAYS: Recipes and Ideas to Celebrate the Season by Diane Rossen Worthington (Chronicle Books).

Diane Rossen Worthington is a James Beard Award-winning broadcaster and the author of 18 cookbooks, including the bestselling SERIOUSLY SIMPLE. Now Diane’s back to tackle holiday cooking… with ease. Full of timesaving tips, wine and cheese pairings and menus for hosting holiday parties, SERIOUSLY SIMPLE HOLIDAYS includes yummy recipes such as Apple Clafouti and delish drinks such as Cranberry Mimosas.

Here are a couple of sample recipes from the book:

- Chicken-Vegetable Soup with Herbed Matzo Balls

- Sour Cream-Vanilla Cupcakes

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THE BIBLE: Genesis, Exodus, The Song of Solomon illustrated by Marc Chagall (Chronicle Books).

Celebrated artist Marc Chagall began illustrating the Bible in 1931, and it became his lifelong passion. This beautiful, bright volume includes more than 130 pages of his works, paired with three books from the Old Testament. Chagall’s illustrations reflect his Jewish heritage and his view of the complex relationship between God and man, presaging many of the subjects and themes in his later work

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WHERE, OH WHERE IS SANTA CLAUS? by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Ivan Bates (Harcourt).

This is beautifully illustrated, heartwarming Christmas picture book set in the North Pole—full of reindeers, snow and Santa… oh wait, where IS Santa? Will he be found in time to make deliveries on Christmas Eve?

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OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER: Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition by J.otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh (Chronicle Books).

OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER is 10 years old—can you believe it? Olive is now a Christmas classic, and this deluxe 10th anniversary edition celebrates the milestone with sparkles galore, flaps to lift, spots to scratch and sniff ... and even a POP-UP grand finale!

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Still looking the perfect gift to put under the tree? Have a look at our other gift guides.

The next best thing to a plane ticket, here are some books for the travel bugged…

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THE AFRICA BOOK: A Journey through Every Country in the Continent (Lonely Planet).

From Cape Town’s gleaming shopping arcades to the remote tribes living on Lake Turkana’s shores to the dire realities of war and famine, this is the most comprehensive and beautiful coffee-table book on Africa ever published. Packed with amazing photos, THE AFRICA BOOK also includes stimulating essays, plus facts and figures for each country.

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THE ASIA BOOK: A Journey through Every Country in the Continent (Lonely Planet).

THE ASIA BOOK is a comprehensive exploration of this captivating continent of contrasts, from the tropical beaches of Bali to the frozen slopes of Everest. Hugely ambitious and stunningly beautiful, it covers Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas, Central Asia and the Middle East.

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LONELY PLANET BLUELIST 2008: The World’s Hottest Trends, Destinations, Journeys and Experiences (Lonely Planet).

Want to know where to find the eeriest places to sleep behind bars, or where to view the most volatile volcanoes? The greatest film festivals around the globe? Leading travel authority Lonely Planet compiles all the world’s hottest trends, destinations, journeys and experiences into BLUELIST 2008.

For more info on BLUELIST 2008, visit lonelyplanet.com/bluelist.

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SIGNSPOTTING 2: More Absurd & Amazing Signs from around the World compiled by Doug Lansky (Lonely Planet).

A great stocking stuffer for travel fiends, SIGNSPOTTING 2 is a hilarious collection of inadvertently entertaining (real!) signs. Click here for a peek inside the book.

Also check out the original SIGNSPOTTING.

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PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY by Will Self, illustrated by Ralph Steadman (Bloomsbury UK).

And for the most quirky travel book on the list, PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY is a collaboration between award-winning writer Will Self and legendary gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman that explores the effects that the physical environment has on the emotions and behaviours of individuals. Will Self went swimming in the Ganges and surfing on a tsunami. On a recent trip to Toronto this Fall, he also walked from the airport to downtown. Yes, walked.

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Still searching the globe for the perfect present? Check out our other Raincoast Gift Guides.

Here are some gift ideas for people who love nature, being outdoors, or even just pottering around in the garden…

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THE HUMAN, THE ORCHID, AND THE OCTOPUS: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World b y Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein (Bloomsbury USA).

Ten years after his death, the words of iconic explorer and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau are brought to life in THE HUMAN, THE ORCHID, AND THE OCTOPUS. An environmentalist ahead of his time, Cousteau remarks on the impact of human activity on the world’s oceans and highlights our responsibility to protect the earth.

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BIRD SONGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD by Les Beletsky, with audio from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Chronicle Books).

Birders, listen up! BIRD SONGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD not only includes information and illustrations of 200 birds, it also houses built-in digital audio that plays 200 individual bird songs (20 seconds each). This book was immediately a favourite in-house here at Raincoast. ("Hey, is there a Kookaburra in the office?")

If you want to hear what the sounds are like, check out The Macaulay Library bird sounds page.

Also check out the original BIRD SONG: 250 North American Birds in Song.

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THE GARDEN AT NIGHT: Private Views of Public Edens by Linda Rutenberg (Chronicle Books).

Easily ones of the most beautiful coffee table books of the year, THE GARDEN AT NIGHT is not your typical photography book about flowers and plants. Montreal photographer Linda Rutenberg visited 20 public and botanical gardens across North America AT NIGHT (!), and captured hauntingly beautiful portraits of flora surrounded by darkness.

To see some images from the book, visit the author’s website.

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JEKKA’S COMPLETE HERB BOOK: Revised Edition by Jekka McVicar (Raincoast Books).

If you’re more hands-on about the garden, take a look at JEKKA’S COMPLETE HERB BOOK. Crowned the “queen of herbs” by Jamie Oliver, Jekka McVicar includes eveything you need to know about herbs—from history and cultivation, to their many uses.

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For more book suggestions, check out our other Raincoast Gift Guides.

If you you’re looking for the perfect gift for a musician, a music lover, or someone who’s just addicted to Guitar Hero… here are some books that will rock their world.

VAN HALEN: A Visual History 1978-1984 by Neil Zlozower (Chronicle Books).

Let’s face it, you miss the high-kicking, guitar blazing, stadium-shaking, good old days of rock and roll. Oh, and let’s not forget the spandex. VAN HALEN is a photo-rich tribute to the legendary band from their friend and photographer, Neil Zlozower. Click here to look inside the book.

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RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers by Tom Petty (Chronicle Books).

This is Tom Petty by Tom Petty. RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM is a personal volume that includes hundreds of photographs, many never before published, plus a selection of souvenirs and keepsakes from Petty’s personal archives, Petty’s own personal recollections, new interviews that have never before been published and personal tributes from artists and rock luminaries close to Petty, including Cameron Crowe, Johnny Depp and Stevie Nicks.

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THE JIM MORRISON SCRAPBOOK by James Henke (Chronicle Books).

My favourite feature of THE JIM MORRISON SCRAPBOOK is that it’s an interactive scrapbook: you can remove and examine mementos and personal documents detail Morrison’s life, from handwritten lyrics and poetry to his last will. The book also includes rare photographs from the Morrison estate, exclusive interviews with surviving family and Doors members, plus a 60-minute CD that includes five minutes of unreleased spoken-word poetry from Jim Morrison.

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ELLIOTT SMITH by Autumn de Wilde, with a foreword by Beck Hansen and Chris Walla (Chronicle Books).

ELLIOTT SMITH is a beautiful tribute to the musician, created by his close friend, photographer Autumn de Wilde, and authorized by Smith’s family. It includes a CD of unreleased live acoustic performances, 200 photos and conversations with Smith’s surviving friends, family and fellow musicians such as members of the bands Death Cab for Cutie and Nada Surf. Click here to look inside the book.

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THE ART OF MODERN ROCK MINI #1: A-Z by Dennis King (Chronicle Books).

Think of this as an alphabet book for adults. Adults who like to rock. Filled with the best poster art, THE ART OF MODERN ROCK MINI #1: A-Z includes all the key artists and studios, from Mark Arminski to Alison Zawacki, as well as poster genres and top bands. All the artwork is conveniently arranged from “Anarchy” to “Zombie”. (D is fotr Devil Girl, O if for Octopus, R is for Roller Girl...)

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For more info on all these books—and to enter our Chronicle Music Contest with Exclaim! Magazine—visit raincoast.com/music/

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If none of these books struck a chord with you, check out our other Raincoast Gift Guides.

THE COUNTRY COOKING OF FRANCE by Anne Willan (Chronicle Books).

This big, beautiful, luscious cookbook will bring a little bit of France into your home. Written by Anne Willan—an award-winning cooking teacher, food writer, and the author of more than 30 cookbooks—this book is winning over the hearts (and stomachs) of everyone who reads it…

* A New York Times Notable Cookbook
* A USA Today Gift Guide pick
* A top cookbook in the December 2007 issue of Bon Appetit

Want to know more?
* Watch a video about the making of this book.
* Try a recipe from the book: Potato cake with cheese and bacon

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CRUST: a book and DVD by Richard Bertinet (Kyle Cathie Ltd).

Richard Bertinet’s last book, DOUGH won the Julia Child Award for First Book, the IACP Best Cookbook of the Year award, a Guild of Food Writers’ award and a James Beard Foundation award.

Now he’s back with CRUST, a guide to making more delicious breads, from sourdough, to croissants, to brioche. CRUST is also packed with stunning photos and a 30-minute DVD that gives additional guidance on techniques as well as showing recipes step-by-step.

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MY LAST SUPPER: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals: Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes by Melanie Dunea (Bloomsbury USA).

If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your last meal? Who would prepare it? Where would it take place? Who would sit with you at the table? This is a game that chefs have been playing amongst themselves for decades. MY LAST SUPPER pairs famous chef’s dream meals with Vanity Fair-style portraits (just wait till you see the photo of Anthony Bourdain...)

* Read the review in The New Yorker.

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NO RESERVATIONS: Around the World on an Empty Stomach by Anthony Bourdain (Bloomsbury USA).

Speaking of Anthony Bourdain… NO RESERVATIONS is Anthony Bourdain’s uncensored journal of his travels for his Travel Channel show, No Reservations. Where can you get good fatty crab in Rangoon? How do you tell a Frenchman his baguette is invading your personal space?

* Listen to Raincoast’s podcasts with Anthony Bourdain (recorded for his previous book, THE NASTY BITS): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

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Still hungry for more books? Click here for more Raincoast Gift Guides.

Still looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We’re here to help.

And now, to start off in style...

Books for Divas

CARTIER by Hans Nadelhoffer (Chronicle Books).

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. But if that best friend is a liiiitle out of budget this holiday season, this book is a great “Plan B”. Packed with beautiful photos, CARTIER is the only authorized history of the famous company.

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EAT, DRINK, AND BE GORGEOUS: A Nutritionist’s Guide to Living Well While Living It Up by Esther Blum (Chronicle Books).

The title says it all: this is a guide that’ll show you how to party like a diva and still look (and feel!) great the next morning. It might come in handy around New Year’s Eve!
Click here to listen to a podcast with the author.

UPDATE: Watch Esther Blum’s appearance on the Today Show! (It’s the second video segment, after the piece on smoking bans.)

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PLAYING WITH GROWN-UPS by Sophie Dahl.

This is the first novel from Sophie Dahl, who is not only the granddaughter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory creator Roald Dahl, but is also an international supermodel in her own right. PLAYING WITH GROWN-UPS is a heartbreaking, scandalous and hilarious coming-of-age novel.

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Stay tuned for more Raincoast Gift Guides...

This one’s for all the book lovers out there… Fwis’ Book Covers blog has posted their annual feature on the best bookshelves of 2007.

Lots of brilliant and crazy bookshelves this year! The see-saw bookshelf pictured here is my favourite of the bunch; it’s designed by BCXSY. Though the bookshelf house would be pretty sweet, too…

TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY by Joshua Glenn and Carol Hayes is a collection of photos and stories about objects with unexpected personal significance.  Inspired by the book, Maisonneuve Magazine have been running a contest to find the ‘thingamajig’ of special significance to their readers. The five winning entries are being posted daily on their website this week.

Personally, I love the story about the Savory industrial toaster:

I picture a bustling but cozy café where espresso is always brewing, and where piece after piece of fresh, perfectly toasted bread shoots out the bottom of the industrial antique, to the delight of all.

Click here for the winning entries! 

If you ever feel socially stigmatized and wracked with guilt by the sheer volume of books that you kinda, sorta, meanta read but never quite managed to (or, in my case, chronically embarrassed by the TWO 3 feet high piles of unread books on the floor by my bed), help is at hand! French literary professor Pierre Bayard has written an blessedly short book called HOW TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS YOU HAVEN’T READ that actually proves that you’re doing yourself and literature (and the world!) a service by ‘non-reading’.

Now, I wouldn’t want to suggest for one minute that you shouldn’t read Mr. Bayard’s book, but just in case you feel it is all a bit much, here is a quick primer to help you bluff your way through it…

In a fabulous review in The New York Times Sunday Styles section , Liesl Schillinger, gives a neat summation of HOW TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS YOU HAVEN’T READ:

In Mr. Bayard’s opinion, reading books is overrated. “In my experience,” Mr. Bayard declares, “it’s totally possible to carry on an engaging conversation about a book you haven’t read—including, and perhaps especially, with someone else who hasn’t read it either.”

Generously and recklessly, like a professor handing out cheat sheets to his own final, he shares his tricks. Here’s a walk-through.

Assume you are asked to offer your opinion on a book all clever people were supposed to have read last summer—say, for example, the newly reissued cult novel ‘The Dud Avocado,’ about a brash young American girl set loose in Paris. It was written by Elaine Dundy in 1958 and lately championed by O magazine and the arts critic Terry Teachout, who wrote the introduction.

Assume that, for you, it falls into one of Mr. Bayard’s categories of nonreading: books you don’t know, books you have skimmed, books you have heard of, or books you have forgotten.

If the novel happens to be on a coffee table, glance at the cover—a nude Jean Seberg-like blonde stares at the camera with unselfconscious eyes - - and wing it.

“You know, that book reminds me of the movie ‘Breathless,’ “ you can opine. If your comparison turns out to be off base, laugh it off and keep talking.

The point is not to be correct, but to have an opinion, he explains. If you are alive and sentient, you are more than qualified to discourse on everything from ‘Silas Marner’ to Lance Bass’s ‘Out of Sync,’ whether you’ve cracked the spine of either.

Jay McInerney also reviewed the book (on the same day!) for the New York Times Book Review supplement. Click here for the review.

Martin Levin, the esteemed Book Review Editor of The Globe and Mail, reviewed the book on November 3rd. He had this to say:

This is not meant-to-be-amusing bluffer’s guide to famous books, or a checklist of views one might plausibly hold about them without being embarrassingly challenged. Rather, it’s a witty, intelligent essay in anti- criticism by a professor of French literature at the University of Paris. Bayard is also a psychiatrist, which, in concert with his Gallic intellectualism, allows him to confess straight-facedly that he has neither much time nor much inclination for reading.

Sadly the full review is not available online (unless you wanna pay), but you can read Morley Walker’s great review for the The Winnipeg Free Press:

Bayard’s central point is not that we shouldn’t read, but rather that we shouldn’t feel guilty or inadequate for not having read any particular book, however current or canonical.

There are simply too many of them, and even the most prodigious reader can absorb but an infinitesimal fraction of what he calls ‘the universal library.’

Yet, Bayard insists, this shouldn’t prevent people from voicing their opinions on what they haven’t consumed. He agrees with literary critics (and husbands) everywhere: “It is not at all necessary to be familiar with what you are talking about in order to talk about it accurately."

It’s online here.

And, speaking of online, Lauren Mechling took a look at the book for the CBC Arts website:

Drawing from literary luminaries like Montaigne, Valéry and Bill Murray’s character in the movie Groundhog Day, Bayard shows us how to discuss all manner of unread books. “It is not at all necessary to be familiar with what you’re talking about in order to talk about it accurately,” Bayard’s narrator maintains, adding that talking about a book you haven’t read is actually an avenue for creativity and self-discovery. He goes on to argue that if you actually read a book, you will probably be in a worse position to discuss it than had you abstained: you’ll get bogged down in the details. It’s much better to ponder the book in question from a distance, and use your powers of ingenuity to cook up an opinion. As Bayard craftily suggests, “Knowing how to speak with finesse about something with which we are unacquainted has value far beyond the realm of books."

Finally, in the most acerbic (and funny) review that I’ve read, Sam Anderson sums up the book for New York Magazine thus:

Western culture has fetishized books almost as much as it has breasts and cash. Our reading is governed by a corrosive idealism that fills us all with secret shame: We believe we should be doing it more and better, and that, until we do, we fully deserve to be sneered at by college dropouts at the Strand. To Bayard, however, this is unrealistic. The line-by-line, cover-to-cover experience of a text, he argues, is passé; true reading consists mainly of nonreading. By this he means not just an absence of reading but a positive set of shadow skills that we should honor and cultivate and teach to our children: browsing covers and spines, reading first sentences, skimming key passages, monitoring gossip, and b.s.-ing at cocktail parties.

There… Now technically you don’t really need to read the book about ‘non-reading’, but what hey - give it to someone for Christmas. 

The Uppercase Gallery and Bookstore in Calgary has posted a great review of TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY on their website:

Is it possible to be in love with a book?

Yes.

Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance is the object of my affections. First of all, the cover photograph is stunning. The book’s modest dimensions make the act of reading a very intimate affair. The perfect binding and crisp, precise page trim lend this little block of book importance and heft. The page design is simple and elegant and lets the personality of the objects be fully appreciated, elevating the most mundane to that of a museum artifact.

I’ve never visited Uppercase but it sounds like a really cool place. I’ll just have to find a compelling reason to stop by in Calgary sometime. If you live in the city, please help me out and tell me how I can persuade my boss to pay the air fare! 

Design experts Ellen and Julia Lupton are interviewed about their new super-cool project D.I.Y. KIDS on Babble today: 

Ellen and Julia Lupton are designers, professors, mothers and identical twins who grew up finishing each other’s sentences. They’ve put their collaboration to work in D.I.Y. Kids… In this latest joint project, the Luptons teach design to kids through amazing projects using the stuff of daily life: paper, cereal boxes, pencils, pens, everyday clothing. More than a craft guide, D.I.Y. Kids teaches kids to design their own fun and to work art into their lives.

But design’s not just for the kids! If you’re more experienced, you can graduate from D.I.Y. KIDS to Ellen Lupton’s excellent DIY - DESIGN IT YOURSELF, which is awesome for just about anyone who designs from their kitchen table!  She also has great books for design students and professionals like SKIN or THINKING WITH TYPE!

Click here for The Babble interview with the Luptons

Click here for the great D.I.Y. KIDS website

Click here for the Lupton’s Design Your Life blog

AND REMEMBER: “Design is not just about making stuff. It’s about making stuff happen."