On My Radar:

you don't have to be everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves
by Diana Whitney
Workman Publishing
Trade Paperback


From the publisher's website:

Created and compiled just for young women, You Don’t Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. These unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism.

The cast of 68 poets is extraordinary: Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, who read at Joe Biden's inauguration; bestselling authors like Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sharon Olds, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Mary Oliver; Instagram-famous poets including Kate Baer, Melody Lee, and Andrea Gibson; poets who are LGBTQ, poets of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, poets who sing of human experience in ways that are free from conventional ideas of femininity. Illustrated in full color with work by three diverse artists, this book is an inspired gift for daughters and granddaughters—and anyone on the path to becoming themselves.

No matter how old you are,
it helps to be young
when you're coming to life,
to be unfinished, a mysterious statement,
a journey from star to star.
—Joy Ladin, excerpt from "Survival Guide"

In My TBR Stack:

How to Astronaut: An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth
by Terry Virts
Workman Publishing
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Ride shotgun on a trip to space with astronaut Terry Virts. A born storyteller with a gift for the surprising turn of phrase and eye for the perfect you-are-there details, he captures all the highs, lows, humor, and wonder of an experience few will ever know firsthand. Featuring stories covering survival training, space shuttle emergencies, bad bosses, the art of putting on a spacesuit, time travel, and much more!

In Stores Now:

Bold: A Cookbook of Big Flavors
by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise
Workman Publishing
Trade Paperback


  If it can be spread on bread or pulled out of a can, I can prepare it for a meal.  Unfortunately, that is about the limits of my culinary expertise.  It's not from a lack of "want to," it's more a lack of the right combination of skills.

Every year about this time learning to cook appears on my New Year's Resolutions list -- usually near the top.  I am a world-class eater but a completely inept cook.  Chefs need patience, attitude and a special cooking gene (or two).  I have none of these.

Workman Publishing has graciously sent me BOLD: A Cookbook of Big Flavors by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise to review.  The back cover brags about over 250 recipes that are:

DELICIOUS !

INSPIRED !

BIG !

FRESH !

INNOVATIVE !

IRRESISTIBLE !

I do not doubt that these recipes are all of those things and more.  My plan is to scour the book looking for recipes that won't tax my brain or destroy my kitchen.  I'll let you know....


p.s. -- I think I've figured out that if a recipe has "with" in the title, I could never prepare it correctly.



From the publisher's website:

Bold is nourishing. Bold is inspired. Bold is food that means business. And Bold is big—as in 250 recipes filled with big flavors to be served in big portions. From the culinary team of Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise—who between them have authored or coauthored more than fifteen cookbooks including The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook and The Well-Filled Microwave Cookbook—Bold brings together the beloved American tradition of delicious, plate-filling meals with the lively global flavors that infuse our culture and cuisine.

This is comfort food that’s been given an exuberant 21st-century makeover—slow-cooked roasts and braises, generous steaks, brimming soups, heaping platters of salads and vegetables, hearty pastas and grains, wild game, and rich desserts.

This is Bold: Stuffed California Pork Rolls. Buffalo Chili with Black Bean and Corn Salsa. Meat and Potatoes Korean Style with Quick Kimchee. Leg of Lamb with Spicy Pecan Pesto. Chicken Pot Pie Under a Filo Crust. Crowded Corn Chowder with Cod, Shrimp, and Corn. Lime Curd Coconut Meringue Pie with a Macadamia Nut Crust. The book boasts a vibrant design that complements the recipes. Sidebars throughout offer cooking tips and advice, highlight people and places, and explore food history and traditions. Bold is America on a plate.

New Nonfiction Hardcovers This Week

Eminent Hipsters
by Donald Fagen
Viking Adult / Penguin
Hardcover

Musician and songwriter Donald Fagen presents a group of vivid set pieces in his entertaining debut as an author, from portraits of the cultural figures and currents that shaped him as a youth to an account of his college days and of life on the road.

Fagen begins by introducing the “eminent hipsters” that spoke to him as he was growing up in a bland New Jersey suburb in the early 1960s, among them Jean Shepherd, whose manic nightly broadcasts out of WOR-Radio “enthralled a generation of alienated young people”; Henry Mancini, whose swank, noirish soundtracks left their mark on him; and Mort Fega, the laid-back, knowledgeable all-night jazz man at WEVD who was like “the cool uncle you always wished you had.” He writes of how, coming of age during the paranoid Cold War era, one of his primary doors of escape became reading science fiction, and of his invigorating trips into New York City to hear jazz. “Class of ’69” recounts Fagen’s colorful, mind-expanding years at Bard College, the progressive school north of New York City, where he first met his future musical partner Walter Becker. “With the Dukes of September” offers a cranky, hilarious account of the ups and downs of a recent cross-country tour Fagen made with Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald, performing a program of old R&B and soul tunes as well as some of their own hits.

Acclaimed for the elaborate arrangements and jazz harmonies of his songs, Fagen proves himself a sophisticated writer with a very distinctive voice in this engaging book.

History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time
by Brad Meltzer
Workman Publishing
Hardcover

It’s an irresistible combination: Brad Meltzer, a born storyteller, counting down the world’s most intriguing unsolved mysteries. And to make this richly illustrated book even richer, each chapter invites the reader along for an interactive experience through the addition of removable facsimile documents—the evidence! It’s a treasure trove for conspiracy buffs, a Griffin and Sabinefor history lovers.

Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer’s hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman “Spear of Destiny”? What’s the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence; weighs competing theories;  separates what we know to be true with what’s still—and perhaps forever—unproved or unprovable; and in the end, decodes the mystery, arriving at the most likely solution. Along the way we meet Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Nazi propagandists, and the real DB Cooper.

Bound in at the beginning of each story is a custom-designed envelope—a faux 19th-century leather satchel, a U.S. government classified file—containing facsimiles of relevant evidence: John Wilkes Booth’s alleged unsigned will, a map of the Vatican, Kennedy’s death certificate. The whole is a riveting, interactive adventure through the compelling world of mysteries and conspiracies. 

New Nonfiction Paperbacks This Week

Books I'd Like to Read


A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

by John Allen Paulos

Basic Books
Trade Paperback

In this lively volume, mathematician John Allen Paulos employs his singular wit to guide us through an unlikely mathematical jungle—the pages of the daily newspaper. From the Senate and sex to celebrities and cults, Paulos takes stories that may not seem to involve math at all and demonstrates how mathematical naïveté can put readers at a distinct disadvantage. Whether he’s using chaos theory to puncture economic and environmental predictions, applying logic to clarify the hazards of spin doctoring and news compression, or employing arithmetic and common sense to give us a novel perspective on greed and relationships, Paulos never fails to entertain and enlighten.

A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics

by Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel, and Thomas Peisel

Workman Publishing

Trade Paperback

Imagine being able to fly. Walk through walls. Shape-shift. Breathe underwater. Conjure loved ones—or total strangers—out of thin air. Imagine experiencing your nighttime dreams with the same awareness you possess right now—fully functioning memory, imagination, and self-awareness. Imagine being able to use this power to be more creative, solve problems, and discover a deep sense of well-being.

This is lucid dreaming—the ability to know you are dreaming while you are in a dream, and then consciously explore and change the elements of the dream. A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming, with its evocative retro illustrations, shows exactly how to do it. Written by three avid, experienced lucid dreamers, this manual for the dream world takes the reader from step one—learning how to reconnect with his or her dreams— through the myriad possibilities of what can happen once the dreamer is lucid and an accomplished oneironaut (a word that comes from the Greek oneira, meaning dreams, and nautis, meaning sailor).

Readers will learn about the powerful REM sleep stage—a window into lucid dreams. Improve dream recall by keeping a journal. The importance of reality checks, such as “The Finger”—during the day, try to pass your finger through your palm; then, when you actually do it successfully, you’ll know that you’re dreaming. And once you become lucid, how to make the most of it. Every time you dream, you are washing up on the shores of your own inner landscape. Learn to explore a strange and thrilling world with A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming.

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

Simon & Schuster

Trade Paperback

The phenomenal bestseller from the author of the acclaimed biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. 

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson set down the riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson’s portrait touched hundreds of thousands of readers. 

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs still stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. 

Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. He himself spoke candidly about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped Jobs’s approach to business, the innovative products that resulted, and his legacy.

Hollywood Said No!  Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show

by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross

Grand Central Publishing

Trade Paperback

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, creators of HBO's classic sketch comedy show Mr. Show, present to you this collection of never-before-seen scripts and ideas that Hollywood couldn't find the gumption to green-light. Simply put...

HOLLYWOOD SAID NO!

Since Mr. Show closed up shop, Bob and David have kept busy with many projects--acting in fun, successful, movies and TV shows, directing things, and complaining about stuff that didn't turn out well to anyone who would listen, and even alone, in silence, inside their own heads.

HOLLYWOOD SAID NO! reveals the full-length, never-before-seen scripts for Bob and David Make a Movie (fleshed out with brand-new storyboards by acclaimed artist Mike Mitchell) and Hooray For America!: a satirical power-house indictment of all that you hold dear. This tome also includes a bonus section of orphaned sketch ideas from the Mr. Show days and beyond, suitable for performance by church groups that aren't all koo-koo about religion. What you are looking at online, and are about to buy, is chock-full of comic twists, turns, and maybe a few hard truths. We said "maybe," but what we mean was "probably not."

Now, for the first time, take a peek at the scripts that didn't get the go-ahead and ponder a world we can only dream about...and beyond! 

10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

by Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer

Agate Publishing / Agate Midway / Publishers Group West

Trade Paperback

For years, the Chicago Tribune's popular weekly feature column "10 Things You Might Not Know” has been informing and entertaining readers on a diverse range of fascinating subjects. 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything is a comprehensive collection of these columns, presented in a fun and easy-to-read format. This book gives readers well-researched, obscure facts on universal topics—including arts and culture, food and leisure, history, politics, science and technology, sports, religion, lifestyle, language, and more. 

10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything contains a plethora of surprising trivia and pertinent tidbits on so many different areas that will appeal to everyone from history buffs to sports fans to foodies, with an especially riveting look into Chicago-area history and facts. For example, did you know that the adult human body contains about half a pound of salt? Or that the U.S. had no national debt under President Andrew Jackson for a brief period of time around January 1835? 

From amusing, lighthearted topics like beards and holidays to more serious subjects like taxes and juries, this collection of well-researched and universal trivia will make readers laugh and their jaws drop. 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything will leave readers brighter, wittier, and curious to learn more about myriad worlds they never encountered before and will never forget.