The Little Paris Kitchen


Rachel Khoo - 2012
    Six years later, she still lives and works in Paris, cooking up a selection of classic French dishes from all over the country and giving them a fresh makeover with her own modern twists. From a Croque Madame muffin and the classic Boeuf bourguignon, to a deliciously fragrant Provencal lavender and lemon roast chicken, Rachel celebrates the culinary landscape of France as it is today and shows how simple these dishes are.The 120 recipes in the book range from easy, everyday dishes like Omelette Pipérade, to summer picnics by the Seine and afternoon 'goûter' (snacks), to meals with friends and delicious desserts including classics like Crème brulee and Tarte tatin. It's a book that celebrates the very best of French home-cooking in a modern and accessible way. Real French food is no longer something only served in fancy restaurants; Rachel will show how you can add a little French culinary touch to your everyday life at home, no matter where you are in the world, or how big your kitchen is!

Fetish Goddess Dita


Dita Von Teese - 2002
    Her distinctive style is a unique combination of retro glamor, pin-up and high-art eroticism, and always perfect down to the smallest accessories. She only works with the best photographers - Baker, Czernich, James & James, Weathers - and, combined with her clear vision of how she wants to look, the result is always 100% stunning and 100% Dita. Dominant or submissive, damsel in distress or provocative French maid, this genuine fetishist has laced herself up and paraded around in the highest of high heels - a true fetish goddess.

Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories


Glen R Johnson - 2006
    Acclaimed professional wedding photographer Glen Rea Johnson not only teaches you how to take memorable photos, it also shows you how to start a wedding photography business. Packed with great tips and savvy advice, this new edition helps you set up efficient workflows, choose camera equipment, manipulate images, make impressive presentations, and launch smart, photo-based marketing strategies to build your business. The book is loaded with new, superb photos that illustrate photography techniques but it is not a portfolio of Glen's best work, and in fact a large percentage of the images in this book were actually pulled from the trash bin because those are the most valuable in showing what not to do, or how to avoid certain mistakes. This book shows you how to set up and capture beautiful photos, posed or candid, in all kinds of settings, for weddings and other special events. You will find information and practical marketing strategies for building your own photography business, including how to build a Web site that attracts clients. Covers camera equipment and accessories, post-shoot digital darkroom techniques, digital editing software, and how to print your images successfully. Gives you invaluable insights and tips from the author, who is one of the country's top wedding and special events photographers. Capture better pictures of some of life's most memorable events, and build a successful photography business with this indispensable guide!

But you are in France, Madame


Catherine Berry - 2016
    Her teacher was busy chatting, so we waited patiently in the corridor. When he did come out, he indicated that the meeting would take place downstairs and headed off with us in tow. Before sitting down, I introduced myself using my first name, and put out my hand to be shaken. He mumbled back his full name as he took my hand, although I suspect he would have been shocked if I had actually dared use it. By this stage, I had already understood that teachers did not expect to be questioned about their practices. Of course, I did—question him, that is; politely and almost deferentially. There was a slight pause, as he dipped his head to better digest what he had heard. Then, with the assurance of a perfect, unarguable answer, he replied, “But you are in France, Madame”. Some months before, my husband, three children and I had casually unzipped and discarded our comfortable Australian lifestyle and slipped on life in the country of haute couture. On arrival, there was no celebrity designer waiting for us, ready to pin and fit our new life to us; so we threw it on and wore it loosely, tightly, uncomfortably, any old how—until we learned for ourselves how to trim, hem and stitch à la française. This book is testament to the joyous, but not always easy, journey that we took along the way.

Finding me in France


Bobbi French - 2012
    Bobbi French is just an ordinary person seeking an extraordinary life. For her, that means taking the boldest leap of faith in her life: moving to France to fulfill a lifelong dream. All she has to do is give up her successful medical career in Canada, sell her house, pare down her possessions to only what would fit in a carry-on suitcase, and buy a one-way ticket to Semur-en-Auxois. She also has to ignore the common opinion that she's lost her mind, walking away from it all for a fantasy. Finding Me in France is a chronicle of the delights and deprecations of making a dream come true. Landing in a small village in Burgundy with only her expectations of adventure to guide her, she details the unaccountable stumbling blocks and the unforeseen joys of her often awkward, frequently perplexing, always entertaining journey of discovery. Illustrated with inspiring photographs, a funny and perceptive account of her experience of a lifetime.

Dogtown: The Legend Of The Z Boys


C.R. Stecyk - 2002
    Friedman photos and a new C.R. Stecyk III postscript.In the early 1970s, the sport of skateboarding had so waned from its popularity in the 1960s that it was virtually nonexistent. In the DogTown area of west Los Angeles, a group of young surfers known as the Zephyr Team (Z-Boys) was experimenting with new and radical moves and styles in the water, which they translated to the street. When competition skateboarding returned in 1975, the Z-Boys turned the skating world on its head. DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys is a truly fascinating case study of how an underground sport ascended in the world. These are the stories and images of a time that not only inspired a generation but changed the face of the sport forever.This volume has been described as “the DogTown textbook” and an indispensable companion piece to the Sony Pictures Classics film Dogtown and Z-Boys. Now spanning 1975–1985 and beyond, the first section of the book includes the best of the DogTown articles written and photographed by C.R. Stecyk III as they originally appeared in SkateBoarder Magazine. The second half compiles hundreds of skate images from the archives of Glen E. Friedman—many of which appear in the movie. (Stecyk and Friedman acted as executive producers and advisors for the film.)The bigger, newly designed edition of the book includes many never-before-seen Friedman photos, along with a new postscript by Stecyk.

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Mexico to Canada


Bruce Buck Nelson - 2018
    For five months I hiked through the California desert, the snows of the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington. My goal was to succeed in an epic challenge: to hike 2,650 miles and reach Canada before the October snows. It was an unforgettable summer of sunrises, river crossings, and high mountain passes; of physical and mental challenges and peaceful wilderness camps under the stars. In the fall colors of September I reached the border of Canada.This is the story of my thru-hike.

Occupants: Photographs and Writings


Henry Rollins - 2011
    Though he’s known for the raw power of his expression, Rollins has shown that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present.             In Occupants, Rollins invites us to do the same. The book pairs Rollins’s visceral full-color photographs—taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years—with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience. Occupants will help us realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces—the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith, and even joy.

The Soul of the Camera: The Photographer's Place in Picture Making


David duChemin - 2017
    But with over one trillion photos taken each year, why are there so few successes? Why do so many fail? With advances in camera technology, it is not because the images lack focus or proper exposure; the camera does that so well these days. Photographer David duChemin believes the majority of our images fall short because they lack soul. And without soul, the images have no ability to resonate with others. They simply cannot connect with the viewer, or even--if we're being truthful--with ourselves.In The Soul of the Camera: The Photographer's Place in Picture-Making, David explores what it means to make better photographs. Illustrated with a beautiful collection of black-and-white photographs, the book's essays speak to topics such as craft, mastery, vision, audience, discipline, story, and authenticity. The Soul of the Camera is a personal and deeply pragmatic book that quietly yet forcefully challenges the idea that our cameras, lenses, and settings are anything more than dumb and mute tools. It is the photographer, not the camera, that can and must learn to make better photographs--photographs that convey our vision; that connect with others; that, at their core, contain our humanity.

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs


Elaine Sciolino - 2015
    "I can never be sad on the rue des Martyrs," Sciolino explains, as she celebrates the neighborhood’s rich history and vibrant lives. While many cities suffer from the leveling effects of globalization, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. On this street, the patron saint of France was beheaded and the Jesuits took their first vows. It was here that Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted circus acrobats, Emile Zola situated a lesbian dinner club in his novel Nana, and François Truffaut filmed scenes from The 400 Blows. Sciolino reveals the charms and idiosyncrasies of this street and its longtime residents—the Tunisian greengrocer, the husband-and-wife cheesemongers, the showman who’s been running a transvestite cabaret for more than half a century, the owner of a 100-year-old bookstore, the woman who repairs eighteenth-century mercury barometers—bringing Paris alive in all of its unique majesty. The Only Street in Paris will make readers hungry for Paris, for cheese and wine, and for the kind of street life that is all too quickly disappearing.

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child


Bob Spitz - 2012
    It’s even rarer when that someone is a middle-aged, six-foot three-inch woman whose first exposure to an unsuspecting public is cooking an omelet on a hot plate on a local TV station.  And yet, that’s exactly what Julia Child did.  The warble-voiced doyenne of television cookery became an iconic cult figure and joyous rule-breaker as she touched off the food revolution that has gripped America for more than fifty years. Now, in Bob Spitz’s definitive, wonderfully affectionate biography, the Julia we know and love comes vividly — and surprisingly — to life.  In Dearie, Spitz employs the same skill he brought to his best-selling, critically acclaimed book The Beatles, providing a clear-eyed portrait of one of the most fascinating and influential Americans of our time — a woman known to all, yet known by only a few.At its heart, Dearie is a story about a woman’s search for her own unique expression.  Julia Child was a directionless, gawky young woman who ran off halfway around the world to join a spy agency during World War II.  She eventually settled in Paris, where she learned to cook and collaborated on the writing of what would become Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a book that changed the food culture of America.   She was already fifty when The French Chef went on the air —  at a time in our history when women weren’t making those leaps.  Julia became the first educational TV star, virtually launching PBS as we know it today; her marriage to Paul Child formed a decades-long love story that was romantic, touching, and quite extraordinary. A fearless, ambitious, supremely confident woman, Julia took on all the pretensions that embellished tony French cuisine and fricasseed them to a fare-thee-well, paving the way for everything that has happened since in American cooking, from TV dinners and Big Macs to sea urchin foam and the Food Channel.  Julia Child’s story, however, is more than the tale of a talented woman and her sumptuous craft.  It is also a saga of America’s coming of age and growing sophistication, from the Depression Era to the turbulent sixties and the excesses of the eighties to the greening of the American kitchen.  Julia had an effect on and was equally affected by the baby boom, the sexual revolution, and the start of the women’s liberation movement. On the centenary of her birth, Julia finally gets the biography she richly deserves.  An in-depth, intimate narrative, full of fresh information and insights, Dearie is an entertaining, all-out adventure story of one of our most fascinating and beloved figures.From the Hardcover edition.

Paris in Love


Eloisa James - 2012
    Paris in Love: A Memoir chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.   With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog).  Paris in Love invites the reader into the life of a most enchanting family, framed by la ville de l’amour.

Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl


Robert Polidori - 2003
    Declared unfit for human habitation, the Zones of Exclusion includes the towns of Pripyat (established in the 1970s to house workers) and Chernobyl. In May 2001, Robert Polidori photographed what was left behind in the this dead zone. His richly detailed images move from the burned-out control room of Reactor 4, where technicians staged the experiment that caused the disaster, to the unfinished apartment complexes, ransacked schools and abandoned nurseries that remain as evidence of those who once called Pripyat home. Nearby, trucks and tanks used in the cleanup efforts rest in an auto graveyard, some covered in lead shrouds and others robbed of parts. Houseboats and barges rust in the contaminated waters of the Pripyat River. Foliage grows over the sidewalks and hides the modest homes of Chernobyl. In his large-scale photographs, Polidori captures the faded colors and desolate atmosphere of these two towns, producing haunting documents that present the reader with a rare view of not just a disastrous event, but a place and the people who lived there.

The End of the Game: The Last Word from Paradise - A Pictoral Documentation of the origins, History and Prospects of the Big Game Africa


Peter H. Beard - 1963
    Beautifully illustrated with over 300 contemporary and historical photographs as well as dozens of paintings, The End of the Game is a legendary workvividly telling the story of explorers, missionaries, and big-game hunters whose quests have changed the face of Africa forever.

National Geographic Dawn to Dark Photographs: The Magic of Light


National Geographic Society - 2013
    Experience shimmering mornings and opaque nights through the eyes of National Geographic's finest photographers in this gloriously uplifting volume--the latest entry in National Geographic's best-selling annual photography collection. Daybreak whispers mauve over a long ocean horizon. The morning sun twinkles in a drop of dew. The broad heat of midday radiates over a beach strewn with sweat-baked sunbathers. A slender crescent moon caresses a gnarled tree standing alone on the heath.  Full of one-of-a-kind photographs, this breathtaking collection gives readers a front-row seat to the world's wonders, from its most imposing cityscapes to its most pristine landscapes.