Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 - The Birth of Humankind


David Vandermeulen - 2020
    Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?In this first volume of the full-color illustrated adaptation of his groundbreaking book, renowned historian Yuval Harari tells the story of humankind’s creation and evolution, exploring the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens challenges us to reconsider accepted beliefs, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and view specific events within the context of larger ideas. Featuring 256 pages of full-color illustrations and easy-to-understand text covering the first part of the full-length original edition, this adaptation of the mind-expanding book furthers the ongoing conversation as it introduces Harari’s ideas to a wide new readership.

Secret Lives of Great Artists: What Your Teachers Never Told You about Master Painters and Sculptors


Elizabeth Lunday - 2008
    You'll learn that Michelangelo's body odor was so bad, his assistants couldn't stand working for him; that Vincent van Gogh sometimes ate paint directly from the tube; and Georgia O'Keeffe loved to paint in the nude. This is one art history lesson you'll never forget!

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women


Kate Moore - 2017
    From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive—until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics


Jason Porath - 2016
    Well-behaved women seldom make history. Good thing these women are far from well behaved . . .Illustrated in a contemporary animation style, Rejected Princesses turns the ubiquitous "pretty pink princess" stereotype portrayed in movies, and on endless toys, books, and tutus on its head, paying homage instead to an awesome collection of strong, fierce, and yes, sometimes weird, women: warrior queens, soldiers, villains, spies, revolutionaries, and more who refused to behave and meekly accept their place.An entertaining mix of biography, imagery, and humor written in a fresh, young, and riotous voice, this thoroughly researched exploration salutes these awesome women drawn from both historical and fantastical realms, including real life, literature, mythology, and folklore. Each profile features an eye-catching image of both heroic and villainous women in command from across history and around the world, from a princess-cum-pirate in fifth century Denmark, to a rebel preacher in 1630s Boston, to a bloodthirsty Hungarian countess, and a former prostitute who commanded a fleet of more than 70,000 men on China’s seas.

Bun B's Rapper Coloring and Activity Book


Shea Serrano - 2013
    Described by the Washington Post as “what every hip-hop head wishes they had as a child,” this imaginative work started as a series of printable rap-related coloring and activity images. The 48-page, fully interactive book of coloring pages, unbelievably clever activities, and smart plays on rap culture brings these stars and their music right into your living room.<!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-->Featured rappers include: Bun B Queen Latifah Drake Talib Kweli Ice-T Common Wiz Khalifa Ludacris LL COOL J Big Boi Childish Gambino Questlove B.o.B Mac Miller And many, many more! Praise for Bun B's Rap Coloring and Activity Book: “A star-studded cast of some of the biggest names in rap, all in one book.”  —Fast Company’s Co.Create blog “It’s 48 pages long, and that’s the exact same number of pages the Bible has, and that’s not an accident. That’s a little thing called God’s will.” —Vice.com “The book is funny, smart, and as kid-tested, mother-approved as some of these guys get.” —Vulture.com “Hilarious…razor sharp.” —XXL “If you've spent any kind of time on the Internet, chances are something Shea Serrano has written, drawn, or created has made you smile . . . The book’s a load of fun, and is sure to please rap nerds and crayon-wielding tykes alike.” —Village Voice   “There’s art, humor and education, fun for young and old.” —Paste magazine   “This is one of the few Tumblr-to-book projects that doesn’t make me want to punch my computer in disgust. If the phrase ‘see if you can build a Budden’ doesn’t make you chuckle, then you should stay away from hip-hop or jokes.” —Christopher R. Weingarten, SPIN   “Bun B’s Rap Coloring and Activity Book is gangsta!” —Mass Appeal.com   "48 pages of MC worship mixed with a generous measure of the kind of casual dissing of its star players that hip-hop excels at.” —Esquire   “When I’m listening to Drake, I sometimes feel blue. Now, thanks to Bun B’s Rap Coloring and Activity Book, I can make Drake blue, too. And for that, I am eternally grateful.” —Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork.com   “The hip-hop coloring book is the single most important thing to happen to color since Cam’s pink Range Rover. Everyone should want a Serrano in their baño.” —Nate Erickson, GQ   “Like the old saying goes, the crayon is mightier than the sword. Bun B and Shea have assembled a perfect collection of today’s brightest hip hop stars for fans of all ages to create, color and remix. The Rap Coloring and Activity Book is like your own personal mixtape that you can hang on your fridge and impress everyone with.” —Mike Ayers, Rolling Stone “Fans can now color inside the lines of hip-hop greats.” —LA Times’ Jacket Copy blog “It’s gotta be a first—for rap and for coloring.” —Houston Chronicle   “For rap aficionados young and old.” —GQ.com “You may want to buy two copies—one to color, and one to keep fresh and new.” —Buzzfeed “The perfect coloring book for any hip-hop nerd.” —Complex magazine “If you have not already purchased a copy, put down this magazine immediately and go buy Bun B’s Rap Coloring and Activity Book.” —Kindling Quarterly “A playful celebration of rap

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer


Anne-Marie O'Connor - 2012
    Anne-Marie O'Connor, writer for the Washington Post, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, tells the galvanizing story of the Lady in Gold, Adele Bloch-Bauer, a dazzling Viennese Jewish society figure; daughter of the head of one of the largest banks in the Hapsburg Empire, head of the Oriental Railway, whose Orient Express went from Berlin to Constantinople; wife of Ferdinand Bauer, sugar-beet baron. The Bloch-Bauers were art patrons, and Adele herself was considered a rebel of fin de siècle Vienna (she wanted to be educated, a notion considered "degenerate” in a society that believed women being out in the world went against their feminine "nature"). The author describes how Adele inspired the portrait and how Klimt made more than a hundred sketches of her-simple pencil drawings on thin manila paper. And O'Connor writes of Klimt himself, son of a failed gold engraver, shunned by arts bureaucrats, called an artistic heretic in his time, a genius in ours. She writes of the Nazis confiscating the portrait of Adele from the Bloch-Bauers' grand palais; of the Austrian government putting the painting on display, stripping Adele's Jewish surname from it so that no clues to her identity (nor any hint of her Jewish origins) would be revealed. Nazi officials called the painting, "The Lady in Gold" and proudly exhibited it in Vienna's Baroque Belvedere Palace, consecrated in the 1930s as a Nazi institution. The author writes of the painting, inspired by the Byzantine mosaics Klimt had studied in Italy, with their exotic symbols and swirls, the subject an idol in a golden shrine. We see how, sixty years after it was stolen by the Nazis, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer became the subject of a decade-long litigation between the Austrian government and the Bloch-Bauer heirs, how and why the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, and how the Court's decision had profound ramifications in the art world. In this book listeners will find riveting social history; an illuminating and haunting look at turn-of-the-century Vienna; a brilliant portrait of the evolution of a painter; a masterfully told tale of suspense. And at the heart of it, The Lady in Gold-the shimmering painting, and its equally irresistible subject, the fate of each forever intertwined.

Paris Versus New York: A Tally of Two Cities


Vahram Muratyan - 2011
    Now Muratyan presents his unique observations in this delightful book, featuring visually striking graphics paired with witty, thought-provoking taglines that celebrate the special details of each city. Paris versus New York is a heartfelt gift to denizens of both cities and to those who dream of big-city romance.

Street Photographer


Vivian Maier - 2011
    It is hard enough to find thesequalities in trained photographers with the benefit of schooling and mentors and a community of fellow artists and aficionados supporting and rewarding their efforts. It is incredibly rare to find it in someone with no formal training and no network of peers.Yet Vivian Maier is all of these things, a professional nanny, who from the 1950s until the 1990s took over 100,000 photographs worldwide—from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries—and yet showed the results to no one. The photos are amazing both for the breadth of the work and for the high quality of the humorous, moving, beautiful, and raw images of all facets of city life in America’s post-war golden age.It wasn’t until local historian John Maloof purchased a box of Maier’s negatives from a Chicago auction house and began collecting and championing her marvelous work just a few years ago that any of it saw the light of day. Presented here for the first time in print, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer collects the best of her incredible, unseen body of work.

The Gift


Lewis Hyde - 1979
    . . . A masterpiece.” —Margaret Atwood“No one who is invested in any kind of art . . . can read The Gift and remain unchanged.” —David Foster WallaceBy now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities. This book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared.An illuminating and transformative book, and completely original in its view of the world, The Gift is cherished by artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic wisdom found in its pages.

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History


Scott Andrew Selby - 2010
    They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process. Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years.  The “who” of the crime had been answered, but the “how” remained largely a mystery. Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist. Tracking the threads of the story throughout Europe—from Belgium to Italy, in seedy cafés and sleek diamond offices—the authors sorted through an array of conflicting details, divergent opinions and incongruous theories to put together the puzzle of what actually happened that Valentine’s Day weekend.This real-life Ocean’s Eleven—a combination of diamond history, journalistic reportage, and riveting true-crime story—provides a thrilling in-depth study detailing the better-than-fiction heist of the century.

Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art & Illustration


Michael Robinson - 2008
    Divided into three sections – the movement, its fashion and advertising – the reader gains great insight into the artists and innovators that helped popularize the Art Deco movement, such as Georges Barbier, Erté, Cassandre and Paul Colin. While the main focus for this intriguing book is centred on graphic art, numerous examples of other forms of Art Deco are also featured. Nestled among the posters and paintings, sculpture, objets d'art and jewellery assert their similarity, whether through line, form or theme. These echoes serve to show the creativity fertility of the period as styles and ideas traversed artistic media.

Imagine: How Creativity Works


Jonah Lehrer - 2012
    Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.You’ll learn about Bob Dylan’s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. You’ll meet a Manhattan bartender who thinks like a chemist, and an autistic surfer who invented an entirely new surfing move. You’ll see why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar’s office space is designed to spark the next big leap in animation.Collapsing the layers separating the neuron from the finished symphony, Imagine reveals the deep inventiveness of the human mind, and its essential role in our increasingly complex world. http://www.jonahlehrer.com/

The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes: Glazing Firing at Cone 10


John Britt - 2004
    Author John Britt, who served as Clay Coordinator at the respected Penland School of Crafts, has personally tested many of the recipes, and carefully reviews every one. He offers a thorough examination of glaze materials, chemistry, and tools, and presents the basics of mixing, application, and firing procedures. There’s a wealth of information on various type of glazes, including copper, iron, shino, salt/soda, crystalline, and more. An exhaustive index of subjects and a separate index of glaze recipes will help ceramists find what they need, quickly and easily.

New Media Art


Mark Tribe - 2006
    In 1994, the advent of the Internet as a popular medium catalyzed a global art movement that began to explore the cultural, social, and aesthetic possibilities of such new communication technologies as the Web, video surveillance cameras, wireless phones, hand-held computers, and GPS devices. This book addresses New Media art as a specific art historical movement, focusing not only on technologies and forms but also on thematic content and conceptual strategies. New Media art often involves appropriation, collaboration, and the free sharing of ideas and expressions, and frequently addresses the political ramifications of technology around issues of identity, commercialization, privacy, and the public domain. Many New Media artists are profoundly aware of their art historical antecedents, making reference to Dada, Pop Art, Conceptual art, Performance art, and Fluxus. Artists featured: Cory Arcangel, Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Vuk Cosic, Mary Flanagan, Ken Goldberg, Paul Kaiser and Shelly Eshkar, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Mouchette, MTAA, Keith and Mendi Obadike, Radical Software Group, Raqs Media Collective, RTMark, and John F. Simon Jr.

How New York Breaks Your Heart


Bill Hayes - 2018
    Now he presents an exquisite collection that captures the full range of his work and the magic of chance encounters in New York City. Hayes's "frank, beautiful, bewitching" street photographs "unmask their subjects' best and truest selves" (Jennifer Senior, New York Times): A policeman pauses at the end of a day. Cooks sneak in cigarette breaks. A pair of movers plays cards on the back of a truck. Friends claim the sidewalk. Lovers embrace. A flame-haired girl gazes mysteriously into the lens. And park benches provide a setting for a couple of hunks, a mom and her baby, a stylish nonagenarian . . . How New York Breaks Your Heart reveals ordinary New Yorkers at their most peaceful, joyful, distracted, anxious, expressive, and at their most fleeting--bringing the texture of the city to vivid life. Woven through with Hayes's lyric reflections, these photos will, like the city itself, break your heart by asking you to fall in love.