Her Bookshop is ready to make His Day. This Father’s Day say “I love you Dad”with a wonderful book. Joelle has curated a beautiful collection of books for purchase that are visually stunning and intellectually satisfying. Here are a few Joelle suggested for Father’s Day:
“How to Grill Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Flame-Cooked Food” by Mark Bittman
Here’s how to grill absolutely everything—from the perfect steak to cedar-plank salmon to pizza—explained in Mark Bittman’s trademark simple, straightforward style. Featuring more than 250 recipes and hundreds of variations, plus Bittman’s practical advice on all the grilling basics, this book is an exploration of the grill’s nearly endless possibilities. Recipes cover every part of the meal, including appetizers, seafood, meat and poultry, vegetables (including vegetarian mains), and even desserts. Plenty of quick, high-heat recipes will get dinner on the table in short order (Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp, Green Chile Cheeseburgers); low and slow “project” recipes (Texas-Style Smoked Brisket, Pulled Pork with Lexington BBQ Sauce) are ideal for leisurely weekend cookouts. You’ll also find unexpected grilled treats like avocado, watermelon, or pound cake, and innovative surprises—like how to cook paella or bake a whole loaf of bread on the grill—to get the most out of every fire.
Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces Book by Michael Chabon
“Magical prose stylist” Michael Chabon (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times) delivers a collection of essays—heartfelt, humorous, insightful, wise—on the meaning of fatherhood.
A History of Video Games in 64 Objects Book by World Video Game Hall of Fame
Inspired by the groundbreaking A History of the World in 100 Objects, this book draws on the unique collections of The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, to chronicle the evolution of video games, from Pong to first-person shooters, told through the stories of dozens of objects essential to the field’s creation and development.
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris
“If it’s hard to be funny, it’s an astounding feat to stay funny–wildly, wickedly, ingeniously so–for more than twenty years. Yet
David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off, in exhilarating essays that zero in on the absurd and the poignant with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity….Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris’s most beloved essays…We’re treated to a portrait of the artist as a young man, albeit one with an old and singular soul.”
—Fiona Maazel, O, The Oprah Magazine
Calypso by David Sedaris
If you’ve ever laughed your way through David Sedaris’s cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you’re getting with Calypso. You’d be wrong. When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman
“I love everything about this hilarious book except the font size . . . can a fella get a 16 point Helvetica up in this thing.”
—Jon Stewart
South’s Best Butts: Pitmaster Secrets for Southern Barbecue Perfection by Matt Moore
In The South’s Best Butts, food writer and Southern gentleman, Matt Moore, waves away clouds of smoke to give barbecue-lovers a sneak peek into the kitchens and smokehouses of a handful of the Barbecue Belt’s most revered pitmasters. He uncovers their tried-and-true techniques gleaned over hours, days, and years toiling by fire and spit, coaxing meltingly tender perfection from the humble pig—the foundation of Southern BBQ. More than a book of recipes, Matt explores how the marriage of meat, cooking method, and sauce varies from place to place based on history and culture, climate, available ingredients and wood, and always the closely-guarded, passed-down secrets followed like scripture. Because no meat plate is complete in the South without “all the fixin’s” to round out the meal, Matt cues up patron-sanctioned recipes from every establishment he visits. One thing is for certain…this book will change the way you cook, smoke, grill, and eat, but be warned: Your own butt may suffer in the process.
People Fishing A Century of Photographs by Barbara Levine, Paige Ramey
Although people have fished for food since the dawn of time, fishing today is one of the most popular pastimes in the world–an estimated 220 million people worldwide are recreational anglers, according to the World Bank. While many enjoy the Zen of waiting patiently for a strike in the great outdoors, for others, at least judging from this quirky collection of fishermen and women fishing is clearly a time of great fun, even hilarity. In this follow-up to her delightful People Knitting, photo archivist and collector Barbara Levine, along with Paige Ramey, netted these curious, humorous, and sometimes outrageous photos of Edwardian dowagers, tiny babies, sunburned sportsmen, and bathing beauties preparing tackle boxes, casting their lures, and displaying the catch of the day. A tribute to this perennial outdoor pastime, this is the perfect gift for the fisher in your life.
Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean
Book by Morten Andreas Strøksnes
The Lofoten islands in Norway are as isolated and forbidding as they are majestic. In this true story, two friends, the author and the eccentric artist Hugo Aasjord, set out onto the icy waters surrounding the islands. Their quest: to pursue the infamous Greenland shark—a massive creature that can grow to twenty-six feet in length and more than a ton in weight—from a tiny rubber boat. But the shark is not known for its size alone: its meat contains a toxin that, when consumed, has been known to make people drunk and hallucinatory. Together, the two men tackle existential questions, survive the world’s most powerful maelstrom, and, yes, get drunk, as they attempt to understand the ocean from every possible angle, drawing on poetry, science, history, ecology, mythology, and their own, sometimes intoxicated, observations.
Look Big: And Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of All Kinds by Rachel Levin
“LOOK BIG is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wondered what to do in an animal encounter. With equal parts humor and sound advice, Rachel Levin provides all the info you need to defuse a major critter crisis. Just don’t run. Unless it’s an alligator.” —Chris Keyes, editor of Outside magazine
The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations by John McCain
“You can see McCain in this book struggling to reconcile himself to what his Republican Party has largely become…The six-term senator from Arizona slips in a few careful mentions of Donald J. Trump, and expresses concern about the rancor that has overtaken the country…He consistently returns again and again to what seems for him to be a core commitment: a fervent belief in American exceptionalism…his faith in his country’s beneficence remains undimmed.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
Creative Quest by Questlove
A unique new guide to creativity from Questlove—inspirations, stories, and lessons on how to live your best creative life Questlove—musician, bandleader, designer, producer, culinary entrepreneur, professor, and all-around cultural omnivore—shares his wisdom on the topics of inspiration and originality in a one-of-a-kind guide to living your best creative life.
In Creative Quest, Questlove synthesizes all the creative philosophies, lessons, and stories he’s heard from the many creators and collaborators in his life, and reflects on his own experience, to advise readers and fans on how to consider creativity and where to find it. He addresses many topics—what it means to be creative, how to find a mentor and serve as an apprentice, the wisdom of maintaining a creative network, coping with critics and the foibles of success, and the specific pitfalls of contemporary culture—all in the service of guiding admirers who have followed his career and newcomers not yet acquainted with his story.
Whether discussing his own life or channeling the lessons he’s learned from forefathers such as George Clinton, collaborators like D’Angelo, or like-minded artists including Ava DuVernay, David Byrne, Björk, and others, Questlove speaks with the candor and enthusiasm that fans have come to expect. Creative Quest is many things—above all, a wise and wide-ranging conversation around the eternal mystery of creativity.
The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds
The creators of the podcast The Dollop present illustrated profiles of the weird, outrageous, NSFW, and downright absurd tales from American history that you weren’t taught in school. The United States of Absurdity presents short, informative, and hilarious stories of the most outlandish (but true) people, events, and more from United States history. Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds cover the weird stories you didn’t learn in history class, such as 10-Cent Beer Night, the Jackson Cheese, and the Kentucky Meat Shower, accompanied by full-page illustrations that bring each historical “milestone” to life in full-color.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders
by Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton, and Joshua Foer
It’s time to get off the beaten path. Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust, Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world. Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders–the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that’s so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan’s 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.
A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich
E. H. Gombrich’s bestselling history of the world for young readers tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience, the extent of human achievement, and the depth of its frailty. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history. In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties.
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham
“Appalled by the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump, and shaken by the deadly white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, Meacham returns to other moments in our history when fear and division seemed rampant. He wants to remind us that the current political turmoil is not unprecedented, that as a nation we have survived times worse than this. . . . Meacham tries to summon the better angels by looking back at when America truly has been great. He is effective as ever at writing history for a broad readership.”—The New York Times Book Review
Her Bookshop is a wonderful place to find your next book to curl up with. This Father’s Day is a great time to visit 1043 W Eastland Avenue in East Nashville and get familiar with the store. Pick up one of the above or one of the thousand other titles they have in shop. Make sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
