All good things come at a price, and when they're as meticulous, wonderful and small as the Astolat Dollhouse Castle, they should. The astonishing vision, meticulous preparation and incredible items (over 10,000) of the 29-room, 800-pound dollhouse justify the hefty $8.5 million price tag. The seven-level masterpiece was created by artist Elaine Diehl around 1980 and unveiled in 2015. It took no less than 13 years to complete and was estimated at the time to be worth over $2,000 per square inch.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
That makes this 9-foot-tall dollhouse castle more expensive than a fully furnished 4-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 4,000-square-foot home in San Francisco, and that's just how much money you'd have left over to buy a Tesla even after buying the house, according to the Zillow listing.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
It may not be a livable space, but it's definitely a stunning one. The tiny objects and rooms of the world's most expensive dollhouse will make you feel like you're Alice in Wonderland. What first catches the eye is the historic exterior of a property that takes its name from the castle in “The Lady of Shalott,” a 19th-century ballad by Alfred Lord Tennyson, according to Bloomberg.

The rooms are illuminated by working chandeliers. Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
One can't help but marvel at details like fountains, topiary, and a grand arched entrance with ornate columns. And that's just the outside facade. What lies beneath is truly amazing. Details such as armor, a $5,000 silverware set, artwork, paintings and gemstone collections in the extravagant rooms showcase the talent of the carpenters, goldsmiths, glassblowers and silversmiths.

Experienced carpenters and artists have crafted the incredible miniatures. Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Although all rooms are luxuriously appointed with features such as real parquet floors, hand-stitched tapestries, marble bathrooms and gold trim, it is the library that captured my heart.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
This outstanding area contains tiny books with real printed pages that can be read under a magnifying glass. In the library, one can (if one really tries) find a Bible that is said to be one of the smallest in the world. Notable items kept here include a $2,500 fold-out secretary bookcase and a miniature Hebrew Torah valued at up to $2,500.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Expensive items include a miniature grand piano valued at $7,000, a midget Jeep 949 station wagon valued at over $3,300, and a miniature portrait valued at nearly $2,000. It was apparently so small that it had to be painted with a single bristle brush.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
Of the seven floors containing regular rooms like the main parlor, dining room, bedrooms and butler's quarters etc, the sixth floor was the most exciting with the grand ballroom, musician's alcove, bar area and living rooms. At the very top of the multi-million dollar miniature house was a wizard's tower with fascinating details like astronomical displays and zodiac signs, a telescope and an observatory.

Image – Astolat Dollhouse Castle
These are just a few examples of the dedication and excellence of the 29-room home, which was unveiled to the public in 2015 to benefit the nonprofit organization Autism Speaks and a selection of other children's charities. The exhibition was hosted by the Nassau County Museum of Art. “The castle is so valuable because of its structure,” said Paula Gilhooley, the museum's curator. She added, “Astolat is one of the most beautiful miniature structures in the world and exhibits a rare combination of sculpture, artistry, engineering and detail that sets it apart from anything that has existed before. Astolat is a tremendous feat of construction and when you see it you will be absolutely speechless.” The museum-quality dollhouse was acquired by collector L. Freeman in 1996 and moved to the Nassau County Museum of Art.

The living area of ​​the house for sale in Francisco. Image – Zillow.

The post 13 years within the making, this extremely detailed miniature dollhouse is price greater than a completely furnished 4-bedroom residence in San Francisco. The home has 27 absolutely wired rooms adorned with chandeliers, gold plated chairs, books, oil portray even the bogs have purposeful plumbing. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The passenger shows the view from the backseat of the car.

Over the past few months, hundreds of self-driving cars have been spotted on the streets of the US’ San Francisco. Recently, a passenger shared a similar experience where he was picked up by a driverless car when he called for a Uber ride. 

He shared a video of his experience, showing the view from the backseat of the car. Meanwhile, at the front, there is an empty driver’s seat with the steering wheel moving autonomously. Various prompts are displayed on a tablet fastened to the rear of the passenger’s seat. Further, voice prompts with instructions can also be heard playing inside the car.

The video’s caption reads, ”Getting a Uber in San Francisco be like…” 

Watch the video here:

Getting a Uber in San Francisco be like…
by u/Osobady in Damnthatsinteresting

“Lol, when I was a teen, video calls were sci-fi stuff only seen in a few movies, and here we are with ‘automatic taxis’ feeling old,” wrote one user. Another joked, ”To unlock doors, please pay the release fee now.”

“Scary. No thank you,” a third said, while a fourth added, ”Objectively speaking, The human drivers are just as scary or worse.”

A few months back, tech billionaire Bill Gates took a ride in a self-driving car through downtown London and was convinced that autonomous vehicles (AV) are the future. 

”The car drove us around downtown London, which is one of the most challenging driving environments imaginable, and it was a bit surreal to be in the car as it dodged all the traffic,” Mr. Gates wrote in a blog post describing his experience. 

However, he noted that the transition to fully autonomous cars is probably decades away.

The post Passenger Books Uber Trip In San Francisco, Self-Driving Automotive Picks Him Up appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

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Lizzie Soufleris

Coffee tables ready! A new batch of design books awaits.

Designer monographs, stylish “how-to” volumes, and odes to maximalist style all make the cut

August 4, 2023 12:42 PM

What better way to spend the dog days of summer than with a stack of transportive, impeccably photographed design books? From Colin King’s gorgeously styled Arranging Things to Jacques Garcia’s expansive portrait of Villa Elena to DLN executive director Michael Diaz-Griffith’s tribute to a new generation of antique lovers, here are the best of the best decor and design books that have crossed the desks of AD editors lately. For interiors enthusiasts of all stripes, we recommend adding a few of these volumes to your collection—and settling in for an air-conditioned afternoon of visual delight.

Arranging Things (Rizzoli)

Stylist Colin King kicks off Arranging Things with the declaration that “any object can be a thing of beauty.” He uses the rest of the book, written with Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest’s global features director (the foreword is from Robin Standefer of Roman and Williams), to prove that theory true. Throughout the pages of gorgeous photography, King, who has invigorated spaces from Malibu to New York with arrangements of unruly branches and dappled light alike, encourages readers to break out of their comfort zone by challenging them to amplify space constraints, embrace empty space, and unconventionally juxtapose objects to bring new meaning to their everyday environments. —Alia Akkam

Arranging Things (Rizzoli)

At The Artisan’s Table (Vendome)

Loretta Pettway Bennett belongs to a legendary group of makers in Boykin (a.k.a. Gee’s Bend), Alabama, where locals have assembled fabric scraps into improvisational quilts for generations. But on a not too distant evening, her work laid the foundation for community some 800 miles north. At Detroit’s Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum, a space dedicated to African culture, seven of her quilts were draped across outdoor tables, their geometric patterns perfect complements to the mosaic façades of the campus’s N’kisi House. Cinder blocks hand-painted by museum founder Olayami Dabls doubled as vases, mixing with 18th-century silver platters from Bolivia and Peru as well as everyday lawn chairs and drinks coolers. That banquet is one of 18 superlative scenes created for At the Artisan’s Table, a visually transporting tome by Jane Schulak, the founder of Culture Lab Detroit, and party maestro David Stark that explores the intersection of art, craft, and entertaining. Featured artisans range from Roberto Lugo—he made plate portraits specifically for the book—to Max Lamb, whose basalt crockery can also be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “What we make defines who we are,” says Schulak. “Material culture is a celebration of civilization at that time. Each chapter tells those stories.” —Sam Cochran

At The Artisan’s Table (Vendome)

Bold: The Interiors of Drake/Anderson (Rizzoli)

The accomplished AD100 designers Jamie Drake and Caleb Anderson are New York’s dream team. Bold explores the duo’s design pedagogy as they take on spectacular projects around the world. With deep roots in New York City, the book explores how Anderson and Drake merge their unique approaches into authentic and cohesive environments. This book allows the reader to visually explore how the pair adjust to their client’s unique tastes and spaces. From city lofts highlighting impressive views to projects that fold into nature, the team masterfully plays with tactile elements, color, and design. Each chapter captures their eccentric nature and expert ability to create moody interiors. —Andrea Lewis

Bold: The Interiors of Drake/Anderson (Rizzoli)

Charm School: The Schumacher Guide to Traditional Decorating for Today (Monacelli)

Innovation may fuel the design industry, but Charm School is a comforting reminder that timeless interiors will endure. Emma Bazilian and Stephanie Diaz, the content director and art director, respectively, at Frederic magazine and FSCO Media, delve into such old-school design traditions as toile, chintz, bed hangings, slipcovers, and rattan, illustrating how these elements continue to hold contemporary appeal. The chapters are gloriously heavy on visuals, magnifying the likes of Matilda Goad’s denim-swathed breakfast nook and Rita Konig’s former fuchsia-drenched New York bedroom. Archival images also put the spotlight on nostalgic maximalism, including Parish-Hadley’s deft pairing of lucite with a wild strawberry motif. —A.A.

Charm School: The Schumacher Guide to Traditional Decorating for Today (Monacelli)

An Entertaining Life: Designing Town and Country (Vendome)

Designers Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen, partners in life and business, flit between their London apartment in Belgravia and their pastoral Sussex farmhouse. An Entertaining Life, with a foreword courtesy of Bunny Williams, encapsulates that domestic duality through breezy anecdotes. Almost reading like a diary, the book revolves around Moschino and Vergeylen’s weekly rituals—the relaxing Bloody Mary–propelled Sunday lunches in the countryside and late nights in London before retiring to a tranquil primary bedroom done up in white and tan among them—and touches upon some of their projects, spanning Sicily and the Dominican Republic. A smattering of recipes, one of which is for the late fashion designer Bill Blass’s meatloaf, add a quaint touch. —A.A.

An Entertaining Life: Designing Town and Country (Vendome)

Creative Interior Solutions (Rizzoli)

Vicente Wolf, the Cuban-born, veteran New York designer, melds sophistication and simplicity with ease, and Creative Interior Solutions offers a peek into that harmonious world. Written with AD’s own former editor in chief Margaret Russell and featuring a foreword from friend and client Marianne Williamson, the book breaks down 15 of Wolf’s projects organized by five sections—Design Evolutions, Design Challenges, Design Integrations, Design Reinventions, and Design Freedom—including the refresh of a New York apartment on Fifth Avenue that called for repurposing furniture, and dancer Shelley Washington and yoga master David Swenson’s Austin cottage that required a new layout. Wolf closes the chapters with Design Lessons, empowering readers to consider additions like folding screens that play with light and built-in banquettes that free up floor space. —A.A.

Creative Interior Solutions (Rizzoli)

The Elegant Life: Rooms That Welcome and Inspire (Rizzoli)

In this book written by AD100 decorator Alex Papachristidis with AD contributing editor Mitchell Owens, readers will find clues on how to live excellently. Leafing through the pages feels like being swaddled in sumptuousness, but for Papachristidis, elegance is less about overt lavishness and more about thoughtful refinement. In a chapter about a house in the Hamptons, he shares his belief that clients should not necessarily part with their existing furnishings. “Objects that you have lived with and loved forever add a layer of familiarity,” he explains. Elsewhere, Papachristidis deftly juxtaposes classic silhouettes and traditional floor plans with energetic art and youthful splashes of color. The key to living an elegant life, it seems, is ensuring your surroundings are not only beautiful, but also deeply personal. This ethos carries through to the near-final chapter, in which the designer shares his tips for hosting—a practice of using your home as a means to forge deeper connections and intimacy. —Allie Weiss

The Elegant Life: Rooms That Welcome and Inspire (Rizzoli)

Extraordinary Interiors (Monacelli)

Around the office of San Francisco–based firm Tucker & Marks, design principal Suzanne Tucker has earned the nickname of “the client whisperer” for her ability to play archaeologist, anthropologist, and psychologist in her consultations. (On occasion, “mediator” makes the list too.) In her new tome Extraordinary Interiors, readers are treated to the richly layered results of her latest findings: 11 authentically designed and geographically diverse residences, each embedded with personal touches and requests that surfaced during client meetings—or the “excavation process,” as Tucker dubs it. Rife with photography and essays that teach lessons on how to translate client desires into cohesive, compelling settings, the book offers plenty to treasure. —Mel Studach

Extraordinary Interiors (Monacelli)

Haute Bohemians: Greece (Vendome)

Argentine photographer and writer Miguel Flores-Vianna, whose work has made frequent appearances in AD (he collaborated with global editorial director Amy Astley on 2017’s Haute Bohemians), may live in London, but he relishes every visit he makes to Greece. The country first seduced him as a child, and Haute Bohemians: Greece makes it clear why it left such an impression. Readers are transported to stunning locations like Paros, Patmos, and Corfu, where they are beckoned into 19 mesmerizing settings. “I decided that each of these places, whether old or new, lived-in or a historical destination, should be a true representation of those who had created it, an extension of their inhabitants’ lives and one that clearly spoke of the geography of their experiences,” Flores-Vianna writes. Look out for Jasper Conran and Oisin Byrne’s rustic home in Rhodes, stitched together a century ago from a duo of 500-year-old dwellings, or the François Louis Florimond Boulanger-designed Queen’s Tower, outside of Athens, that Amalia of Oldenburg, Greece’s first queen, established in 1835 as her own neo-Gothic-style playground. —A.A.

Haute Bohemians: Greece (Vendome)

House of Lifetime: A Collector’s Journey in Tangier (Rizzoli)

Italian writer and horticulturist Umberto Pasti and photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo rekindle their professional relationship in The House of a Lifetime, a follow-up to 2019’s Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco. This time around, the focus is on Tebarek Allah, the rambling Tangier villa that Pasti and his partner, fashion designer Stephan Janson, bought some three decades ago. There are plenty of museum-quality pieces to ogle in the book, such as 16th-century Mamluk Egyptian carpet fragments and a Tétouan wedding trunk from the 19th century. These treasures are accompanied by Pasti’s insights on local design traditions, from Jbala Berbers’ painted furniture and Fez tiles. In the foreword, landscape architect (and Pasti and Janson’s longtime friend) Madison Cox attests to Tebarek Allah’s magic, which Pasti says boils down to simplicity: “I just put the objects I like in the rooms and when it comes to arranging them I pander to their wishes.” —A.A.

House of Lifetime: A Collector’s Journey in Tangier (Rizzoli)

Inside: At Home With Great Designers (Phaidon)

There may be industries in which, as they say, the shoemaker’s children go barefoot—but interior design does not appear to be one of them. Bearing out the point is this compilation of homes from 60 of the most-loved designers working today, from Jacques Garcia to Joy Moyler. These abodes are true talent showcases, laboratories for experimentation, and repositories for to-die-for collections of furniture and objets amassed over a lifetime. Regular readers of AD will love diving into the lairs of familiar designer power couples like Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch (the founders of Roman and Williams) and Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. Paola Navone’s Milan pad gets a juicy six pages—all the better for showing off her mosaic feature wall and a tremendous fish sculpture the designer sourced in Liguria. “I’m not a collector, I’m a compulsive shopper,” she says. Can’t we all relate? —Lila Allen

Inside: At Home With Great Designers (Phaidon)

Jacques Garcia: A Sicilian Dream: Villa Elena (Rizzoli)

To unravel Sicily’s deep-rooted beauty and intricate history, author Alain Stella looks to the residence of revered interior designer Jacques Garcia. This first look at Garcia’s own home—lovingly referred to as Villa Elena—provides a dreamlike tour through Italy’s wondrous landscapes and diverse cultural aesthetic, not to mention treasures galore from Villa Elena’s hallowed halls. Within the pages of A Sicilian Dream, photographer Bruno Ehrs has shared riveting scenes that open our eyes to Garcia’s profound appreciation for historical design and architecture. Running through all of them is a commitment to historical preservation. Baroque, Renaissance, Norman, and Arabian artifacts melt into Italy’s visual landscape, as well as within Garcia’s opulent saloons, furniture, and art collection. —A.L.

Jacques Garcia: A Sicilian Dream: Villa Elena (Rizzoli)

Japanese Interiors (Phaidon)

Executive features editor of Vogue Japan, Mihoko Iida, explores the style and furnishing of her home country in Japanese Interiors. Featuring contributions from Danielle Demetriou, the book covers 28 homes spanning urban apartments to oceanside getaways and is divided into three distinct sections. Aspirational homes make up the first third, offering a look at magazine-worthy residences that often feature monochromatic and minimalistic designs. The next section looks towards homes that incorporate offices, shops, and even a restaurant, emphasizing multipurpose residences as a continuously evolving part of Japanese design. Historic and iconic homes round out the collection, showcasing historically significant or publicly accessible homes around the country. —Katherine McLaughlin

Japanese Interiors (Phaidon)

Jean-Louis Deniot: Destinations (Rizzoli)

With his new monograph Destinations, French interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot showcases his skillful eye in projects across the world, from Bangkok to New Delhi, Moscow to Miami. In the introductory interview, conducted by curator Pamela Golbin, Deniot explains his guiding principle: “First you have to start by doing justice to the piece of real estate. I think that’s what I love the most: saving houses and apartments,” he explains. “I always have the impression that with architectural integrity comes a sense of serenity.” His taut spaces do indeed provide the perfect campus for more demanding embellishments, from custom patterned carpeting to dependably ornate light fixtures. —Rachel Davies

Jean-Louis Deniot: Destinations (Rizzoli)

John Ike: 9 Houses, 9 Stories (Vendome)

Design is a truly collaborative process, and architect John Ike underscores that approach in John Ike: 9 Houses, 9 Stories. Written with Mitchell Owens, American editor at The World of Interiors, the book surveys nine distinct projects that Ike, a partner at Ike Baker Velten in Oakland, California, worked on in various capacities. (Ike Kligerman Barkley, the firm he cofounded in 1989, dissolved in 2022.) Although each one bears his visionary imprint, Ike does not limit these intriguing narratives to his purview, but rather welcomes his colleagues and clients to share their perspectives. Mia Jung, former director of interiors, weighs in on the Jersey Shore’s Seaside Villa, restoration expert Robert A. Baird discusses the rehab of the late 19th-century Oddfellows Hall in Brooklin, Maine, and contractor Frank DeBono recounts the challenges of a New York Craftsman-style residence. —A.A.

John Ike: 9 Houses, 9 Stories (Vendome)

Lee Broom: Fashioning Design (Rizzoli)

British talent Lee Broom found his way to lighting and furniture design through fashion, first as a 17-year-old intern in the studio of Vivienne Westwood (they met when he won a design competition for which she was the judge) and then as a student at Central Saint Martins. It was a casual proposal to redesign a local bar, during his studies, that shifted Broom onto the design track. Now, 15 years after launching his label of lighting, furniture, and accessories, he is still mining the fashion world for inspiration, as one can see in his first book, Fashioning Design written by journalist Becky Sunshine with texts from fashion-world luminaries: Stephen Jones, Christian Louboutin, Kelly Wearstler, and a note from Westwood herself. The tome examines Broom’s prolific output, perfectionist process (including his own charming doodles and diagrams), and wide-ranging sources of inspiration, proving, as Jones explains, that “what Lee designs is not just a lamp or just a chair, but an object created with a unique character of its own.” —Hannah Martin

Lee Broom: Fashioning Design (Rizzoli)

Making a House a Home: Designing Your Interiors from the Floor Up (Rizzoli)

Initiating a design project, whether it’s a renovation or a brand-new home, is a daunting process—one that prolific lifestyle and design author Susanna Salk simplifies in Making a House a Home. All the key components, from walls and floors to windows and plants, receive attention, helping readers create beautiful, functional rooms through the advice of design experts. Each chapter is peppered with handy tips, like AD100 designer Gil Schafer’s recommendation to elevate bathrooms with furniture. Examples of smart design, including Nina Campbell’s house numbers displayed in sconces and Bunny Williams’s multifunctional bedroom nightstand always dressed with fresh florals, provide further motivation. —A.A.

Making a House a Home: Designing Your Interiors from the Floor Up (Rizzoli)

Messana O’Rorke: Building Blocks (Rizzoli)

An addition to a Colonial-style home in New Jersey; a new Jackson, Wyoming, abode boxed in by community design guidelines; a Nolita storefront for skin care brand Malin + Goetz: Each of these present “obvious” fixes or takes, but in them, Messana O’Rorke opted for only the most creative solutions. Their thoughtfully subdued projects speak for themselves, but the pages of their new monograph are enlivened with the addition of a foreword by Thomas Phifer and an introduction by Mayer Rus, AD’s own West Coast editor. More than two dozen projects appear in the volume, including retail spaces, a spa, many homes, and perhaps most interesting: a New York City rooftop water tank reimagined as a space for relaxation. —R.D.

Messana O’Rorke: Building Blocks (Rizzoli)

Mexican: A Journey Through Design (Vendome)

What is Mexican style? is the question that drives author Newell Turner through this evocative, deliciously visual book. Having held the top-dog role at House Beautiful, along with plum positions at a host of other shelter publications, Turner is something of a legend in the design press. He also happens to be a talented photographer; impressively, he captured more than half of the shots in this volume using his own iPhone (something you’d never guess while poring over their vivid details and ravishing colors). Through these pages, Turner takes readers through different eras of Mexican architecture and art, starting with pre-Columbian artifacts and ending with the present day. After flipping from cover to cover, you’ll have inspiration aplenty—and a newfound urge to travel to Mexico and see its wonders for yourself. —L.A.

Mexican: A Journey Through Design (Vendome)

Montecito Style: Paradise on California’s Gold Coast (Monacelli)

Sitting along California’s central coast, Montecito has long gained a reputation for its rich collection of Mediterranean-style architecture, miles of pristine coastline, and a dense number of high-profile residents—think Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Rob Lowe, and Ariana Grande. In a new book from Monacelli, photographer Firooz Zahedi and writer Lorie Dewhirst Porter, two Montecito locals, take you inside the homes and gardens of this star-studded California enclave. With over 250 images and a foreword by Marc Appleton, the book is a cultivated walk through the history and style of the idyllic seaside community. Featuring everything from Beaux-Arts mansions to sophisticated midcentury-modern homes, there is no one size fits all when it comes to California cool. —K.M.

Montecito Style: Paradise on California’s Gold Coast (Monacelli)

More Is More Is More: Today’s Maximalist Interiors (Rizzoli)

Following his volumes Interior Design Master Class and On Style, marketing whiz and former textile designer Carl Dellatore is making his return with More Is More Is More, an ode to maximal living. Filled with vibrant, exciting interiors from Ken Fulk, Bunny Williams, Corey Damen Jenkins, Redd Kaihoi, and other AD faves, this book offers a portrait of how contemporary designers have made the maximalist style their own. Each chapter contains an essay on a different theme of decorating, from color to surfaces, layering to pattern. Inspiration galore for anyone who believes in going big at home. —L.A.

More Is More Is More: Today’s Maximalist Interiors (Rizzoli)

The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors (Monacelli)

What is old is wonderfully in vogue again. That’s the feeling that permeates Michael Diaz-Griffith’s The New Antiquarians. Diaz-Griffith, executive director of the Design Leadership Network, invites readers into 17 different homes, from New Orleans to London, whose youthful dwellers represent a new generation of thoughtful collectors imaginatively preserving material culture. This movement is especially active in New York, and Diaz-Griffith illuminates it by stepping into various abodes across the city. Fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla and Aaron Singh Aujla of Green River Project, for example, have a soft spot for senior corduroys in their Chinatown loft, while Adam Charlap Hyman of AD100 firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero effortlessly weaves objects like a 19th-century majolica table into his midtown Manhattan apartment. —A.A.

The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors (Monacelli)

Nicola L: Life and Art (Apartamento)

For much of her career, Nicola L., the French artist born in Morocco, was overlooked. But her multidisciplinary oeuvre was pioneering, exploring ideas of gender and identity. In the monograph Nicola L: Life and Art, edited by Architectural Digest’s senior design editor Hannah Martin and Apartamento cofounder Omar Sosa, these works, like the White Femme and Gold Femme commodes in lacquered wood and stained birch, respectively, and Planet Heads #5, a melange of oil paint and newspaper clippings on canvas, get their due. Even more interesting is how they are placed alongside Nicola L’s own words, creating a visual memoir. Her intoxicating reminiscences of time spent in a Lebanese jail and staying at the Hotel Chelsea at the height of 1960s counterculture are balanced with observations from those closest to her, including her sons Christophe and David Lanzenberg. —A.A.

Nicola L: Life and Art (Apartamento)

Patina Modern: A Guide to Creating Warm, Timeless Interiors (Artisan)

What’s the formula for achieving a cozy interior that’s a little of this, but not too much of that? Chris Mitchell and Pilar Guzmán, the New York couple whose tastemaking acumen has earned them features in AD and elsewhere, believe it’s all about “mixing modern design with timeworn materials,” as they write in the foreword of their latest book, Patina Modern. This philosophy is one they’ve learned on their own over the course of seven home renovations—and now, they’re sharing their principles and best practices with the rest of us. Covering everything from timeless material palettes to their nine-point treatise on creating a meaningful, homey space, this is a design book for anyone who believes that rooms should be practical as much as they are aspirational. —L.A.

Patina Modern: A Guide to Creating Warm, Timeless Interiors (Artisan)

Per Amore (Rizzoli)

When Giorgio Armani launched his eponymous luxury label in 1975, he forever transformed the notion of Italian style. In Per Amore, an expansion of the fashion designer’s 2015 autobiography (rolled out in tandem with the brand’s 40-year anniversary), there are riveting images, some of them capturing Armani’s early years in black and white. Even more compelling, however, are Armani’s recollections—his musings on his family, his childhood, and the origins of a fabled career that unfolded in a heady 1960s Milan. But Armani doesn’t just revel in the past. His memories are buoyed by present-day inspirations that reveal an unwavering creativity. —A.A.

Per Amore (Rizzoli)

Shingle and Stone: Thomas Kligerman Houses (Monacelli)

This beautifully photographed volume is a step inside the mind of Thomas Kligerman, one of America’s most renowned living architects. Over more than 40 years in the field, Kligerman has taken the historic, familiar shingle style and made it his own, remixing it with elements of  the Southwest’s puebloan genre. But this is not architecture purely for architecture’s sake: Kligerman’s houses seem imminently livable, if aspirational to most of us. This tour through his portfolio will immerse readers in homes from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Martha’s Vineyard and the Pacific Northwest, and offers eloquent accompaniment through the delightful writing of Kligerman and AD alum Mitchell Owens. Prepare to be transported. —L.A.

Shingle and Stone: Thomas Kligerman Houses (Monacelli)

Stephen Sills: A Vision for Design (Rizzoli)

For his third book, AD100 designer Stephen Sills aimed to create what he called a “teaching book,” one that would demystify the process by which impeccably decorated rooms come into existence. More than just a compendium of beautiful pictures, this volume’s essays and captions gather Sills’s thoughts on the arts of decorating and architecture as well as on the spaces—primary, functional, and connective—that comprise a home. It also features in-depth chapters on several recent projects, each starting with a moodboard showing the initial inspiration for the final look. Readers also get to go inside Sills’s own homes: his New York City apartment and Bedford, New York, country retreat, both of which function as canvases on which he experiments with new ideas. With text by fellow AD100 designer—and erudite design writer—David Netto, as well as an introductory essay by longtime client Tina Turner and a chat on gardens with friend and neighbor Martha Stewart, this is indeed a book to learn from and be inspired by. —Shax Riegler

Stephen Sills: A Vision for Design (Rizzoli)

Suzanne Kasler: Edited Style (Rizzoli)

For designer Suzanne Kasler, the word editing isn’t synonymous with elimination. Rather, “When I use the word editing to describe my approach, I mean I am working to put together a house that looks collected, reflects the personality of the owners through the things they choose to live with, and at the same time elevates the overall design,” she shares within her new monograph, Edited Style. While Kasler’s traditional interiors—elegantly composed without an air of fussiness—have their signature elements (think antiques scoured from the Paris Flea Market; soft, serene color palettes; an oh-so-sweet scenic wallpaper from Gracie or de Gournay), the designer’s true mastery is in making each client’s personal collections shine. This and more is seen throughout this book’s 14 featured home tours. A favorite? The revived interiors of Kasler’s own Atlanta home, where she beautifully displays her glistering collection of Eiffel Tower miniatures. —M.S.

Suzanne Kasler: Edited Style (Rizzoli)

Think Like A Decorator: To Create a Comfortable, Original, and Stylish Home (Rizzoli)

Leslie Banker’s mother was the celebrated designer Pamela Banker (they wrote The Pocket Decorator and The Pocket Renovator together), and in 1999, Leslie helped Pamela relaunch her firm, working with her until Pamela’s death in 2013. Later, Leslie started her own eponymous New York practice, and to this day it’s guided by some of her mother’s impactful philosophies. One of those lessons is that all good design is rooted in storytelling—and now that advice, along with how to anchor a room, develop a furniture plan, and avoid pitfalls, is packed in Think Like a Decorator. Q&A interviews with fellow designers like Corey Damen Jenkins, Lilly Bunn, and Alexa Hampton, who also penned the foreword, present even more enlightening takeaways. —A.A.

Think Like A Decorator: To Create a Comfortable, Original, and Stylish Home (Rizzoli)

Tino Zervudachi: Interiors Around the World (Rizzoli)

After training with British decorator David Mlinaric, Tino Zervudachi moved to Paris in 1990, where he soon became renowned for his lavish interiors that fuse a respect for architecture and lifestyle. Tino Zervudachi: Interiors Around the World, his second book with Natasha A. Fraser (they also collaborated on 2012’s Tino Zervudachi: A Portfolio) highlights such dreamy projects as the neglected neo-Renaissance Austrian villa he enlivened with a staircase and marbleized columns, the New Delhi palace filled with custom furniture that evokes Indian tradition, and the early 19th-century Belgravia corner building, once a London office, that he overhauled with dado paneling and antique fireplaces. But these sweeping moves were all grounded in practicality. As British photographer Derry Moore writes of Zervudachi in the foreword, “He has an outstanding gift for making interior spaces work, which in the final analysis is far more important than the decoration of a place, since if the overall design is poor the decoration can only mask the shortcomings, not remedy them.” —A.A.

Tino Zervudachi: Interiors Around the World (Rizzoli)

The Ultimate Bath (Rizzoli)

From Waterworks cofounder Barbara Sallick—and author of the critically acclaimed The Perfect Bath and The Perfect Kitchen—comes The Ultimate Bath, a volume that details the sumptuous style and serenity of the bathroom. Written by design journalist and AD contributor Marc Kristal with a foreword from Waterworks CEO Peter Sallick, the book celebrates the unexpected, with 150 photos sure to inspire its design aficionado readers. Its chapters are dedicated to a distinguished cast of the top architects and interior designers working today, including names like Ray Booth and AD’s October cover star Nate Burkus. From retreats overlooking garden paradises to cozy alcoves lined with bookshelves, the curation brims with timelessness, intrigue, and charm. —Livia Caligor

The Ultimate Bath (Rizzoli)

Under the Sun: Around the World in 21 Houses (Rizzoli)

Roland Beaufre immerses readers in a tropical wonderland in his debut monograph Under the Sun: Around the World in 21 Houses. The internationally renowned interiors photographer—who’s contributed to The World of Interiors, Vogue, and Marie Claire Maison, just to name a few—invites us into the sun-washed abodes of creatives around the globe. Seductive, enchanting, and evocative, the photographs bring us into these exclusive private retreats. From Deborah Turbeville’s fashion editorial backdrop in San Miguel de Allende to Farah Pahlavi’s Iranian-style palace in Taroudan, Morocco, the homes that Beaufre photographs reflect the extraordinary imaginations and histories of their residents. The nuanced and captivating photography is accompanied by forewords penned by Rupert Thomas and the founders of Studio Peregalli. —L.C.

Under the Sun: Around the World in 21 Houses (Rizzoli)

Venice and the Doges: Six Hundred Years of Architecture, Monuments, and Sculpture (Rizzoli)

A scholarly air suffuses Venice and the Doges, by Francesco “Toto” Bergamo Rossi, head of the Venetian Heritage Foundation. Venice is synonymous with art, but usually it’s the Renaissance paintings that first spring to mind. This handbook urges readers to investigate Venetian sculptural masterpieces, some of them dating back to the 13th century, through the lens of the city’s rich doge history. Beginning with Tribuno Menio (or Memmo) in AD 991 and ending with Ludavico Manin, the final doge, in 1789 through 1797, Rossi uncovers monumental sculptures by artists and architects like Baldassare Longhena, Antonio Rizzo, and Jacopo Sansovino that grace the city’s churches. The volume includes an introduction by Count Marino Zorzi, Matteo De Fina’s photographs, and contributions from Diane von Furstenberg and Peter Marino. —A.A.

Venice and the Doges: Six Hundred Years of Architecture, Monuments, and Sculpture (Rizzoli)

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The post 33 Inspiring Design Books to Add to Your Cart Now appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This article is part of our special design section, dedicated to making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes.

Interior design, an art form susceptible to the changing tastes of owners and the foibles of fabrics and wallpaper, is often appreciated only fleetingly or with hindsight. Several recent books capture this evanescence in the spirits of an abandoned craft community, the inspirations of a 20th-century maverick, the rocking decks of floating homes, and the ever-evolving ambience of plant-filled spaces.

Viking ship prows and Scandinavian wildlife were among the favorite subjects of a short-lived artisan cooperative called Elverhoj (pronounced el-ver-hoy), founded in 1912 on the west bank of the Hudson River north of Newburgh, NY “Elverhoj: The Arts and Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson” (Black Dome Press$35, 218 p.), by scholars William B. Rhoads and Leslie Melvin, is the first in-depth study of this ambitious, long-forgotten endeavor. Led by Anders H. Andersen, a Danish immigrant, the residents of Elverhoj built ramshackle cottages and offered copperwork, silverware, opal jewellery, leather book bindings and textiles, among other things. They decorated chandeliers with dragon heads, sculpted oak leaves and plump flower petals on metal teapots and inkwells, and wove portraits of polar bears into tapestries. Ruins of the colony’s buildings can be found in the woods, and among the poignant surviving archival materials is Mr. Andersen’s sketch from the 1930s, when bankruptcy threatened, of a trio of dagger-wielding creditor rolls.

“Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer” (Rizzoli$65, 304 p.), by historian Scott Powell, examines some 60 commissions made by the Milwaukee-born heiress to the manufacture between the 1920s and 1950s. For commercial, institutional and residential clients, she clad walls in goatskin and framed fireplaces with mirrors and lapis slabs. She collaborated with luminaries such as Syrie Maugham, Marion Dorn, Dorothy Liebes, Alberto Giacometti and Jean-Michel Frank to specify teal and tangerine upholstery, mermaid murals and creamy fluted rugs. She turned glass pillars into gossamer balustrades and spiraled up a red-carpeted staircase around a stack of clear plastic spheres. Plaster hands served as mounts on her fringed, plaid curtains. Male colleagues did not dare to contradict the resourceful, intimidating businesswoman. “She’d run you over in nowhere,” one architect told an interviewer years after he and Ms. Elkins filled a boxy San Francisco home with red carpets and black-and-white leafy textiles.

In “Making Waves: Floating Houses and Life on the Water” (Thames & Hudson$40, 224 p.), British stylist Portland Mitchell reveals the benefits and horrors of occupying offshore flats. In their 20 case studies from 10 countries, homeowners describe how they avoid waves from ferry traffic and survive typhoons “when the sea flies around you”. Basic tasks, like cleaning hull rivets, can cause splashing leaks and doom and gloom. About a third of the dwellings in the book were built for living, and the remainder were converted from barges and other seagoing craft. Compact rooms are clad in blond plywood, recycled teak, metal panels, or psychedelic textiles. Respondents share a preference for catchy house names like Soggybottom Shanty. They are also united in their fondness of pipe-hanging lights and wraparound decks for wildlife viewing. “Once we saw a gray heron surfing on a magpie,” recalls a resident of a former speedboat in Germany.

Plant and interior designer, artist and author Hilton Carter wittily explains parallel patterns found in nature and in home furnishings “Living Wild: How to Decorate Your Home with Plants and Cultivate Happiness” (Cico books$45, 224 p.). Mottled begonias and leathery philodendrons play with bouclé and cowhide upholstery in his family’s home in Baltimore and his projects for private and commercial clients. Stripy monstera are perched on marble mantels and plinths, and wheeled planters make it easy to move plants to where they can soak up sunlight. Amidst his step-by-step green-fingered tutorials — like sprinkling sharp pebbles on soil to scare off curious cats — he points out his visual puns and shares the joy of his job. At a restaurant famous for fish tacos, he hung a herringbone cactus resembling a fish vertebra in a terra-cotta pot from the ceiling, “drawing its jagged, zigzagging foliage downward.” Installing a coffee plant on a kitchen counter, he writes, “Yes, I took it literally… But wait, I’m not done yet. I also made sure the planter was cream colored. Oh yes, watch me work!”

The post 4 Books That Supply a Bouquet of Design Inspiration appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Bay Area authors have been springing up new books everywhere.

Get new sci-fi works from visionary Annalee Newitz, a cultural depth across time from best-selling author Jenny Odell, and a cookbook from Hog Island Oyster Co. so we can be self-sufficient at home.

Here’s our selection of current and upcoming books by Bay Area authors.

The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma

(Courtesy of @ktlee.writes)

The latest article by San Francisco author Kathryn Ma tells the story of 18-year-old Shelley, born into a despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province, who lives in the shadow of his widowed father’s grief and dreams of greater things. Fueled by an overflowing heart and his cousin Deng’s great stories about the United States, Shelley makes his way to SF to claim his destiny, confident that all hurdles will be overcome by the awe-inspiring powers of the “Chinese groove,” a belief of the unspoken bonds, easily transcended between compatriots who transcend time and borders.

Kirkus Reviews says, “Ma knows how to twist a storyline in unexpected, deeply satisfying directions by writing with compassion, humor, and insight.”

Ma is the author of the widely acclaimed novel The Year She Left Us, which was named Editors’ Choice and NPR’s Great Read of the Year by the New York Times.

// $27; counterpointpress.com

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

(Courtesy of @thespineofmotherhood)

From Bay Area sci-fi visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, an immersive, uplifting and insightful exploration of the future. The Washington Post says: “The reader … will surely walk away stunned and blinded … [Newitz] has given us a vivid, whimsical vision of endless potential earned through heroism, love, and wit.”

Destry’s life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the environmental rescue team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning ecosystems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they are building is jeopardized when Destry discovers a city full of people who shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she learns more about her past, Destry begins to question the mission she has dedicated her life to and must make a decision that will resonate with Sask-E’s future for generations to come.

In addition to writing novels, Newitz is a co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct, a freelance science writer, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, and a columnist at New Scientist.

// $29; us.macmillan.com

Sorry Bro by Taleen Voskuni

(Courtesy of @booksbookseverwhere)

San Francisco author Taleen Voskuni’s debut novel is a heartfelt queer rom-com about an Armenian-American woman rediscovering her roots and embracing who she really is.

When Nareh Bedrossian’s non-Armenian boyfriend gets on his knees in front of a room full of drunk San Francisco tech boys and proposes to her, she realizes it’s time to find someone who shares her idea of ​​romance. Enter Her Mom: Armed with plenty of mother guilt and a chart of Armenian men who are followed by Facebook, she persuades Nar to attend Explore Armenia, a month-long series of events in the city. But it’s not the mother-sworn playboy doctor or wealthy engineer that catches Nar’s attention — it’s Erebuni, a woman as absorbed in witchcraft as she is in preserving Armenian identity. With Erebuni as her wingwoman, events suddenly feel less like a chore and much more like an adventure. Who would have thought that cooking Kufte together could be so sexy?

Bookriot says, “Arguably one of the best book titles of this year, ‘Sorry Bro’ is equal parts funny, serious and full of Armenian culture with romance to flourish.”

// $17; penguinrandomhouse.com

Saving Time: Discovering Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell

(Courtesy of @jennitaur)

Oakland artist and author Jenny Odell, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Do Nothing, believes we’re living on the wrong clock and that it’s destroying us. Her new book offers us multiple ways to experience time in this dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful book.

In her first book, Odell wrote about the importance of breaking away from the “attention economy” to spend time in quiet contemplation. But what if you don’t have time? To answer this seemingly simple question, Odell delved deep into the basic fabric of our society and discovered that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people. For this reason, even in our free time, our life seems like a series of moments to be bought, sold and processed more and more efficiently. Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably linked not only to ongoing social injustices, but also to the climate crisis, existential anxiety and a deadly fatalism.

Rebecca Solnit says: “Inviting us to leave the superhighways and explore the scenic detours, back roads, rebel camps and other visions of who we can be, this immensely generous new book reminds us that there is more to slowness than being Speed.”

// $29, falls in March 2023; penguinrandomhouse.com

The Hog Island Book of Fish and Seafood by John Ash and Ashley Lima

(Courtesy of @hoislandoysterco)

It’s always the right time for oysters. Featuring favorites from the kitchens of Hog Island Oyster Bars and other talented chefs committed to the company’s sustainability ethos, this cookbook showcases more than 250 dishes from cuisines around the world, including regional favorites like SF Cioppino, Southern Crayfish étouffée and New England Clam Soup.

Presenting a variety of cooking methods – such as steaming, roasting, grilling, pan frying, salting – along with illustrated techniques such as shucking oysters, opening clams and filleting fish, this authoritative cookbook guides you through the basics of seafood preparation. And the extensive list of sauces, butters and condiments will help transform your seafood selection into a standout dish. The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood is a master class from award-winning chef John Ash, teaching home cooks and professional chefs how to bring culinary gifts from the water to the table with the utmost perfection.

// $40, falls in May 2023; abramsbooks.com

​Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails inspired by the world of Eddie Muller’s Film Noir

(Courtesy Running Press)

Eddie Muller, second-generation San Francisco and host of TCM’s Noir Alley, is one of the world’s foremost authorities on film noir and a cocktail connoisseur. In his new book, cineastes and drinks enthusiasts alike experience a spirited tour through the “dark city” of film noir.

The Noir Bar combines carefully curated classic cocktails and modern noir-inspired drinks with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insights into 50 film noir favorites. Some of the cocktails are straight out of the movies: if you’ve seen In a Lonely Place and wondered what’s in a horse’s neck, now you know. If you watch Pickup on South Street, you’ll find out what its director, Sam Fuller, actually drank off-screen. Didn’t you know that Nightmare Alley’s Joan Blondell inspired a cocktail? It could become a new favorite.

Featuring dozens of film stills, poster art, behind-the-scenes pictures and stunning cocktail photography, Noir Bar is both a stylish and exciting journey through classic cinema’s most popular genre.

// $26, drop May 2023; runningpress.com

The post 6 Spring Books by Bay Space Authors appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

We’ve made it through winter, and as a reward, there are dozens of fantastic new books awaiting us this spring — truly, you could find a new appealing book for every flowering tree on your block.

These next few months are packed with thrilling debuts and welcome returns — a delicious mix of literary fiction, juicy romances, clever speculative fiction, and eerie murder mysteries. There are wise, spooky stories from House of Cotton by Monica Brashears to Greek Lessons by Han Kang, super fun romps from Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy to Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum, and a few stand-out, personal nonfiction entries: Heidi Julavits’ Directions to Myself, Nicole Chung’s A Living Remedy, and Samantha Leach’s The Elissas. Fans of feminist, speculative fiction will devour My Murder by Katie Williams and Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs. Anyone interested in stories about sex work can turn to Emma Cline’s novel The Guest or Sophia Giovannitti’s memoir Working Girl: On Selling Art and Selling Sex. A handful of novels mix queer longing with the surreal (The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher, Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis, and All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky), and for those who love a good skewering, there are at least two media-industry satires (Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst) and at least one extraordinary art critique (Monsters by Claire Dederer).

Book lovers are blessed with many months’ worth of reading in this promising new set.

1

House of Cotton

April 4

Mythic, agile, and alluring all at once, this novel begins when a broke and lonesome 19-year-old, Magnolia, accepts an oily stranger’s curious but lucrative job offer: to “model” as recently deceased women at his family’s funeral home, in an attempt to give closure to their families. The slippery relationship between the living and the dead only gets more haunted from here. Brashears writes about Black Appalachia with a provocative incandescence.

2

Natural Beauty

April 4

In Ling Ling Huang’s confident debut, the author taps into her own experience as a professional violinist to write about a young musician who dreams of playing piano with the world’s most elite orchestras — only to find herself shunted into a job at a swanky beauty store.

3

A Living Remedy

April 4

Nicole Chung returns with a memoir about family, loss, and love. Set mostly during the early days of the COVID pandemic, A Living Remedy addresses the heartbreak of sick parents, healthcare insecurity, and the faltering American middle-class. Chung writes with empathy and righteous rage about the most painful of subjects: “Sickness and grief throw wealthy and poor families alike into upheaval, but they do not transcend the gulfs between us, as some claim — if anything, they often magnify them.”

4

Enter Ghost

April 4

Titled after a stage direction in Hamlet — “enter GHOST” — Hammad’s second novel begins when Sonia, a Palestinian actor living in London, finally returns home for a long-delayed family visit and to act in a West Bank production of the play. Sonia is tough and sophisticated (she plans a matching blue lingerie set for the border control she knows will unfairly strip-search her at the Israeli border), and Hammad’s prose is just as exquisite and wise as her main character.

5

Romantic Comedy

April 4

This plucky, effervescent novel delivers on its titular promise: Romantic Comedy is indeed romantic and funny. The story is centered around an SNL-stand-in sketch show TNO (short for The Night Owls) and one of its staff writers: the cynical, clever, and barbed Sally Milz. She composes a sketch about how the men of TNO often date gorgeous, famous women, but she’s never seen one of the women writers date any hunky dude celebrities. Will the next TNO host/musical guest — a charmingly cheesy, long-haired singer — change this pattern?

6

Fire Rush

April 4

Set in the early ‘80s reggae club scene on the outskirts of London, Fire Rush centers on Yamaye, a young woman who finds solace in the pulsing beats of dance halls. When a series of violent incidents threaten her community, Yamaye journeys to the Bristol underground and to Jamaica, where she finally faces her past. From the get, Fire Rush is rhythmic and riveting.

7

Old Flame

April 11

Hinging around an unplanned pregnancy, Old Flame is (of course) about big decisions, but it’s also about the little ones. Prentiss creates a portrait flush with life — a life of persistent ambitions, friendships and motherhood, the promise of new beginnings, and the whiplash of old returns. Old Flame is a novel about how we organize our lives and keep true to ourselves.

8

Adelaide

April 18

In this romance, an American woman moves to “dreamy London,” where she falls in love with an Englishman who’s horrible at texting. Will his in-person charms be enough to salvage their relationship? Not likely!

9

Greek Lessons

April 18

In Greek Lessons, two characters connect over their losses: one has lost his vision, the other her capacity for language. They’re haunted — as Kang writes of the speechless Greek teacher, “words and sentences track her like ghosts” — but together they manage to create something new. Spare and deceptively tranquil, Greek Lessons maintains its startling precision throughout.

10

The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America

April 18

The Forgotten Girls is a memoir about how place shapes people. As children, Potts and her best friend — two smart, book-hungry girls — would look at a map and promise to escape their very religious, tumultuous Ozarks community; as adults, only one of them would make it out of their town.

11

The Skin and Its Girl

April 25

On the first page of this book, a baby is born with vivid, cobalt blue skin. Across the world from the baby’s home in the Pacific Northwest, her family’s legacy — a centuries-old soap factory — is destroyed by an airstrike in Palestine. Poetic, queer, and highly inventive, The Skin and Its Girl is an enchanting, memorable story.

12

Rosewater

April 25

When the main character is a poet, you know you’re in for a lyrical, keenly-observed novel. In Rosewater, that character is Elsie: she’s a queer, funny, and very tired poet-slash-bartender who’s sleeping with her coworker. When Elsie is unexpectedly evicted from her apartment, she reconnects with her childhood friend, Juliet, and finds that all her yearning might just lead her back to where she started.

13

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma

April 25

The rare polemic that’s full of greedy love for the good stuff in this world, Monsters is an expansion of Dederer’s instant classic Paris Review essay from 2017, “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men.” With a larger canvas, she lets both her cast of monsters and our culpability grow, and manages to one-up herself over and over again. Cooly pensive on an overheated subject, Dederer writes powerfully about art’s ability to move us, teach us, and entrap us.

14

Homebodies

May 2

This media industry satire stars a fantastic protagonist: Mickey Hayward, a queer Black writer who has bravery and wit in spades. His story, as the title Homebodies suggests, is intimate and personable — and it also includes a riveting scandal.

15

Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures

May 9

Connie Wang’s memoir examines her relationship with her “stubborn and charismatic” mother, as the pair go on an Eat, Pray, Love-style joyride around the world. From taking edibles in Amsterdam, to visiting “restaurants the size of department stores” in Jinan China, to shuffling through Versailles to visiting a Magic Mike strip spectacular in Las Vegas, this mother-daughter duo are an irresistible pair.

16

The Guest

May 16

This book is chilling and dangerous-feeling, like a gust of wind from a car driving a little too close to you. In The Guest, a calculating but myopic young grifter has several days to kill in the Hamptons before her much older lover’s summer party. Her main tasks are (1) finding a place to sleep and (2) running from the consequences of her actions. As she paints a vicious portrait of avoidance, Cline reveals herself as a master illustrator of the poor decision: “A bad idea had its own relentless logic, a momentum that was queasy but also correct.”

17

Berlin

May 16

In Berlin, a brilliant young liar named Daphne moves from England to Berlin to study German, fib about her philosophy degree, and indulge in the fantastic tumult of her extraordinary mind. The protagonist contends with creepy stalkers, big pangs of loneliness, chaotic nascent friendships, the emotional ravages of eating disorders, and good old existential angst. And still, the novel fizzes with insight and excruciatingly funny jokes!

18

The Postcard

May 16

The Postcard opens with the arrival of — your instincts are right — a postcard. It’s vulnerable and daring form of communication: “bare like those teenage girls who run around with exposed arms and no coat in the wintertime.” And from there, this French novel continues to supply nimble and unexpected truths.

19

Dykette

May 16

A face-off between three queer couples in a contained country home? There’s a whiff of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in this wry, horny battle-of-the-lovers, and also the sensation of piecing together some gossip on Instagram. Dykette makes a strong case for mixing goofiness with sexiness in contemporary fiction.

20

Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

May 16

In her debut memoir, Jane Wong recalls coming of age in the late 1980s on the Jersey Shore, frying crab rangoon and playing in the walk-in fridge in her family’s Chinese restaurant. In this “love song of the Asian American working class,” Wong writes with candor, vexation, and compassion, reminiscing about food (oranges “the size of small planets”), family (“a waltz of kin”), youth (Bath & Body Works glitter hand gel, a “chandelier of blinding beauty”), and Atlantic City (“steel blue, the color of whales they’ll never see”).

21

Girl Juice

May 23

This graphic novel is led by Bunny— a bossy, funny, sex-brained hero who lives by the motto, to stay hot and simple forever. She and her three housemates are like a filthier, gig-economy-era Sex and the City foursome. Naturally, there are antics at every turn.

22

Yellowface

May 23

Fantasy writer R. F. Kuang comes for the publishing world in this satire. Yellowface begins with two literary pals from Yale who’ve achieved starkly different levels of success: Chinese-American Athena Lui publishes best-sellers that Netflix thirsts over, while “basic white girl” June Hayward can barely swing a deal for her debut novel. When Athena dies, with June as the only witness, she makes a plan to pass off Athena’s new script (about Chinese laborers in WWI) as her own and pretends to be an Asian-American woman. Haunting, twisty, and audacious!

23

Bad Summer People

May 23

Gossipy, summer fun has landed on the salty beaches of Fire Island. Starting in the manner of a The White Lotus season with a body washed ashore by the ocean, Bad Summer People proceeds to introduce a set of moneyed, manipulative white folks, whose lives are immediately upended. But don’t worry: their affairs and machinations continue apace. Spritzed with flinty observations of beach-goers “methodically sipping their wines,” Rosenblum’s created a delicious, dishy trip of a novel.

Editor’s note: Rosenblum is the chief content officer of BDG, which owns Bustle.

24

The Late Americans

May 23

In The Late Americans, Taylor explores the blush-inducing intricacies of social interactions. Over the course of a year, Taylor follows a wide cast of characters (meatpacking workers, mathematicians, poets, and landlords) as they court, provoke, confront, and encircle each other. It’s a dextrous illustration of complex people with even more complex desires.

25

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

May 30

As its punchy title suggests, Törzs’ speculative fiction is confident and powerful. Ink Blood Sister Scribe centers two half-sisters who continue their family’s tradition of guarding a collection of ancient, magic texts. It’s an enchanting book about enchanted books.

26

Horse Barbie

May 30

This memoir’s title, Horse Barbie, comes from the nickname Rocero’s beauty pageant competitors bestowed on her during adolescence — a name inspired by her long neck and hair, dark skin, and striking physique. Rocero’s story covers her childhood in the Philippines, her days as a nationally-adored trans model, her closeted modeling career in the U.S. — and her coming out and subsequent trans advocacy. She writes with vivid, swift prose about a thrilling, brave life.

27

Working Girl: On Selling Art and Selling Sex

May 30

This memoir about a young artist looking for a solution to her “near categorical hatred of work” begins with the author trying sex work, and couching it as part of her artistic practice. As Giovannitti writes: “Making art can justify a recklessness that making money doesn’t.” Giovannitti writes with candor and complexity about a life at the center of two of her greatest cultural preoccupations: sex and capitalism.

28

Pageboy

June 6

Spanning summer nights at queer bars to icky red carpet glamor, Pageboy details Page’s coming into queerness and his trans identity, plumbing the depths of performance, authenticity, and personal truth.

29

Everything’s Fine

June 6

When Jess starts as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, she’s overlooked, underestimated, and made to feel existentially lonely as the only Black woman on the floor. Unexpectedly, she finds support from her white, conservative college enemy: Josh. As their romance takes shape, Jess comes into a political awakening.

30

My Murder

June 6

Speculative, comic fiction built around a feminist critique of the control of women’s bodies: what a mix! In My Murder, Lou is brought back to life by a government project after dying at the hands of a serial killer. Now, in addition to continuing her marriage and caring for her child, Lou still has to figure out the mystery of her murder. It’s a lot to put on one person, even if she is a clone!

31

The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia

June 6

In this heartbreaking nonfiction project, Leach tries to understand the death of her childhood friend Elissa, who was sent to an institution for troubled teens during her high school years. The story expands to include Elissa’s two friends, Alyssa and Alissa, who would also later die by suicide. Leach’s “attempt to make sense of the senseless” is a personal, carefully-crafted examination, and it doesn’t flinch as it approaches the distressed heart of American culture.

Editor’s note: Leach is Bustle’s entertainment editor-at-large.

32

Loot

June 13

A talented young carpenter is hired to carve a huge tiger automaton at a palace, to celebrate India’s return from British captivity. Heists, the legacy of colonialism, and the creative maturity of an artist: Loot has it all.

33

The Mythmakers

June 13

In Keziah Weir’s controlled, tense debut novel, a floundering young journalist reads an excerpt from a book by a successful novelist — and it’s about her! The Mythmakers follows her as she untangles her long-ago meeting with the author and tries to understand his life, asking all the while, “who gets to tell a story?”

34

Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years

June 27

This is a memoir about navigation in every sense. When rape allegations surface on the college campus where she teaches, Julavits investigates how to raise her young son to be the best possible young man. Julavits pairs this exploration with memories of herself as a youth, sailing on the jagged coast of Maine. As always, Julavits writes with sparkling insight and stunning clarity.

35

Ripe

July 11

Sarah Rose Etter’s Ripe begins with an evisceration of contemporary San Francisco, laid to waste by the tech industry. The protagonist is just a year into a coveted job at a startup and already dependent on cocaine and extreme compartmentalization. She’s also continually haunted by a black hole — a sucking void that hovers next to her whenever the “melancholy gets too great.” This surreal book makes images as real as anything else; as Etter writes: “There is safety in metaphors. The truth is far more terrifying.”

36

All-Night Pharmacy

July 11

All-Night Pharmacy reads like an endless Los Angeles party: aglow with fervency and bursting with drugs, sex, desperate actors, energy healers, strippers, and eccentrics. At its heart, the book is a twinned character portrait of two sisters on the edge of adulthood. It’s stylish and smart — its gloss only hints to its depth, like the uncanny glisten of a see-through acrylic nail.

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The post 36 Finest New Books Of Spring & Summer time 2023, From Novels To Memoirs appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Lclockdown was, among other things, a sudden collective experiment in volume control. Sound waves from the regular rush-hour thrum of cities usually penetrate more than a kilometer below the Earth’s surface. When Covid-19 forced humans inside, seismologists noticed the muzak of their subterranean instruments was quieted. The ancient rock of our planet came nearer to the silence that it had known for nearly all of the first 4bn years of its existence. And the relative stillness was felt on the surface, too. People noticed voices from beyond the human world a little more readily, and those voices felt less need to shout to be heard. Scientists in San Francisco discovered that the city’s sparrows reverted to softer and lower pitched songs of a kind not heard since the invention of the freeway.

Biology professor David George Haskell’s often wonderful book is all about listening to those kinds of lost frequencies. It is a sort of rigorous scientific update on that 1960s imperative to “tune in and turn on”: a reminder that the narrow aural spectrum on which most of us operate, and the ways in which human life is led, blocks out the planet’s great , orchestral richness. Haskell’s previous acclaimed book, The Forest Unseen, was a thrillingly curious investigation of the life of one square meter of ancient Tennessee woodland. This new volume gives you the experience of closing your eyes in such a space and having your senses flooded with the background cacophony.

David George Haskell.

It took our sun a good while, Haskell argues, to work out the means of filling the planet with sound. Eventually it discovered the cymbal crash of life. A microphone in a muted laboratory can pick up the sounds of colonies of bacteria. When these are amplified and played back to the bacterial cultures they grow at an accelerated rate, detecting the noise through cell walls. No one knows how or why. Bacteria had this ultimate chill-out playlist to itself for nearly 2bn years. The first sea creatures were voiceless. The evolutionary quirk that set life on the road to hearing was a “tiny wiggly hair”, a cilium on a cell membrane that allowed organisms to “hear” eddies and changes in water flow that might help them to locate food. Haskell traces, beautifully and brilliantly, the stages from that development to the wonders of human and animal hearing – all the infinite serial interactions between communication and reception. “When we marvel at springtime birdsong, or the vigor of chorusing insects and frogs on a summer evening,” he writes, “we are immersed in the wondrous legacy of the ciliary hair.”

Crickets and their ancient relatives were among the prime movers in this evolutionary soundscape. Immersing himself in the mechanics and music of insect song, Haskell transports his reader to imagine the first instruments and notation: he examines the fossil tracery of prototype grasshopper wings, preserved in Permian rock, which clearly reveal the shift from a flat surface to one with an unusual ridge, the gene genie mutation that allowed the insect to create and amplify its sawing sound. Such discoveries lead Haskell to all sorts of places: the development of echolocation, the “hearing feet” of certain species, the insatiable human need to recreate and delight in Caliban’s isle “full of noises”, and the ways in which technology – from antler -horn pipes to reed instruments to digital soundtracks – has often advanced in creating through rhythm and music.

The calls of whales and dolphins can get lost in the ‘sonic fog’ of ships’ engines. Mating and distress calls go unheard

The earliest ears of all species were on high alert for novelty – just like teenagers hungry for the newest beats. Some corners of the animal world are richer with this kind of innovation than others. Humpback whales, Haskell writes, concentrate their hit factory in “an innovation zone” off the coast of Australia, where new calls are developed and tested. Once established, the latest humpback songs will have spread throughout the oceans within a few months. Tragically, evidence suggests, this natural wonder has met with brutal interference in recent years: the calls of whales and dolphins can get lost in the “sonic fog” produced by container ships’ engines. Mating and distress calls go unheard. And oil prospectors’ sonic surveys, producing underwater decibel explosions every minute, are thought to have forced whales – enormously sensitive hearing creatures – out of the ocean to escape the torture.

Human noise pollution is everywhere on land and Haskell’s investigation into natural sound often takes on the tone of a valedictory lament. He goes in search of wild places – forests at dawn, riverbanks at evening – where the diversity of bird and insect noise is at its overwhelming richest, and contrasts them with the eerie silent springs of pesticide-scoured agrarian landscapes. The ambition to tell the history of our planet through description of sound is given a profound urgency by these chapters. Meanwhile, the sense of what is being lost is revealed in how even the thesaurus of Haskell’s descriptive language struggles to keep up with the nuance and variety of the musical world. You often sense him, as he attempts to convey in words what he is hearing, in the position of Keats: no match for the nightingale.

Sounds Wild and Broken by David George Haskell is published by Faber (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

The post Sounds Wild and Damaged assessment – a transferring paean to Earth’s fraying soundtrack | Science and nature books appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The Chicago Fall Event – Potter & Potter Auctions was a best seller in every way. The last time the hammer fell, 98 lots fetched $ 750 to $ 2,499. 23 lots fetched $ 2,500 to $ 9,999; and four lots broke the five-digit mark. The prices shown include the buyer’s commission of 20% of the company.

Museum quality art, paintings and prints participated in this exciting sale.
• Lot # 630, Le Pigeonneau by Pablo Picasso, was valued at $ 10,000-15,000 and traded for a staggering $ 37,500. This hand-colored and signed artist’s proof from 1939 was printed by Robert Blanchet in Paris and accompanied by two certificates of authenticity.
• Lot # 605, David Hockey’s framed Ossie and Mo, was valued at $ 1,000-2,000 and made $ 4,800 – nearly five times its low estimate! This signed work was numbered 4/75, printed on Chisbrook handmade paper by Maurice Payne, and published in 1968 by Petersburg Press.
• Lot # 581, William Adolphe Bouguereau’s beautifully rendered study of a brunette woman’s head, returned $ 14,400. These signed pastel works on board included the original gallery tags Galerie Drouant-David and Galerie Percier Paris

Important books from the century and millennium also made for heated commandments and impressive results.
• Lot No. 6, a second edition of Charles Darwin’s On Creation of Species Through Natural Selection or Conservation of Preferred Races in the Fight for Life, was valued at $ 8,000-10,000 and sold for $ 11,400. It was published in London in 1860 by John Murray. This example had 1860 printed on it and “five thousand” on the front page; There are around two copies of the first edition with an overprint from 1859.
• Lot # 231, a copy of Gaius Julius Caesar’s The Commentaries printed by Jacob Tonson in London in 1712, fetched $ 14,400 – more than double its low estimate. This 560-page folio was edited by Samuel Clarke and contained the bison double-sided plate, which is usually missing.
• Lot # 13, Thomas Hawkins’ The Book of Great Sea Dragons, Ichthyosauri, and Plesiosauri … Extinct Monsters of Ancient Earth dating from 1840. Estimated at $ 3,000 to $ 4,000, making $ 7,200. This first edition was published in London by W. Pickering and contained 30 plates copied from skeletons in the author’s collection of fossil organic remains.
• Lot # 83, an 18-volume set of The Works of Jonathan Swift from the Robert R. Livingston library, rose to $ 5,520 on a pre-sale estimate of $ 1.00 to $ 2,000. These books were published in 1778 by Ms. Mundell et al. Printed in Edinburgh. Each volume contained Mr. Livingston’s personal bookplates. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Livingston was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, administrator of George Washington’s oath of office when he assumed the presidency in 1789, and chief negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
• Lot No. 584, a boldly inscribed presentation of Alma Mahler’s Gustav Mahler: Memoirs and Letters from 1946, fetched $ 3,600 at its estimate of $ 400 to $ 600. Alma Mahler was a composer, author and wife of Gustav Mahler. This book contained six paper items, including an autographed letter, Western Union telegram, photo postcards, snapshots, and other ephemera.
• Lot No. 67, William Cullen Bryant’s two-volume Picturesque America; Or the land we live in: A delineation of mountains and mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, waterfalls, banks, canyons, valleys, cities, and other scenic features of our land that sold for a staggering $ 3,360 estimate of 250-350 USD. This first edition, the first printing set, was published in New York by D. Appleton & Company and richly illustrated with 49 full-page steel plates, including additional title pages and frontispiece engravings, as well as numerous intertextual wood engravings.

Another focus of this exciting auction were photographs, pictures and cabinet cards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Lot # 710, a collection of early photographs of men and women in hats, was valued at $ 100 to $ 200 and restocked at $ 2,280. These included daguerreotypes of a rich man with a stick and top hat; an ambrotype of a young man smoking a cigar; and a partially real photo postcard with a seated man wearing a hat and bow tie.
• Lot # 751, a group of 13 professional cabinet cards dating from the 1880s, was valued at $ 200 to $ 300 and worked its way up to $ 2,040. The professions represented included tailors, organ builders, blacksmiths, chimney sweeps, picture framers, glass blowers, saddlers, actors and others.
• Lot No. 779, a collection of more than 30 cabinet cards and CDVs by French stage performers, writers, and other personalities, was valued at $ 100 to $ 200 and sold for $ 1,440. Most of them were recorded by the Nadar studio; People pictured include Dumas, Daudet, Bernhardt, Gustav Doré, Victor Hugo, and others.

Ephemera of all kinds, magazines, modern editions, and other manuscripts closed the circle.
• Lot # 632, a group of 35 Playboy magazines from 1954 to 1958, returned $ 3,600 – twelve times its low estimate.
• Lot No. 644, a four-volume limited folio on abstract expressionism produced by the Tiber Press in 1960, raised $ 6,000. This important post-war American artist book contained collaborations between four of the most influential American poets of the second half of the 20th century and four important second-generation New York School artists. Each publication has been signed by the author and artist.
Lot No. 222, a typed French-language manuscript travelogue describing a trip to China on the Trans-Siberian Railway from 1913 to 1924, was valued at $ 400 to $ 600 and sold for $ 3,120. The volume was lavishly illustrated with postcards, snapshots, cards and real photos, which were provided with photo corners and numerous annotations or captions.

According to Gabe Fajuri, President of Potter & Potter Auctions, “Strong results across the board and a 93% sales rate shows that the demand for quality is high – but more importantly, it shows that Potter & Potter continues to deliver exceptional results . ” the book and manuscript market, not to mention the fine arts. We are thrilled with the sales results and have already planned our next auction in this category for mid-March 2021. “

The post Sturdy Outcomes at Potter & Potter Auctions’ Nice Books And Manuscripts Sale appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Recent book recommendations from staff at a rotating list of independent bookstores in the Bay Area. This week’s list is from Pegasus Books, 1855 Solano Ave., Berkeley. 510-525-6888
www.pegasusbookstore.com

“The history” Photo: Norton

Adult literature

The history, by Richard Powers: This beautiful collection of interlocking stories belies Power’s reputation for being cold and cerebral. His science is incontestable, but it is his human and tree-like characters that make this extraordinary novel so vivid.

The silence of the girls by Pat Barker: Barker’s moving, brilliant retelling of “The Iliad” focuses on the story Homer didn’t tell: women’s fear.

Adult non-fiction books

How to change your mind by Michael Pollan: With his mixture of skepticism and impeccable research, Pollan is the perfect apologist for the re-emerging field of psychedelic research. Fascinating and inspiring, this book will change your mind about what’s possible.

Bookseller’s diary, by Shaun Bythell: For anyone who has ever dreamed of owning a bookstore. Bythell’s hilarious report will make those in the industry cry and those otherwise busy dropping their résumés on their local indie.

Young adult title

Half witch, by John Schoffstall: Extremely twisted, with an evil sense of humor that made us snort and read out passages out loud for anyone who would listen. The friendship between leads is one of the most beautiful relationships we’ve ever read in a youth book.

Wildcard, by Marie Lu: In this sequel to the bestseller sci-fi / thriller “Warcross”, the virtual reality player Emika Chan has to fight her old flame – with the fate of the free will of everyone on earth at stake.

Sea fire, by Natalie C. Parker: A group of teenagers form an all-female crew whose mission is to seek revenge on the warlord who killed their families. Action packed adventure with an amazing female captain.

Sweep, by Jonathan Auxier: Nan is a young chimney sweep in Victorian London whose best friend and protector happens to be a golem made from soot. Partly historical, partly fantastic and everything wonderful.

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