Awesome Books

Author Matt Kracht follows up on his hilarious Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America with a guide for identifying stupid birds around the globe. The book is packed with colorful illustrations of the world’s birds, along with their annoying calls, stupid habits, and tacky markings.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a frequent subject of book burnings. Fighting back at such censorship, Penguin Random House created a unique fireproof edition of the classic novel, and let the beloved author hit it with a flamethrower. The unburnable book is up for auction with proceeds benefitting PEN America.

Author Nick Duerden interviewed 50 popular musicians, including Bob Geldof, Stewart Copeland, and Robbie Williams, to learn about the psychological, physical, and financial impact of coming down off of the high of success. The print edition drops 6.28.22, but you can buy the Kindle edition now.

Bookniture’s tabletop stand is perfect for readers who enjoy multiple books at once. The illuminated plywood tower can hold up to five books and keeps them open so you can pick up right where you left off. Made from birch plywood with USB-powered LED lighting.

LEGO Master Builders plan their projects before snapping together a single brick. This deluxe notebook has gridded and dotted pages for sketching ideas, along with building tips, goal trackers, and LEGO facts to help get your creative juices flowing. Its customizable cover helps set the mood for your idea sessions.

Andymation shows off a series of awesome pop-up books from Japanese artist Yusuke Oono. The books feature intricate papercut art that offers a 360º scene fully opened, with dozens of vistas when flipping through its pages. Designs include Mount Fuji, Earth and Moon, Hokusai Sparrow Dance, Snow White, and Snowy World.

The 1,500-edition What Does Regret Mean? is a hypervisual retrospective of one of the world’s most outrageous bands. Aaron Tanner’s arty scrapbook features a cacophony of photos, flyers, and thoughts from contemporaries like Jello Biafra, Rob Zombie, and Henry Rollins, plus a repro of the band’s deranged ‘zine, Strange VD.

This boxed gift set for drink enthusiasts includes eight mini-notebooks, each dedicated to a single spirit: whisky, rum, gin, vodka, tequila, champagne, sherry, and amaro, along with cocktail recipes and room to jot down your own concoctions. Includes 100 total drink ideas.

Mardi Gras is almost here, and there’s no better time of the year if you enjoy the colorful and sweet carnival treats. Author Matt Haines and photographer Randy Krause Schmidt cataloged more than 150 unique versions of the king cake, accompanied by the stories of the talented bakers who make them.

No matter where your outdoor travels take you, it’s essential to brush up on your survival skills. Jason Marsteiner’s book provides a solid foundation for adventurers of all experience levels. It offers step-by-step guides for critical skills like building fires, trapping game, setting up a campsite, and various lifesaving scenarios.

T-Pain teamed up with food and beverage expert Maxwell Britten to create this 144-page book filled with cocktails inspired by the musician’s life and career. Each of the 50 drinks has been selected as a reflection of one of his songs, offering a variety of unique and imaginary concoctions sure to please any cocktail connoisseur.

Chef Ferran Adrià’s brain-trust the elBullifoundation compiled this mouth-watering 416-page encyclopedia of images, menus, reference text, and the history of breakfast. Along the way, it compares the importance of the first meal of the day and how it differs around the globe.

Looking for a real challenge? Look no further than illustrator Tim Jeffs‘ coloring books, each of which includes highly-detailed greyscale animal images, with lots of tight spaces for you to embellish. Each book has 25 images, printed on high quality paper and a lay-flat binding. Jeffs also offers coloring lessons in his Etsy shop.

These connect-the-dot puzzle books are much more challenging than most, with each design made from an average of 1,000 dots. The first book’s 30 images include the Statue of Liberty, an Egyptian Pharoah, and a Day of the Dead sugar skull. There’s also an Ultimate Dot-to-Dot Animals edition.

Do you know how you can improve any item? Give it a backside. Brian Cook’s literally cheeky book Butts on Things is loaded with more than 200 illustrations of objects bestowed with a fresh pair of buns. From tacos to ice cream to a cup of coffee, everything looks better with buttocks and a buttcrack.

An essential reference guide for setting up your own blacksmith workshop and working with metal. The first half of author Nicholas Wicks’ book covers shop safety, equipment, and techniques, while the second half offers 55 simple projects like tools, hardware, utensils, and decorative objects you can create.