I am writing about the good things in life, covering love, books, motorcycles, and everything in between. It was around 2010 when I started travelling for my job as a travel journalist and lived abroad for some years in France, Namibia, and Indonesia. I started to visit indie bookstores in every city I got to and made a book out of them ten years later. The best part was the precious, deep, and always inspiring conversations with the bookshop owners. This list contains their and my favourite well-tried book present recommendations for every age and occasion.
From the workspaces of famous authors to bookish quiz questions to portraits of the most adorable bookstore cats, this one is an illustrated love letter to the universe of books. Jane Mount recommends her best reads from memoirs to fantasy, shows her favourite bookstores, and presents songs about books, books that were turned into great films and so much more, including for sure some beautiful book facts that are new to your giftee.
Searching for perfect book lovers gifts? Rejoice! Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, is a love letter to all things bookish. Author Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. It's a must-have for every book collection, and makes a wonderful literary gift for book lovers, writers, and more.
Readers of Jane Mount's Bibliophile will delight in:
Touring the world's most beautiful bookstores
Testing their knowledge of the written word with quizzes
Finding their next great read in lovingly curated stacks of books
Sampling the most famous fictional meals
Peeking inside the workspaces of…
Why does anyone love poetry? Because it turns you on, because it lights you up. Because it presents the world in fresh-minted, vigorous and deeply affecting language. Because it deepens your sense of the world. I read a lot of poetry! I mean, a lot!
I’ve only recently come across August Kleinzahler’s work but it would be hard to find more dynamic, tough, urban poetry. I’ve read and re-read him and every time I look at one of his poems it just gets better!
The first broad retrospective of August Kleinzahler's career, Sleeping It Ofƒ in Rapid Citygathers poems from his major works along with a rich portion of new poems that visit different voice registers, experiment with form and length, and confirm Kleinzahler as among the most inventive and brilliant poets of our time. Travel―actual and imaginary―remains a passion and inspiration, and in these pages the poet also finds "This sanctified ground / Here, yes, here / The dead solid center of the universe / At the heartof the heart of America."
I've always loved reading romance, and something about those jealous, possessive, alpha males just always got my heart racing. I love a hero who's all in from the get-go and will do anything for the woman he loves. He knows what he wants and goes after it. I also get how crazy busy we can be. I don't know about you, but I don't always have time to sit down and read a super long novel. Insta-love romances are short and spicy and don't take more than an hour or two to read. You can count on my insta-love stories to be filled with heat, passion, and happily ever afters.
This was the first insta-love book I ever read, and I've been hooked on short read romances ever since. You're thrown into the action right away with Peyton fleeing her stepbrother. Granger is a stranger, but he immediately steps in to protect her. Their chemistry is off the charts from the moment they meet. From the moment Granger sees her, he's all in, capitated, obsessed. He starts stalking her because he just can't help himself. There's nothing I love more than a good stalker romance, and this book checked all my boxes.
I met him one night on a dark, empty road, while on the run from an unexpected enemy. He protected me without hesitation. Without question. From that moment forward, he made himself the center of my universe. I became the center of his, as well—to a degree that scared me as much as it excited me. Now, my best friend and roommate is close at all times. Even when I don't realize it. Even when I don't see him. But when I peer into the shadows and find him there, will I run away out of common sense? Or let…
Plus, Steven's
9, and 15-year-old's favorite books.
Why did Steven's
9-year-old love this book?
This book is about going to different dimensions and I thought it was really funny.
It looks like someone has drawn on the book with a pen or something, but that’s just how the book is made. It looks cool. I liked it when Monkey tried to destroy Bunny’s house.
When portals to parallel dimensions open up, the gang meet different versions of themselves - a whole universe of Bunnies! Evil Pig! Baby Bunny vs Monkey!
The gang end up travelling to the very ends of existence . . . but will they make it back home to the Woods?
My passion for science and technology is the fault of my father, who first took me to Edwards AFB when I was five years old. He would pawn me off on a colleague to keep me busy while he would do the work he needed to do. That meant that I got to wander around the hangars, watching all the fascinating things happening to take the X-15 into space, and getting to meet the people who made it all happen. That passion spilled over into science fiction as well, along with the idea of trying to discover what the universe was not only like, but what it could be.
Those who know me, understand that Arthur C. Clarke has been my favorite author for as long as I can remember, and they would probably be surprised at my pick of this novel over his most well-known book 2001: A Space Odyssey or even Childhood’s End. Let me put it this way, I’ll recommend anything written by Clarke, but this book stands out for me because of its profound look at the far future of humanity, which has fallen nearly to the point of extinction. It is a work that serves as a warning to us all, but also shows how one person can change the trajectory of an entire society, bringing it back from the brink in order to move once again among the stars.
Clarke's masterful evocation of the far future of humanity, considered his finest novel
Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar. For millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rule the stars.
But then, as legend has it, the invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to break through Diaspar's stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.
Having spent thirty years working as a chef, I was always going to have working-class heroes in my stories. When someone said this is uncommon in science fiction, I didn’t believe them. But then I couldn’t think of any. I started searching through my bookshelves, and still, I couldn’t find enough to fill this list. I asked on socials and eventually found five books.
It would seem natural that in a science fiction world of adventure and exploration, the professionals would be at the forefront. But I am pretty sure that the toilet cleaners on the Death Star would still have a story or two to tell.
Travis is an apprentice engineer of trans-quantum chambers, stations that transport people to cities all over the universe. On a risky maintenance assignment, something goes wrong, trapping Travis on a distant planet with limited resources as he tries to solve the mystery of what killed all the humans on this world.
The world-building here is a lot of fun to imagine. Combine that with Wilson's descriptive prowess, and you have an immersive adventure to the stars that appeals to the sci-fi nerd that I am.
I remember being a kid and wanting to know everything about everything. After I’d been teaching yoga for several years, and finding myself struggling with stress and trauma that the yoga wasn’t helping, I really started to dive into the world of Energy. That world is fascinating, endless, and powerful. And the more I study and learn, the better my life gets. I’ve created my own teaching methodology from all the studies I’ve done and helped thousands of people find their own inner strength and healing. I love learning how other people overcame their struggles and how at the root, we basically all want to help each other! That's the kind of world I aspire to.
This book is dogeared, highlighted, sticky noted, and I go back to it again and again. Now I will admit, I’m a science junkie, and I love to deepen my understanding of how the universe works. But I’m also not a scientist. Marshall’s book is accessible and scintillating, while at the same time teaching valuable and powerful lessons about physics, the nature of the universe, the nature of connection, sound, torsion, so much! If you like science but you’re afraid of big science books, this might be the time to treat yourself. This is one of those books you’ll go back to over and over again and always find something new to spark you!
Throughout nature we can see patterns, structures, processes and systems that reflect an underlying order of energy dynamics that literally in-forms the observable universe across all scales. Cosmometry is the study of this underlying order, wherein cosmic geometry, unified physics and the harmonic system of music are seen as three lenses through which to view one phenomenon — universal dynamics of energy and matter manifesting in physical form and flow. Synthesizing foundational theories of Buckminster Fuller, David Bohm, Nassim Haramein, Foster Gamble, Richard Merrick and others, Cosmometry – Exploring the HoloFractal Nature of the Cosmos presents a new look at…
This is a lovely story about a boy called Edwin Hubble who
was spellbound by the stars above. His father discouraged his star obsession,
but his grandfather encouraged it by building him a telescope for his birthday. Cool Grandpa!
As the young Hubble looked up at the night sky, he wondered how
many stars there were. How did the universe start, and where did it come from? He was the first astronomer to determine there were more galaxies
than our own Milky Way.
He also discovered that our universe is constantly
expanding. The famous Hubble telescope is named after him. Elegantly written
and accompanied by gorgeous artwork, this book reminds us to “Remember to
look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” Stephen Hawkins.
This beautifully illustrated biography of Edwin Hubble explores the curiosity that he possessed from a young age, and the many questions that he asked about our universe. This book invites children to ponder these questions as well: How many stars are in the sky? How did the universe begin? Where did it come from?
A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids of 2021 A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Loveliest Children's Book of 2021 A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2022, of Outstanding Merit An Air & Space Magazine Best Children's Book of 2021 A EUREKA!…
Allen Klein is the world’s only “Jollytologist®”. Through his books, workshops, and keynote speeches, for the past 30-plus years, he has been showing audiences worldwide how to use humor and positivity to deal with life’s not-so-funny stuff. He is a pioneer in the therapeutic humor field and a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. Comedian Jerry Lewis has said that Klein is “a noble and vital force watching over the human condition.”
The first part of this book provides a theoretical framework for understanding laughter and why it is cathartic. The second part contains 25 ways to help you laugh or relearn to laugh in order to maximize healing. As the subtitle states, it will show you How to Laugh About Everything in Your Life That Isn't Really Funny.
Laughter Therapy is a two-part book. Part one is a theoretical framework for understanding laughter and other forms of catharsis. Included are case studies and examples of laughter. Part one and two are liberally sprinkled with appropriate quotes. Part two contains 25 ways to help yourself laugh and how to relearn to laugh without ridicule in order to maximize healing and connection with ourselves, each other and the universe.
In That’s What Friends Do, the #MeToo experience that Sammie’s mom shares with Sammie is my story. I was thirteen. I never told anyone. Even as I started writing my novel, it didn’t occur to me to share with my husband, or my teenage children, my experience. But one evening, as the #MeToo movement was exploding in the media, I was sitting around a dinner table with several other couples. All of the women had had a #MeToo experience. Most of us were young teens when it happened. Shame and guilt had kept us silent for far too long. My novel – and the others on my list – are working to break through that silence.
This heartbreaking and powerful novel tells the story of fifth-grader Rowan, who isn’t a girl even though everyone thinks he is, but also isn’t the “right kind” of boy. At night, his dad comes into his room and does things Rowan can’t talk about with anyone. Silenced or ignored by everyone around him, Rowan writes letters expressing his thoughts, feelings, and dreams; he attaches them to balloons and sends them out into the universe. When he befriends a classmate who is as much of an outsider as he is, Rowan slowly begins to open his heart, and to speak up. I loved this novel both because of Rowan’s determination to be who he knows he is and because of the unexpected support he finds on his journey.
Tender and wise, The Ship We Built is about the bravery it takes to stand up for yourself-even to those you love-and the power of finding someone who treasures you for everything you are.
Sometimes I have trouble filling out tests when the name part feels like a test too. . . . When I write letters, I love that you have to read all of my thoughts and stories before I say any name at all. You have to make it to the very end to know.
Rowan has too many secrets to write down in the pages of…
