Bibliophile
City Paper's 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
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Think iconic roadside motels and weathered hands holding a vial of crack cocaine: Zoe Strauss' photographic biography of the 50 states is breathtaking, stark, frank. Strauss, a Philly native, focuses on our bleakest and brightest sides, redefining what qualifies as "America the Beautiful" and embracing the tangible power of human strength and fragility found in our country's grittier nooks and crannies.
All grown up and literati, Mary-Kate and Ashley are gracing fashionista-hipster coffee tables everywhere, passing down "pearls of wisdom" from 22 "creative visionaries" like Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld and fashion heiress Margarita Missoni. A collage of photo-shoot leftovers, favorite fashion collections, paintings and — obvi — Polaroids, Influence "connects the dots between the fabulous and influential."
This guide to pro hoops from the freaks at Freedarko is a gorgeously illustrated, deeply idiosyncratic work of mad, mad genius. They break the game down into a periodic table of playing styles (knife, shark, snowflake, this is not a pipe), identify players' spirit animals (Gilbert Arenas=Tasmanian Devil) and have the gumption to liken Tim Duncan to the Shelley sonnet "Ozymandias" (so true!).
The self-proclaimed leaders of the indie-music blogosphere dissect 30 years of tunes in The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present. Opening with David Bowie, closing with Panda Bear and nailing about every important guidepost in between (but, ahem, no Dr. Dog?), Pitchfork proves that harsh, tongue-in-cheek and constantly pretentious is OK as long as you can back it up.
The screaming, the kicking, the uncontrollable sobbing: Every December when snot-nosed kids are dragged to shopping malls and coaxed onto the lap of sometimes-jolly, sometimes-creepy Old St. Nick, the result has nothing to do with joy or silent nights. We're glad Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland, full of hysterically weepy, frightened children, has documented this phenomenon for our amusement.
Holy crap, a chronological expedition across 3,000 years of history that doesn't induce a gag reflex, yawn or snore? Starting with the hunters and gatherers and ending with War on Terror heavy hitters, this kid-friendly gem is fun, informative and — dare we say it, educational. Plus, its gold-gilded pages are practically begging to be turned.
Abraham Lincoln is so hot right now. Taking a heavily illustrated look at our nation's 16th chief exec, Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon reveals the nitty-gritty details of the logsplitter's life and legacy. In celebration of the bicentennial of the tall man's birth, the authors chart the years that shaped the man who changed the nation — and the evolution of that change after his tragic assassination.
Hankering to explore the sexy and scientific? Curl up with The Best of Sexology: Kinky and Kooky Excerpts from America's First Sex Magazine, which dives headfirst into articles on hush-hushed fetishes, oddities and sexual rituals of the 1930s. From "Humans with Tails" to the mysteries of phantom pregnancy, Sexology reminds us that sex is, and always has been, alive, well and hella kinky.
Sneaker fiends, take heed: Featuring shoe designers and collections, including the various manifestations of kicks' influence on traditional and avant-garde art movements, Art & Sole: Contemporary Sneaker Art & Design looks like a bright, snappy catalog but reads like an art culture magazine that will damn near convince you that schlepping around Philly all winter in crusty New Balances makes you fashion-forward.
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