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Books

Learn about the underbelly of your neighborhood supermarket, 100-plus uses for beans and more in this year's top food books.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2020

From cookbooks to grocery-store exposés, these new books will tempt palates and fuel curiosity

Student researchers analyzed this leaf from a Book of Hours (left), a devotional Christian manuscript that dates to the 15th century. The students found traces of French cursive writing beneath the visible text (right). The cursive was likely scraped away to make the parchment reusable for the illuminated Gothic script.

Cool Finds

College Sophomores Discover Hidden Text in Medieval Manuscript

Students at Rochester Institute of Technology used a self-developed UV imaging system to assess a 15th-century religious document

Writer and photographer Paul Koudounaris' new book, A Cat's Tale, finds his pet kitty, Baba, channeling famous and little-known felines from history.

A History of Felines, as Narrated and Illustrated by a Cat

Baba the cat is both storyteller and photographic model in what is perhaps the most unique cat history book ever published

Erle Stanley Gardner is best remembered as a novelist. But he was also a lawyer deeply concerned about victims of injustice. “It is too easy to convict innocent persons,” he wrote in a 1959 letter to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The Case of the Autographed Corpse

The author of the Perry Mason novels rose to the defense of an Apache shaman who was falsely convicted of killing his wife

Left, Self-titled Adaptation of Le Rêve (1932), by Niko Luoma, 2015. Right, Le Rêve, by Pablo Picasso, 1932.

Recreating Modernist Artwork by Photograph

Niko Luoma takes a fresh look at paintings that may seem stale

Former presidents have penned memoirs of varying focus and quality.

A Brief History of Presidential Memoirs

Barack Obama’s new autobiography joins a long—but sometimes dull—tradition

Now is a good time to explore the world right at our feet.

Ten Surprising Facts That Will Make Your Walk Around the Block More Interesting

With Covid-19 keeping you close to home, now is a good time to learn about elements of your neighborhood that you take for granted

This month's book picks include A Demon-Haunted Land, South to Freedom and The Light Ages.

Books of the Month

The Heiress Who Stole a Vermeer, Witchcraft in Post-WWII Germany and Other New Books to Read

These five November releases may have been lost in the news cycle

In the television adaptation, Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke play point-of-view characters Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.

Art Meets Science

Data Science, Psychology Reveal Why the ‘Game of Thrones’ Books Are So Riveting

A network model demonstrates how George R.R. Martin’s sprawling series remains comprehensible but surprising

A brightly-colored page in the Codex Borgia, one of the artifacts requested by Mexico's president

Mexico Seeks Apology for Catholic Church’s Role in the Spanish Conquest

In a letter to Pope Francis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also requested the temporary return of a number of artifacts

The Book of Lismore consists of 198 large vellum folios.

Medieval Manuscript Returns to Ireland After Hundreds of Years in British Hands

The 15th-century Book of Lismore features the only surviving Irish translation of Marco Polo’s travels, among other historical texts

This photo, like some others in the collection, was taken in a photo booth, eliminating the need for a photographer.

Newly Published Portraits Document a Century of Gay Men’s Relationships

“Loving” features around 300 photos that offer an intimate look at men’s love between the 1850s and 1950s

Detail of Michelangelo's The Last Judgment fresco

This $22,000 Book Features Life-Size Photos of the Sistine Chapel’s Art

The pricey tome consists of three 25-pound, two-foot-tall volumes

A view of the Dujiangyan Zhongshu bookstore

Virtual Travel

See a Stunningly Surreal Bookstore in China

Dujiangyan Zhongshu features gravity-defying staircases and infinite bookshelves

Student drawings (paint on paper) by Ralph Steadman, circa 1958. The artist attended art school while working as a newspaper cartoonist.

Ralph Steadman’s Earlier Work Shows the Artist’s Abstract Streak

As a student, the future caricaturist tried his hand at a different type of brushwork

In 1943 the all-wing and jet-propelled Horten Ho 229 promised spectacular performance and the German air force (Luftwaffe) chief, Hermann Göring, allocated half-a-million Reichsmarks to brothers Reimar and Walter Horten to build and fly several prototypes.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction With Horten’s All-Wing Aircraft Design

New research dispels some of the myths behind the world’s first jet-powered flying wing

A rare edition of Shakespeare's First Folio sold at auction for $10 million.

Shakespeare’s First Folio Is the Most Expensive Work of Literature Ever Auctioned

A rare edition of the 1623 volume of plays sold at Christie’s for nearly $10 million

Wally Koval has transformed his wildly popular Instagram account Accidentally Wes Anderson into a book of the same name.

Ten Places That Could Be Straight Out of a Wes Anderson Film

A new book showcases photographs of quirky and colorful places that aesthetically—and accidentally—match the filmmaker’s style

This month's picks include Mantel Pieces, The Dead Are Arising and A Series of Fortunate Events.

Books of the Month

How the Alphabet Got Its Order, Malcolm X and Other New Books to Read

These five October releases may have been lost in the news cycle

Let your off-grid home take shape in whatever form best fits your new, adventurous lifestyle.

How to Set Up an Off-the-Grid Getaway

Need a change of scenery? A quiet spot away from crowds? Here are some tips for rigging a remote escape with the bare necessities

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