I recently watched Tara Mooknee's YouTube essay, "The anatomy of a 'girl's girl' (& when it turns toxic)," which is an analysis of the trending TikTok topic of girl's girls, what they are, and what they represent within the broader cultural sphere. While reading FRIENDS TO KEEP IN ART AND LIFE, I kept thinking of that video, because I feel like the humor in this book is basically targeted towards the types of girls who think they're girl's girls, unironically.
This was fun but not as good as MEN TO AVOID IN ART AND LIFE. It did get a good chuckle out of me though so it gets at least a three star rating.
This ended up being so much more than I thought it would be. Illustrated Miscellany really is an apt way of describing this ambitious work, which tackles everything from illustrations of bookstacks, to book recommendations from book lovers, to illustrators of cover designs for famous books, to lists of famous bookstores all over the world, to examples of books by genre in everything from fantasy to romance to food writing.
For the most part, I really liked this book. There's a lot of amazing trivia packed in here. Like I didn't know William S. Burroughs subscribed to Cat Fancy magazine or that Shel Silverstein was an illustrator for Playboy. There was also a solid attempt at inclusion with many books written by authors of color.
It was a lengthy and entertaining read and I learned a lot about books (and added a couple new ones to my TBR). It's always nice when an impulsive purchase pays off. (Also, unlike some illustrated books that are formatted for Kindle, this one reads quite nicely in e-format.)
People often tell me that they follow me because they literally have no idea what I'm going to read next. Which is not an exaggeration, by the way. One day I might be reading an erotica about shape-shifters who can turn into balloon animals, the next, I might be reading Paris Hilton's 2004 memoir, CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS. Basically the only consistency in what I read is that it's usually in bad taste. So naturally, a book like REGRETSY is perfectly on brand for me.
REGRESTY is one of those blog-to-books that was so trendy in the late 2000s, before the internet really became the gigantic meme that it is today. Memes used to be hard to find, believe it or not. In the days of the dinosaurs, you had to know the right people to meme. Regresty is apparently a blog where the creator of this book, April Winchell, shared some of the best of the worst of Etsy, including everything from reusable menstrual pads with vampire hunks printed on the crotch to photographs of doll heads posed with Brussels sprouts.
This is a pretty funny book. It's very similar to CAKE WRECKS, although I feel like the humor in this one is trying a little too hard. It's very nicely curated though and I think the author did a pretty good job cultivating items that were WTF-y but also intriguing enough that you could envision a universe where someone might want to buy these items. I especially liked that she allowed the creators to post a little rejoinder. Most of them were very good sports. My favorite was the seller who said that they didn't want to live in a world where everyone was too polite to say what they really thought. I agree.
I wouldn't say that this is a keeper but if you can find a copy for not too much, it's great for a laugh. My curiosity has been thoroughly satisfied.
I got this book while thrifting, which made me so happy because I've been wanting to read it for a while. Published in 2006, it definitely smacks of an early aughts image dumping site, and the graininess of the pictures and retro photoshop are totally endearing. This is basically just a compendium of photographs people took with their cats wearing strange outfits or with things on their backs or heads. My personal favorite was one where a plastic He Man action figure toy is riding a cat to victory. There's also a cute one of a cat decked out in jewelry and a tiara. This is a novelty book if there ever was one, but if you're a cat lady like I am and enjoy funny cat memes, I think you'll love this, too.
I think this might be one of my favorite art books I've ever gotten. In it, Chloe Ashby takes 80 different paintings, from Neolithic times to the last decade, and breaks them down into a little infographic that shows some of their most pronounced or important colors. Each era of art has a little forward talking about some of the key players and the themes of that movement, and then each art piece gets a full page to itself with a description analyzing the composition and discussing the colors used, what they mean, and what they were made of.
While reading this book, I kept taking so many notes. The art she chose to showcase is gorgeous and the infographics really were helpful in analyzing the paintings. Since this is such a visual book it's hard to explain why it's so awesome because so much of what makes it great is in the pictures, so I would say that if you love art or have an art lover in your family, this would be a perfect gift to get. I know I'm going to cherish my copy.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
This book has been on my wishlist for over ten years and I decided to treat myself because 1) life is short and 2) I'm trying to shorten my to-read list by finally getting to some of the books I've been metaphorically drooling over that-- for whatever reason-- aren't available on Kindle. I'm actually high key shocked HAPPY KITTY BUNNY PONY didn't get a Kindle release, because it's written by one of the dudes from Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the high-quality glossy images featuring creatures that wouldn't look outlandish in a Five Nights at Freddy's backstage concert, is a pretty appealing hook. I mean, it worked on me, and I'm stingy AF.
HAPPY KITTY BUNNY PONY kind of fell short for me, though. I liked the cute animal pop art (I guess this is published by an art design publisher??) but the commentary was limited and read like it was being written by someone who thinks he's much funnier than he actually is. I was hoping for more of an actual (but funny) history about how cute become a must in commercial advertising, and how what was considered cute has changed over time.
"I liked the art" is basically the "she has a nice personality" equivalent for books like these, but I did like the art.
I liked the other Cake Wreck book enough that I decided to get this one as well when it went on sale. Here's the thing: a lot of these meme dumping books don't age well because they're mean-spirited; but I like these because it's clear they're all in good fun. Someone was trying to do a nice thing (i.e. make a cake) and they just, well. Messed up a little. Or a lot.
Most of the cakes in this book are Christmas-themed but there are a couple other holidays as well, like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Years (so all Western/American holidays). It felt like the longest section was about ugly Santa cakes.
This was amusing and passed the time but I don't think I'd recommend buying it for more than like $5. Her other book was better.
I'm surprised at some of the critical reviews for this book. I'm pretty hard to please and I thought STILL LIFE WITH BRICKS was a lot of fun. Some of the concepts were executed a little messily, yes, but I thought the overall execution was really fun and colorful. If this was an Instagram account, I'd definitely smash that follow button in a hot minute to get some color in my feed.
I don't think this book has a preview function on Amazon, which almost made me not get it. (Because in the past, sometimes that's a bad sign.) But the photography was beautiful and the pictures were really fun. One of my favorites was the illustration on the cover, with the circular LEGO pieces as gumballs, but I also really liked the LEGO cupcakes, sushi, and Baskin Robbins-style ice cream bins.
There isn't a lot of substance to this book but it's a fun conversation piece and would be great for any coffee table. For me, it was the palate cleanser I needed between some pretty heavy reads, and looking at all the fun, whimsical pictures really cheered me up. I think this would be a great gift in particular for anyone who loves both art (esp. pop art) and LEGOs.
I'm still slowly getting back into reading after taking a bit of a hiatus to publish my newest book, and lucky for me, Chronicle Books seems to be having an online book sale as of my writing this because a pretty considerable amount of their library was $1.99 and $2.99 each when I checked, so cut to me immediately snatching up all of these amazingly weird books about fashion and art and other weird things, like the history of pencils.
MONSTERS YOU SHOULD KNOW is an illustrated beastiary of monsters from all over the world, from South America to the United Kingdom to Africa. The illustrations are gorgeous watercolors and it comes back full circle from the beginning in a fun and unexpected way that serves as a really nice callback.
I think this is probably being aimed and targeted to children, but adults will like it too, just because some of the creatures in here are so fascinating. My only qualm is that it's too short-- I wanted more monsters! More illustrations! More everything!
The Guerrilla Girls are a group of anonymous activists who wear gorilla masks when they appear in public, and campaign against social inequality, inequality w/r/t the wage gap, and inequality in the art industry (especially when it comes to representation by women and people of color). I'd heard about them before in some of my other readings but I didn't know of any of their specific work, so it was cool to read a collection of their "Greatest Hits" and see how they put up flyers and did demonstrations to further equality and diversity.
It's worth noting that in the ebook, only about half of the "book" is actual content. The other half is a bibliography and index. This didn't factor into my rating but I know other people might be bothered by that. I liked the book but after a while, some of the campaigns started to feel redundant, especially with the most famous one (the one about how women have to be posing for a nude to appear in an art museum) being shown multiple times. I get it, it was a bomb campaign, but it started to lose its punch after the tenth time or whatever.
I think this is a better resource than it is a book of pleasure reading. If you're writing a paper on art or the history of feminism, I would highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this because they're cool. And it's important to illustrate (literally and figuratively) that the work of feminism is still NOT done, that women and people of color are still grossly underrepresented across multiple fields, including art, and that there are powerful people in politics who still campaign daily to not only prevent their rights from advancing but also to strip away the extant ones.
Chronicle had a whole bunch of their books on sale so I decided to indulge myself. CHINATOWN PRETTY is a book written by a pair of bloggers who manage an Instagram account by the same name, showcasing the fashions of elderly Chinese people living in various Chinatowns in the U.S. and Canada. In this book, they feature the Chinatowns of San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Vancouver, replete with photographs and brief interviews that give you a little taste about how these people came to the U.S. and what inspired their looks.
I think this is a really cute and wholesome book. Some of the women in here were SO stylish that they honestly made me feel like I needed to up my game. I also like that both authors featured their own grandmothers (or stepgrandmother in one case) in this book as well. Even the stranger and quirkier looks were really fun, especially because of the stories.
I do wish that we got to know more about each individual person. Every city opens with a brief history about how Chinatowns were formed, and some of the people they talked to mentioned things like fleeing the cultural revolution in China or working odd jobs to make a living (like the lady who worked for an engineer who made her wear a Chinese blouse while she cleaned his house, wth). There were some people who seemed reticent or reluctant to speak about their pasts, but for those who were willing, I would have liked to have known more. Polka Dot, especially, really stole the show, because she got so many pages.
If you're lucky enough to have a Chinatown near you, I recommend you visit. I've been to the SF Chinatown a lot and it's really beautiful and so amazing to walk through and explore. Some of the best Taiwanese style boba places I've been to are in this area (including a corgi-themed cafe called "The Boba Butt Cafe"). And yes, you see a ton of really great and fun outfits while walking these streets.
After reading and enjoying Matt Alt's other book, PURE INVENTION, I was dying to get my hands on HELLO, PLEASE! Alt works as a localizer, which is someone who translates and adapts media from one country for consumption in another, which includes updating or providing reference for cultural differences, translations, idioms, and more. PURE INVENTION was a book about some of Japan's biggest contributions to global culture as a whole, and when I found out HELLO, PLEASE! was authored by the same dude, I was super psyched.
HELLO, PLEASE! is a publication from Chronicle Books. It seems to be out of print, since I didn't see it on their website and it didn't seem to be available in ebook or new. It's also a little dated. You'll get a kick out of the images of cell phones in here; they're all old flip phones with touch-press keypads. I actually follow this person called "Mondo Mascots" on Twitter and Instagram, who shares new images of Japanese mascots every day. This book is pretty short but contains tons of full-color illustrations, depicting mascots intended to advertise, warn, or convey helpful information.
I actually had the pleasure of going to Japan several years ago. There were mascots everywhere, on everything, and every city has its own. I didn't recognize any of these, except for Mr. Custom, who was on the wall of the Customs office in the airport I flew in from, and the train ones for Suica. The book is pretty small; about the size of a mass market paperback but a little shorter and wider, so it's not quite a coffee table book, even though that's basically what it is. I think it will appeal most to people who are already interested in Japan or who really enjoy looking at the funny and interesting mascots. I did.
AM I OVERTHINKING THIS? has been on my radar for a while as someone who has chronic anxiety. This is a hilarious and brilliantly constructed book consisting of charts, sometimes with found objects, about various worry-worthy (and not so worry-worthy) moments in life.
The illustrations were so funny. The author used things like tweezers, candles, bag handles, and matchsticks to make bar graphs and Venn diagrams. I'm not sure people who don't have anxiety will get the same level of "I feel seen!" enjoyment out of this as those who do, but speaking for myself, this made me cackle aloud at least twice and I think I might keep this on my Kindle for my next bad day.
Also, major props to the formatting team for making an image-heavy book that is actually readable in the Kindle app. I can't tell you how many books I've had to return to the store because the labels on the pictures were too small to read. The effort really matters!
I've been so busy lately that I've just been like, "What even is reading? Books? I don't know her." So when I noticed a whole bunch of Chronicle Books were on sale in the Kindle store I was like YAAAASS. Because everyone knows that the best thing to get you back into reading are easy books with lots of pictures.
MEN TO AVOID IN ART AND LIFE is a comical art/coffee table book consisting of classical works of art that have been captioned to make fun of mansplainers. The concept is pretty played out by the time you get to the end of the book but I felt like for 95% of it, the humor was totally on point, and I found myself giggling out loud more than once. I also liked how a list of the paintings used and where they were sourced is included at the end, in case you find one that tickles your fancy and want to see more.
I think people who love feminism and art will enjoy this. As far as feminism goes, this is strictly playing in the shallow waters, but it still got a smile or two and it was exactly what I needed at the time.
This book is so cute and just what I needed to get back into reading after several intense weeks of focusing on my WIP. SHOP CATS OF NEW YORK is a photo heavy book of businesses in New York that have pet cats roaming the premises. The businesses range from cat cafes to cigar shops to, hilariously, dog grooming facilities. The book is divided up by shop. Every section gives the name of the cats and has pictures. In some sections, the authors were able to score interviews with the shop owners and we get in-depth interviews on how the cats came to the shop and even the stories behind their names and how they interact with clientele.
I thought this book was really cute. People who aren't cat-lovers probably won't enjoy this, but if you do enjoy kitty-cats, this is going to be right up your alley.
Books-about-books often end up disappointing me because I think too often they rely on the hype of whatever it is they're writing about, rather than bringing something new to the table. WELL-READ WOMEN is not that sort of book, though. Each page features a quote from a heroine of some beloved classic that the author felt captured her personality in a snapshot, and is paired with a beautiful watercolor (yes? watercolor?) of the author's interpretation of that heroine.
I got this on Kindle but I bet it's a gorgeous coffee table book in person. The illustrations were truly lovely and I liked that the author didn't just, you know, base her illustrations off the character models/actors that played the movie adaptations of the works (for example, her Scarlett O'Hara does not look like Vivien Leigh at all).
Definitely a must for anyone who loves both books and art.
IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN was gifted to me by a friend (who also gave me a beautiful Kate Spade coffee table book). It's basically a series of profiles about female (and nonbinary-- more on that) creatives, ranging from writers to woodworkers. Each woman gets a picture and sometimes you get to see pictures of their studios or homes. Each woman answers the same questions asking them about their work and aspirations.
The questions got a bit repetitive after a while, although I loved the two artists who answered with drawings. I loved the rep, though. This book has older women, queer women, trans women, women of all ethnicities (Black, Native, East Asian, South Asian), plus-size women, and even one woman-- a dancer!-- who is in a wheelchair. I also liked how one of the women answered the question "what do you do in the morning to kick the day off right" with "take my antidepressants." YES.
Some of the women were new to me but there were a few I recognized and loved. Janet Mock, Mary Lambert, Amina Mucciolo (it kills me that I didn't get to see their studio), Neko Case, Carmen Esposito, and Roxane Gay were just a couple of the names in here that got me really excited.
Some of the qualms I have: the studio pics were few and far between. As I said, Mucciolo's studio would have been SO COOL to see since they deal with rainbows. It also would have been cooler if these had been alphabetized or indexed by profession. The order seems pretty random and it's hard to find a page again once you flip past it. Also, I think Mucciolo identifies as nonbinary, but perhaps their identity hadn't been fully realized when this book was published? If so, this might be something to address in a reprint of the work. I also think it would have been neater if the interviews had been slightly tailored to the women and their various professions, just to mix things up.
Overall, this is a pretty neat coffee table book although not without some flaws. I still really liked it.
Today I learned that kate spade new york is a Goodreads author. #TheMoreYouKnow
One of my friends gifted me a copy of THINGS WE LOVE. It's a gorgeous coffee table book with gilt edges that's kind of like half lookbook, half advertisement, half rich girl's instagram, half high class fashion magazine. I know that adds up to 200%, but whatever. We're not here to talk math.
The pages are really beautifully curated. I posted a few of my favorite excerpts to my Instagram, so you can see how these are laid out. The creators of this book basically selected a list of their favorite things-- all, coincidentally, tangential to actual Kate Spade New York products they sell. So, you know, they love reading-- and by the way, CHECK OUT THESE KATE SPADE CLUTCHES THAT LOOK LIKE BOOKS. Summer is bomb, y'all-- and by the way, CHECK OUT THESE BEACH HATS AND THIS CLUTCH THAT LOOKS LIKE OCEAN WAVES. I'm definitely sensing a theme here.
I'll be honest. I really love Kate Spade. A lot of their things are out of my budget, but I have a few pieces. When I got my first real professional job, my mother bought me a Kate Spade purse to take to work, and then she got me another one when I got promoted. I bought myself a Kate Spade summer dress I found at an outlet that-- miraculously-- came in my size. I think a lot of designers can be really ostentatious but Kate Spade is that perfect blend of bold, whimsical, and classical. I feel like Betsey Johnson and Ralph Lauren are similar in the way they play around with color and style.
So if you like Kate Spade and you like pretty pictures and you, like me, spend way too much time on Instagram, you'll probably love this book. As far as coffee table books go, it's pretty fun to page through and even contains fun little snippets like ingredients for bloody marys, instructions on how to play dominos, and a guide on how to do the cha cha.
Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨
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