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The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, For the Movie/TV Buff

The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan
Tom Shone
$40.00

A rare, intimate portrait of Christopher Nolan with the full cooperation of Nolan himself who opened up more fully than ever before in his talks with Tom Shone. In chapters structured by themes and motifs (“Time,” “Chaos”), Shone writes of Nolan’s thoughts on movies, on plots; on time, identity, perception, chaos, daydreams.

Here is Nolan on the evolution of his pictures, and the writers, artists, directors, and thinkers who have inspired and informed his films.

To write the book, Tom Shone, who has known Nolan for more than two decades and who spent months with the director, was given unprecedented access to Nolan’s notes, scripts, storyboards, and artwork.

In this riveting portrait of an artist, Shone deftly navigates Nolan’s themes, influences, and working methods (both in writing and directing). Here is his trans-Atlantic childhood (“It makes you feel very differently about the concept of ‘home'”) . . . how he dreamed up the plot of Inception lying awake one night in his dorm (“I prized the imaginative space of listening to music in the dark, thinking about things, imagining things, films, stories”) . . . his color-blindness and its effect on Memento (“People are fascinated by other people’s perception of the world and the way in which it differs”) . . . his obsession with puzzles and optical illusions . . . and much, much more.

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Chasing Flavor: Techniques and Recipes to Cook Fearlessly

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, For the Home Chef

Chasing Flavor: Techniques and Recipes to Cook Fearlessly
Dan Kluger
$35.00

In his debut cookbook, James Beard Award–winning chef Dan Kluger shares 190 recipes to help home cooks master flavor and technique

Dan Kluger, a chef celebrated for his simple yet flavorful food, knows there’s more to mastering cooking than just following directions. So with each of the innovative, elegant recipes in his debut cookbook, he includes a valuable lesson that applies beyond the tasty dish. For example, master the art of mixing raw and cooked versions of the same ingredient while preparing a Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Manchego Vinaigrette. 

From homemade pantry items to vegetable mains, meats, and grains, this book is not just sophisticated recipes but a master class of lessons for more flexibility and innovation in the kitchen.

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Letters From Father Christmas, Centenary Edition

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, Holiday Books

Letters From Father Christmas, Centenary Edition
J.R.R. Tolkien
$28.00

Every December, an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in strange spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or some sketches. The letters were from Father Christmas.

They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house!

Sometimes the Polar Bear would scrawl a note, and sometimes Ilbereth the Elf would write in his elegant flowing script, adding yet more life and humor to the stories. No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by the inventiveness and “authenticity” of Tolkien’sLetters from Father Christmas.

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Beasts & Behemoths (Dungeons & Dragons): A Young Adventurer’s Guide

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, For the Fanboy/Fangirl, For the Gamer

Beasts & Behemoths (Dungeons & Dragons): A Young Adventurer’s Guide
Jim Zub, Stacy King, Andrew Wheeler, Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed
$12.99

This illustrated guide transports new players to the magical world of Dungeons & Dragons and presents a one-of-a-kind course on the unusual creatures, from the minuscule to the massive, that fill the fantastic world of the game. This guide features easy-to-follow and entertaining explanations of where to find each beast, their strange abilities and magical powers, and how to defeat them, along with amazing illustrations that will ignite your imagination. Organized by size from small to large, bigger and more dangerous monsters are introduced with every turn of the page.

Beasts & Behemoths is a perfect way for new players and young fantasy fans to learn about the monsters an adventuring party can meet, with profiles full of example encounters and storytelling tips that encourage creative problem-solving skills when battling beastly foes.

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One Pan Pescatarian: Delicious Veggie, Vegan and Fish Dinners

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, For the Home Chef

One Pan Pescatarian: Delicious Veggie, Vegan and Fish Dinners
Rachel Phipps
$30.00

One Pan Pescatarian offers simple, affordable, quick veggie, vegan and fish recipes with maximum flavor.
 
100 mouthwatering recipes including:
  • Tomato and Root Veggie Casserole with Dumplings
  • Sheet Pan Cauliflower Tikka with Mint Chutney
  • Spicy Eggplant and Pak Choi Stir Fry
  • Lemon Baked Cod
The weeknight “what shall I make for dinner?” rut, will be a thing of the past–all can be cooked in just one pan or dish, taking the hassle away from cooking to leave time for you to enjoy your evening.
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Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol. 3) (Pacific War Trilogy)

by | Nov 4, 2020 | 2020 Gift Guide, For the History Buff

Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (Vol. 3) (Pacific War Trilogy)
Ian W. Toll
$40.00

In June 1944, the United States launched a crushing assault on the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The capture of the Mariana Islands and the accompanying ruin of Japanese carrier airpower marked a pivotal moment in the Pacific War. No tactical masterstroke or blunder could reverse the increasingly lopsided balance of power between the two combatants. The War in the Pacific had entered its endgame.

Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings to life the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts.

Ian W. Toll’s narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also reconstructs the Japanese and American home fronts and takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided.

Drawing from a wealth of rich archival sources and new material, Twilight of the Gods casts a penetrating light on the battles, grand strategic decisions and naval logistics that enabled the Allied victory in the Pacific. An authoritative and riveting account of the final phase of the War in the Pacific, Twilight of the Gods brings Toll’s masterful trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. This prize-winning and best-selling trilogy will stand as the first complete history of the Pacific War in more than twenty-five years, and the first multivolume history of the Pacific naval war since Samuel Eliot Morison’s series was published in the 1950s.

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