GARDENS, THE LONGING FOR EDEN
Our planet is blue, but we live in a plant world: plants represent 80 percent of the Earth's biomass. It seems logical, then, that from the beginning our eyes turned towards them to look for the food that sustains us, and that, as a result of the above, the first horticultural experiments were inspired by necessity and not aesthetics. But perhaps because we still feel nostalgia for that Eden from which we were so soon expelled, the orchards also became gardens, places that are part of nature, but human creation. We like gardens to the extreme that almost so many books have been published that treat them as flowers, an exaggeration perhaps, but this one that we recommend here, Gardens. An exploration of the art of landscaping (Phaidon), is truly exceptional: good size and careful edition, its 335 pages (and its illustrations) and its more than 300 entries range from art to architecture, from the closed garden of the monasteries to the Garden of Paradise of the Quran; What they show us is that, paradises.
YOU MUST HAVE EGGS... AND ALSO ON THE TABLE
Humus, ceviches, caviar, roasts and fish, even vegetables, even raw. And the humble egg? Victim of accusatory and cholesteric fingers, one of the richest foods, in proteins and flavors, continues to be the great marginalized of the kitchen. Until The Gourmand has arrived. The egg. Stories and recipes (Taschen), the first result of the collaboration between the publishing house, a reference for illustrated books, and the stylish magazine The Gourmand. With texts by the writer and art critic Jennifer Higgie, large format, 270 pages of very careful design and studio photographs, it constitutes a well-deserved tribute to that product of which we already find representations in Ancient Egypt and which shaped the founding question of our origin: what came first, the chicken or the egg? The book proposes a review of the history of the egg, thus, the Romans used it to eliminate evil spirits (also for Bacchic and Dionysian rites...). In the book you will find all kinds of recipes to enjoy eggs, not only chicken, but also quail, ostrich... But the most innovative thing is the study of how these delicious spheres, even before the appearance of spherifications, have motivated since the Russian tsars with Fabergé jewel eggs to painters like Velázquez, Cézanne, photographers like Man Ray and even Dalí himself. A big present.
DADDY GOOSE DOESN'T ENVY THE WIZARD OF OZ
L. Frank Baum is known worldwide for his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900 with illustrations by W.W. Denslow. A classic that, like all milestones, did not come out of nowhere: both had already collaborated on the short stories Mother Goose in prose, and on Father Goose, surreal verses for children that achieved immediate success a year before Oz. Now Reino de Cordelia publishes the latter in Spanish for the first time, with a translation by Luis Alberto de Cuenca and José Fernández Bueno, with the original plates and large format. For all ages.
FROM THE 'ELECTRONIC BRAIN' TO THE TOTAL
“An electronic brain!” This is what a journalist called UNIVAC, the first commercial computer, when it predicted the results of the 1952 presidential election in the US. Our journalist would be left blank if he saw how these brains have become almost total with AI and physics. quantum and a few other things that Rachel Ignatofsky explains to us in an illustrated book published by Nórdica. History of the computer is full of details, curiosities and that, a story, that of an evolution that is also that of the human mind.
EGYPT, ALWAYS
Few chapters in history fascinate us as much as that of that culture that left us much more than the pyramids. Blume publishes a luxurious volume that, by the prestigious specialist Christian Jacq, takes us into Pharaonic Egypt, which is its title. Questions and answers accompanied by full-page photographs so that, like Jacq, we can say that our greatest happiness is sitting and writing (or reading) on the banks of the Nile.
AT YOUR FEET, 'SNEAKERS'
We are going to call them that, because that is the title of the book that tells everything about sports shoes, which in Spanish, the language of the volume, sounds less luxurious. And it is that Sneakers. The sneakers that have made history, from the Kikikickz collective and published by Lunwerg, bring together a lot of style, as well as history, that of how this footwear became an object of desire by athletes, rappers and celebrities from all over the world, as well as cultural phenomenon. With full-page photographs of iconic models and brands and tips for detecting fakes.
PILAR AYMERICH
Many of Pilar Aymerich's photographs are etched in our retina, to the point that some of us have adopted them as memories even if we had not been there. Because the photographer is the memory of Barcelona, of its social struggles, especially between the late 60s and 80s. Now, these images, and other unpublished ones, are collected in the large Catalan volume La Barcelona by Pilar Aymerich (Comanegra/Ajuntament de Barcelona)
BEFORE AMERICA
About thirty specialists, more than 800 illustrations in a volume that exceeds 600 large format pages. The Juan March Foundation has done justice to its exhibition Before America. Sources originating in modern culture, which can be visited in Madrid until March 10, 2024 with a catalog of those reserved for great occasions. A journey from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, its indigenous civilizations and cultures.
AND THE PIANIST?
At three in the morning on March 18, 1976, the promising pianist Tenório Junior disappeared after a concert with Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho in Buenos Aires. He went out to buy tobacco and medicine, and was never heard from again. Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal have teamed up to investigate his trail in this graphic novel, They Shot the Pianist, which Salamandra Graphic publishes with careful treatment of the images and enormous format.
YOUTH, A TREASURE
Another story, that of Editorial Juventud, created by Josep Zendrera in 1923. Yes, a hundred years and many more books have passed by this publishing house dedicated to children and young people and, also, to adults who have succumbed to the adventures of, for example, example, Tintin. To celebrate the birthday, Libraries and the City Council of Barcelona and Youth have published Les aventures de l’editorial Juventut, edited by Mónica Baró and Julià Guillamon
THE MEMORY-POSTER
Gay Mercader integrated Spain into the international rock circuit starting in 1971. This is how the prologue that Diego A. Manrique has written for Tour Posters begins. Gay Mercader 1971/2017 (Satélite K) a voluminous volume, worth the bad joke, that we now recover and that includes the original posters of a good part of the concerts held during those years. An unconventional history of modern music in our country.
