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Super Food Family Classics

Jamie Oliver

Penguin Books Australia

Jamie's Super Food Family Classics is the healthy-eating companion book to the new TV series of Jamie's Super Food.

Illustrations exemplify what the end result is supposed to look like and list all relevant information in terms of nutrition and the individual components that need to be procured and go into it. The tone is jovial and down to earth, i.e. it caters to foodies as well as those having now concept as to what a meal outside the confines of fast-food would look like.

In essence, fuss free recipes that are a bit more health conscious than your regular cookbooks, with Jamie using “family” to denote food that’s “cozy, comforting and made for sharing”.

The book is comprised of a mélange of classic recipes as well as new and different dishes, with the focus being on meals that are all relatively easy to make, and the large majority of recipes contain food groups and flavour combinations that won’t challenge your palate too much.

Detailed nutritional information, i.e. calories, fat, sat far, protein, carbs, sugar, salt, fiber and “fruit / veg” portion; as well as serving sizes are included

The book has nine main recipe sections:

Breakfast (e.g. Chocolate porridge, Toasted popeye bread, Strawberry Buckwheat Pancakes, Mango lassi bircher, etc.)

Quick fixes (e.g. Japanese miso stew, Sri Lankan prawn curry, Cheat’s pea soup, Crispy trout, oats & thyme, etc.).

Healthy Classics (Super shepherd’s pie, Salmon & prawn 'sh pie, Healthy chip butty, Sweet potato 'shcakes, Ratatouille pie, etc.)

Salads (Super tuna pasta salad, Prawn noodle salad, Super Brussels sprouts slaw, Korean bibimbap bowl, Warm smoked trout salad, Salmon crudo & crispbreads, etc.)

Curries and stews (Sag aloo korma, Veggie gurkha curry, African prawn curry, etc.).

Traybakes (Mango teriyaki salmon, Persian veggie pilaf, Jerk aubergine & peppers, etc.)/

Pasta and risotto (Veggie Bolognese, Jools’ tuna pasta bake, Garlic mushroom pasta, Super greens cannelloni, Prawn & fennel risotto, Squash & ricotta ravioli, etc.).

Soups (e.g. Alphabet tomato soup, Spinach, mushroom & risotto soup, Peruvian sweet potato soup, Super leek & potato soup, Navajo soup, etc.).

Kitchen Hacks (e.g. Super-quick batch pesto, 7-Veg tomato sauce, Curry pastes, Fruit ice lollies, etc.). 

There is an additional section of the book called “Health and Happiness”, which contains Jamie’s advice on things such as ‘how to nutritionally balance your plate” and other non-chalant life tips such as ‘why fiber is cool’ and ‘the genius of chewing’. 

So how do the field tested so far were very easy to accomplish and did not disappoint in the flavor department either, with the Mango teriyaki salmon (with brown rice & chili cucumber pickle) being one of the outstanding ones and based on ingredients that are easy to come by,

A book that will help to freshen up your staples and expand your recipe repertoire in a healthy way.

Locust House
Adam Gnade
Three One G / Pioneer Press

This one is short, immersive, dense, turbulent and poignant.

A novella-length rumination on a time, a place, and a culture.

Less a story and more of an experience – the literary equivalent of an intense, noisy and hectic live show that catapults one back to something that feels universal - a rite of passage that despite the confusion it brings, forms an integral part of one’s upbringing and DNA as it is essentially uniquely yours like few other things later on in life.

An ode to San Diego’s envelope pushing noise punk fringe music scene, circa 2002, embodied by a home-turned –concert venue, which is orbited by a cast of misfit characters.

Alienation, frustration, rebellion, existential angst, half-baked political convictions, relationships on shaky grounds and the desire for something real, raw and unfabricated in a post-9/11 brave new world.

Adam Gnade paces Locust House accordingly: It feels like one shot, one big breath and the fact that it can be easily read in one sitting adds to it.

A collaborative release by Three One G and Pioneers Press, this is a novella that will resonate with anyone who found his / her way to punk rock as an escapism from a world that denies.

Men without Women

Haruki Murakami

Penguin Books Australia

Men Without Women is a 2014 collection of short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, which was recently translated in English in a fluent and colloquial manner by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen. 

In essence the stories are about men who have lost their women, usually to other men or death.

While this might like a depressing topic, the stories are actually                                                    enjoyable and philosophical as they display Marukami’s astute understanding of both youth and age, infused with the unique mélange of melancholy and humour – at times tragicomedy - that has become somewhat of a trademark for his writing and his characters’ curiosity being the motor behind the respective narrative angles.

Murakami revives the genre of short stories, which is riddled with many mediocre offerings, with each of the stories being able to stand for themselves but the total of them being more than the sum of the individual parts, with clear an defined prose subtly covering nuances, a claviature of tones and not lacking impact despite their seemingly quiet nature on the surface.

The fact that that impact is achieved by sometimes a single arresting sentence conveying unexpected eventuality shows Murakami’s mastery, which usually unfolds in long form.

In the seven, decidedly uneven yet beautifully rendered stories, Murakami manages to write about very complex matters of profound alienation with beguiling simplicity, poignancy and wit.

Despite characteristic traits and key motifs that have pervaded Murakami’s literary emissions ever since and have becomes integral to his writing, i.e. jazz, cats, whiskey, a deep appreciation of The Beatles and Franz Kafka, he still manages to surprise and invigorate what seems to be common tropes.

Die Gestalten Verlag is a publisher and creative agency mostly known for their 600 books on art, architecture, design, photography and typography. The company has 30 staff members through offices in Berlin, London, New York and Tokyo.

What makes a good publisher?

Let’s see…

A passion for books is a good start.

Vision, imagination, and an ability to work with both creative and commercial acumen.

The mélange of all these aspects is the fundamental challenge of publishing.

Die Gestalten Verlag.

Publishing house.

Agency dedicated to creativity.

Six hundred art books on design, photography, architecture, et cetera.

Firmly rooted in graphic design, founders Markus Hollmann-Loges, Andreas Peyerl and Robert Klanten, eventually branched out and became a phenomenon leaving a dent in a myriad of related and unrelated realms, e.g. curation and creation of art projects of all kinds.

A triumph of a brand identity

Gestalten has fine-tuned an approach to design that has successfully translated around the world.

Die Gestalten Verlag’s literary emissions look good.

They feel good.

They nurture.

They are innovative.

Edited and designed by designers for designers and those interested in it.

With their extensive range of titles, Gestalten not only seek too enhance and to enrich our reader's lives, but to continually engage with the surrounding creative landscape through the anticipation of new trends and keeping tabs on the rhythmic rollercoaster ride of the pulse of all things related to art.

A collaboration that got me excited from the get go was Gestalten joining forces with Monocle. 

Based in London and acclaimed the world over, MONOCLE has delivered a unique briefing on global affairs, business, culture, and design since it was founded by Tyler Brûlé in 2007. Alongside the magazine, Monocle has created a 24-hour radio station, a film-rich website, retail ventures around the globe, and cafes in Tokyo and London.

Three examples of Monocle’s themed books with Gestalten shall be highlighted here: After showing readers how to build a better life, guiding them to good business, one of the more recent books is focused on how to build a nation.

How to Make a Nation: A Monocle Guide is a thought-provoking tome.

We are not talking about the usual ingredients, i.e. might, muscle, or nationalism—although you need a good pinch of each of them every now and then.

We are talking about “country” as in cohesive community, with values, getting its way with  power of the soft variation and compelling offerings of its culture..

At its centre, this country celebrates good education, well-made institutions, and its own people and their skills.

Monocle’s “Guide to Cozy Homes” is not only a book for the well heeled home owner but a comprehensive source giving ideas on how to transform your humble abode into a home. Both a practical guide and a source of inspiration, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes tackles the process of creating a place where you feel comfortable spending most of your time in.

The objective is not the depiction of pichturesque prefabricated soulless warehouse style perfection but of homes that are lived in and the people that created them, all the while being holistic in its approach and covering known and unknown corners of this earthround.

The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes illustrates people that are not picture perfect but have signed of serving what good homes should do, i.e. provide a place to live, which comes with wear and tear that is caused by the inhabitants. These homes are not married to specific geographic locations but are dotted around his earthround and more often than not found in places where you would least expect them.

Gestalten / Monocle’s Travel Guides have covered all major destinations.

One of the more recent ones, covers the city of Lisbon – an intrigueing one to say the very least.

Monocle’s approach is guided by the credo that the reader should not only be informed on the must-see sights but also spots that are not necessarily on the radar of the general public:

Restaurants, museums, hole in the wall eateries, architecture to be found off the beaten path as well as hotel recommendations , artisan workshops and shops – Monocle’s guides shed light on it all that often helps me discover new places despite having visited some cities they have covered multiple times.

British Artists – Francis Bacon

by Andrew Brighton

Tate Publishing

Comprehensive and holistic in nature, The British Artist Series books employ the insights of art luminaries to illuminate the most renowned artists in the history of Britannica. This time the focus is on one of my eternal favourites:

Francis Bacon.

The exhibition of his eponymous “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion” in 1945 catapulted him into the echelons of not only the most talented and ambitious painters of the modern age but also into the pole position in terms of controversy. His works is said to not only be intriguing to the eye but its intensity is fabled to have a tangible impact on your sensorium.

With a solid track record of having covered other artists, e.g. David Hockney, Ana Pacheco and Picasso’s oeuvre, curator and author Andrew Brighton sheds light on the genesis of the artist known as Francis Bacon and his standing in the queer world of the bohemia. Andrew Brighton’s approach is informed by an astute perception of what made Bacon’s work and the  external factors that influenced it – be it mundane or more profound ones.

Bacon is widely known for his giant canvasses spilling out nightmarish visions and contorted bodies in their raw and fleshy glory.

Arranged in chronological order, the book glues together the most important paintings from the Bacon's turbulent life, including his portraits of Pope Innocent X and his other inspiring triptychs, which became a source of inspiration for nightmares with depictions of the reduction of the human body to raw flesh..

A book that expounds the values and meanings that can be ascribed to Bacon's work, discusses criticisms of Bacon by distinguished critics and philosophers and serves both as a great introduction and companion for connoisseurs into the monumental legacy of what has rightly become an icon of British culture and the underlying manifold reasons for his fame and timeless relevance.