Little Boy Brown
by Isobel Harris
Little Boy Brown written by Isobel Harris and illustrated by Andre Francois was first published in 1949. Francois was a student of Picasso and his illustrations have a kinship with William Steig. The story follows a city boy (who lives in an un-Eloise-like hotel) as he is taken for a day in the country with the immigrant family of a hotel chambermaid. There is a period feel to the book but it has a sense of a child's point of view which is as perennial the book's elements of interest to children - snowmen, elevators, buses, a policeman and a friendly dog. (Ages 3-6).
-Thomas
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Schottenfreude
by Ben Schott
The miscellaneously fecund Ben Schott (creator of Schott's Miscellany) has dived into the German language and come out the other end with Schottenfreude : German Words for the Human Condition. Making use of the German language's compounding capacity, Schott confects a word both for a letter you write but never send (Schubladenbrief) as well as one for pretending you haven't been accidentally spat on in  conversation (Speichelgleichmut) and many other regrets, odd moments and fleeting experiences. Schott catalogs them in an oblong treasury along with illuminating historical and literary examples of the experiences described. Great fun for word lovers, trivia fans, and casual observers of the human condition. -Thomas
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The Book of Legendary Lands
by Umberto Eco
The explorations we undertake in renowned writer and critic Umberto Eco's new book occupy a rare liminal space between myth and history-all of the places described, from El Dorado to Atlantis, have at some point been thought to actually exist. The essays, illustrations, and excerpts from literary works that shaped human understanding of these mythical lands serve to underscore what Eco calls "the reality of these illusions."
-Matthew
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The Book of Ages
by Jill Lepore
A biography about the little-known sister of Benjamin Franklin, Jane Franklin. The only surviving relics she left in this world are a delicate little book recording the births and deaths of her many children, and just a few of the multitude of letters she wrote her brother during their decades-long correspondence (the rest were lost or destroyed after his death). Lepore explores the idea that their discourse played a large role in Benjamin's political ideologies.
-Willa
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