The Elliott Bay Book Company

The best of the author's three outstanding books on pollen, seeds, and fruit—previously published to rave reviews—have been brought together here. This incredible book will delight the gardener, the nature lover, or anyone fascinated by weird science and the wonders of nature. Using special lighting and an electron microscope to magnify up to one million times, the book turns plants into works of art. Meet a host of unusual pollinators like beetles and bats, or indulge in the world of “Phytopia,” where plant landscapes entertain the eye. This book will delight and engage as the strange inner world of plants is revealed. —Seth

Man Booker–winning author Arundhati Roy gives an impassioned, fiery, and candid exposé on the underbelly of the world’s oldest democracy— India. Roy shows how the country’s eyes are blinded by modern-day euphemisms—nationalism and development; union and progress. India’s teeth are chewing up cultural identity, people’s hopes, and natural resources, spitting out supermalls, corrupt governance, and draconian laws. Her stomach is unable to digest all the fear and disillusionment, burping out foul gases of poverty, escalating terrorism, and neofascism. In the nexus of these twelve well-researched and beautifully composed essays lies the question of what happens once democracy has been used up, hollowed, and bent into something unrecognizable. Jai Ho! —Hanna

Famous for his birding guides and detailed illustrations of birds, David Sibley has created a guide to trees of North America that is just as remarkable as his previous works. Each tree is easily identifiable because of the detailed drawings of the trunk, bark, leaves, separate branch details, buds, and autumnal colors. Included on each page are drawings of nuts, seeds, or fruits from each tree and descriptive information about each type of tree as well as a complete map of the United States showing where that species can be found. As a companion for birders or anyone who spends time hiking or walking the city, this is a must to keep in your car or backpack. —Tracy

The Berlin Wall, the Parthenon and Gloucester Cathedral are just three of the iconic buildings whose hidden histories, lost origin stories and modern metamorphoses are revealed in The Secret Lives of Buildings. Far from timeless, these buildings are continually reconstructed by the people who build, use and remake them for new uses. Lives are influenced in turn by the shifting built environment, and often in extraordinary ways. The Berlin wall is demolished and turned into tourist souvenirs, but not before splitting the destiny of two sisters. The Parthenon becomes Mosque and then museum, and Gloucester Cathedral survives as a movie set. —Karen

For the past twenty-five years Edward Snow has been producing, volume by volume, the most majestic and magnetic translations of Rilke's oeuvre, spanning the entire arc, from the early Book of Hours and Book of Images through the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus to Uncollected Poems. Together now in one volume constituting the most comprehensive English-language collection ever of Rilke’s unmatched poetry, this beautiful bilingual edition is further illuminated by Snow's restrained and lucid notes and comments. —Peter

Jill Greenberg's previous book Monkey Portraits is stunning and the same can be said for Bear Portraits. The primative wildness of the Polar Bear, Kodiak, Brown Bear, Black Bear, and Grizzly stand in stark contrast to the studio backdrops in which she photographs the bears. The portraits take on a painterly as well as an otherworldly quality. They are intimate. It is not often that humans have the opportunity to look into the eyes of these tremendous and powerful mammals. These are soul stirring photos, which can be returned to again and again. —Greg

Grace felt an intimate connection the first time she looked into Sam's eyes—but that time he was a wolf. During the cold Minnesota fall and winter Sam lives as a werewolf, but when the weather warms he lives as a human. This is when his romance with Grace blossoms. But the time is approaching when Sam will no longer spend time as a human—can he and Grace find a cure before it's too late? Chapters alternate between Sam and Grace (and track the changing temperature) in this fantastic supernatural love story —Holly

In the footsteps of Pollan, Kingsolver, Schlosser, and Bittman comes this brave look into our food sources. On the brink of fatherhood, and having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf, Foer launches a mission to find his truth about eating animals. From the ever-expanding number of global dinner guests to emotional ingredients of our childhood meals, from food folklore to animal cruelty, he dissects the question of moral responsibility. Often shocking, at times touching, philosophical, scientific, and convincing, this is the holiday gift for your friends on the fence about vegetarianism, or for all of the people you care about. —Hanna

Darwin's trip to the Galapagos Islands inspired generations of scientists to follow in his footsteps and gather specimens from the islands' flora and fauna. The California Academy of Sciences collected the specimens depicted in this provocative book on an expedition in 1905-06. This is a ponderous pathway to the discussion of evolution, both visually and verbally examining the ideas of natural selection, diversity, and adaptation. A clear and concise text accompanies the stunning photographs of butterfly wing patterns, verdant beetle shells and striking skeletons along with all manner of preserved samples. Novice or scientist will spend hours over this enthralling book. —Holly

The obvious attraction of this title is the lack of kneading, but it is more than just another bread book. The passion of Lahey (the instigator of the no-knead revolution) shines through on every page as he talks about the history and his own experiences of bread, all the while encouraging experimentation and playfulness on the baker's part. He claims his recipes are meant to inspire, and from his take on Irish soda bread (it includes Guinness stout) to his use of seawater, it truly does. Whether for a novice or an accomplished artisan baker, there is edification here. —Pamela

Embedded with the 2-16 infantry battalion for its fifteen month deployment during "the surge," Finkel witnessed—and here recounts—some of the most raw and nightmarish realities that war can imprint on the human psyche. The narrative follows Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich—"The Kauz"—and his band of impassioned soldiers (average age: nineteen) garrisoned in their Baghdad-area forward operating base amid the chaos of improvised explosive devices, distrusting locals, and the ever-present possibility of maiming or death. Gripping and relentless, this is a soldier's-eye view of a dark chapter in the nation's history; yet, it will long be remembered as a sobering account of the unspeakable horror that is war. —Jamie

Born in a west Texas dugout in 1901, the hard-nosed Lily Casey Smith (Walls's actual grandmother) grew to know a thing or two about life. She broke horses around the age most kids learn to ride a bike, taught school before she was eighteen-years-old, and raised two children on one of the largest ranches in Arizona, all the while stumbling upon more than her share of hardships. Her audacious and adventuresome spirit is what guides her through and makes this true-life novel a wonderful read. —Jennifer

Mary Karr continues to tell the story she began in her memoirs The Liar's Club and Cherry in this searing account of her days as an isolated young mother whose life is slowly unraveling. Descending into alcoholism, depression and despair, she finds herself traveling a similar path to her mother's but in Karr's case, an unexpected encounter leads her to faith and, eventually, sobriety. As funny and acerbic as ever, Mary Carr's story is both harrowing and familiar. —Karen

In a sleepy Texas town, Cameron ekes out a sleepy existence with zero ambition. However, Cam's life changes quickly when his uncharacteristic behavior leads to a diagnosis of mad cow disease. Hospitalized and waiting for the inevitable, Cameron is visited by an angel—a sexy punk of an angel—named Dulcie and charged with saving humanity. With nothing to lose, Cameron embarks upon a magical adventure, confronting cult members, jamming with jazz musicians, fighting off fire beasts, and befriending lawn gnomes. Going Bovine is a hilarious and fantasy-laden ride into the mind of a teenage boy. It’s the perfect gift for any mid-to-late teen or young adult. —Casey S.

In 1957 W. Eugene Smith left his buttondown world as staff photographer at Life Magazine, moved into a loft in New York City's flower district, and chronicled life as he saw it from his fourth-floor window. The result was some fifteen hundred rolls of film, forty thousand photographs, and four thousand hours of audiotapes of musicians and artists such as Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Diane Arbus, Norman Mailer, and Salvador Dali, as well as the pimps, prostitutes, thieves, drug addicts, and other neighborhood denizens.
With such a massive archive, one can only hope Sam Stephenson and the fine folks at Knopf will have future projects. —Matt

Pop-up books make great gifts for kids of all ages, and this walk down Sesame Street is sure to delight. Make Elmo dance and Grover fly. Help Cookie Monster make some cookies...and help Count von Count count them. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Ernie & Bert, and all your favorite characters are here to entertain, educate, and explore how to get to Sesame Street. Brought to you by the letter B and the number 6. —David

Paul and Judy like to monkey around with their pet Beastie in this charming new "Pull-and-Poke" book. Part pop-up, part touch-and-feel, and part fantastic fable, this amusing tale shows us why it is important to be kind to our pets. Along the way, you get to pull Beastie's hair, jiggle his eyes, pick his wormy boogers, make his stomach squeal, and much more...that is, if you dare to join in. —David