Bookstore Picks for October

Our Bookstore sees thousands of new titles a month. That’s a lot to choose from. But don’t panic! Since we have an office full of book lovers, we asked a few people to share their favorites with you.

Meet Kent – Marketing Manager, Creative Projects at Blurb

Kent has done everything from events to copywriting to social media. He also takes photos, makes collages, and generally wishes he’d been born with some talent in illustration. That probably explains his selections this month.

When tasked with having to choose three of his favorites, he responded with, “I get excited by so many books that come through Blurb, and I’m fortunate that I get to see so many. Do I really have to narrow it down to just three? OK, here goes. I think you’ll detect a theme in my list.”

Robot Kid by Amy O’Hanlon

I’m a big fan of visual storytelling. From comic books to photography books, effectively telling stories with images is an art. Robot Kid is a largely wordless, 113-page graphic novel that deals with the way kids cope with grief. Amy O’Hanlon’s art is just gorgeous and there’s a profound sensitivity to the child’s psyche. It doesn’t talk down. It communicates honestly with an easy-to-understand metaphor.

Have Watercolors, Will Travel by Roger De Muth

Roger DeMuth is an artistic force of nature. Besides being a traditionally published children’s book illustrator, former SCU faculty member, and serious gardener, he’s also an incredible painter. I’ve watched him work and his draftsmanship is just extraordinary. This massive book represents just some of the watercolors he’s done. There’s an incredible sense of space, and a Hockney-like interest in how we look at things. As a bonus, the book goes into his process too. Fascinating stuff.

Fashion ABC by Daniel Velasco

There are some books you show around the office that elicit a universal “wow.” And this book is one of them. This alphabet book, which takes a fashion designer for each letter of the alphabet, is bold, beautiful, and big (a 12 x 12). Daniel Valesco is a young illustrator, and he uses his book extremely well, as both a demonstration of his skills, and as a portfolio book. The whole thing is so well designed. He’s also built explanatory text into an index in the back, making the whole thing a really well-considered package.

Meet Brady – Director of Product at Blurb and MagCloud

Brady has been around the Bay Area for some time working on digital comics, enhanced children’s books, magazines, and various software projects. He was born and raised in Wisconsin and while he loves cheddar, he doesn’t own a cheese head.

Burrito Unicorn Instruction Manual by Starheadboy

When I first joined Blurb, a coworker had this hilarious book lying on his desk. Within seconds of picking it up I instantly loved it. Deliberately rough around the edges, it explores the mystery of the rarest of pets, the unicorn burrito. Both unicorns and burritos are highly prized in the Bay area. The author, Starheadboy, is a fascinating artist living in Seattle who creates street art and compilations of his cool and humorous pop art.

Bee Magic by Emma Sarah Tennant

Bees and their suspicious disappearing act has been on my mind and in the news lately. So, this cute book about bees with lovely macro photography caught my eye. The ebook version is free too!

Action Theater Training by Eva-Lotta Lamm

My background is in digital comics, so I’m drawn to creative uses of the medium to express things beyond superheroes in spandex. Now, I don’t have anything against a bit of Lycra, but “Action Theater Train” is an awesome example of employing imagery and text to entertain and teach acting skills.

Meet Ned – Marketing Director at Blurb

Ned has a fondness for stag horn ferns, bikes, and cars who use their turn signals. He would like to own a dog one day.
Guide to the Foreign Japanese Kitchen by Moé Takemura

I love pretty much everything about this book, but especially the design and the story. Moé was a Japanese woman living in Sweden and she wanted to teach her friends how to make Japanese comfort food. So, she made a book in Swedish, Japanese, and English. She did all of the photography and layout design herself. It’s small and beautiful.

The Vintage Mountain Bike by Mike Will

Mike Will grew up riding mountain bikes. He had been talking about trying to traditionally publish a book on vintage mountain bikes, but publishers told him it was too niche. They said it would be too hard to get all of the bikes in one place for photo shoot. So, he did it himself by crowd-sourcing photos from various owners. The result can be found on Amazon, and (at the time of writing) it’s the only book on vintage mountain bikes that Amazon sells.
Opel GT: Restoration Handbook by Keith Lundholm

I love that Keith wants to share his passion and expertise in restoring Opel GTs. Plus, by selling it on Amazon, his book gets discovered by other aficionados.

Discover more new reads in the Blurb Bookstore.