The Neverending Book, a delightful Japanese illustrated novel, is essentially a love letter to books. Written in the style of a fairy tale, it tells of a near-blind and aging king who can no longer read the books he loves. The king sends two men out on a journey around the world. Their mission is to search out the strangest books people know and then come back to tell the king about them.

The two men are gone for a year, and upon their return, in a set-up reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights, they take turns nightly telling the king of the stories they discovered. There are fuzzy books, cursed books, books about people whose dreams had been crushed along the way, and books with terrible reviews. Interspersed with charming ink illustrations, each of the books described is a glimpse into the worlds the two men discovered, and a wonderful distraction for a dying king.

Clever and whimsical, The Neverending Book would make a perfect gift for any book lover seeking imaginary escapades. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles; Circe; Galatea) offers a clever, pocket-sized myth retelling with Mestra, a righteous angle on the plight and redemption of the daughter of the king of Thessaly.

The privileged but prideful king offended the goddess Demeter with his greed, and she cursed him with never-ending hunger. To fill his bottomless need for sustenance, he has tried everything, sold everything, including (at this short story's opening) his daughter's hand in marriage. In desperation, Mestra prays for deliverance, and is rewarded with the ability to shapeshift. When she returns home, Mestra's father commands to make helpful use of her new power, shifting into various forms that he can sell: beautiful young women, horses, a milk cow. But the selfish king can never be satiated, and Mestra begins to question her role in this dubious cause. How much of herself can she give? Is there a limit to what the king will take?

In this beautiful, small, giftable edition, Miller's adept prose and cunning reworking of legend is once more on sparkling display. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Despite having been featured on a U.S. quarter and as a Barbie in Mattel's Inspiring Women series among luminaries such as Rosa Parks and Helen Keller, the actress Anna May Wong is arguably lesser known. Shirley Jennifer Lim seeks to rectify that with the fascinating Anna May Wong: An Intimate Portrait.

Born in California in 1905, Wong was a U.S. citizen who lived under the Chinese Exclusion Act. After starting as a background actor, she went on to bigger roles in silent films, then "talkies" and on Broadway. She eventually enjoyed a glamorous life among society's uppermost tiers, shattering norms of what an "Oriental" woman could achieve at the time. Anna May Wong is meticulously researched, filled with rarely seen photos, and features quotes from Wong's eloquent personal letters. Readers get a glimpse of her optimism despite racist Hollywood casting practices--e.g. yellowface--and her resilience in constantly reinventing herself for changing times. Ironically, her remarkable life would provide grand source material for the kind of Hollywood movies in which she was denied starring roles. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, freelance editor at The Edit Ninja

Hilary Leslie's A Hoop of Threads & Longing: 20 Ink-Drinking, Slow-Burning Embroidery Projects is a fun craft book that she calls a "love letter to the romantasy genre." She offers designs based on common tropes, including the self-rescuing princess, several designs with dragons or references to cottagecore, time travel, and masquerades, as well as stitches that just celebrate a love of reading, such as one titled "The Library Cat."

Leslie, a self-taught embroiderer, has made a collection that is beginner-friendly with helpful guides outlining materials needed, how to use templates and patterns, and tutorials for starter stitches, including QR codes to access video tutorials. The book includes tips for integrating beading and simplifying the processes for best results, with ample encouragement to experiment with the patterns in terms of color and texture. Of the 20 projects shared, 15 are in the hoop and five are for embroidering everyday objects such as bookmarks and tote bags, meaning that there is sure to be something for everyone in these pages. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

No polar exploration endeavor has lodged itself more deeply in the public imagination than that of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, which sank after being trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea in January 1915. Its crew, including photographer Frank Hurley, were stranded for nearly two years before an open-boat rescue mission brought them home alive. Hurley photographed the entire experience with artistry, and rescued his glass plate negatives from the sinking ship at considerable personal risk.

The Endurance Photographs presents digitally mastered prints drawn directly from the original lavish large-format negatives. All 280 of Hurley's photographs are elegantly displayed here, many revealing details invisible in previous reproductions. Essays by maritime archeologist Mensun Bound, Shackleton's granddaughter Alexandra Shackleton, Antarctic and polar regions photography specialist Jean de Pomereu, and Hurley authority Shane Murphy provide captivating context for the images.

This is an artifact that will transfix anyone. For history readers, photography collectors, adventure enthusiasts, or anyone who has ever felt the cold coming through one of Hurley's ice-crushed ship photographs, this is the definitive edition. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Brilliant: Unexpected Art from Everywhere is a generous and visually striking physical object, demanding attention with the rich kelly green of its page edges and the bold colors and graphic styling of its cover. Inside, readers will find art of all kinds: photography, painting, and even a short graphic novel from celebrated cartoonist Tillie Walden. The collection is unafraid and unpredictable, full of pieces that provoke, reminding readers that, as editor Holly Fraser argues, "art feels like the ultimate expression of being human. It's inexplicable, ancient, urgent."

As a file-sharing company often used by creatives, WeTransfer turned its access to innovative artists into WePresent, a digital arts platform that curates a singular collection of original work by some of the world's brightest contemporary creators. Born out of that work, Brilliant gathers stories and essays from recognized stars like David Sedaris and Roxane Gay alongside images from lesser-known artists, fostering a spirit of discovery and brimming with the kind of honesty and messy energy that defines human creativity. Eclectic and riotous, this collection defies categorization. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

In 1773, William Bartram embarked for the "Southern frontier" of the colonies, spending years traveling from "Georgia to the Mississippi River; from the headwaters of the St. Johns River to the heights of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains." He captured what he saw in his 1791 tome, known colloquially as Travels. In 1934, that work inspired artist and letterpress printer William G. Haynes Jr. to paint a series of watercolors. That collection of art depicting the flora, fauna, and landscapes of the South sits alongside excerpts from Bartram's volume in Bartram's Travels Illustrated, edited by Dorinda G. Dallmeyer and Harriet H. Langford.

Dallmeyer celebrates the lasting legacy of Bartram's work, which offers readers insights into the landscapes he encountered and acts as a testament to "how science can be interspersed with poetry."  Dallmeyer's annotations further enhance the conversation between Haynes's watercolors and Bartram's narrative descriptions. Bartram's Travels Illustrated is a treasure of natural history, Southern place-making, and the ways in which art and science intersect across U.S. history, from its earliest days as a country to modern times. --Kerry McHugh, Textus Collective

From the delectable fruity aroma wafting from the wine glass of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's Bacchus (1596) to the unpleasant halitosis emanating from Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893), Elizabeth Lunday's Scratch & Sniff Art History makes an entertaining gift for art lovers and dabblers alike. Some scents may be harder to detect (such as Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831), but readers will easily recognize most of the 12 works here. Lunday offers nuggets of art history, often with humor. For instance, Francisco Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son (ca.1819) was discovered after his death, painted on his dining room wall ("There's no accounting for taste"). Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) smells of grass and pine, and Lunday explains that it's hard to appreciate his "tiny points of pure pigments" in a book (the original measures 7×10 feet!). The eyes dominate the way audiences experience visual art, but Lunday cleverly and playfully invites viewers to experience each scene fully, with its textures, tastes, sounds--and, of course, smells. --Jennifer M. Brown

Stephen Ellcock curates a virtual museum of art. Ark, likewise, is a precious trove of words and illustrations honoring the planet's flora and fauna. Arranged by kingdom, this sumptuous work showcases fungi, plants, invertebrates, fish, reptiles and amphibians, birds, and mammals. Two-page spreads highlight particular groups or families. The collection spans time periods and art forms, such as watercolors, wood block prints, and photographs. Microscope images alternate with paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Georgia O'Keeffe; a historical photo of sequoias and a Japanese engraving of fireflies evoke magical spaces. Striking colors and contrasting styles abound. Occasional essays by Robert Macfarlane, Helen Scales et al. apply wisdom from literature and science. Novelist Sarah Perry admits that she no longer reads flood myths literally yet believes the instinct to protect nature is innate. Nonetheless, the biblical story of Noah's Ark provides the allegorical basis for Ellcock's project.

In a coda, Ellcock warns of "impending disaster": "If we fail to act... oblivion beckons." Ark pairs a strong environmental conscience with a visually stunning "celebration of the richness of life." --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Ailurophiles unite for Cat, a gorgeous homage to felines created by Phaidon. "There may be no creature on the earth that has captured the human imagination more deeply than the house cat," opens Hannah Shaw (aka Internet celebrity Kitten Lady) in her foreword to this appreciative, celebratory compilation, which features cats depicted in paintings, drawings, sculptures, murals, haute couture, books, and comics.

Leïla Jarbouai, chief curator at Paris's Musée d'Orsay, admiringly contextualizes the art in her introduction, "A Brief History of Cats in Visual Culture." The pages that follow feature hundreds of examples of feline-inspired art through the centuries, their creation details and locations (if applicable), and complementary essays written by a dozen writers. Numerous scions spectacularly memorialized their kitties--utterly unforgettable are Salvador Dalí with his three leaping cats through water in Philippe Halsman's dynamic 1948 photo, Dalí Atomicus, and Alexander Calder's deconstructed Chat-mobile, a sculpture made with sheet metal, paint, and steel wire. Immediately recognizable images are strewn throughout (Disney's Cheshire Cat, Krazy Kat, Garfield), intermixed with whimsical, want-inspiring gems like Lee Sangsoo's Sitting Cat (Siamese) sculpture. --Terry Hong

Whether designing a planted space or using the language of flowers to create beautiful art, Sarah Holland provides guidelines for building a nurturing practice with gorgeous photographs and soothing, clear prose in The Pressed Flower Handbook: Simple Methods for Connecting with Nature and Preserving the Beauty of the Garden Through the Seasons.

Holland begins with the garden and intention, moves on to equipment and the basics of flower pressing, and follows up with advanced techniques, the language of flowers, and how to embrace the seasons in the work. Step-by-step instructions with photo accompaniment are easy to follow and full of tips and invitations to experiment. The best advice in this handbook is adaptable and practical: spend a little time in the garden each day, even if making just one cut; use what's at hand rather than investing immediately; imperfect botanicals are great for practicing. She offers starter projects ideal for crafting with the seasons.

One part manual, one part meditation, The Pressed Flower Handbook is a pleasure to read and a guide to finding the same joy in nature through art. Readers will be inspired to stop and press the flowers. --Suzanne Krohn

Goth plant enthusiast Chloe Hurst writes, "Gardening is a beautiful reminder to be patient and thoughtful with the process, especially when creating something so wickedly beautiful" in her bewitching Darkness in Bloom: A Gothic Guide to Dramatic and Moody Plants. Hurst, whose popular Instagram account, @theg0thgarden, features her lush, dark garden, shares what she's learned since acquiring a house and planting space in 2018. After divulging that she was always drawn to the less brightly colorful side of life, Hurst details how she grew with her garden, gathering lessons like the importance of balancing light with more muted shades.

The majority of this portable-sized book (complete with Victorian-esque embellishments) is separated into perennials, annuals, houseplants, and garden decor. For each plant, Hurst includes helpful information--ideal planting zones, sun requirements, height and spread, and whether it attracts pollinators. She also warns readers when a plant is poisonous to humans or pets, or is invasive and requires containing. Hurst's creation is a feast for the eyes--just about every other page is a beauty shot of a botanical specimen. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator

Gardeners will enjoy digging into the hefty, lavishly photographed Terrain: The Container Garden Book, full of tips on creating container plantings in and around the home.

Melissa Bartley and Greg Lehmkuhl of Terrain, the home and garden lifestyle brand, believe "every empty planter is a potential fantasyland." Embracing a "nature-first ethos," the enthusiastic gardeners advise planning before planting, considering design principles, plant types, and container placement. Lush photos of the almost 100 projects are organized by the four seasons. Photo spreads of two or more pages feature component plants laid out side-by-side, followed by the completed container and a brief tutorial on how to create it. The designers don't limit themselves to traditional nursery plants but also include small trees, herbs, bulbs, grasses, mosses, and more. Reflecting their passion for their work, the authors' prose is as vivacious as the photographs, praising "fiery blooms" or "a vibrant fuchsia color palette" or a hydrangea's "chartreuse charm." Bursting with inspiration, Terrain: The Container Garden Book is designed to be "soil streaked and oft consulted." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House, Albany, N.Y.

"When diagrammed, a sentence becomes a picture," notes cartoonist and novelist Man Martin in the introduction to his clever collection This Is a Book of Sentence Diagrams. Martin gathers dozens of iconic lines, written and delivered by a range of speakers including Barack Obama, Jane Fonda, and Pepé Le Pew. He renders them on the page as diagrams, building visual scaffolds to highlight the (often chaotic) connections between phrases, clauses, and parts of speech. Martin punctuates his diagrams with witty captions that often reply to the sentence in question: Shakespeare's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" evokes the response "Flatterer," while a convoluted IRS instruction prompts the wry question "Got that?"

Martin's smart, playful bouquet of word-nerd catnip includes poetry such as Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" ("Peculiar. But grammatical."); a section of "Clap Backs" (with aphorisms from Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and a Play-Doh jar); and ringing declarations by the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Jedi Master Yoda. Martin's deconstruction of these famous lines is a well-constructed pleasure for grammar lovers of all stripes. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

A movie's setting is often as integral to the viewing experience as its ensemble of actors. As film journalist Cathy Whitlock puts it, "A great film or television series isn't only about what happens; it's about where it happens." She pays tribute to cinema's ability to transport viewers with On Location, a handsome coffee-table book that foregrounds the locales of some of the most noteworthy films ever made.

With features such as the Old Delhi of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding, which highlights the city's "distinctive color palette--saffron, fuchsia, vermilion, and marigold"; Pedro Almodóvar's Madrid, "where colors run hot and melodrama runs high"; and the stunningly photographed "stairwells, noodle shops, rooftops, back alleys, and the tucked-away corners that define real city life" in Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong, Whitlock's book is a feast for fans of architecture as well as cinema. And it's as useful as it is beautiful, with not only lovely photographs but also travel tips for anyone planning to visit these destinations. A charming book. -- Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Tourists often schedule trips according to dictates of family, work, events, and weather. Savvy travelers can avoid crowds, save money, and discover a greater appreciation of locations thanks to travel writers Sarah Baxter and Paul Bloomfield's handy guide Offseason.

Offseason urges visitors to "think outside the season," with 100 international destinations organized by month. Crisp, brief descriptions zero in on why each monthly range is the right time to pack your bags. For example, the cooler weather from June to August makes for optimum bushwalking and animal watching around Kangaroo Island, Australia. Each section includes "Experiences" and "Need to Know" tips, e.g., some archeological sites in Peloponnese, Greece, close early in the winter months.

The accompanying straightforward essays offer pros and cons about traveling in off-peak months. During March, Iceland's weather doesn't often go above zero degrees Celsius, many campsites are closed, and inland hiking trails are off-limits. But the tradeoff is that "popular sights are peaceful," accommodations are easier to obtain, and orca spotting is rewarding.

Offseason offers new ways of seeing the world. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer