Shares techniques for applying textured and crackles finishes with old-world charm on thirty lovely projects.

Everything you need to make everyday entertaining a flawless reality! There are few moments in life as special as gathering around a table with friends and family. But for many people, the idea of planning a dinner party can bring on stress. There’s the menu, the seating plan, the drinks . . . it can lead a would-be-host to miss the point altogether: enjoying time with your guests. As the owners of a leading event management and catering company, Sebastien and Sheila Centner know that entertaining can be overwhelming. With their first book, Eatertainment, they share their decades of expertise to make entertaining at home as simple as can be. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry—Seb and Sheila offer instructions on everything from setting the table, to picking flowers for your center-piece, to even planning an easy loot bag for your guests to take home. The Centners understand that cost and time are often the most significant barriers to hosting, so they offer practical tips and tricks regardless of your prep time, availability, or budget. Boasting more than 140 recipes, Eatertainment includes thoughtfully-assembled menus based on tried and true recipes that anyone can cook. A memorable celebration requires a memorable meal, and no one knows this better than Seb and Sheila. In Eatertainment, the chapters are organized around 12 different events you can plan, and divided by 3 difficulty levels: Simple Entertaining to start, A Little More Effort when you’re ready for the next challenge, and Pulling Out All the Stops for the experts. You can start off your entertaining journey with an easy but impressive Cocktail Party, then graduate to the classic family favorite of a Roast Chicken Dinner, and tackle a Seafood Extravaganza for a special occasion. No matter what kind of event you throw, you’ll find everything you need to host a stress-free gathering all year round, in this beautifully photographed, all-in-one entertaining guidebook.

An Ode to Living and Gathering in Nature A picnic on the beach. Cocktails and a snack at sunset. Sharing a potluck meal around the fire, and letting the night drift lazily along in the pleasures of roasting marshmallows and swapping stories. Getting together in nature, with food and drink, is among the most restorative rituals we can experience, fostering a kind of intimacy and ease that’s rare in any other setting. Al Fresco, with its fresh, delicious recipes and unexpected ideas, its tips for exploring new ways to get outdoors, its interviews with dozens of kindred spirits, is an inspiring and beautiful playbook for anyone who wants to spend more time outside with friends and family. The credo is simple: Nature opens us up to ourselves, and the food we share opens us up to each other.

A collection of twenty classic stories from the Science Fiction Grand Master who “seems capable of amazements beyond those of mere mortals” (The Washington Post Book World). Needle in a Timestack is Robert Silverberg at his very best—intelligent, inventive, and visionary. This collection showcases his talent for thought-provoking science fiction, ranging in themes from time travel to space travel, the media to mortality. In the titular story—now a feature film by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley—a jealous ex-husband warps time in a vindictive attempt to destroy his former wife’s new marriage. Thirty-one identical sons have a shocking surprise for their mother in “There Was an Old Woman.” The prophetic “The Pain Peddlers” depicts reality TV in a way that allows viewers to revel in a voyeuristic, adrenaline-fueled rush. Also included are Silverberg’s Hugo Award–winning “Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another,” and the Locus Award winner “The Secret Sharer,” a Joseph Conrad–inspired tale of a ship captain drawn into a strange alliance with a stowaway. The New York Times Book Review hailed Silverberg as “the John Updike of science fiction.” The stories in Needle in a Timestack unite us in our humanity, in the face of science, technology, and our own changing culture.

Make fresh cheese at home—in under an hour! Through recipes that are specific, accessible, and rated easy, easier, and easiest, Claudia Lucero shows step-by-step—with every step photographed in full color—exactly how to make sixteen fresh cheeses at home, in an hour or less, using commonly available ingredients and tools. Just as tasty are the recipes that accompany each cheese, from No-Bake Cheese Tartlet (top it with fresh blue berries) to Squeaky “Pasta” Primavera (cheese curds that stand in for the pasta). One-Hour Cheese also shows how to make butter, ghee, and yogurt. Plus, all about milk choices, rennet, all-natural flavors, shaping, storage, and more—it’s a complete beginning cheesemaker’s education.