From Raymond Loewy's austere "Form 2000" teapot set of the mid-1950s to the Sgrafo vases of the 1960s and the improbable "Fat Lava" glacis of the 1970s, postwar German ceramics exhibited a tremendous stylistic diversity, mixing references to Op art, geometric abstraction, the funky, angular designs of Werner Panton and the biomorphism of hippie aesthetics. Both famed and anonymous designers translated the various aspirations of a postwar Germany under reconstruction into exaggerated, semi-futuristic shapes, as well as pursuing cooler, more stripped down effects. Sgrafo vs. Fat Lava explores this fertile tension in German ceramics, with reproductions of relevant works, an essay by the ceramics specialist Horst Markus and an interview with designer Ronan Bouroullec.

The diet and weight-loss industry is worth $66 billion – billion!! The estimated annual health care costs of obesity-related illness are 190 billion or nearly 21% of annual medical spending in the United States. But how did we get here? Is this a battle we can’t win? What changes need to be made in order to scale back the incidence of obesity in the US, and, indeed, around the world? Here, Jonathan Engel reviews the sources of the problem and offers the science behind our modern propensity toward obesity. He offers a plan for helping address the problem, but admits that it is, indeed, an uphill battle. Nevertheless, given the magnitude of the costs in years of life and vigor lost, it is a battle worth fighting. Fat Nation is a social history of obesity in the United States since the second World War. In confronting this familiar topic from a historical perspective, Jonathan Engel attempts to show that obesity is a symptom of complex changes that have transpired over the past half century to our food, our living habits, our life patterns, our built environments, and our social interactions. He offers readers solid grounding in the known science underlying obesity (genetic set points, complex endocrine feedback loops, neurochemical messengering) but then makes the novel argument that obesity is a result of the interaction of our genes with our environment. That is, our bodies have always been programmed to become obese, but until recently never had the opportunity to do so. Now, with cheap calories ubiquitous (particularly in the form of sucrose), unwalkable physical spaces, deteriorating rituals and norms surrounding eating, and the withering of cooking skills, nearly every American daily confronts the challenge of not putting on weight. Given the outcomes, though, for those who are obese, Engel encourages us to address the problems and offers suggestions to help remedy the problem.

A story about following your dreams from Brian Calhoun, creator of the popular Chickapig Board Game. The chickapig farm was all that he knew, With its crops and fields, and cows that poo’d And birds, and bees, and horses and goats. Why was he dreaming of castles and moats? Little Joe Chickapig wants to be just like his adventurous grandpa. But how did the old chickapig hero do it? Find out in this fun, original story by Brian Calhoun, creator of the popular Chickapig Board Game.

Catholic lore, American tales, and Sicilian superstition blend in this “clever, funny, heartbreaking, and heartwarming” novel (Publishers Weekly). Born with unruly red hair, a sharp tongue, and wine-colored marks all over her body—marks that oddly mimick a map of the world and make her subject to endless ridicule—Garnet Ferrari would hardly consider herself blessed. So when an emissary from the Vatican shows up at her door, convinced that her seeming ability to cure the skin ailments of others qualifies her for sainthood, she’s not quite convinced—or pleased. Garnet sets off on a quest to better understand who she is and where she and her unusual gifts came from. Tracing a twisted path that leads from Sicily to West Virginia, poverty to riches, romance to loss, reality to mythology, Garnet uncovers a truth far more powerful than any dermatological miracle: that the things of which we are most ashamed often become our greatest strengths. “A cleareyed, touching fable of a girl learning the hard truths about herself and others.” —Kirkus Reviews

Max is a cute kitten who dreams of becoming a brave mouse-catcher. So he sets off in search of a mouse, and discovers that bravery perhaps is not so important after all.