Drink More Whiskey
No matter how many bottles you've put away in your lifetime, it's unlikely you know all there is to know about whiskey. Drink More Whiskey: Everything You Need to Know About Your New Favorite Drink ($15) is here to teach you. Weighing in at just over 175 pages, this introduction to the whiskey renaissance covers both classic offerings and varieties from new distilleries, discussing the background, style, and quality of each, with over 20 drink recipes spread throughout that likewise run the gamut from classic to modern.
The Hot Sauce Cookbook
Be sure to read that carefully. The Hot Sauce Cookbook: Turn Up the Heat with 60+ Pepper Sauce Recipes ($13) isn't a book filled with ways to enhance your sandwiches and salads with Sriracha and spice. Instead, it offers up a number of recipes for making your own sauces and salsas, including sauces with flavors from around the world, homemade versions of classics like Frank's RedHot, Texas Pete, and even the aforementioned rooster sauce. Don't be too dejected about the sauce-heavy focus — the book also contains over fifty recipes for actual food dishes that are anything but bland.
The American Craft Beer Cookbook
Not every recipe in the book is made with beer, but they all taste great when paired with beer — and isn't that the important part? The American Craft Beer Cookbook: 155 Recipes from Your Favorite Brewpubs and Breweries ($13) offers up instructions on how to cook everything from appetizers to desserts, including some stuff you'd expect — like pub-friendly foods and barbecue — to some you wouldn't — like cupcakes and ice cream floats. But hey, it's all beer-friendly, so it's all good.
The Prophets of Smoked Meat
The title's more than a little pompous — anyone who thinks the Lone Star State is the be-all, end-all of BBQ has obviously never been to Kansas City, Memphis, or a whole swath of the Southeast — but that doesn't mean The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue ($20) isn't worth reading. Penned by Daniel "BBQ Snob" Vaughn, this nearly 400-page edition is the first in the Anthony Bourdain Books line, and takes readers on a culinary tour of the state, examining different meats, woods, markets, and restaurants, while offering up some recipes at the same time. Consider it inspirational reading for the summer cookout season.
Socks by Mack Weldon
So comfortable customers routinely claim they’re “walking on clouds” thanks to the cushioned footbed. The No Shows ($14.50/2 pack) have a “no slip grip” that stays put in low cut summer shoes, while the crew length styles actually stay up if you want them to. Get one or get them all - the Sock Drawer ($135) includes 16 pairs. But do get them soon, because like all things Mack Weldon makes, these are in high demand (and insanely comfortable).
Logobook
Remember the Academy Award-winning animated short Logorama? If you do, you probably know that there was an astounding number of corporate and product logos in the 16-minute film, and those obviously took a lot of research to piece together. Logobook ($35) is the result. Penned by the film's co-director Ludovic Houplain, this massive, 800-page tome features over 7,000 of the logos, organized alphabetically, and accompanied by info about the designers, year of creation, and what country they came from, as well as info on the brand and company. Add in an essay on brand culture and an introduction explaining the creation of the film, and you've got a must-have for any brand/identity/design geek.
Smoke: New Firewood Cooking
You can grill. You might even own a smoker. But you haven't explored all the culinary techniques this time-honored cook method provides until you've read Smoke: New Firewood Cooking ($25). Penned by award-winning chef Tim Byres, this 250-page tome offers up information on smoking on the stovetop, making relishes and salads with smoked peppers and vegetables, grilling with rood planks, using smoke-cured meats in different dishes, and even building your own firepit, smokehouse, and/or spit roast — just in time for summer.
Things Come Apart
As technology advances and our gadgets and tools become more complex, the little pieces that make everything work seem more and more abstract. Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living ($19) explores the interior of fifty classic designs through more than 180 color photographs. The objects are arranged first by size and then by complexity, and are accompanied by essays from noteworthy minds in the restoration, DIT, and design innovation fields. A great addition to the library of any curious mind, be they an engineer, tinkerer, or just plain ol' repairman.
Chug
When we last saw friend-of-Uncrate Zane Lamprey, he was wrapping up season three of Drinking Made Easy. Unfortunately, that show is no more — but that doesn't mean Lamprey's days of drinking on camera are over. Chug ($25 and up) is a new, crowd-funded show that aims to send Zane aboard a train to different drinking destinations, learning about the culture, and getting to know the locals in the process. The initial goal will fund six episodes — one every week for six weeks — and if the ultimate goal is reached, they'll make a full twelve. As fans of both Drinking Made Easy and his prior show Three Sheets, we'll gladly drink to that.
A Curious Man
Believe it or not, in the early 1900s much of our knowledge of the strange and exotic came from one man. A curious man, if you will. A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley ($15) takes a look at the life and times of the cartoonist, millionaire, and champion of the weird, wild, and unexplainable. From his eponymous museums to the celebration of the weird in pop culture, Ripley's legacy is far more than you might think — dare we say it, even more than you might believe.
Information Graphics
With all the information we have to absorb in this modern life, it's basically impossible to go through a day without seeing some form of info graphic. Still, have you ever given any thought to how they're made, or where they came from? Information Graphics ($50) covers both the history of visualizing data to the current masters of the craft, complete with hundreds of images — each with explanatory text — historical essays, and even a 26.5" x 19" poster by Nigel Homes, former graphics director for Time.
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
Anyone (of age) who's ever gone to watch a big-league game knows the joy a cold one can add to the game of baseball — but did you know that beer itself may have changed the game? The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game ($17) takes a look at Chris Von der Ahe's gambit to found the St. Louis Browns in the hopes of selling more beer, establishing the American Association (later to become the American League) along the way, and revitalizing the sport with a new group of teams that featured rowdy, reckless, and, yes, drunk players.
Craft Beer World
It might sound like a wonderful place to go buy a six pack or two, but in actuality, Craft Beer World ($15) is a 192-page guide to some of the planet's best beers. Penned by award-winning beer writer Mark Dredge, it covers over 350 beers divided into 50 different categories, with an explanation of key characteristics of each. Of course, the taste of the beer alone is only one part of the experience, so the book helpfully includes tips on matching different beers with food, and how to serve up the perfect pint of whatever style you're looking at. Now all we need is a real store that stocks all of them in one place.
