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.
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.
Made-to-order Timepieces by Refined Hardware
The Los Angeles based craftsmen at Refined Hardware have finally released their second edition of luxury timepieces. These industrial conceptions are the ideal extension for the modern man, and follow the highly sought after, and sold-out, 'P1' edition. The 'P2' will showcase a flying tourbillon movement encased in your choice of billet stainless steel, PVD black steel, or a hand-finished bronze. A necessity for any connoisseur, only 33 pieces of each variant will be crafted so you better order yours today.
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.
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.
1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die
Do you love golf? We mean really love golf? Then perhaps you'll be so bold as to task yourself with playing all of these 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die ($27) before, you know, actually die. Inside this hefty 960-page tome you'll find par 3s, 4s, and 5s of every kind, from the extremely challenging to the extremely beautiful, and many holes that are a mix of both. The only downside? We're guessing that these holes are also from a great multitude of courses, and it's not like you can visit a course and request to play only one hole — so plan on doing a lot of golfing should you accept the challenge.
Top Gear: The Cool 500
If you've ever read an issue, you know the chaps at Top Gear Magazine know their cars. So who better to pick out the best of all time? Top Gear: The Cool 500: The Coolest Cars Ever Made ($30) is penned by long-time writer and road tester Matt Master, this bible of bad-ass rides covers cars from the advent of the automobile through to futuristic supercars, each placed in the proper context and joined by fantastic photography and commentary. Perfect coffee table fodder for your garage, den, or motoring-themed man cave.
