What are you reading this fall? Here’s what we are reading!
Life and Other Shortcomings by Corie Adjmi
Corie Adjmi, award-winning author and women’s empowerment activist, uses the power and relatability of storytelling to help empower women in all areas of life. Her award-winning book, Life and Other Shortcomings has been praised for its relatability and power to teach important life lessons. Recently featured and reviewed by the Jewish Book Council, and featured in Parade’s “20 Classic and New Books About Feminism That Will Get You Thinking and Talking” roundup, Life and Other Shortcomings is the perfect read for any graduate.
In her latest book, From To-Do to Done, Thomas outlines a strategy for focusing on the things that truly matter, leaving you feeling more in control, less overwhelmed, and a greater sense of accomplishment by focusing on what is truly important to you.
Maura Nevel Thomas is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely cited authority on attention management.
She has trained thousands of individuals at hundreds of organizations on her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System, a process for achieving significant results and living a life of choice. She appears weekly in business outlets such as Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review.
$10.99, Amazon
Kentucky Moonshine by David W. Maurer
When the first American tax on distilled spirits was established in 1791, violence broke out in Pennsylvania. The resulting Whiskey Rebellion sent hundreds of families down the Ohio River by flatboat, stills on board, to settle anew in the fertile bottomlands of Kentucky. Here they used cold limestone spring water to make bourbon and found that corn produced even better yields of whiskey than rye. Thus, the licit and illicit branches of the distilling industry grew up side-by-side in the state. This is the story of the illicit side—the moonshiners’ craft and craftsmanship, as practiced in Kentucky. A glossary of moonshiner jargon sheds light on such colorful terms as “puker,” “slop,” and “weed-monkey.”
With a new foreword by author Wes Berry, David M. Maurer’s classic history of this subject is tongue-in-cheek, but nevertheless provides a realistic look at the Kentucky moonshiner and the moonshining industry.
The Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book: 55 Unofficial Recipes for White Claw® Slushies, Truly® Mixers, and More Spiked-Seltzer Drinks by Casie Vogel
An ice-cold, sparkling hard seltzer is a tasty, low-cal, refreshing treat on its own. And now, these canned beverages are getting a mixed-drink makeover, thanks to The Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book: 55 Unofficial Recipes for White Claw® Slushies, Truly® Mixers, and More Spiked-Seltzer Drinks [978-1646041855, $19.95, Ulysses Press, June 2021] by Casie Vogel.
The first of its kind, The Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book is your go-to resource for transforming your favorite alcoholic seltzers into deliciously fun cocktails. Whether you’re a fan of Truly®, White Claw®, Vizzy®, or Bud Light Seltzer®, there’s something for everyone with these easy-to-make recipes, including Aperol Spritz-o-Clock, Fizzy Fuzzy Navels, Watermelon Sugar Slushy, Millennial Cosmo, Fizzier French 75, Summer in the City Manhattan. Truly LIIT (Long Island Iced Tea), Lemon Drop It Like It’s Hot, Lost in the Jungle Juice and much more!
Author Casie Vogel, a self-declared lover of all things carbonated, is sharing her expertise to help you make every season hard-seltzer season. “At 4 to 6 percent alcohol content, it’s an easy beverage to imbibe anytime of day. But sometimes you have to take it up a notch…or several,” she said. “What’s the right ratio? What actually tastes like a cocktail, doesn’t skimp, but also doesn’t immediately send you to blackout town? Well, my friend, that is where my help comes in. The recipes are dangerously delicious and designed to get the party going, whether it’s a Friday night pregame or your next big party—or if it’s just been a tough day (girl, you do you). Instead of that next round of probably (always) regrettable tequila shots, pick up this book and let’s get bubbly.”
The Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book offers everything you need to add a little snap, sparkle, and pop to your favorite cocktails.
Bestselling author and award-winning trainer Oonagh Duncan cuts through the wellness clutter to drop some truth bombs: it might not be six-pack abs you’re looking for ― it might be happiness, confidence, and acceptance. Whatever it is you need to feel confident in your own skin, it’s definitely not a bullshit diet.
Here’s the thing. All the people who say they want to lose weight? It’s not about their weight. It’s about happiness. People don’t want to be skinny, they want to be happy.
Ditch the Diet: The 7 Essential Habits You Need to Get Lean, Stay Healthy, and Generally Kick Ass at Life by Oonagh Duncan
In Ditch the Diet (6/1/21) Duncan talks about the mindset shifts you need to make to practice being happy with your body NOW as well as the habits and routines you can build into your life so that you feel amazing.
$12.75, Amazon
The Cocktail Workshop: An Essential Guide to Classic Drinks and How to Make Them Your Own by Steven Grasse and Adam Erace
THE COCKTAIL WORKSHOP: An Essential Guide to Classic Drinks and How to Make Them Your Own, a deep-dive into 20 classic drinks that make up the foundation of cocktail creation, and the delicious, sophisticated variations that will make them all your own.
In this richly illustrated book, the team guides aspiring mixologists through the fundamentals of 20 essential cocktails, then, each foundational drink is spun off into three creative and customizable riffs on flavors, techniques, and ingredients. Each classic drink is concluded by a Workshop: how to take your at-home bar efforts to the next level with aging, infusing, garnishing, and more.
$25.00, Amazon
Bourbon’s Backroads: A Journey through Kentucky’s Distilling Landscape by Karl Raitz
Kentucky’s landscape is punctuated by landmark structures that signpost bourbon’s venerable story: distilleries long-standing, relict, razed, and brand new, the grand nineteenth-century homes of renowned distillers, villages and neighborhoods where distillery laborers lived, Whiskey Row storage warehouses, river landings and railroad yards, and factories where copper distilling vessels and charred white oak barrels are made. During the nineteenth century, distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry that practiced increasingly refined production techniques. Distillers often operated at comparatively remote sites—along the “backroads”—to take advantage of water sources or river or turnpike transport access. As time passed, steam power and mechanization freed the industry from its reliance on waterpower and permitted distillers to relocate to urban and rural rail-side sites. This shift also allowed distillers to perfect their production techniques, increase their capacity, and refine their marketing strategies. The historic progression produced the “fine” Kentucky bourbons that are available to present day consumers. Yet, distillers have not abandoned their cultural roots and traditions; their iconic products embrace the modern while also engaging their history and geography.
Blending several topics—inventions and innovations in distilling and transport technologies, tax policy, geography, landscapes, and architecture—this primer and geographical guide presents an accessible and detailed history of the development of Kentucky’s distilling industry and explains how the industry continues to thrive.
$23.95, Amazon
World Atlas of Beer, 3rd Edition The Essential Guide to the Beers of the World by Tim Webb, Stephen Beaumont
As craft brewing continues to go from strength to strength across the world, World Atlas of Beer is the definitive and essential guide to beer. Understand the rich, multi-faceted traditions of Belgium, the Nordic legend that is Finnish Sahti, the relatively new phenomenon of the New England hazy IPA, and why Australia’s lower-strength beers are one of its great successes. With thousands of breweries now operating around the globe, and more opening every day, this is the expert guide to what is really worth drinking.
Country by country the book considers a vast range of brewing techniques, beer styles and traditions. Detailed maps describe crucial trends in major territories and features such as matching beer with food and how to pour different kinds of beer complete the picture.
$33.50, Amazon
Pregruncy: An Elite Runner’s Journey Training Through Pregnancy by Natasha LaBeaud Anzures
Natasha LaBeaud Anzures, an elite runner for Canada, has just released a new book entitled, “Pregruncy: An Elite Runner’s Journey Training Through Pregnancy.” The book details every day of pregnancy and the first 90 days postpartum, which workout logs, personal thoughts, and training notes from both the athlete’s and coach’s perspectives.
LaBeaud Anzures decided to write Pregruncy as soon as she found out that she was pregnant in September 2020. Like many others, she has always been fascinated with exercise during pregnancy, and what the entire pregnancy experience would be like. Years before she ever became pregnant, she would read any articles that came her way about the topic. LaBead Anzures was never the person who said that they were going to have a family, or became starry-eyed when thinking about cradling her stomach during the third trimester. She has always been more curious about the process of pregnancy and how different people cope with the cards that they are dealt. But, she noticed that there were few resources available for the elite runner or athlete trying to navigate the world of training during pregnancy. There were morsels of details deep in Instagram posts, but there was no consistent stream of information available that showed what each day of training looked like, and that was what she was on a quest to share.
“I am proud to share what I learned throughout pregnancy and into postpartum with others,” said LaBeaud Anzures. “I know that many aspects of pregnancy tend to be sugar-coated, and I hope that I was able to provide a real account of my experiences that can help others navigate what is possible during pregnancy. It is also my hope that others become their own biggest advocates and learn to trust their own instincts when it comes to personal health and wellbeing.”
LaBeaud Anzures decided with her husband (who is also her coach) that she would use her own personal experiences to help others navigate pregnancy. She had not found a resource that chronicled each day of training and the pregnancy experience. LaBeaud Anzures kept thinking about how helpful it would be to know what the whole journey looked like for someone, as opposed to snippets along the way. She also knew that her experiences with pregnancy were her own and may not match someone else’s, but she wanted to see what was possible during pregnancy, including a 5:00 mile time trial at almost 32 weeks pregnant.
LaBeaud Anzures had heard so many notions about what a woman can and can’t do while they are pregnant, and most of the guidance errs on the ‘can’t’ side without much evidence supporting it. The pair decided that her coach would also keep his own notes during this process so that there would be two perspectives in the book. The notes were later combined so that the “coach’s notes” could be sprinkled in throughout.
The book shares that the human body can do some amazing things and withstand an incredible amount of pain throughout pregnancy, which included a natural birth and two sacral fractures for LaBeaud Anzures. In addition, the book dives into the healthcare system in the United States, and highlights the ways in which the system needs to change in terms of care for pregnant women and into postpartum recovery.
The book is now available for purchase online at amazon.com in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats. More information about the book can also be found at https://www.pregruncy.com/
The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures by Andrew C. Greeley, Mariah Calagione, and Sam Calagione
“As our friends the Grateful Dead, whom we have had the pleasure of collaborating with throughout the years, once sang: ‘what a long, strange trip it’s been.’ There’s no better way to describe the awesome voyage Mariah, Andrew and I embarked on to write and publish this book,” said Sam. “As the Official Beer of Record Store Day, Dogfish Head has always been inspired by music and in fact, when writing and designing The Dogfish Head Book, we were largely inspired by The Beastie Boys Book, adopting its fun, design-rich structure to bring our brand to life through both words and images. Most of the words are from Mariah, Andrew and I, but we were also excited to include stories from fellow co-workers who have contributed to the brand’s communal journey.”
The recipe for The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures is as unique and refreshing as the recipes for the brewery’s off-centered ales. Much like barley is to beer, the foundation of the book is the chronological exposition of Dogfish Head’s iconic beverages, locations and events – from Sam’s first homebrew experience in 1993 to the opening of the brand’s newest taproom, Dogfish Head Miami, in 2021 and everything in between. Other key ingredients that complete this art-first, business-second book include hundreds of full-color images, renderings of product artwork, quotes from the authors’ favorite musicians, artists and writers, and so much more. From the metaphorical beer that is The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures, readers will drink in an understanding of the “How & Why” behind Dogfish Head’s growth and success while enjoying insightfully humorous and inspirational stories intended to encourage them to pursue their own creative journeys, regardless of how off-centered or out-of-reach they may seem.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery proudly announces the publication of The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures, a celebratory chronology of the offbeat escapades that propelled Dogfish Head to become the beloved craft brewery, distillery, hotel and culinary hub it is today. Written by Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione; Dogfish Head Co-Founder & Communitarian, Mariah Calagione; and longtime co-worker and Dogfish INNkeeper, Andrew C. Greeley, this heavily-illustrated, lovingly-told page-turner provides a detailed account of the brand’s history told through heartfelt stories from the authors, a timetable of Dogfish Head’s off-centered beverage releases AND a plethora of co-worker-told tales. The Dogfish Head Book: 26 Years of Off-Centered Adventures hits shelves and web stores nationwide on Tuesday, October 19.
$25.00, Amazon
Drinks for Every Season: 100+ Recipes for Cocktails & Nonalcoholic Drinks Throughout the Year by Weldon Owen
With more than 100 recipes for seasonally-inspired drinks, this comprehensive drink recipe book is an invitation for home bartenders to serve up cocktails and mocktails for every occasion.
Also included are bar guides for glassware, mixers, garnishes, ice, and golden ratios for cocktails—as well as tips for batching drinks for crowds and serving drinks responsibly.
Holiday Season drinks include:
- Blackberry-Thyme Bellini
- Ancho Mezcalita
- Watermelon Tequila Punch
- Pomegranate Apple Spiced Cider
- Gingerbread Dark & Stormy
This indispensable guide will become your go-to reference for serving up fantastic drinks, no matter the season.
$25.00, Amazon
Spirits of the Otherworld by Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett
Astrology, tarot, palmistry, and other spiritual arts are having a moment—and that includes the spirits we enjoy during cocktail hour. Spirits of the Otherworld: A Grimoire of Occult Cocktails and Drinking Rituals (Prestel; September 2021), by collectors, researchers, and absintheurs Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett, is a deeply researched collection of intoxicating treats. Readers will be able to mix a drink that reflects their interests and satisfies their curiosity. Over the course of five chapters, the authors, who are the creative genius behind London’s The Last Tuesday Society’s Cocktail Bar, map out esoteric philosophies that have fueled the dark arts of their times. Each recipe is presented in a double-page spread that includes an engaging history, clear instructions, and original photography.
$16.95, Amazon
Mixology and Murder: Cocktails Inspired by Infamous Serial Killers, Cold Cases, Cults, and Other Disturbing True Crime Stories by Kierra Sondereker
Mixology and Murder: Cocktails Inspired by Infamous Serial Killers, Cold Cases, Cults, and Other Disturbing True Crime Stories by Kierra Sondereker [ISBN: 9781646042401; $19.95; Ulysses Press; October 2021], a new full-color book that adds a twist of true crime to 60 classic cocktails. Accompanied by tales of serial killers, cold cases, cults, and more, you’ll find page-after-page of alarmingly appealing drink recipes.
Read all about Jeffrey Dahmer’s harrowing deeds as you sip on a Milwaukee Corpse Reviver; mix up a Sazer-Ax Murderer before diving into the gruesome crimes (allegedly) committed by Lizzie Borden; and immerse yourself in the twists and turns of the Manson Family cult as you enjoy a refreshing glass of Helter Skelter Sangria .
A cocktail book unlike any other on your shelf, Mixology and Murder is the perfect gift for any true crime junkie who knows that, sometimes, a good strong drink is the best way to deal with the excitement of a serial killer finally getting caught or the frustration of finding out that case is still unsolved.
$19.95, Amazon
carie adjmiDitch the Dietfrom To-Do to DoneKentucky MoonshineLife and Other ShortcomingsMaura ThomasThe Hard Seltzer Cocktail Book: 55 Unofficial Recipes for White Claw® SlushiesWes Berry
what do you think?