Carmichael's 2011 Holiday Catalog

So a humor book and a serious theology book meet up in a bar.... Martin, a Jesuit who is something of a regular on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, makes a strong case for the necessity of humor in the spiritual life, offering what he calls a serious argument for joy. Weaving funny anecdotes and jokes with biblical and historical research and interviews with scholars, Martin does much to rescue the Christian tradition from joylessness. His Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything was a huge hit at Carmichael’s and we see no reason that Between Heaven and Mirth won’t continue Martin’s winning streak.

From the same team that brought you Show Me How and More Show Me How comes a whole new way of looking at the crazy facts that drive the world—and discovering that real life is not only stranger than fiction but more unexpected than anything you’ve ever dreamed of. Trivia fanatics and anyone fascinated by the new frontiers of visual information design—books like Everything Explained Through Flowcharts, Visual Miscellaneum, and the cartooning of Chris Ware—will be enthralled by the quirky, captivating graphics of Listomania.

Sports take a backseat to covering sports in this feisty, full-contact memoir. Sportswriter Feinstein recounts his exploits gathering material for his bestselling sports epics, from his celebrated sagas of college basketball seasons to insider tell-alls on pro tennis, golf, and the Army-Navy football rivalry. In his account of the sportswriter’s game, everything comes down to access—there are innumerable scenes in which he chases down media-shy athletes and coaches, dodges interfering PR flacks, and even faces down Czech KGB goons during the Cold War to interview the mother of a defected hockey player. Feinstein’s punchy, evocative prose and irreverent jabs at superstars make for lively play-by-play with the sports greats of our era.

A woman living in an abandoned rural lodge is suddenly forced to raise her dead sister’s two wild young children. Neither of them has spoken a word since witnessing their mother’s brutal murder, and they’ve developed a fondness for breaking things and starting fires. These mute, trouble-making kids are among Frazier’s best characters. And Luce, the adoptive mother, is brilliantly drawn and may be Frazier’s most memorable heroine. Nightwoods is a lean, taut story, a beautifully written novel that more than justifies the praise he originally garnered with Cold Mountain.

From the author of the delightful Paris to the Moon comes one man’s quest for the meaning of food in a time when people are obsessed with what to eat. Never before have we cared so much about food. Gopnik is intensely curious about how in just a generation we have gone from Chef Boyardee and Hamburger Helper to pomegranates, pork bellies, and acai berries. Locating the roots of our foodways in France, he traces our rapid evolution from commendable awareness to manic compulsion and how, on the way, we lost sight of a timeless truth: what goes on around the table—families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart; conversation across the simplest or grandest board—is always more important than what we eat put on the table.

Last year at Carmichael’s, if you saw a group of people huddled around a book and laughing until they cried, they were most likely poring through Awkward Family Photos. Now comes another compendium of cringe-worthy, embarrassing photos, this time featuring not only families, but the family pet as well. What’s interesting is that it’s not the pets that put hilarity on every page, but the kind of weird, slightly creepy, enormously awkward behavior of the pet owners. It’s the perfect gift for someone with just a little kink in their sense of humor.

Weil’s enormously successful blend of mainstream and alternative therapies has earned him the reputation as a guru of a new kind of medicine. In Spontaneous Happiness he develops a guide to help patients beat back the blues. He gives us the foundation for attaining and sustaining optimum emotional health. Rooted in Dr. Weil’s pioneering work in integrative medicine, the book suggests a reinterpretation of the notion of happiness, discusses the limitations of the biomedical model, and elaborates on the inseparability of body and mind. Come along and get happy!

Shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, with a nation deep in mourning and the world looking on in stunned disbelief, Jacqueline Kennedy found the strength to set aside her own personal grief for the sake of posterity and begin the task of documenting and preserving her husband’s legacy. In January of 1964, she and Robert F. Kennedy approved a planned oral-history project that would capture their first-hand accounts of the late President as well as the recollections of those closest to him throughout his extraordinary political career. She never spoke of that time again for the rest of her life. This book and 8-CD collection of those talks represents a milestone in the Kennedy legacy.

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil and medicine from the Middle Ages. As in her wonderful book River of Doubt, Millard does more than make history come alive, she allows you to live it yourself.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to shed new light on a well-worn topic: Meat-eating chef Yotam Ottolenghi makes vegetarian cooking sexy and exciting again. Counterintuitive? Yes, but it works. Imbued with a Middle Eastern flair, the recipes reimagine vegetables and grains for a new audience, though even the most seasoned of vegetarians will find the food flavorful and inventive. Ottolenghi's gift may be the food, but he also has an infectious fervor for making stars out of ingredients that traditionally sit on the sidelines. Plenty has been on almost every Best Cooksbooks of 2011 lists.

This groundbreaking book continues Pinker’s exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives—the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away—and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind’s inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated from coffee shops to the Pentagon, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.

In his new book, President Clinton writes, “There is simply no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with an anti-government strategy, based on a philosophy grounded in ‘you’re on your own’ rather than ‘we’re all in this together.’”He believes that conflict between government and the private sector has proved to be good politics but has produced bad policies, giving us a weak economy with not enough jobs, growing income inequality and poverty, and a decline in our competitive position. In the real world, cooperation works much better than conflict, and “Americans need victories in real life.” It’s a reasoned and powerful argument.

The Art of Fielding is mere baseball fiction the way Moby-Dick is just a fish story. At Westish College (whose team name The Harpooners came about because some rare Melville papers were discovered in the library), a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Witty and intelligent, but also big-hearted and engrossing, The Art of Fielding is a novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment—to oneself and to others. It is a wonderful first novel.

Anyone who questions the idea of buying a book about fonts and typography might consider that millions of people bought a book about grammar called Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Just My Type is part history textbook, part design manual, part subtle stand-up comedy routine, shot through with a cheeky irreverence. The book holds a special place for us at Carmichael’s because our logo was one of a few bookstores across the country Garfield chose to analyze: “This font is a classic. It’s called Benguiat Book, and creator Ed Benguiat is one of the foremost type designers in the US.…This choice says ‘classic but forward-thinking,’ and has a slight art-deco feel, especially with that unmissable A falling onto the R and E. The letters look slightly devilish and mischievous, suggestive of a vibrant independent spirit.” We offer a tip of the hat to Walter McCord, who designed the Carmichael’s logo 33 years ago.

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and co-workers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” She is probably best known as a writer, then director, and now executive producer of the sitcom The Office, as well as playing the role of Kelly Kapoor. This is more than just another hilarious memoir of the immigrant experience. The New York Times said “She’s like Tina Fey’s cool little sister. Or perhaps… the next Nora Ephron.”

In 1953, an 11-year-old boy’s life is permanently upended when he leaves Colombo, Ceylon, to begin a new life in London with his mother. His 21 unsupervised days aboard the ocean liner Oronsay prove momentous as significant events during the crossing profoundly impact the boy’s future while immensely expanding his world. The boy, Michael, and two companions have the run of the ship. They get up early each morning for adventures that are sometimes juvenile hijinks but often bump up against the confounding complexities of the adult world. These three weeks shape the rest of Michael’s life, and The Cat’s Table is Michael Ondaatje’s best novel since The English Patient.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live and others die. As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience. This is a good gift choice for fans of the Twilight Series.

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone. That same night, an alchemist’s apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable. This compelling tale from best-selling author Lauren Oliver is perfect for middle school readers and above.

Janie, 14, has been living happily with her screenwriter parents in Hollywood. But it’s 1952, and blacklisting makes it imperative that the family move to London. Janie is not happy about this, but a startling adventure opens to her as she becomes friends with Benjamin Burrows, whose father is an apothecary, and not just any apothecary. Mr. Burrows is part of a small, international group of scientists who are trying to contain the destructive results of the atomic bomb, including a weapon that is being tested off the coast of Russia. This is first-rate. fiction for teenagers.

The three wise men, or the three kings, are familiar figures in the Christmas tradition. Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park has taken the brief biblical references to the three as the starting point for a new story. In it we meet a boy who is learning his father’s trade; a man who gathers resin from certain trees; a merchant in the marketplace; and three strangers in brightly colored robes who are shopping for a gift for a baby. Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline with exquisite paintings, this simple, moving tale of ordinary people involved in an extraordinary event brings new resonance to the well-known gift list of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Similar in tone and execution to her bestselling On the Night You Were Born, Tillman's latest contribution will be welcomed by her fans. This slightly more imaginative take again speaks to the child directly, describing a crown placed on a child’s head that imbues that child with all that makes him or her unique and special. This fanciful, soft-focus artwork portrays a growing child adorned with the sparkling crown in a series of vignettes: from a baby, sleeping on a lily pad, to a young child riding a leopard; and so on, until the images come full circle and the child is shown sleeping under the stars with a zebra standing by. This is soothing, visually attractive, and makes for a comforting bedtime read-aloud story.

Judge’s latest may be virtually wordless, but it packs a powerful visual punch that will stick with readers long after the final page is turned. At the end of a winter day, a child props the titular sled outside a cozy cabin. A bear finds it there and sets off to enjoy the ride of all rides, joined in turn by some other forest denizens. As each joins the ride, the animals’ positions change: The bear is on his back with the rabbit perched on his feet, then he is atop the moose’s antlers, a position next occupied by an exhilarated-looking porcupine. It’s a joyful and hilarious read-together picture book for little ones.

Mina loves the night. While everyone else is in a deep slumber, she gazes out the window, witness to the moon’s silvery light. In the stillness, she can even hear her own heart beating. This is when Mina feels that anything is possible and her imagination is set free. In this lyrical prequel to Almond’s bestselling Skellig, Mina begins keeping a journal, making discoveries about herself and her world that are both trivial and profound. She is a delightful character whose open mind and heart have much to teach young people about life and the mysteries that surround us.

It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafes on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives in The Marriage Plot the motivating energies of the Novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.

Rooted in the values, lessons, and verities of generations past and of his South Dakota upbringing, Brokaw weaves together inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference, with personal stories from his own family history, to engage us in a conversation about our country and to offer ideas for how we can revitalize the promise of the American Dream. Offering ideas from Americans who are change agents in their communities, in The Time of Our Lives Brokaw gives us a wise, honest, and wide-ranging book, a nourishing vision of hopefulness in an age of diminished expectations.

Weiner, a longtime “spiritual voyeur” and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he’s never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine. The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart—whether meeting lamas in Tibet, whirling Sufi dervishes in Turkey, or Raelians (the world’s largest UFO-based religion) in Las Vegas. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.

Over the past two centuries and more, black Louisville faced many challenges, from creating a free black community in the midst of slavery to attempting to make real a notion of equality that existed in name only. The purpose of Two Centuries of Black Louisville: A Photographic History is simply to tell the story of this struggle in words and images—a history in which all, irrespective of race and place, can take pride.

For years, one of the most oft-requested books at Carmichael’s was Sam Thomas’s history of the Crescent Hill neighborhood, Crescent Hill Revisited, originally published in 1978 and long unavailable. Finally, Sam and his wife Deborah have updated, expanded and enhanced the original book and re-issued it as Crescent Hill: Its History and Resurgence. Aside from a chorus of hallelujahs, this new edition is almost a completely new book—the photographs are brighter, the layout cleaner, and the text corrects and adds new material to much of the history of this great Louisville neighborhood.