Features full colour photographs by a Iona Community member and photographer David Coleman, and Anja Grosse-Uhlmann, who lives on the isle of Iona, with accompanying reflections, prayers, poems and stories by Community writers.

Rucksack Magazine presents Deserted: In Pursuit of Drylands. Featuring stunning photography and essays about the world's most amazing deserts, including the Moab, the Atacama, Mojave, and the Namib deserts. In these pages we are introduced to landscapes so vast that time and space are rendered meaningless. The desert lies bare - sparse and silent in the heavy stillness of the day - a wilderness that retains a veil of mystery despite contemplation and obsession. This book explores the gentle fragility of these ancient landscapes, places that somehow manage to be both remote and yet strangely intimate.

In April 1834, the Green-Bay Intelligencer newspaper reported that a sawmill was being erected in a new settlement on the Milwaukee River. Less than one year later, the paper reported that "Milwaukey [sic], which 10 months ago, had only a single trading house, has now some 20 or 30 houses, and two or three saw mills." Yankee settlers and land speculators had moved in and were here to stay. The steady growth of Milwaukee was never wholly due to the influx of ambitious Easterners though. In ever-expanding numbers, Europeans also made their way here, not merely as settlers, but frequently as hard-working business owners, skilled laborers, and artists. They were determined to make Milwaukee their home, and in this new homeland they surrounded themselves (and influenced the entire community) with their old traditions and languages. Thirty years after its first newspaper write-up, Milwaukee was a well-established city brimming with potential.

Southern Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts is a magical place. Some call it "paradise," while others quietly claim it to be the center of the universe. The special synergy that exists here between people and place has inspired remarkable residents for centuries. Towns nestled among the majestic hills and scenic valleys are beautiful, fascinating, and filled with history. Much has changed here over the past 150 years--the period covered photographically in this book. The classic beauty of the Southern Berkshires has drawn photographers since the camera was first invented. Vibrant villages have evolved over the decades, even as the surrounding scenery remains breathtaking. Once thriving textile mills have been replaced by innovative tech enterprises. The important paper industry has struggled but survived here. Year round recreational and educational opportunities have blossomed. Once bustling boomtowns have grown quieter, but now nurture entrepreneurial inventiveness and a magnificent menagerie of historic homes, prosperous farms, and top-notch cultural venues. The images and interesting narrative inside this book offer a rare glimpse of the Southern Berkshires through time. By looking at the whole picture, the connections between our past and present will become apparent.

Photoscapes and the Egg is an intimate book to be savoured and kept nearby, perhaps on a coffee table because of its sheer beauty. Inside its robin egg blue cloth cover are improvised photos of objects, nature, and art, each matched with a photo of an egg inside a cosmic circle - eggs with personalities from the calm ethereal to the hot aggressive. In full, there are more than 100 stunning colour photos, all taken with an iPhone. The match of phenomena and eggs alludes to the dance of the material world with the invisible "birthing source" represented by the egg. Accompanying text and poems bring stories to the dance. The juxtapositions evoke surprise, insight, emotions, hope, and refreshment. They make wry jokes and touch on realities beyond the obvious. This book contains unabashed gentleness and spiritual toughness without pretence. Photoscapes and the Egg sprang from the mind of Patricia Z. Smith, a 79-year-old photographer and writer with extensive life experience and a pull since childhood to meld the physical with the esoteric. The design by Louis Brody is modern and serene. The book is a gift to the reader and her or his friends. It is a resource for these times and our future.

Lost Detroit is the latest in the series from Anova Books that traces the cherished places in a city that time, progress and fashion have swept aside before concerned citizens or the National Register of Historic Places could save them from the wrecker's ball. Organised chronologically, starting with the earliest losses and ending with the latest, the book features much-loved Detroit insitutions that failed to stand the test of time. Long before there was a motor industry, the city lost the Central Market (1889), the Belle Isle swimming pool and the Capitol Building (1893). Grand buildings erected in the Victorian era that were too costly to be refurbished, or movie theaters that the age of television made redundant are featured. Alongside the city's iconic and much-missed buildings, Lost Detroit also looks at the industries that have declined or left town. Sites include: Detroit Boat Club, Belle Isle Casino, Pontchartrain Hotel, Hotel Cadillac, Electric Park, Detroit House of Corrections, Federal Building, Temple Theatre, the Tashmoo, Hammond Building, Packard Car Company, Detroit Museum of Art, Waterworks Park, City Hall, Hudson Motor Co, Ford Rotunda, the Opera House, Kerns department store, Union Station, Grace Hospital, Dodge factory, Convention Hall, Olympia Stadium, Michigan Central Railroad, the Tuller Hotel and many more.

This tiny yet majestic volume introduces us to some 250 queens who ruled in their own right - who were crowned as the sovereigns of their countries or, in some cases, decided to crown themselves. It begins with queens of the ancient world and ends with those ruling today, encompassing along the way both household names, like Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great, and those who deserve to be better known, like Margaret I of Denmark and Ranavalona I of Madagascar. Each queen is represented by her portrait - painted, carved, engraved, or photographed - and an interesting fact about her reign. This Tiny Folio will be the perfect gift for the powerful women in your life.

50 Ways to Cycle the World is the kind of book you'd give to a friend or family member who's considering cycling somewhere in the world but feels that there are too many obstacles to overcome. 50 Ways encapsulates 50 unique cycling projects accomplished by 75 cyclists from 23 countries. It serves as the ultimate visual guide and encyclopedia to travelling by bicycle no matter what your personal situation is. You'll find impressive, powerful, emotional and incredibly fun stories on almost every page, accompanied by the beautiful and inspiring photography shot all over our planet by the many cyclists who've shared their cycling stories. Want to know what it's like to cycle alone, with a dog or a cat, with kids, or with strangers you meet on the road? Or how to travel by tandem, folding bicycle, e-bike or on a bamboo frame? Or maybe you're simply in need of that last little push over the doorstep, inspired by those who've seen the world by bike. Featuring over 400 revealing questions and answers, we're sure 50 Ways to Cycle the World will tell you exactly what you need to know in order to overcome whatever is holding you back from starting out on your big adventure.

Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno understands that today's busy world leaves little time or space for self-reflection, but that a garden--even in the most urban of spaces--can provide some respite. In his words, "The garden is a special spiritual place where the mind dwells." With this in mind, Masuno has designed scores of spectacular Japanese gardens and landscapes with the aim of helping people achieve a balanced life in the 21st century. This book explores Masuno's design process and ideas, which are integral to his daily Zen training and teachings. It features 15 unique gardens and contemplative landscapes completed in six countries over as many years--all thoughtfully described and documented in full-color photos and drawings. Readers will also find insights on Masuno's philosophy of garden design and a conversation between the designer and famed architect Terunobu Fujimori. Zen Garden Design provides an in-depth examination of Masuno's gardens and landscapes--not just as beautiful spaces, but as places for meditation and contemplation.

A photographic exploration of mathematicians' chalkboards "A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns," wrote the British mathematician G. H. Hardy. In Do Not Erase, photographer Jessica Wynne presents remarkable examples of this idea through images of mathematicians' chalkboards. While other fields have replaced chalkboards with whiteboards and digital presentations, mathematicians remain loyal to chalk for puzzling out their ideas and communicating their research. Wynne offers more than one hundred stunning photographs of these chalkboards, gathered from a diverse group of mathematicians around the world. The photographs are accompanied by essays from each mathematician, reflecting on their work and processes. Together, pictures and words provide an illuminating meditation on the unique relationships among mathematics, art, and creativity. The mathematicians featured in this collection comprise exciting new voices alongside established figures, including Sun-Yung Alice Chang, Alain Connes, Misha Gromov, Andre Neves, Kasso Okoudjou, Peter Shor, Christina Sormani, Terence Tao, Claire Voisin, and many others. The companion essays give insights into how the chalkboard serves as a special medium for mathematical expression. The volume also includes an introduction by the author, an afterword by New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson, and biographical information for each contributor. Do Not Erase is a testament to the myriad ways that mathematicians use their chalkboards to reveal the conceptual and visual beauty of their discipline-shapes, figures, formulas, and conjectures created through imagination, argument, and speculation.

Handsome and collectible, the books are produced to the highest standards. Each volume contains full-page reproductions printed in superb duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography. Now back in print, the series was awarded the first annual prize for distinguished photographic books by the International Center of Photography. Elliott Erwitt (b. 1928), an American by adoption, has a humorous outlook that is reflected in his always elegant work. His photographs take advantage of the sudden coincidence, the fortuitous conjunction of objects and events, to reveal the ridiculous or comical sides of everyday life. Dogs are a favorite subject for Erwitt, often serving as a witty metaphor for human foibles.

If the termite were a human, its structures would be twice as high as Mount Etna in Sicily... Our world is full of wonders and they are all waiting to be discovered! Nature's many different habitats are home to countless animal and plant species records - superlatives which at times we only become aware of when we compare them with human achievements. In the air, we follow the flight of the largest, fastest and most resilient birds, while in the seas, we encounter huge whales and fish - and it can all be recorded in numbers and statistics, yet the true achievements of the sea giants and why they don't sink are easier to understand if we take a close look at the technical data for ships and submarines...

Entertain Me! features the most popular influencers and celebrities from Schoen! magazine, a biannual English language publication and online platform with a cutting-edge aesthetic. This book presents a visual explosion of talent in film, music, TV, fashion and art from its debut as an online forum in 2009 to 2020. Stunning photographs from the worlds of culture, fashion, and beauty showcase the biggest names and rising stars who entertain and lead the world in high-octane creativity. It will appeal to the visionary, the collector, and the fashion-conscious, and is intended not only for the magazine's established and loyal readership, but also for a broader demographic of readers around the globe who monitor the pulse of the latest in creative talent.

It started in 1978 with an ordinary coffee shop near Kyoto. Word spread that the waitresses wore no panties under their miniskirts. Similar establishments popped up across the country. Men waited in line outside to pay three times the usual coffee price just to be served by a panty-free young woman. Within a few years, a new craze took hold: the no-panties "massage" parlor. Increasingly bizarre services followed, from fondling clients through holes in coffins to commuter-train fetishists. One particularly popular destination was a Tokyo club called "Lucky Hole" where clients stood on one side of a plywood partition, a hostess on the other. In between them was a hole big enough for a certain part of the male anatomy. Taking the Lucky Hole as his title, Nobuyoshi Araki captures Japan's sex industry in full flower, documenting in more than 800 photos the pleasure-seekers and providers of Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood before the February 1985 New Amusement Business Control and Improvement Act put a stop to many of the country's sex locales. Through mirrored walls, bed sheets, the bondage and the orgies, this is the last word on an age of bacchanalia, infused with moments of humor, precise poetry, and questioning interjections. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!