This is exactly what it sounds like: instead of photos or illustrations, this cocktail book is fully illustrated with oil paintings. Featuring an all-star team, Cocktails, A Still Life is less of a bartending guide and more of a presentation piece attracting the eye, mind, and palate focused squarely on the art-including the dozens of luscious, hand-painted images. As they say, "We drink first with our eyes." Contemporary still-life master Todd Casey has collected 60 paintings for 60 classic drink recipes, developed by Drinkology author James Waller, that are then paired with witty and imminently readable behind-the-bar anecdotes and histories by beverage historian Christine Sismondo. Broken down into sections, inspired by times and events that call for a cocktail, the book includes art, recipes, and history. Drinks include: Part One: Daytime Drinking * Belgian Beers * Bellini * Bloody Mary * Mojito * Ramos Gin Fizz Part Two: Aperitivo Hour * Aperol Spritz * Daiquiri * Gimlet * Gin & Tonic * Sgroppino Part Three: Cocktail Party * Cosmopolitan * Long Island Iced Tea * Mai Tai * Negroni * Vieux Carre Part Four: Celebration * Egg Nog * French 75 * Margarita * Mezcal and Sangrita * Mint Julep Part Five: After Dinner/Nightcap * Boulevardier * Brandy Alexander * Grasshopper * Irish Coffee * Sake Both a sophisticated gift and a useful cocktail-making guide, Cocktails, A Still Life is not just for "cocktail nerds" but also for those who enjoy finely crafted art and finely crafted beverages.

In Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow, Brendan J. J. Payne reveals how prohibition helped realign the racial and religious order in the South by linking restrictions on alcohol with political preaching and the disfranchisement of Black voters. While both sides invoked Christianity, prohibitionists redefined churches' doctrines, practices, and political engagement. White prohibitionists initially courted Black voters in the 1880s but soon dismissed them as hopelessly wet and sought to disfranchise them, stoking fears of drunken Black men defiling white women in their efforts to reframe alcohol restriction as a means of racial control. Later, as the alcohol industry grew desperate, it turned to Black voters, many of whom joined the brewers to preserve their voting rights and maintain personal liberties. Tracking southern debates about alcohol from the 1880s through the 1930s, Payne shows that prohibition only retreated from the region once the racial and religious order it helped enshrine had been secured.