Books not to be read on an e-reader...

If you don't have an e-reader, or have one and are now wondering why you'd ever buy another physical book, I'm here to share some titles that are best read book in hand, not in Kindle or Nook or iPad.


Hot Guys and Baby Animals by Audrey Khuner and Carolyn Newman
This is a small book that is all photographs of - you guessed it - hot guys with baby animals. Every page is "awww" inspiring and is best viewed on the beautiful, high quality paper contained in this book. Nook Color or Kindle Fire perhaps, but I still prefer pictures on paper.

My Last Supper: The Next Course: 50 More Great Chefs and Their Final Meals: Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes by Melanie Dunea

This is a coffee table book and a really good conversation starter. Lots of famous chefs, some not so famous, and at least one who is not even a chef but rather a celebrity cook named Rachael Ray (and she is the first to admit that she is not a chef so please don't send me hate mail!) They all get a page for a great and often unique photograph, and another to talk about what they'd like for their last meal, where they want to have it, who they'd want to share it with and most interesting to me, who they'd like to prepare it. My non-scientific guess after perusing this book is that at least 85% of these chefs want to cook their own last meal. I think Bobby Flay put it best: "The one thing about my last supper is, I'm cooking it. I like cooking even more than I like eating." The layout makes it a really great book to just pick up and open to any page. This is actually a sequel to the 2007 My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals / Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes by Melanie Dunea.


The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story by Theodora Goss

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever.

When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself . . .

The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.
See this short video to see how the book works.


The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston

When Frankie Pratt graduates from high school, she gets her father's old Corona typewriter and starts keeping this scrapbook, a charming, epistolary novel about a young woman coming of age in the 1920's. Using vintage memorabilia including postcards, magazine ads, candy wrappers, menus and such, we follow Frankie from Vassar to Paris and back home again. It's a fast read since there isn't a whole lot of text, but nonetheless this is a rich, multilayered story that illuminates a brief period of American history from a distinctly feminine point of view. The memorabilia is just fascinating and really propels the story.