Book Patrol

Burn the Diaries by Moyra Davey and Alison Strayer. Illustrated with photos by Davey. "The dross of the diary, the compulsion to scribble, the delusion that we can hold on to time. The inversion of this neurosis is the anxiety of being read, the fear of wounding and, just as strong, the dread of being unmasked." Comprised of texts from Moyra Davey and Alison Strayer Burn the Diaries is a meditation on the act of writing and much more. Using the works of Jean Genet Davey explores the story of her life in text and photographs. She then shares them with Alison Strayer who  responds in kind. "The act of reading has long been integral to Davey’s work, which is full of images of books; however this is the first time Davey has ever made a book specifically for a gallery installation." Published by ICA, University of Pennsylvania/Museum Moderner Kunst /Dancing Foxes Press, 2014 to accompany her show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at University of Pennsylvania. Buy: D.A.P. | Amazon    

How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields.  If it's David Shields and its non-fiction it is almost always a guaranteed entertaining read.   I would agree with Whitney Otto who blurbs “Reading How Literature Saved My Life is like getting to listen in on a really great, smart, provocative conversation. The book is not straightforward, it resists any single interpretation, and it seems to me to constitute nothing less than a new form.” The chapter "All Great Books Wind up with the Writer Getting his Teeth Bashed In" includes an accounting of 55 books Shields swears by and is a reading list to be reckoned with and read through. And the two times he talks George W. Bush he paints the most humanizing portrait I think I've ever encountered. Published by Knopf, 2013 Buy: Powell's | Amazon   Strange Material: Storytelling through textiles by Leanne Prain. Through text, the act of weaving a tale or dropping a thread takes on new meaning for those who previously have seen textiles―quilts, blankets, articles of clothing, and more―only as functional objects. This book showcases crafters who take storytelling off the page and into the mediums of batik, stitching, dyeing, fabric painting, knitting, crochet, and weaving, creating objects that bear their messages proudly, from personal memoir and cultural fables to pictorial histories and wearable fictions.  Published by Arsenal Pulp Press Buy: Publisher | Amazon  

The Writer's Garden: How gardens inspired our best-loved authors by Jackie Bennett with photographs by Richard Hanson. What was the role of the garden in the work of some of Britain's most popular writers? Bennett explores how they derived a creative spirit from their private garden, how they tended and enjoyed their gardens, and how they managed their outdoor space. Austen, Ruskin, Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Dickens, Wordsworth and many others are covered.  Published by Francis Lincoln, 2014. Buy: Powell's | Amazon