Book Brew

Get reading advice from the likes of Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Cynthia Rowley, Tim Brown and many more at Designers & Books, a website that collects lists of books that design stars identify as personally important, meaningful and formative. Graphic designer Seymour Chwast views his favorite titles as "human-size 3-D objects," while Michael Bierut offers a delightful explanation of his Great Gasby pick: "In what other book does a billboard get to be a main character?" Glaser includes three titles by John Berger, who "is incapable of writing without astonishing you," while product designer Eva Zeisel, now 104, recommends Walter Crane's Line and Form. Meanwhile, Carin Goldberg's list of 36 titles promises to whip you into intellectual shape. "Reading is like working a muscle," says the designer, "the more one exercises the muscle, the stronger and more supple it gets."

Still looking for the perfect wedding gift for William and Kate? They're probably set with the old and borrowed stuff, so go with new and blue: Scenes from an Impending Marriage (Drawn and Quarterly), cartoonist and illustrator Adrian Tomine's peek into his own path to the altar. The little blue book chronicles the adventures of Tomine and his bride-to-be Sarah as they navigate the wedding planning process, from guest list politics and venue selection to dance lessons and "an even-handed acknowlegement of both families’ cultural heritages" (taiko drummers? bagpipe players?). A charming series of comic vignettes depicts the increasingly anxious couple meeting with one D.J. Buttercream and sparring about wedding favors, until Sarah has a brilliant idea: that her groom-to-be create an illustrated book of short comics about the trials and tribulations of wedding preparations.

Jonathan Safran Foer didn't have to do much writing to create his latest book, Tree of Codes (Visual Editions); he just grabbed his favorite work of literature and a pair of scissors. From the text of Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles Foer carved out a new story that the reader discovers through a novel-cum-art object: a book studded with die-cuts that prompt the question "How'd they'd do that?" Foer's publisher answers with this video from the Belgian printer that took on the task of bringing Tree of Codes to life. Click to watch the last three months of the year-long production process in three lyrical minutes.

New York City is combating the winter gloom with sculptor Will Ryman's giant pink and red roses, which are in bloom along Park Avenue until the real buds can take over in late spring. For those outside of Manhattan in need of a flower fix, we suggest procuring Paper Blossoms: A Pop-Up Book of Beautiful Bouquets for the Table (Chronicle). The book's series of centerpiece-ready floral pop-ups are the work of San Francisco-based paper engineer and graphic designer Ray Marshall, whose own roses offer a table-sized substitute for Ryman's towering steel arrangements. The four other intricate paper bouquets include lillies, irises, and a tropical explosion that features bird of paradise, heliconia, anthuriums, and gingers. No watering necessary.

Saul Bass, Charles and Ray Eames, Paul Rand and...Alvin Lustig? The prolific and innovative yet lesser-known designer gets his due in Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig by Steven Heller and Elaine Lustig Cohen. Before his untimely death at the age of 40, Lustig (1915-1955) had designed everything from widely influential book jackets and magazines to interiors and textiles. His eclectic portfolio also included a helicopter, signage for the first American shopping mall, and the opening sequence for the cartoon series Mr. Magoo. This new illustrated volume from Chronicle Books draws upon Lustig's writings, correspondence, and sketchbooks to reveal an ambitious figure who played an important role in defining the visual culture of the 20th century. Writes Heller, "Lustig created monuments of ingenuity and objects of aesthetic pleasure."

Fear not, procrastinators of holiday shopping! We have a gift that is bound to delight everyone on your list (with the possible exception of infants and pets): And the Pursuit of Happiness (Penguin), the latest book from illustrator, author, and designer Maira Kalman. Part wacky travelogue, part romp through American history, the richly illustrated volume follows Kalman on a year-long national tour from small towns and military bases to the inner chambers of the Supreme Court, where she accents her discussion of justice with an illustration of the "sublime Grand Marnier cake" made by the husband of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It's the civics textbooks of our dreams. "Without seeming too naive, I wanted to write about what is sane about our system [of democracy]. What is likable," says Kalman. "For example, the system of checks and balances. The debating. The ability to change a law. The sense of humor. The can-do spirit."