Rimowa (Rizzoli. $95. www.rizzoliusa.com). Honey, we’ve all got our baggage. But only some of us are fortunate enough to have baggage made by Rimowa, the luxury luggage brand that was founded in Cologne, Germany in the late 19th century and acquired by LVMH in 2017. For less than the price of the smallest of Rimowa’s most iconic aluminum and polycarbonate roller bags— instantly recognizable be-cause they’re ribbed for your traveling pleasure—this lavishly illustrated archive of luggage design and jetsetters’ ephemera makes a terrific gift for temporarily grounded travel enthusiasts. Featuring blueprints, vintage advertisements, and beauty shots of everything from vintage wood and leather steamer trunks to virtually indestructible featherweight contemporary luggage, this book will hold your attention until your luggage can take flight and hold your belongings once again.
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NATURAL WONDERS
Curious minds on fascinating lifeforms
The Book of Eels (HarperCollins. $28.99. www.harpercollins.com). “The one that got away,” a frequent theme of fishing tales, takes on new resonance in Swedish writer Patrick Svensson’s combination of memoir and miscellany. As a young boy, the author bonded with his father over their nocturnal eel-fishing expeditions (smoked eel was a traditional Swed-ish delicacy, but overfishing has now made it a controversial dish). But after his father’s death, Svensson, now a journalist, took on the unique project of simultaneously exploring both prey and patriarch. Lushly written autobiographical passages slither between chunks of scientific, literary and historical research, in which the writer recounts everything from the interpretation of eels in Shakespeare and Freud, to the natural mysteries of the eel’s origins and—of special interest to queer readers— their metamorphosizing gender: Every eel spends part of its life as male and part as female.
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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures (Random House. $28. www.merlinsheldrake.com). Author Merlin Sheldrake, a British biologist and entrancingly poetic writer, serves as tour guide in this fantastic voyage into a realm of botany that will have readers rethinking their next slice of mushroom pizza. We learn about fungi that insinuate themselves into the bodies of carpenter ants, turning the insects into zombies that do the bidding of their vegetable masters. We discover vast underground networks of fungi that transmit information over miles-long communication systems. And we even learn how the psychedelic properties of some mushrooms are transforming medicine and psychotherapy.
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