Brief Histories of Everyday Objects

I found this book at my local independent bookseller a few months ago and immediately had to buy it. I love books about the history of common objects, like the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers or the various gallimaufries (look it up) by Charles Panati. That this book presented such information in comic form just made me excited, and I am glad to report that this book did not disappoint. Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is chock full of interesting, surprising, and enchanting tales of invention and gorgeous, meticulous drawings. I loved reading it.

The tales within are presented in various sections about items you would find in the bathroom, bedroom closet, grocery store, kitchen, living room, coffee shop, office, bar, and great outdoors.

 

 

 

As you can see from the excerpt above, each section has 4-5 entries that run 4 pages each, making a very accessible and readable book. I learned much about things I was ignorant about, like the origins of the toothbrush or paper bags, and I was also surprised to find I was also misinformed about other items, like the board game Monopoly (which was supposed to be an anti-capitalist teaching tool!) and indoor toilets. And adding icing to any already delicious cake, the author injects a great sense of humor, social commentary (particularly about the disparities women inventors faced), and attention to ancillary matters (like patents and business dealings) that pertained to the topics at hand. The book lived up to my every expectation. I only wish it were longer (or had a sequel already!).

This book's creator Andy Warner has taught comics and cartooning in a number of prominent settings, and he has also published in a number of venues. Notably, he is a contributing editor for award-winning online webcomic collective The Nib. He speaks more about his art and career in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book praise it. Publishers Weekly called Warner "a deft cartoonist, able to convey a lot of information, humor, and emotion within a single panel." Johanna Draper Carlson called the book "a terrific read, the kind of popular history full of trivia we used to see more of before the internet."Megan Volpert wrote, "The entire book can be read cover to cover in about 90-minutes with fair attention to detail, but Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is also dense enough to be worth savoring."

Brief Histories of Everyday Objects was published by Picador, and they offer a preview and more here.

Steve Jobs: Insanely Great

Steve Jobs: Insanely Great is a pretty celebratory title for a book, and from you see in the first image of the book, the whole enterprise is a love letter to the man:

It hits all the highlights from his life, a true biography that takes him from his being born and adopted to his enterprising childhood and adolescence when his tinkering and playing around with gadgets and machines was encouraged.

Of course, he goes on to many great things, including making personal computers attractive and available for the average person, co-founding one of the world's largest companies, Apple, as well as being instrumental in the success of Pixar, one of today's most lucrative and lauded animation studios. Those alone would make for an excellent resume for anyone, but he also had a huge hand in creating devices that have changed the way we interact with the world, namely the iPod, iPad, iPhone, and iTunes.

The book also describes some of his not so positive attributes, namely his extreme perfectionism and blunt talk that often alienated those around him, but it mainly focuses on the good he did. Those looking for a more critical or nuanced biography should probably look elsewhere. Still, I think it is a great elementary introduction to the man and his works, and it has a few other features that recommend it. The artwork is appealing, breezy, and whimsical. There are sequences that demarcate decades and show what devices were invented and commonly used the, which I think is a very helpful thing for younger readers to see. And the entire narrative is cleanly told.

This book is the creation of Jessie Hartland, an accomplished commercial artist and children's book illustrator. Her prior books include nonfiction about dinosaurs, meteorites, and a biography of Julia Child. She speaks much more about her work on the Jobs' biography here.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Andrew Hayward wrote, "The book is nuanced without being sprawling; comprehensive but not exhaustive—or exhausting, for that matter." J. Caleb Mozzocco summed up, "I don’t know I’d go so far as to call it insanely great, but it’s pretty great, and a perfect place for anyone interested in Jobs, regardless of their age or sophistication, to start learning about the pivotal figure." Kirkus Reviews was in agreement, concluding, "Nothing new or revelatory here, but the book can serve as a good introduction to Jobs and will impress with its concision those who already know a lot about him."

Steve Jobs: Insanely Great was published by Schwartz & Wade, and they have a preview and more information about the book here.