This essential book of over 300 spells tells how to work with simple, easy-to-find components and focus creative energy to meet daily challenges with awareness, confidence, and humor.

From typographic illustrator Marian Bantjes, I Wonder will make you think in new ways about art, design, beauty, and popular culture. This unique presentation features the elaborately crafted word pictures of Marian Bantjes, the most inventive and creative typographic illustrator of our time. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes's work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is, however, another side to Bantjes's visual work: her thoughtful treatises on art, design, beauty, and popular culture that add a deeper dimension to the decorative nature of her best-known work. These reflections cover the cult of Santa, road-side advertising, photography and memory, the alphabet's letterforms, heraldry, and stars. Bantjes's writing style ranges from the playful to the confrontational, but it is always imbued with perspicacity, insight, and a sense of fun. Intended to inspire creatives of any persuasion, this is more than a collection of ideas: Bantjes has meticulously illustrated every page of the book in her inimitable style to create an accessible work of art that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Quirky, poignant, astute, funny--this beautiful book presents a compelling collection of observations on visual culture and design. In Stefan Sagmeister's telling words, Bantjes's work is his "favorite example of beauty facilitating the communication of meaning." This paperback edition is expanded with a new essay from the author.

The world is a beautiful place, thanks to the people who strive to grow and help others grow. It has been a beautiful experience to compile our second anthology in association with Idea publishers. We would love to thank the ‘True Dreamster’ team for this smooth and successful journey. We express our heartiest gratitude to our brilliant writers for their support and patience. This book would not have come into existence without their cooperation. We absolutely love them.

A sparkling and eye-opening history of the Broadway musical that changed the world In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has had an astonishing global impact. Beloved by audiences the world over, performed from rural high schools to grand state theaters, Fiddler is a supremely potent cultural landmark. In a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is a story of the theater, following Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage, through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression, to his Broadway debut in one of the last big book musicals, and his ultimate destination—a major Hollywood picture. Solomon reveals how the show spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires of its time: the fraying of tradition, generational tension, the loss of roots. Audiences everywhere found in Fiddler immediate resonance and a usable past, whether in Warsaw, where it unlocked the taboo subject of Jewish history, or in Tokyo, where the producer asked how Americans could understand a story that is "so Japanese." Rich, entertaining, and original, Wonder of Wonders reveals the surprising and enduring legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.

Indian hand woven fabrics have been known since time immemorial. Poets of the Mughal durbar likened our muslins to baft hawa (woven air), abe rawan (running water) and shabnam (morning dew). A tale runs that Emperor Aurangzeb had a fit of rage when he one day saw his daughter princess Zeb-un-Nissa clad in almost nothing. On being severely rebuked, the princess explained that she had not one but seven jamahs (dresses) on her body. Such was the fineness of the hand woven fabrics..The author, who has spent several decades working for the promotion of handicrafts, provides unique insights into the lives of weavers striving to preserve the traditional textiles of the Deccan.

Batsheva’s Wonder-Weave By: Barbara Hantman Batsheva’s Wonder-Weave: Jewish-Themed Verse promotes a deep appreciation for Hebraic heritage, including the holiday cycle, nobility of ancient ancestors, and contributions of contemporaries—both familiar and famous. The beauty of nature and vibes of a great city also provide thematic for this book.

“A poet celebrates the wonders of nature in a collection of essays that could almost serve as a coming-of-age memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance. “What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts. Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy. Praise for World of Wonders Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year An NPR Best Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of 2020 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 “Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year.” —NPR “A timely story about love, identity and belonging.” —New York Times Book Review “A truly wonderous essay collection.” —Roxane Gay, The Audacity

My Poetic Anthology by John Haughton John studied Philosophy and Theology at the Redemptorist College, (CSSR.) Cluain Mhuire, Galway, Ireland, majored in Sociology and Town Planning at University College Dublin followed by a practical Horticultural course at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin. 'Deep Ecology' now underpins his thought processes, work and philosophy. John co-founded Forest Friends Ireland presents his own environmental radio programme, 'ENVIRO', on local Dublin Community Radio station, NEAR 90.3 FM, www.nearfm.ie. John maintains that to be creative is the most important thing in life and that earth connectedness though a primordial instinct needs nevertheless to be rediscovered and reaffirmed on a daily basis. John's poems are environmental in nature, with deep ecological undertones. He agrees with writer Baron Wormser who said that "Poetry is a spirit gift we give to people". John is author of the 'Silver Lining' which is the story of the Irish pioneering Aviatrix lady Heath and the birth of Irish aviation in the 1930s. He is editor of two anthologies of poetry written by pupils of Ballyfermot Primary Schools in Dublin, entitled 'The Forest of Children Dreaming'. Some of John's poems are included in anthologies of the Bayside Writers 'Migrating Minds' series, and in 'Trinity Collage' a publication of the 'Trinity Writers group'. He was joint editor of the Cáirde Na Coille poetry anthology, 'Seeing the Wood and the Trees'. His extended poem 'Beslan-Not Forgotten' is now available to purchase.