lifestyles by susannah felts

Irish artist Katie Holten’s innovative tree alphabet font (for each letter, she drew a corresponding tree) provides the stunning visual component for The Language of Trees (Tin House, $29.95, 9781953534682), in which Holten gathers a diverse range of writing celebrating all things arboreal. There are recipes for acorn flour, words from Plato and Radiohead, poems by Ada Limón and Camille Dungy, musings on cacao and catalpa trees, and so much more—all of it printed first in English and then in Holten’s tree alphabet, creating visual forests that represent the book’s words. I’ve never seen anything remotely like this work of art.

Patchwork

If you are a fan of jaw-droppingly beautiful things, you have to check out Patchwork (Thames & Hudson, $50, 9780500025819) by textile designer and collector Catherine Legrand. From American sampler quilts and Indian kantha to French courtepointe and Korean bojagi, this study crisscrosses the continents to illustrate the global art form of patchwork fabrics. Taken as a whole, the fascinating works presented here celebrate human creativity, ingenuity and determination to use and preserve what we’ve got.

Sown in the Stars

For centuries, farmers have been consulting the zodiac and the phases of the moon to time their planting. There’s scant scientific research on this type of cultivation, but as Sarah L. Hall muses in Sown in the Stars (University Press of Kentucky, $34.95, 9780813197043), “when a practice continues over a long period of time, there might just be something to it.” Hall interviewed a number of Kentuckians who follow the folk tradition of planting by the signs, and their stories shape the heart of this book. Whether you wish to give it a go yourself or are simply curious about traditional practices, this book is a valuable cultural document.

Work It Out

“The fitness industry is filled with life-hacks for depression, but most of it seems to be coming from a place of ignorance about the cold war going on in the average depressed person’s head,” writes Sarah Kurchak in Work It Out (Quirk, $17.99, 9781683693291). She tailors her workout guidance to people who are depressed or anxious, offering approaches that are both grounded in science and refreshingly dismissive of well-trodden myths, rules and routines. Pillow fight! Goblet squat your pet! (If they’re cool with it, of course.) This funny, helpful book does not disappoint.