VERY SHORT LIST chose A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola for the #1 Spot on their November 16 Food E-mail A Brain Pickings Favorite Food Book of 2012 and one of their Best Graphic Novels & Graphic Nonfiction of 2012 Featured in Columbia College Today's Bookshelf section "A straight forward and accessible text…Cortés’ highly detailed paintings call up concomitant issues and famous faces as well…In dense passages describing political payments between corporate interests and federal narcotics officials, the reproduction–in Cortés’ deft watercolors–of memos, official letters, and newspaper articles serves as an indictment of the rule of law with loopholes for the profit minded. This is an excellent introduction to the complexities of 'American interests,' the realities of corrupt rationale invoked in the pursuit of world health, and the need to take a longer view than the immediate to see how substance and substance abuse both share space and operate on different planes. Right and wrong are not black and white but form a gray of varying shades." --Library Journal “If you hate the War on Drugs, Ricardo Cortés should be one of your favorite illustrators.” --Vice “Astonishingly addictive and intoxicatingly revelatory, ...Coffee, Coca & Cola offers an impressively open-minded history lesson and an incredible look at the dark underbelly of American Capitalism . . . A stunning, hard cover coffee-table book for concerned adults, this captivating chronicle is a true treasure.” --Comics Review (UK) “This fascinating and beautifully illustrated piece of visual journalism . . . is as thoroughly researched and absorbingly narrated as it is charmingly illustrated.” --Brain Pickings "Any food and culinary history holding will find this a lively survey!" --The Midwest Book Review A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola is an illustrated book disclosing new research in the coca leaf trade conducted by The Coca-Cola Company. 2011 marked the 125th anniversary of its iconic beverage, and the fiftieth anniversary of the international drug control treaty that allows Coca-Cola exclusive access to the coca plant. Most people are familiar with tales of cocaine being an early ingredient of "Coke" tonic; it's an era the company makes every effort to bury. Yet coca leaf, the source of cocaine which has been banned in the U.S. since 1914, has been part of Coca-Cola's secret formula for over one hundred years. This is a history that spans from cocaine factories in Peru, to secret experiments at the University of Hawaii, to the personal files of U.S. Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger (infamous for his "Reefer Madness" campaign against marijuana, lesser known as a long-time collaborator of The Coca-Cola Company). A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola tells how one of the biggest companies in the world bypasses an international ban on coca. The book also explores histories of three of the most consumed substances on earth, revealing connections between seemingly disparate icons of modern culture: caffeine, cocaine, and Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink on earth, and soft drinks are the number one food consumed in the American diet. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance. Cocaine . . . well, people seem to like reading about cocaine. An illustrated chronicle that will appeal to fans of food and drink histories (e.g., Mark Kurlansky's Salt and Cod; Mark Pendergrast's For God, Country & Coca-Cola), graphic novel enthusiasts, and people interested in drug prohibition and international narcopolitics, the book follows in the footsteps of successful pop-history books such as Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation—but has a unique style that blends such histories with narrative illustration and influences from Norman Rockwell to Art Spiegelman.

The definitive history of the world's most popular drug. Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs. As the scope of coffee culture continues to expand, Uncommon Grounds remains more than ever a brilliantly entertaining guide to the currents of one of the world's favorite beverages.

An illustrated history of the Coca-Cola soft drink company.

For God, Country and Coca-Cola is the unauthorized history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it. From its origins as a patent medicine in Reconstruction Atlanta through its rise as the dominant consumer beverage of the American century, the story of Coke is as unique, tasty, and effervescent as the drink itself. With vivid portraits of the entrepreneurs who founded the company—and of the colorful cast of hustlers, swindlers, ad men, and con men who have made Coca-Cola the most recognized trademark in the world—this is business history at its best: in fact, “The Real Thing.”

One of the most unmistakable shapes in the world since its introduction in 1915, the Coca-Cola Contour Bottle is an influential symbol of design, art, and culture. What began as a design brief to create a bottle that could be identified in the dark or lying broken on the ground today is one of the most recognized packages on the planet. Published on the occasion of the bottle's centennial, Kiss the Past Hello is a vibrant collection of images and art celebrating the Coca-Cola Contour Bottle not only as an icon of design but also as a symbol of optimism, happiness, and the shared moments in our lives.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller: “A hilarious take on that age-old problem: getting the beloved child to go to sleep” (NPR). “Hell no, you can’t go to the bathroom. You know where you can go? The f**k to sleep.” Go the Fuck to Sleep is a book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, it captures the familiar—and unspoken—tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. Read by a host of celebrities, from Samuel L. Jackson to Jennifer Garner, this subversively funny bestselling storybook will not actually put your kids to sleep, but it will leave you laughing so hard you won’t care.

A beautifully illustrated picture book that gives parents a way to discuss marijuana with children without encouraging them to use it. "It's Just a Plant follows the journey of a young girl named Jackie, who becomes curious about cannabis after she discovers her parents smoking a joint in their bedroom. Jackie's education about marijuana includes visits to several members of her community, including a farmer who cultivates the plant and a doctor who advises that cannabis should only be used by adults...Cortés' book offers an opportunity for parents to discuss many aspects of the conversation around marijuana." --High Times "Part of a growing category of books that attempt to explain difficult and complex topics to children, simply. Whether you're looking at Death Is Stupid, by Anastasia Higginbotham, or A is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara, children's fiction is much less likely to shy away from topics that were previously reserved for those considered to be 'adults,' or to cloud those topics in euphemisms." --Literary Hub, selected by Molly Odintz for LitHub Recommends "As controversial as the topic may seem for a kids' book, [Cortés is]...right. It's crucial for parents to be open and educate their kids about marijuana (and any other drugs, really) in a factual, non-judgmental way--especially if parents are using themselves. After all, keeping drugs' existence a mystery is only going to spark curious kids' interests further." --SheKnows "With more home schooling taking place due to COVID-19, Ricardo Cortés hopes It's Just a Plant can spark family-friendly cannabis education." --Mugglehead "We've all heard the sentiment that the more we keep our kids away from something and paint it as 'dangerous' or 'bad,' the more likely they are to be interested in whatever that is. The same can be said for conversations like his--if we avoid or brush off any questions relating to marijuana for our kids, they're going to get the information from somewhere and it just feels a whole lot safer knowing they're getting the right information from you--or a book like this." --Fatherly "Absolutely 'kid friendly' in tone, organization and presentation, It's Just a Plant: A Children's Story about Marijuana is especially recommended for family, preschool, elementary school, and community library...collections." --Midwest Book Review It's Just a Plant is a children's book that follows the journey of a young girl as she learns about the marijuana plant from a cast of characters including her parents, a local farmer, a doctor, and a police officer. Marijuana can be hard to talk about. Many parents have tried it, millions use it, and most feel awkward about disclosing such histories (often ducking the question), for fear that telling kids the truth might encourage them to experiment too. Meanwhile, the "drug facts" children learn in school can be more frightening than educational, blaming pot for everything from teenage pregnancy to terrorism. A child's first awareness of drugs should come from a better source. It's Just a Plant is a story for parents who want to discuss the complexities of pot with their kids in a thoughtful, fact-oriented manner. The book also features an afterword by Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, founder of the Safety First Project for drug education and director emerita of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs.