A witty and thought-provoking collection of visual poems constructed from stacks of books. Delighting in the look and feel of books, conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian’s playful photographic series proves that books’ covers—or more specifically, their spines—can speak volumes. Over the past two decades, Katchadourian has perused libraries across the globe, selecting, stacking, and photographing groupings of two, three, four, or five books so that their titles can be read as sentences, creating whimsical narratives from the text found there. Thought-provoking, clever, and at times laugh-out-loud funny (one cluster of titles from the Akron Museum of Art’s research library consists of: Primitive Art /Just Imagine/Picasso/Raised by Wolves), Sorted Books is an enthralling collection of visual poems full of wry wit and bookish smarts. Praise for Sorted Books “Katchadourian’s project . . . takes on a weight beyond its initial novelty. It’s a love letter to books, book collecting and the act of reading.” —San Francisco Chronicle “As a longtime fan of [Katchadourian’s] long-running Sorted Books project I’m thrilled for the release of Sorted Books—a collection spanning nearly two decades of her witty and wise minimalist mediations on life by way of ingeniously arranged book spines. . . . In an era drowned in periodic death tolls for the future of the physical book, her project stands as a celebration of the spirit embedded in the magnificent materiality of the printed page.” —Brain Pickings “Katchadourian’s stacks possess an understated sophistication; they are true to the intimate nature of books and yet reveal their dramatic features and unexpected potential.” —Publishers Weekly

Examining the science of stream restoration, Rebecca Lave argues that the neoliberal emphasis on the privatization and commercialization of knowledge has fundamentally changed the way that science is funded, organized, and viewed in the United States. Stream restoration science and practice is in a startling state. The most widely respected expert in the field, Dave Rosgen, is a private consultant with relatively little formal scientific training. Since the mid-1990s, many academic and federal agency-based scientists have denounced Rosgen as a charlatan and a hack. Despite this, Rosgen's Natural Channel Design approach, classification system, and short-course series are not only accepted but are viewed as more legitimate than academically produced knowledge and training. Rosgen's methods are now promoted by federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as by resource agencies in dozens of states. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Lave demonstrates that the primary cause of Rosgen's success is neither the method nor the man but is instead the assignment of a new legitimacy to scientific claims developed outside the academy, concurrent with academic scientists' decreasing ability to defend their turf. What is at stake in the Rosgen wars, argues Lave, is not just the ecological health of our rivers and streams but the very future of environmental science.

The explosion of streaming apps and new platforms has produced a deluge of new original programming; this curated guide aims to be the one-stop resource to help figure out what to watch next. The growing volume of new television shows being released paired with the exponential proliferation of new streaming services make it increasingly hard to figure out what to watch. This new guide, spearheaded by television authority Liane Bonin Starr and an international team of critics, is a timely and welcome aid in winnowing the “must see” from the “don’t bother.” It is a curated selection of the most important and groundbreaking shows from past decades and the best new and buzzworthy series created in the age of streaming. It covers a wide range of genres across the spectrum and across various streaming services, from beloved favorites and classics to more obscure yet acclaimed foreign programs that are worth discov-ering, such as moody Scandinavian police procedurals and K-dramas. Organized by moods and moments, it is easy to find something romantic for date night, a dramedy to enjoy with BFFs, or sitcoms to binge during your next quarantine.

"A powerful coming-of-age story of self-discovery and overcoming fear.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review Ato hasn’t visited his grandmother’s house since he was seven. He’s heard the rumors that she’s a witch, and his mother has told him he must never sit on the old couch on her porch. Now here he is, on that exact couch, with a strange-looking drink his grandmother has given him, wondering if the rumors are true. What’s more, there’s a freshly dug hole in her yard that Ato suspects may be a grave meant for him. Meanwhile at school, Ato and his friends have entered a competition to win entry to Nnoma, the island bird sanctuary that Ato’s father helped created. But something is poisoning the community garden where their project is housed, and Ato sets out to track down the culprit. In doing so, he brings his estranged mother and grandmother back together, and begins healing the wounds left on the family by his father’s death years before. And that hole in the yard? It is a grave, but not for the purpose Ato feared, and its use brings a tender, celebratory ending to this deeply felt and universal story of healing and love from one of Ghana’s most admired children’s book authors.

A hen and her chicks — with the help of a duck and her ducklings — find a way to put their bad dreams behind them!

Lean production is the gold standard in production systems, but has proven famously difficult to implement in North America. Mass production relies on large inventories, uses "push" processes and struggles with long lead times. Moving towards a system that eliminates muda ("waste") caused by overproduction, while challenging, proves necessary for improved efficiency. Often overlooked, value stream mapping is the essential planning stage for any Lean transformation. In Mike Rother and John Shook's essential guide, you follow the value stream mapping undertaken for Acme Stamping, for its current and future state. Fully illustrated and well-organized, Learning to See is a must-see for the value stream manager.