Showing titles in Aesthetics

An informative, fun and rather charming essay on the nature and history of one of life’s most desirable assets, Charm, by renowned culture and design critic, Stephen Bayley. Aiming to wound, a schoolmaster wrote on future design-guru Stephen Bayley’s last ever school report “Charm alone...

Bloomsbury presents Cat by Rebecca van Laer read by Skipper Mari Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Rebecca van Laer and her partner purchase a home and move in with their senior cats, Toby and Gus. Their loved ones see this as a step toward an...

Bloomsbury presents Pub by Philip Howell, read by Tim Frances "Erudite, quirky, and amusing." Sebastian Faulks Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The pub is an English institution. Yet its history has been obscured by myth and nostalgia. In this...

Bloomsbury presents Restaurant by Brian Duff, read by Chris Gaines Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. In the last few decades, restaurants and food culture have achieved extraordinary cultural presence. Chefs are heroes and thought leaders...

Bloomsbury presents Videotape by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy by Noe Nishizawa Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed...

Bloomsbury presents Burger by Carol J. Adams, read by Noe Nishizawa Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The burger, long the All-American meal, is undergoing an identity crisis. From its shifting place in popular culture to efforts by investors...

Bloomsbury presents Magazine, written and read by Jeff Jarvis. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. For a century, magazines were the authors of culture and taste, of intelligence and policy — until they were overthrown by the voices of the...

Bloomsbury presents Hood by Alison Kinney, read by Rachel Handshaw. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. We all wear hoods: the Grim Reaper, Red Riding Hood, torturers, executioners and the executed, athletes, laborers...

Bloomsbury presents Earth by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, read by Rachel Handshaw and Mack Gordon. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. In Earth, a planetary scientist and a literary humanist explore what...

Bloomsbury presents Bookshelf by Lydia Pyne, read by Rachel Handshaw. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Every shelf is different and every bookshelf tells a different story. One bookshelf can creak with character in a bohemian coffee shop and...

Bloomsbury presents Blackface by Ayanna Thompson, read by Rachel Handshaw. A New Statesman essential non-fiction book of 2021 Featured in Book Riot's 12 best nonfiction books about Black identity and history A Times Higher Education Book of the Week 2022 Finalist for the Prose Awards (Media and...

Bloomsbury presents Stroller by Amanda Parrish Morgan, read by Rachel Handshaw. The Best Books of 2022, The New Yorker Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Among the many things expectant parents are told to buy, none is a more visible symbol of...

Bloomsbury presents Souvenir by Rolf Potts, read by Adam Sims. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. For as long as people have traveled to distant lands, they have brought home objects to certify the journey. More than mere merchandise, these...

Bloomsbury presents Shopping Mall by Matthew Newton, read by Mack Gordon. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The mall near Mat thew Newton’s childhood home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was one of the state’s first enclosed shopping malls...

Bloomsbury presents Hotel by Joanna Walsh, read by Stephanie Racine. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. During the breakdown of an unhappy marriage, writer Joanna Walsh got a job as a hotel reviewer, and began to gravitate towards places designed...

Bloomsbury presents Silence by John Biguenet, read by Adam Sims. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. What is silence? In a series of short meditations, novelist and playwright John Biguenet considers silence as a servant of power, as a lie, as a...

In his new book, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley looks to the peculiar mating rituals of birds to better understand the rich origins and ongoing significance of Darwin's sexual selection theory. 'FASCINATING' The Times ‘Matt Ridley is one of our finest science writers … A treat for bird...

What part of your beautiful self were you taught to hate? We spend a lot of time trying to improve our 'defects', according to society's ideals of beauty. But these ideals that are often reductive, tyrannical and commercially entangled, imposed upon us by oppressive systems and further strengthened by our conditioned self-loathing. This book encourages unruliness, exploring the ways in which we can rebel against and subvert the current system.

‘Wide-ranging, witty and fresh … a stimulating read. Authentic fun’ Tim Harford, Financial Times Best Summer Books 2022 ‘Brilliantly witty, profoundly illuminating, Alice Sherwood is a master storyteller’ Simon Schama ‘Thought-provoking and beautifully written’ Adrian Wooldridge...