Gear Patrol

Say what you will about the current condition of America’s 46,876 miles of highways, but there’s still no denying their status as a marvel of modern engineering and planning. You may recall from middle school social studies (or more recent History Channel binges) that Eisenhower championed the federal highway project as a necessary undertaking for…

Lucky Peach is the latest business venture of New York restauranteur David Chang. Based on the cover and Chang’s notorious personality, it’d be easy to dismiss this project as a simple exercise in brand extension (a la Skymag to Delta). A quick read of the first issue, however, proves that Lucky Peach is much deeper…

Pack the summer itinerary with projects from Handy Dad ($17) and you’ll quickly rise the “world’s coolest dad” rankings. With projects ranging from skate ramps to zip lines, Davis an extreme sports athlete and host of HGTV’s Over Your Head, covers 25 awesome projects that take anywhere from a few minutes to an entire weekend…

Now in its third edition, Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better ($19) is the perfect guide for streamlining your life — and unlike other tutorial books, you won’t feel like an idiot being seen with it. Featuring 121 new and classic hacks, tricks, and downloads from Lifehacker’s archives, the third edition has…

We don’t expect everybody to devote their life to understanding the global political arena inside, and out. Still, a firm grasp of the world’s top leadership should definitely be a core part of any man’s mental arsenal. Power: Portraits of World Leaders ($24) helps put faces to the names of 150 current international leaders. Every…

The Rockefeller name is about as close to American royalty as it gets. So you’d think if someone lied about being part of the family, it wouldn’t fly for very long. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter ($17) proves anything is possible given you’re a…

The cigarette companies were slapped year’s ago for using illustrations in their ads on the grounds that it created young smokers in training. Still, those dirty peddlers were on to something. Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer ($12) takes full advantage of the beauty and appeal of illustration to walk would-be brewers…

We like author Barton Seaver’s new book, For Cod and Country ($18), for two reasons — neither of which involve the deplorable wordplay in its title. The first is that it’s filled with creative recipes for fish that will surely impress cod-fearing dinner guests if executed correctly (re: not like tuna surprise). The second, and…

After spending at least 10 hours a week across the sports media titan’s various TV channels, websites, mobile apps, and maybe even the magazine, you might assume you know what ESPN is all about. A quick read through Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN ($15) proves otherwise. Starting with the…

Even if you don’t have a clue about architecture, you know the name Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright: Complete Works, Vol. 1, 1885-1916 ($126) is the start of an upcoming three-volume study on Wright’s roughly 1100 designs, only about half of which ever came to fruition. Done in cooperation with the Frank Lloyd Archives…

Miles Davis and John Coltrane are those guys with the Blue albums. Cannoball Adderly — now wasn’t he a famous dare devil? If this sounds like your internal monologue on the subject of Jazz, then we strongly suggest reading Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology ($100). Like the college course you should have picked over econ, minus…

The definition of a wildcase is a crime too savage and inexplicable to be easily categorized by the FBI. And in the case of Neil Russell’s Wildcase, a small town retired cop and his wife have been brutally murdered. The deceased happen to be friends of Rail Black, and if we learned anything from Neil…

It’s tough to appreciate the true beauty of a race car’s design, unless it’s standing still. We also focus so much on the “form follows function” mindset that we fail to see the artfulness of track-only vehicles, especially when they are adorned with every product logo known to mankind. A pictorial homage to the F1…

References from film and TV are what flash into most people’s memory today when the subject of boxing arises in conversation. There are just too many great, engaging examples to draw on, from both real and fictional stories (Rocky 45 and Tyson v. Holyfield being exceptions). Before technology padlocked our imagination, though, writing was the…

Bone up on your photog knowledge with this beautiful coffee table book from one of our favorite publishers, Taschen. Released this April, Photographers A-Z ($42) is filled with 400+ entries on the most influential shutterbugs of the last 100 years including monograph’s from Ansel Adams, Bill Brandy, Irving Penn and Andy Warhol to name a…

We don’t think graphic designers are somehow better equipped to produce more informative travel guides than other people, but they certainly know how to make them more visually appealing. Graphic USA ($20) is a different kind of travel guide covering 25 popular American cities. Graphic designers from each city were invited to share their own…

We’re all aware of Dennis Hopper the actor and director. You may not know though that the man carried a camera everywhere he went too — and unlike hipsters snapping shots of bicycles and alleyways — Hopper was privy to, if not the instigator of, some pretty ridiculous situations. Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967 is a…

Probably one of the greatest books you’ve never read, Matterhorn ($15) takes place during the tumultuous era of the Vietnam War. Reviewed by Amazon as one of the best books of 2010, this novel grips you from the start and will have you utterly engrossed in a story that could easily have been true. Karl…

Hunter S. Thompson clearly had his own idea of what a proper minibar of the mind contained, and preferred carrying his version in a briefcase. For The School of Life and the Morgan’s Hotel Group, though, that name refers to a custom-made box designed to provide guests with a “midnight feast” of inspiration. Inside, buyers…

The sports world is probably responsible for half of the world’s clichés. Fans, athletes, and coaches just love to boil everything down to one catch phrase out of fear that our feeble minds are only capable of processing things muttered in one huddled breath (which admittedly may very well be the case with Mike Tyson)….

Ping pong or Table Tennis for you highbrow types triggers memories for different people (Bangkok’s “ping-pong shows” not withstanding). Famous fans of the sport include everyone from Fidel Castro, Sasha and Malia Obama, to Henry Miller, and anyone who can recall a middle school history class should remember the term “ping-pong politics”. For the authors…

Following up his head spinning, stomach churning debut novel, The Breach, author Patrick Lee has once again turned our world on its ear. The clandestine group known only as Tangent has a device of ah, “unknown origin” that opens a portal to the future. Problem is, all of humanity has been wiped out. Now it’s…

Bring home half a century worth of literary treasures with the Penguin Classics Complete Library ($13,400). Originally released in 2005, the trove of books has evolved to include 1,082 titles (the image above includes some of our personal favorites), which accounts for nearly half a million pages worth of reading. Weighing in at 700 spine…

For an anyone of importance to declare that their autobiography be left unpublished for 100 years so he can be “dead, and unaware, and indifferent” requires a considerable pair of literary cojones. If there’s one person that could pull it off and still remain pertinent, it’s the national treasure Mark Twain. 2010 marks the 100th…

Colonel Roosevelt ($20) is the last and final installment of a trilogy of biographies written by Edmund Morris detailing the life of one of America’s greatest presidents and men. If you haven’t read the other titles which include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, we would encourage you to start…

Outdoor lovers are well aware of Patagonia as a brand, and have probably spent plenty of time browsing through the companies unique and decidely epic catalogs. Unexpected: 30 Years of Patagonia Catalog Photography ($49) is compendium of over 100+ images submitted by customers and professional wilderness photographers over the last 30 years (of which they…

Hip-hop may not be for everyone, but that hasn’t stopped Jay-Z from becoming a household name. Though his rise to fame stems through rapping, Mr. “I’m not a business-man. I’m a business…man” has earned praise from plenty of those outside the game, including Warren Buffet. So when a mind like that puts its attention towards…

Cookbooks may not be the first thing you’re looking to whip out your wallet for, but having few around is certainly something we’d recommend. Especially if you hope to pull off a home-cooked meal at some point to prove your not completely worthless. Luckily, New York Times food columnist Amanda Hesser has put together a…

Definitely not an e-reader, and not quite a full-fledged tablet, the newly announced Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color ($250) blends an interesting mix of features that could change the current landscape of gadgets vying to replace your laptop, paperbacks, and magazines.

Few people on the planet have ever epitomized rock and roll like Keith Richards. That’s one of the reasons why his long-awaited memoir Life ($16) is a must read. Filled with Keith’s surprisingly crystal clear recollections about the genesis of classics like “Ruby Tuesday” and “Gimme Shelter”, consider it a rare look into the special…