Mark Laita has put together a spectacular book of snake photography called Serpentine ($39). Serpentines photographs span the beautiful and the dangerous in a collage of color and danger. Accompanying the photographs is an essay written by William T. Vollmann. The snakes covered in the book include such beauties as the black mamba, pit viper and the candy-cane-striped albino Honduran milk snake. The images in Serpentine will, at the same time, haunt and amaze.
This book explores the history of Guinness, possibly the most famous drinks brand in the world, and reveals the noble generosity of the family behind this innovative business. The story begins in the mid-1700’s in Ireland. As throughout Europe, the water here was undrinkable, and the whiskey and gin being drunk instead was devastating society. […]