Photography is about perfect timing. This big bird on the water optical illusion created by Naomi Rose was one of the winners of the 2020 World Nature Photography Awards.

As of this year, the UN recognizes 195 countries around the world today. Countries come, countries go. An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe explores with wit and sarcasm countries that faded into obscurity.

Blackmore’s Night has released 11 albums to date with the newest Nature’s Light. Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night are at again with their unique blend of modern Renaissance music.

In 2018, the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally delivered on something fans had long been waiting for: a feature film with a solo Black superhero. Black Panther introduced viewers to the stunning world of Wakanda, a fictional African country with incredible technological advancements.

Legends collide in “Godzilla vs. Kong” as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

A Boob’s Life explores both the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman’s body. Lehr deftly blends her personal narrative with national history, starting in the 1960s with the women’s liberation movement and moving to the current feminist dialogue and what it means to be a woman.

Civilization is cast into ruin when a runaway planet speeds between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn from the ashes with a savage landscape, strange creatures and a primitive sense of justice

I will honest with you, I know nothing about Finnish Death Metal. It’s fun to see how metal embraced the youth of that country and spawned their own metal genre. It is a guilty pleasure of die-hard fans from all over the world. Now you can read about the whole movement of this foreign branching of global metal music. Authors Markus Makkonen and Kim Strömsholm give the rest of the world a full view of the metal years in Finland.

Now 13+ years sober, Noa Shaw has truly turned his life around. Today, he’s one of SoulCycle’s most popular instructors and teaches sold-out classes in NYC multiple times a week.

Country music hitmaker Ronnie McDowell is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of his hit single, “Older Women” which reached number one in 1981. Now, in 2021 “Older Women ” has gone viral on Tik Tok reaching nearly 130 million views and counting through a cover by The Sheltons.

From Dr. Bronner’s head of special operations Gero Leson, Honor Thy Label is the inside story of how a family-run soap company created a new fair trade and organic supply chain from the ground up. Through stories of harrowing setbacks and hard-won triumphs in projects that spanned the globe, Leson illuminates the challenges of building and scaling ethical production for increasingly popular products—and ultimately, the immense benefits for communities and the environment.

Given everything New York has endured recently, this book offers a timely celebration of a unique and wonderful city and its people—written to honor the ties and realities that bind them together. Alongside the sweet, and often funny, haiku poems, wistful illustrations help bring New York to life.