1. Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire: A Poem in Four Cantos by John Shade edited by Brian Boyd and illustrated by Jean Holabird.
Pale Fire may be my favourite Nabokov novel. Its structure is brilliant, a fictional text about a fictional text. The central text is a poem, Pale Fire, written by the recently assassinated poet John Shade. The poem is forwarded and heavily annotated by John Shade's neighbor, Charles Kinbote, a lecherous "expert" and editor of the supposed poetry book.
This new edition takes this fiction of a fiction and turns it into a physical reality. Here we have a box set, including a pocketbook of John Shade's Pale Fire and a stack of cue cards, facsimiles of the index cards John Shade used in composing his poem, printed exactly as Nabokov described them in his novel. The edition also comes with a pamphlet with two non-fiction essays (by real live scholars) about Pale Fire, the poem.
2. Momofuku Milk Bar is one of my favourite bakeries. They make this
"crack pie" that is just so aptly named. Here is a cookbook filled with
recipes from the New York establishment (part of David Chang's mini food
empire which includes Momofuku, Milk, and the publication Lucky Peach). Because sugar is another means to getting through the snow.
