2026-01-28 00:00:00
Irving Harper: Works in Paper
by Irving Harper (artist) and Michael Maharam (editor)
Skira Rizzoli
2013, 176 pages, 8.3 x 10.3 x 1.1 inches
Anyone familiar with the American version of the hit comedy The Office might remember a scene in which Michael Scott attends an art show where Pam exhibits her paintings. Struck by a painting she made of the office building, Michael buys it and muses, “It is a message. It is an inspiration. It is a source of beauty. And without paper, it could not have happened.” The quote could just as easily be said of famed designer Irving Harper, an alchemist who transforms paper into works of wonder. One look at Irving Harper: Works In Paper will be sufficient to astonish those who are not yet acquainted with the genius of design, and to further amaze those who are already fans of his.
Irving Harper was famous primarily as a furniture designer who championed the modernist style, becoming famous for the “Marshmallow Sofa” which comprises 18 plush discs arranged on a wire frame, and the “Ball Clock,” which resembles an asterix with multi-colored balls punctuating the tip of each line. Harper was not a sculptor by profession, but he created paper sculptures at home as a pastime to relieve himself of the stress of his regular job. This book features the astonishing results of someone who was ultimately more artist than hobbyist. Within these pages, a series of masks with graceful, Kabuki-like features can be found alongside vivid and striking depictions of wildlife including a wizened owl with expressive eyes, a snarling wolf hovering over its prey and a stoic elephant made with spare grace. A lavish cathedral skillfully depicts a stained glass window with a seraph in an arched doorway, while a sparse rendition of a scowling soldier on horseback offers a remarkable contrast. A series of abstract sculptures reminiscent of some of Robert Rauschenberg’s bold experiments also capture the reader’s attention.
The book offers a brief introduction to Irving Harper and discusses his design career in some detail, but the majority of the pagers are devoted to stunning full-color and black-and-white images of his paper sculptures. One photograph stands out: Harper, surrounded by his magnificent creations in his living room, idly scans a newspaper from his easy chair. The image remains in the mind even after closing the book as a quiet and powerful document of a humble genius who gave shape to his imagination with the simplest of resources. It is, as Michael Scott suggested, a source of beauty. And it couldn’t have happened without paper. – Lee Hollman
Where’s Warhol?
by Catherine Ingram and Andrew Rae
Laurence King Publishing
2016, 32 pages, 9.8 x 13 x 0.5 inches
Andy Warhol was known for both “making the scene,” literally turning “scenes” into improvised art, and for being impressively awkward and shy within those scenes. So, there really is something fundamentally right about the concept of hiding Andy inside of iconic scenes from history, both art history and beyond.
In Where’s Warhol? art historian Catherine Ingram teams up with artist Andrew Rae to create a visual needle-in-a-haystack picture book inspired by the Where’s Waldo? series. In a series of two-page spreads, Andy, in his iconic striped shirt and shock of silver hair, is hidden within massive crowd scenes. The scenes range from actual places where Andy did hang out (e.g. Studio 54) to historical places and events such as the French Revolution and Germany’s Bauhaus art school. The fun is not only in finding Andy, but in trying to identity all of the other historical figures drawn into these scenes. In the back of the book, many of these characters are pointed out with little anecdotes. And other known people are there, but not identified (like Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith). It’s fun to see just how many characters from history you can identity. There is also enough going on here to reward repeat scans of the pages.
This would be a fun gift book to get for anyone who’s a Warhol fan, a fan of art history, or who just enjoys these kinds of visual puzzle books. Everyone who’s seen this on my coffee table has gotten a big kick out of it. – Gareth Branwyn
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
2026-01-27 00:00:00
Wealth seems to grow out of a discipline, a habit, a practice that is applied daily and harvested decades later. Not everyone wants to accumulate a pile of money; but most people would like true wealth. This guide addresses that desire. I’ve gone through the entire New York Times bestseller list of how-to-get-rich books, and beyond. This is the book that most matches my own experience, and what I observe of the rich around me. It’s wise where there is often little wisdom, and yet practical, but not so practical it goes out of date. (For that kind of advice see Your Money) — KK
This web-based dashboard gives me an elegant overview of all my financial accounts in one screen. I’ve been using Mint for the past 6 months and it is marvelous. It is super friendly, quick, and illuminating. It makes me smart.
Mint will aggregate any money or spending account with online access — which is basically all financial accounts by now. In ten minutes or less I added our bank, credit cards, mortgage, cars, 401k, credit union, checking, and Etrade accounts to Mint. That’s the last input I ever had to do. From then on Mint automatically updates all the accounts, sucking in their data with the correct passwords, and integrates this diverse information into a single unified realtime snapshot of our finances. At once glance I can see where we are spending too much, or how we actually allot our income. I no longer have to hunt for my password and numbers for different accounts, say checking our bank balance, or a credit card purchase. It is much much easier, and far more pleasant, to simply log into Mint, where I can see everything. There, in clear presentation far superior to most banks, are all my accounts informing each other. One window to watch them all!
Mint is a read-only interface. There is no way to move money, or reconcile accounts, or pay bills, or calculate taxes (for now). That is also why it is safe. In fact it is probably safer than most banks because fancy algorithms at Mint similar to credit card fraud detection software will alert you when your finances show an unusual pattern. This is one of its cool features. It will gently inform you (at your choice) that say, based on your past months’ expenditures, you’ve overspent your grocery budget this month. It also makes a fairly good guess at categorizing your expenses on its own. It can then make comparisons of how your budget stacks up to other aggregate users in your area, and offer budget suggestions (which we have not followed). We rarely use cash for anything so Mint gives us a very complete picture.
Some people will not be convinced by any reasoning or proof that having a single window into your entire financial situation is safe. If you are of that type, don’t use Mint. But for the rest, who long ago realized that using credit cards online is far safer than using one in a store, Mint is a fabulous cool tool. And it is free. Available anywhere the web lives.
There are a couple of similar sites, such as Wesabe and Geezeo, which emphasize sharing budgets, sort of like a Weight Watchers for finances, but I find their interfaces far less elegant. However this niche is evolving fast, and features expand. Mint has a good head start, a winning design (I love the pie charts!), and a sizable user base, so I think it will be around for a while. (If it did disappear, no loss because it does not store any unique data.) — KK
I didn’t think another book on finance smarts would add anything new to the wisdom of the previously reviewed books Your Money, and Five Rituals of Wealth. But this one takes the great advice found in those and reduces it all to 100 maxims that you can read (and reread) in an hour or less. There is one simple paragraph of hard-won advice per page. This small book’s chief benefit is that busy people will actually READ it.
This is also the best money guide for young adults. I think it is perfect to start with even for elementary kids. It is less about finance and more about developing a common sense about money. Works as a refresher and reminder for adults too. I found myself in total agreement, having done well over the years using the same principles.
If you need convincing on any point, or want the details on how to execute an idea, you can delve into the aforementioned books. — KK
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
2026-01-26 00:00:00
TeamLab produces immersive destinations that are worth going out of your way to see. They began in Japan, where they have four huge installations that offer entertaining environments, using lights, mirrors, video, projectors and other media magic inside giant rooms. Our family spent an exhilarating 3 hours in the TeamLab Borderless site in Tokyo wandering through the mazes of experiences with constant smiles. It dazzled kids and elders. Even though TeamLab have become Instagram hot spots, and art snobs consider it too commercial, I would recommend making a trip to experience Borderless yourself. Go with friends, it’s more fun. — KK
Project CETI’s Listen to Whales website is an immersion into the codas and culture of cetaceans, inviting you to literally listen in on sperm whale family life and history. The project uses AI to listen to, decode, and translate sperm whale communication. I love how CETI reframes whales as cultural beings with their own clans, dialects, and stories, and has created this living platform to share what they’re learning in real time—and to inspire meaningful action to protect our oceans. — CD
I keep this Workpro 24-in-1 Multitool in a kitchen drawer for quick fixes so I don’t need to shlep down to the basement for my toolbox. It handles minor repairs: tightening a loose cabinet hinge, snipping a zip tie, prying open a battery compartment. The pliers are solid, the knife is sharp, and the Phillips and flathead screwdrivers cover 90% of household fasteners. Folds to about the size of a thick marker. Not a replacement for real tools, but perfect for “I just need to fix this one thing” moments. — MF
I’ve long been a big fan of Magna-Tiles, which are small plastic squares that act as parts of a construction system for kids. The tiles rely on magnetic edges to build things easily. You can build a million different things, like Lego, but it is much easier to do than Lego. Even toddlers can master them without boredom. They now make MicroMags, tiny compact versions of mini-Magna-Tiles, perfect for travel. A small set of MicroMags will fit into a slim box about the size of a standard book, and give restless kids enough options to occupy them for hours. Small enough to pack in luggage, but set out on a table, they invite playful engagement. — KK
The Correlation Experiment has you answer questions about everyday preferences so it can predict your answers based on data correlations. I don’t like being predictable, so I loved when its predictions went wrong—out of 60 questions, it missed about 20%. After a while, though, I was insulted by the misses: it pegged me as not an inbox zero person, guessed comedy over horror, and said I don’t make my bed first thing in the morning. No login needed, and it’s fun to play. — CD
Clever Cleaner is a free iPhone app — no ads, no subscriptions, no paywalled features. It scans your photo library for duplicates and similar shots, identifies large videos hogging space, and rounds up forgotten screenshots. A “Smart Cleanup” button lets AI select which duplicates to trash, or you can swipe through photos manually. All processing happens on-device, so your photos never leave your phone. It’s made by CleverFiles, the folks behind Disk Drill data recovery software. — MF
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2026-01-24 00:00:00
Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, When Things Fall Apart offers a counterintuitive approach to suffering: instead of running from pain, move toward it with friendliness and curiosity — and discover that groundlessness itself can become the foundation for an awakened life.
We spend enormous energy trying to find solid ground — security, certainty, permanence — but life is fundamentally groundless. Rather than fighting this truth, Pema teaches us to relax into uncertainty. Getting the knack of staying present with shakiness, a broken heart, or hopelessness without panicking is the path of true awakening.
Our instinct is to flee from painful situations, but nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. When we protect ourselves from pain, that protection becomes armor that imprisons the softness of the heart. The approach that brings lasting benefit involves becoming intimate with difficulty rather than avoiding it.
Before we can extend compassion to others, we must develop maitri — unconditional friendliness toward ourselves. This means having the courage and honesty to look at ourselves without aggression, accepting our fears, confusion, and imperfection as part of being human rather than evidence of failure.
We don’t need to wait for extraordinary circumstances to practice awakening. This very moment — with all its messiness, ordinariness, and discomfort — is the perfect teacher. Awakeness is found in our pleasure and our pain, our confusion and our wisdom, available right now in our weird, unfathomable, ordinary everyday lives.
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. We run away from it, but the same problem just waits for us wearing new names and new faces.”
2026-01-23 00:00:00
…is Bangkok once again. Hosting more than 30 million arrivals in 2025, Thailand’s capital was the most popular place to land. Next on the list were Hong Kong, London, Macau, and Istanbul. Paris, the #1 “most attractive city” on Euromonitor’s list was #9 in arrivals. See the details here.
RailEurope only gets a fraction of the total foreign train bookings on the continent, but it gets enough of them do that the company could release a whole 2025 wrap-up on US and Canadian travel there. Nice to see that more than half of visitors are picking multiple cities and adding smaller cities to the big and famous ones. Nevertheless, France was the number one market overall and this was shocking: “The Barcelona-Madrid corridor accounted for almost 50% of all revenue from Canadian and U.S. travellers.”
Experienced travelers may be fine with asking ChatGPT who won the best picture Oscar in 2019, but they’re not about to let the computer bots plan their vacation. Anyone who has asked an AI tool to recommend an itinerary for their own city quickly sees why, but this new report says, “Only 20 percent said they would feel comfortable letting AI design a complete trip itinerary based on their preferences.” A full 79 percent said they would feel uncomfortable letting “agentic AI” systems book their travel for them.
Until this year, admission prices for the archaeological sites in Mexico were a good value when compared to others around the world. That was until the national government doubled them all for foreigners this month. It will now cost you $38 to brave the tour bus crowds and vendors at Chichen Itza. Oddly, it will cost you the same amount to visit far less popular Ek Balam and $35 to visit ruins almost nobody goes to as it is, such as Sayil and Labna. The best bang for the buck is sprawling Teotihuacan near Mexico City, now looking like a deal at less than $12. Despite the doubling, that’s also the price for Monte Alban, Coba, and Palenque.
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
2026-01-22 00:00:00
Jan 14, 2026
I work managing creative teams for the online communication of brands and institutions across Italy and Spain, but mostly on the Internet. For over seven years, I have been writing nonostantement – a weekly Sunday newsletter, collecting the most interesting things I find online. — Joele Lucherini
“Not my business, not my problem.”
Every year, I choose a sentence to guide me in my work. This year it was this “mantra” I often had to repeat to avoid getting too involved in my clients’ company issues, especially when dealing with things I don’t control or am not responsible for.
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