Feathers: Displays of Brilliant Plumage
by Robert Clark
Chronicle Books
2016, 176 pages, 7.6 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches

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We live in a world of backgrounded miracles, entire worlds of wonder and beauty that we either can’t see or stopped noticing a long time ago. Look closely at the wings of a fly on your window sill, stare into a bisected piece of fruit, or look carefully at a growth of mold on a dish. Millions of such micro worlds surround us, breathtaking examples of design, engineering, and evolutionary artistry. When we bother to look.

Feathers is a photographic examination of one such overlooked natural wonder, the lowly bird feather. A single bird has thousands of feathers, of different types, and there are some ten-thousand species of birds. Feathers takes a broad view of the evolution of the bird and its feathers while focusing its lens on the plumage of 75 or so notable species. Each species gets a few pages, with one or two impressively photographed feather close-ups and a brief explanatory text.

This book reminded me a lot of Rose Lynn Fisher’s BEE (which I loved). Both books are minimal in content and feel, but that only helps to narrow and maintain your focus on the world under examination. The text in Feathers doesn’t try to tell you everything about the species of the bird and feather that you’re looking at, but the bits of fascinating science it does contain are probably far more memorable. Like BEE, I felt like I got to peer into a world I don’t normally see and came away greatly enriched by the experience. You can’t really ask for more from a book. – Gareth Branwyn

WARREN THE 13TH AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE: A NOVEL

Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye: A Novel
by Tania del Rio (author) and Will Staehle (illustrator)
Quirk Books
2015, 224 pages, 7.8 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches

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A gloomy, nine-story mansion, perched on a plateau in a desolate countryside. A trench-coated, top-hatted visitor stands in an illuminated doorway, a tiny, frog-faced boy dwarfed by this imposing figure, as he stands on a checkerboard-tiled floor, the scene ringed by an ornate, circular frame. Taking up two pages, his aunt and uncle sit at a very long dining room table. The boy’s aunt accuses him, a black word balloon contains the word “Liar!” in calligraphic script. The boy uses the reflection of an algae-filled basin to read the mysterious page of a handwritten journal, its letters written in ornate, backwards cursive.

Warren, a peculiar-looking child with a toad-like face and a luxurious head of hair, is the 13th descendent of the founder of the now-decrepit hotel where he lives with his lazy uncle and mean aunt. Hidden within the walls of the rundown hotel is the All-Seeing Eye, a mythical treasure. Rumors of its existence brings untold numbers of treasure hunters to his family’s hotel, including a mysterious lodger covered in bandages. The nine-story-high mansion begins to be ransacked by these new guests, its furniture toppled, its floorboards pulled up, its carpets unraveled, all in the search for the treasure. A pale spectral girl lurks in the hedge maze, and a strange tentacled creature dwells in the boiler room. Warren’s only friends are Chef Bunion, and his tutor, Mr. Friggs, but his circle of new friends begins to grow in unexpected ways. A colorful cast of characters include witches, pirates, ghosts, librarians, perfumiers, and chefs.

Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye is a lovely book with a foil-embossed cover, nearly every page containing red and black line engraved illustrations that look as though they were pulled from an antiquated reference book from a dusty library. “The ugly boy with the big heart and beautiful hair” meets several intriguing characters, who often aren’t what they appear, and navigates a compelling storyline, strewn with puzzles and clues. Ominous black pages hint at arcane goings-on, and they’re topped with backward, spell-like chapter headings. As the plot twists and turns, descriptive passages weave an atmosphere filled with the scents and flavors of zesty beef goulash, the feelings of dread, excitement, loneliness, and ultimately triumph. It’s a delightful page-turner. – S. Deathrage

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.