Music & Books

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Chapters & Verse

Words, pictures and sounds to expand your mind

STYLE GUIDE

Angelika Taschen and Pep Escoda
Barcelona Restaurants & More

When did coffee-table books start turning into travel guides? We reckon HIP Hotels in 1999 began the trend for arty volumes, covering everything from New York boutique hotels to Chinese retreats. But Taschen’s & More series, including Barcelona (above) deserves a special mention, for its innovative design and uncanny knack for tracking down out-of-the-way places.

Now Playing

Dimitri From Paris
Return to the Playboy Mansion

The Parisian soul and house DJ and the US magazine empire make for a surprisingly successful combination. When, in 2000, Dimitri first put together a mix CD for Playboy, few people expected it to sell many copies. Yet his initial compilation, A Night at the Playboy Mansion, has shifted just under 400,000 and morphed into a rather chic series. His new CD (above) includes disco gems, jazzy house numbers and downtempo bedroom tunes, all of which would add a little “ooh la la” to any continental break.

ROAST CHICKS

J.J. Salem
Tan Lines

This wonderfully trashy beach read follows the misdeeds of Liza, Kellyanne and Billie, a trio of fame-hungry girls, who soon learn about the darker side of success. Perfect for your summer getaway, it’s packed with sex, glamour and girl-pal fallouts, and is sure to be all over the sun loungers in a few months’ time.

MISS GUIDED

Will Ashon
The Heritage

London writer Will Ashon’s second novel tells the story of Tilly, a well-to-do girl who is sent accidentally to a Young Offenders Institution, where she befriends a genuine delinquent, Sadie. Their life on the outside mixes DNA testing, alcopops and petty crime, rendering England’s low lives’ high life with heartbreaking accuracy.

Travellers’ Tales :

Venice, 1745

“We would very often spend the whole night rambling about the city, inventing and carrying into execution the most impertinent practical jokes. One of our favourite pleasures was to unmoor the patricians’ gondolas, and to let them float at random along the canals, enjoying by anticipation all the curses that gondoliers would not fail to indulge in. We would rouse up hurriedly, in the middle of the night, an honest midwife, telling her to hasten to Madame So-and-so, who, not being even pregnant, was sure to tell her she was a fool when she called at the house.”
THE MEMOIRS OF GIACOMO CASANOVA