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Art & Culture

Culture and art is many things and at Tales you find a wide selection of art and culture books. If you enjoy a trip to the museum or an evening at the theatre this is the place for you. If you are more into architecture or a well written song, fear not you also find books about that. Lastly design and fashion is also part of our art and culture selection, so what are you waiting for? Set your inner creativity free and get inspired by some of the world’s best artists, musicians, designers or architects.
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  • Save 10%
    by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston
    £8.99 - 18.99

  • Save 24%
     
    £18.99

    This commemorative portfolio displays all the 100 pictures awarded in the 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, together with the stories of what they reveal and how they were created. Representing the work of photographers worldwide, they illustrate both the beauty and drama of the natural world and our conflicted relationship with it. Chosen by an international panel of judges from around 50,000 entries, the images are the work of photographers from dozens of countries and represent a worldwide range of styles and ways of seeing nature. You will find a rich variety of subjects, from wild regions, remarkable behaviour and portraits of creatures you may never have seen before, to reportage of vitally important ethical and environmental issues. Adding depth are the background stories - not just about how the pictures were made and the equipment used but also information about the subjects and why the photographers chose them.

  • Save 29%
    by Dominic Bradbury
    £35.49

  • Save 20%
    by Julianna Margulies
    £11.99

  • by Bob Ross
    £9.49

  • Save 17%
    by Catana Chetwynd
    £9.99

    #1 New York Times bestselling author and creator Catana Chetwynd's latest collection of comics illustrates the moments a relationship "levels up" and all the intimate, special, and amusing adventures those milestones entail.

  • Save 23%
    by David Bowie
    £34.49

  • Save 12%
    by Claudia Goldin
    £14.99 - 18.99

    A renowned economic historian traces women's journey to close the gender wage gap and sheds new light on the continued struggle to achieve equity between couples at homeA century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. This book traces how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family as the twentieth century experienced a sea change in gender equality, revealing why true equity for dual career couples remains frustratingly out of reach.Drawing on decades of her own groundbreaking research, Claudia Goldin provides a fresh, in-depth look at the diverse experiences of college-educated women from the 1900s to today, examining the aspirations they formed-and the barriers they faced-in terms of career, job, marriage, and children. She shows how many professions are "e;greedy,"e; paying disproportionately more for long hours and weekend work, and how this perpetuates disparities between women and men. Goldin demonstrates how the era of COVID-19 has severely hindered women's advancement, yet how the growth of remote and flexible work may be the pandemic's silver lining.Antidiscrimination laws and unbiased managers, while valuable, are not enough. Career and Family explains why we must make fundamental changes to the way we work and how we value caregiving if we are ever to achieve gender equality and couple equity.

  • Save 10%
    by Adalyn Grace
    £8.99

    A girl confronts Death - and her own deathly powers - to solve a murder in this Gothic-infused, romantic young adult fantasy.

  • Save 10%
    by Lexi Ryan
    £8.99 - 13.49

  • Save 15%
    by Jennifer Higgie
    £10.99

  • Save 23%
    by MIXMAG
    £15.49

    Travel the world exploring the cities that have influenced dance music and DJ culture and discovering the cutting-edge scenes taking club culture in new directions.Featuring incredible photography, insider recommendations, and some of the biggest names in dance music, Destination Dancefloor reveals how DJ culture swept the globe and 40 cities where you can immerse yourself in the best electronic music culture has to offer.Whether you want to know more about the start of house music in Chicago, the club that started Berlin on the road to becoming the global epicentre of club culture, the French Touch scene in Paris that influenced the early years of Daft Punk, why Ibiza became the world's summer party destination of choice, or are looking for new destinations to add to your own clubbing bucket list, this unique book leans on Mixmag's position and expertise as one of the foremost names in club culture to present an overview of global dance music, making it a must-read for all clubbers, past, present, and future. See you on the dancefloor.

  • Save 21%
    - Functional and Sculptural Projects for the Home Potter
    by Sunshine Cobb
    £14.99

    The Beginner's Guide to Hand Building is a friendly, contemporary take on the classic hand-building book-perfect for new and returning ceramic artists.

  • Save 23%
    - Living Life Through the Dead
    by Zak Bagans
    £16.99

    Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans has travelled all over the world, but this book brings us closer to home as he investigates the demons of his own house. Come along for the ride.

  • Save 19%
    - Simple painting projects for beginners, to calm, soothe and inspire
    by Sharone (Author) Stevens
    £12.99

    Learn to use watercolor to soothe your soul with this beginner's guide to painting for relaxation. Many watercolor books focus on the result of your painting, but this approach looks at the process of painting as a means to de-stress, with easy exercises for absolute beginners. The aim is to create art that relaxes both the artist and the viewer.

  • Save 20%
    - Finding your artistic voice
    by Lois van Baarle
    £23.99

    Loish’s previous books with 3dtotal Publishing include bestselling The Art of Loish (2016) and The Sketch Book of Loish (2018) which to date have combined sales of 85,000 copies worldwide. Loish is published exclusively by 3dtotal Publishing. The first two books have amassed hundreds of 5-star Amazon reviews that give this new title instant pedigree. Loish has a vast and highly engaged worldwide audience online, including 2.3 million Instagram followers. Loish’s accessible style is popular with professional and student artists, hobbyists, and art-lovers working in both traditional and digital mediums. Exercises, tutorials, and step-by-step breakdowns specially written for this book by Lois herself give the book life beyond the art itself. The attractive presentation and high-quality finish of the book make it an ideal gift or addition to coffee table collections. 3dtotal Publishing is a highly respected publishing house in the art book industry, and has been working with Loish since 2016 to establish a strong relationship that is successful both creatively and commercially both parties.

  • - Lessons on Self-Mastery from Music to Life
    by Kenny Werner
    £21.49

  • Save 29%
    by Roxana Marcoci
    £31.99

  • Save 27%
    by Eiichiro Oda
    £23.99

    Gorgeous color art from Eiichiro Oda's One Piece! Volumes 7, 8, and 9 of the Color Walk art books are collected into one beautiful compendium.

  • - Politics for a Post-Pandemic World
    by Benjamin Bratton
    £9.49

    The future of politics after the pandemic

  • Save 14%
    by The Kao
    £9.49

    A breathtakingly imaginative fantasy series starring Max - a trans high school student who has to save the world as a Magical Girl ... as a boy.

  • - The Greatest Civilization Ever Erased From History
    by James W Lee
    £25.49

  • Save 15%
    - The Hidden History of the Material World
    by Victoria Finlay
    £10.99

  • Save 24%
    by Julie Adair (Indianapolis King
    £18.99

    Say cheese! Explore this beginner-friendly guide to digital photography with the Nikon Z fc cameraWith a design that looks like an old-school film camera, the Nikon Z fc makes photographers want to grab this very-modern model off the shelf and start taking photos. But if you really want to set your pictures apart from the average snapshot, you need Nikon Z fc For Dummies.This book takes you on a comprehensive and user-friendly tour of the Nikon Z fc camera, its settings, and all of its automatic and manual options. You'll learn how to control exposure, take advantage of advanced focusing options, fix color problems, and get the best image quality.You'll also get:* Accessible instruction on tried and tested photography techniques* Instruction on how to adjust color and exposure settings* Strategies for when to use your camera's auto options to when to take full control of settingsIdeal for anyone who wants to get the most out of their Nikon Z fc camera, Nikon Z fc For Dummies covers the photography basics you need to understand to take fantastic pictures along with how to apply those techniques to the Nikon Z fc.

  • - A complete guide to designing and building a container home
    by Anthony Hill
    £12.49 - 18.99

  • Save 29%
    by Raymond Pettibon
    £31.99

    "All this must be either surfed or painted": This is the underlying sentiment behind Raymond Pettibon's iconic works of surfers and waves in this quintessential volume dedicated to the motif.Pettibon is known for his characteristically enigmatic aesthetic and sharply satirical critiques of American culture. Though drenched in cynicism, his work empathizes with the dizzying madness of our own humanity as it engages both so-called high and low culture. Perhaps most poetic among the many motifs present in Pettibon's oeuvre is the surfer. In 1985, Pettibon began his series of surfers and waves--which he continues to work on to this day--popular for depicting a lone surfer silently carving "a line of beauty" along an impossibly large wave. This book spotlights a selection of more than one hundred surfers from the series, from smaller monochromatic works on paper to colorful large-scale paintings applied directly to the wall. For Pettibon's protagonist in these works, surfing exists apart from all else. Momentarily he achieves sublimity on the wave, distant yet synced with turbulent reality. We are forced to confront our own scale: small and feeble in the face of the power of nature, what is beyond our control. Pettibon's lyrical writings on these painted surfaces-both his own and lines taken from literature-reference his own philosophies and the confusions of reality: he critiques and highlights the hypocrisies and vanities of the world he engages. To help navigate, the scholar Brian Lukacher explores art-historical antecedents in Pettibon's work, particularly the seascapes of J. M. W. Turner, and Jamie Brisick, the writer and former professional surfer, examines the Southern California surf and music culture of Pettibon's youth. Professional big wave surfers Emi Erickson and Stephanie Gilmore also describe the sensory experience of conquering the enormous waves depicted in Pettibon's works.

  • Save 27%
    - Painting Reconfigured
    by Simon Baker
    £25.49

    The definitive monograph on the iconoclastic painter George Condo.

Culture
What defines culture you might ask? The answer is culture is what defines you. It is what makes us humans human and differentiate us from all other species on the planet. Art and culture is what we share with others, whether it is so called high culture or pop culture. High culture is typically associated with the ‘finer’, classical art forms such as opera, classical music, visual art, ballet and plays. Works that often have a certain age and artistic acknowledgement begin it, but fine culture is also sometimes seen as “high-brow” and not something everyone can understand and that’s sad, because culture and cultural books are for everyone no matter the kind. On the other end of the spectrum we have pop culture that typically is associated with more modern, popular and mainstream forms of culture. It can be pop music, cartoons or big blockbuster movies. We have cultural books from each side of the spectrum, but the best thing is that a change between the two concepts is coming and people are more open about mixing high culture and pop culture, because they are not that different at all. The most important thing about culture is that it connects us and is part of who we are. It can create communities and friendships, but also let us reflect upon ourselves. You can get wiser on that topic in some of our selection’s culture books. 

Art
In our selection you find some of the finest art books featuring some of the greatest artists in history and now. Art is a very important part of our culture. In art you have the possibility of getting engrossed in a wonderful painting, a provocative sculpture, a brilliant play or a beautiful ballet. 
In art you can get lost in the most wonderful stories and themes and identify yourself with someone who doesn’t necessarily look and act like you. By experiencing that you improve your ability of empathy. At the same time you can learn about yourself through art and art books especially when it comes to feelings that can be difficult to describe. In art the themes and problematics are universal and that’s why we feel recognized when experiencing a play, listening to a symphony, studying a great painting or reading a good art book. The art books are best enjoyed in a relaxed setting giving the art room to speak. 
Another beautiful thing about art is that it needs interpretation. When a person meets a well painted painting, a classical sculpture, or a provocative installation it makes us reflect about what it means, and what the art will tell us about society, life or yourself. Everyone can get something different out of a good artwork, because it speaks directly to you and functions as a dialog, where you will have to finish the sentence with your interpretation taking our own life and experiences into the artwork.
We also have a lot of artist books. One of the most talented and popular artists right now are the world famous Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi. Hammershøi has a very significant way of painting giving voice to the melankolic side of the world and of us humans. The painter is famous for his artworks of especially white doors in his apartment in Copenhagen. In the paintings Hammershøi plays with light and shadow in a brilliant way giving room to both sides, which also could be seen as a reflection of life that contains both. The motive also makes the art watcher wonder what is on the other side of the doors or corridors making them compose a continuation of the painting. You can read about Hammershøi in an European context in the artist book Hammershoi and Europe

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