Few life skills are as neglected, yet as important, as the ability to remain calm. Our very worst decisions and interactions are almost invariably the result of a loss of calm – and a descent into anxiety and agitation. Surprisingly, but very fortunately, our power to remain calm can be rehearsed and improved.⁠ ⁠ The School of Life focuses on psychological education by explaining difficult emotional and psychological patterns and often breaking them down into helpful advice. It was founded by the philosopher Alain de Botton. Buy

Meantime's design never fails to make us laugh! The last issue looked like someone had taken a bite out of it, this one looks like it is sinking into our shelves...⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ They keep pushing the boundaries of what we expect a magazine to look like. And they clearly have fun doing it. Absolutely in love!⁠⁠ Buy

A pidgin language is a grammatically simplified means of communication that normally develops between people that do not have a language in common. It is built from words, sounds, or are an onomatopoeia. Typically its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. So it is not the native language of any speech community, but a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people.⁠ ⁠ In this compelling book, renowned museum director, curator and author Dr Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung proposes that pidgin languages and pidginisation as a way of being and doing offer a decolonised reinvention of communicative practices - a space where the boundaries between disciplines of knowledge fall and socio-political, economic, ethical and spiritual concepts and issues are renegotiated. Written as a series of engaging anecdotes, the book grounds its provocative ideas in personal, cultural and political histories of challenge and improvisation, arguing, as Ndikung writes, that 'pidginised curating is curating that combines works, ideas, practices and languages in resistance to canonical conventions, cultural stasis, ossified practices, dead rhythms and singular forms'. Buy

In 1987, more than 30 of the era’s most acclaimed artists – including Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, and Keith Haring – designed unique and fully operational fairground attractions for the first-ever art amusement park.⁠ ⁠ Initiated by Austrian Artist André Heller and set on the outskirts of Hamburg, Luna Luna was a lively fantasyland of once in a lifetime artworks. You could ride a carousel by Keith Hering, Jean-Michel Basquiat's Ferris wheel and glide through David Hockney's geometric forrest pavilion.⁠ ⁠ But the summer of 1987 came to an end - and so did Luna Luna. What was meant to become a global travelling show became the art history's best kept secret.⁠ Buy

Mexican artist Damián Ortega has constructed one hundred masks from everyday materials. Made from bottle caps, bits of string, tortillas, pumpkin skins, cactus leaves and coins, this strange gang of characters has a distinctly Mexican aesthetic. Whether it is the use of local Mexican materials or the resemblance to the masks of Los Luchadores, the Mexican wrestlers, this paranormal masquerade will put a smile upon your face.⁠ ⁠ Buy

Welcome to the fascinating E-1027, the modernist escape designed by Eileen Gray at the Côte d'Azur. No other house embodies architecture and design history, intimacy, shared creativity, and even toxic masculinity quite like E-1027.⁠ ⁠ The name E-1027 is a code created by Gray and her lover, Jean Badovici. The 'E' stands for Eileen, '10' for Jean, '2' for Badovici, and '7' for Gray. It was their way of showing their relationship as lovers. The flat-roofed modernist masterpiece is the built embodiment of that love, but shortly after its completion, the couple split. However, the end of their relationship was not the end of the story of this house.⁠ ⁠ Badovici was a close friend of Le Corbusier and invited him to the house on several occasions. One summer, Le Corbusier painted all over the flat white modernist walls, sometimes in the nude. The murals infuriated Gray, who saw them as outright vandalism. And many art historians agree and view Le Corbusier's actions as a demonstration of domination, akin to a dog marking its territory. It is believed that Le Corbusier was jealous of the masterpiece, especially because it was designed by a woman. The house became an obsession of his, he even tried to purchase it many times but failed. ⁠ ⁠ It's impossible to identify the exact individual contributions of Gray or Badovici to this iconic piece of architecture. But for years, it was believed that Badovici was the sole mastermind, and some even thought that Le Corbusier had designed the house. A woman clearly could have not created such an archetype of modernist architecture, so the believe. So this house, meant to be a lovers' hideaway, became a great example of misogyny in architecture and society.⁠ ⁠ Jürgen Beck’s photographs of the house in "Sun Breakers" capture the original concept of the house. Its intimacy, its expression of openness, its flexible structure to accommodate the rhythm of the days. He captures the overgrown paths that take him to the house, sun drenched walls and leafy shadows. Beck directs our eye to Gray's design that takes into consideration people’s emotional needs.⁠ ⁠ In the words of Eileen Gray, "Formulas are nothing; life is everything." ⁠ Buy

Typologie, a captivating collection of design books that delve into the essence of everyday objects, has just released its fourth issue, and it's all about the humble wooden crate. We often encounter crates at outdoor markets. Stacked up like scaffolding and laid out on stalls, they are used to transport and display fruits and vegetables. Our eyes wander from leeks to turnips, while we tend to overlook these simple yet ingenious objects: a few slats of poplar wood, stapled together in perfect efficiency and function. Although this classic design has been around for over sixty years, its principle has remained more or less unchanged.⁠ ⁠ Partnering with The Vitra Design Museum, Typologie showcases 45 striking photographs printed in bichromie, 30 colorful illustrations, a thought-provoking text by Alexandre D'Orsetti, and a fascinating interview featuring Philippe Weisbecker, a French artist, Pierre Cornu, a historian, and Jean-Luc Baley, the director of a wooden crate factory. This issue meticulously inventories the crate's various shapes, manufacturing process, and history, bringing to life the enduring relevance of this often-overlooked object. If you're curious about the world around you and love thoughtful design, you won't want to miss Typologie's latest issue. Buy

Intimate and raw, tender and diamond-sharp - in both observation and style - this novel is about the intersection of two life phases and a reminder that the past lingers in the present, whether we want it to or not:⁠ ⁠ Asta is invited to a memorial. It’s been ten years since her university friend August died. The invitation disrupts everything – the novel she is working on and her friendship with Mai and her two-year-old son – reanimating longings, doubts, and the ghosts of parties past. Soon a new story begins to take shape. Not of the obscure Polish sculptor Asta wanted to write about, but of what really happened the night of August’s death, and in the stolen, exuberant days leading up to it. The story she has never dared reveal to Mai.⁠ ⁠ Moving between Asta’s past and present, Memorial, 29 June is a novel about who we really are, and who we thought we would become. It’s a novel about the intensity with which we experience the world in our twenties, and how our ambitions, anxieties, and memories from that time never relinquish their grasp on how we encounter our future.⁠ ⁠ In prose that shimmers like poetry, masterfully translated by Misha Hoekstra, Memorial, 29 June is an urgent yet tender reminder that sometimes pain is where the love is, and that grief, however thorny, should never go unspoken. Buy

Who doesn't like lying on their back, gazing up at the summer night sky and looking for the star formations they know. Telling each other the tragic story of how the big bear and the little bear found their place in the firmament.⁠ ⁠ This book is nothing less than a new map reinterpreting the celestial sphere with 35 new star patterns. ⁠ ⁠ Much like the 88 constellations that make up the officially recognised map of the celestial sphere, this new one is composed of recognisable shapes that reference people, animals and inanimate objects, expanding across the sky. In the tradition of Hellenistic astrology, each asterism* is based on viewable celestial formations and references our continuous hope in the stars. All star formations have been complemented with a modern myth, each based on a verifiable certainty (i.e. a fact) that addresses modern concerns.⁠ Buy

A humorous tribute to Matteo Thun, one of Italy’s most distinguished designers and architects, and his work. In the summer of 2009, Swiss artist Walter Pfeiffer made an extensive trip from Zurich to the Italian island of Capri, taking shots of some fifty of Thun’s design objects en route. Yet, rather than doing a mere documentation of these items, Pfeiffer created highly lively “tableaux vivants.” The artist was accompanied on his journey by Thun’s two then teenage sons, who thus form the main visual narrative of the book and appear in many pictures together with their father’s creations. A brief introduction by Matteo Thun’s wife Susanne and an index of the depicted design gems round out this extraordinary and entertaining visual travelogue. Buy

On the surface of a red-figure Attica vase, some thousands years ago, an inscription reading “ο Παῖς Καλός” had been engraved. Translating as The Boy Is Beautiful this intricate detail transforms a common vessel into a declaration of homoerotic affection; echoing the sexual liberation of a bygone era.⁠ ⁠ The Boy Is Beautiful is a biannual magazine but also an invitation to unravel the thread of queer Greek chronicles, from myth and history, to contemporary life. It’s a quest to figure out what happened between the time of Zeus and Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinth, Achilles and Patroclus, the Band of Thebes and the Lesbian Sappho, Harmodius and Aristogeiton and my fascist, sexist, homophobic school mates, Thursdays’ straightwashed history lessons and Symposium-less Plato.⁠ ⁠ The new issue of The Boy is Beautiful just arrived in our store and online shop - and we couldn't be more excited!⁠ Buy

Kein Morgen (No Tomorrow) brings together photographs of parties, raves and afterhour clubs of the early 1990s. The faces captured by photographer Werner Amann reflect the ecstasy of a moment of departure, a glimmer of autonomy and freedom. The pictures were taken in Berlin, Frankfurt, Dortmund, New York, Zurich, Paris and Riccione, in clubs such as Omen, Tresor, E-Werk, Limelight, Tunnel and Sound Factory as well as at raves such as Mayday and the Berlin Love Parade. Short texts by Leif Randt look back on this time from today's perspective, a quarter of a century later. What remains is the feeling of a historic moment of understanding and solidarity.⁠ Buy