Harry Potter: The Wand Collection
Hardcover
By Monique Peterson
Publisher: Insight Editions
Release date: November 14, 2017

“Every wand has a story of its own,” author Monique Peterson begins in her new book, Harry Potter: The Wand Collection. Admittedly, I’m hooked almost immediately. Still, I am not always one for the many informational index-style books published as part of the Harry Potter world. I like stories, depth, nostalgia in my Harry Potter books.

But Peterson does not disappoint, as this book is as visually appealing and easy to flip through as it is meaningful. There is certainly value added in the background information provided, which covers wand characteristics, the wandmakers, Ollivander, wand selection and Harry’s first wand, wand movement, and wand battles.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Official Grimoire: A Magickal History of Sunnydale
Hardcover
By A.M. Robinson, Willow Rosenberg
Publisher: Insight Editions
Release Date: October 24, 2017

It’s been only five months since Buffy sacrificed herself to save the world. For five months we’ve wondered if the person who should be here, smiling and laughing and punning in a non-Buffybot way that actually makes sense, is instead suffering in an unimaginable hell dimension. Willow Rosenberg… October 2, 2001

Willow Rosenberg, the witchy brain of the Scooby gang, started chronicling her adventures from around the time Buffy went away, distraught over killing Angel (so beginning of season 3), to her last entry about the “spell to share the power of the chosen one” in season 7. Willow weaves her humor and language (I dub Buffy-speak) to give us her point of view of Oz, meeting Tara, The Gentlemen, Adam, and Tabula Rasa.

More below on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Official Grimoire: A Magickal History of Sunnydale by Willow Rosenberg aka A.M. Robinson.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel’s Spacefaring Super Heroes: The Complete Comics History
Hardcover
Written by Mark Sumerak
Publisher: Insight Editions Insight Editions
Release Date: April 4, 2017

With this week seeing the release of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 in theaters, it seems prudent that I throw a little love towards the franchise by presenting to you Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel’s Spacefaring Super Heroes: The Complete Comics History.

With almost fifty years of history to draw from this oversized, nay…massive tome explores the various incarnations of the rag-tag universe-saving group of misfits that seem to have finally gotten the love and respect they’ve deserved for decades.

The Vampire Diaries Hardcover Ruled Journal
Insights Journals
Hardcover
Publisher: Insights Editions
Released date: April 4, 2017

“Dear diary, today will be different. It has to be. I will smile, and it will be believable. My smile will say ‘I’m fine, thank you.’ ‘Yes, I feel much better.’ I will no longer be the sad little girl who lost her parents. I will start fresh, be someone new. It’s the only way I’ll make it through.”

Some of the first words of the pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries, so full of hope, was an emergence from grief for a young girl about to meet not one, but the two loves of her life.

Now you too can write down your innermost thoughts in The Vampire Diaries Hardcover Ruled Journal by Insight Editions.

More below.

Go Ahead, Make My Drink
60 Recipes Inspired By the Best of Film and Television
Hardcover
Written by Anthony Marinese
Illustrated by Horacio Cassinelli
Publisher: Insight Editions
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
Cover Price: $19.99

Whenever we have a party at my house, we always pick a “signature” drink to make, as if we’re hosting some kind of David Tutera-coordinated extravaganza. I’m constantly scouring the Internet for movie- and TV-themed drink inspirations, which is why Go Ahead, Make My Drink: 60 Recipes Inspired By the Best of Film and Television by Anthony Marinese was a book I was 100 percent interested in checking out.

This 144-page full-color hardcover recipe book from Insight Editions was even cooler than I expected, mainly because a lot of the properties they selected are ones I’m into — Star Trek, Star Wars and the like — but it’s also illustrated! Each drink has its recipe with instructions, accompanied by explanatory text on its inspiration, a photograph of the prepared item, and an adorable full-color illustration by Horacio Cassinelli either of the drink alone or of the beverage with something from the film/TV show, such as a character or prop.