For December, we have 13 new bookseller catalogues to review. Perhaps in keeping with the season, gift-giving for friends and family with varied tastes, we have a few more catalogues with a variety of offerings than usual. You can call them a variety or a miscellany, but what you can't easily do is categorize them. Falling into this group are the latest collections from Raptis Rare Books, Honey & Wax Booksellers, Whitmore Rare Books, and Respess Rare Books. Perhaps they lean somewhat to what we might expect, literature from Whitmore, well-known classics from Raptis, the artistic and eclectic from Honey & Wax, but there is too much outside of what we might expect to try to define this group.

 

As for the others, Lorne Bair Rare Books focuses on material related to radical causes. Less political, but often appealing to a similar audience, Brian Cassidy Bookseller offers countercultural material, along with some that's more plain cultural. Even less political, but artistic and beautiful, are the works offered by The Veatchs Arts of the Book. Shapero Rare Books crosses cultures with this one, entitled "Polyglossia," which refers to multiple languages.

 

Langdon Manor Books features American personal narratives. The William Reese Company focuses on the "Best of the West," the American West, that is. Not so of Hordern House, which has a catalogue simply titled "Australia." Peter Harrington covers them all with a catalogue of travel books. Finally, Aleph-Bet Books has items that no one can resist – a selection of children's books and ephemera.

 

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