Short Life in a Strange World: Birth to Death in 42 Panels

A 42-year-old writer looks at his young sons, considers the recent death of his 84-year-old father, and tries to make sense of it all in the only natural way: by undertaking a round-the-world quest to see the 42 existing paintings by one of the greatest masters of the Northern Renaissance, Bruegel the Elder. The book that results from this whimsical impulse is a gorgeous object and an even lovelier read, both an account of a physical journey and a tracing of a curious mind at play. —James (also from the Madison Books newsletter)