A New Wine Bible

The Wine Bible, Revised Second Edition, by Karen MacNeil (2015, Workman Publishing, $24.95, 996 pp.)

Napa’s Karen McNeil releases a second edition to her massive resource guide to everything wine.

The Wine Bible, Revised Second Edition, by Karen MacNeil (2015, Workman Publishing, $24.95, 996 pp.)

Brush up on your wine knowledge by thumbing through this voluminous yet practical bible on all things wine. This is an updated edition of Karen MacNeil’s opus on viniculture. The Napa-based, James Beard Award-winning writer tasted more than 10,000 wines over four years to turn out this new reference guide that delves deeply into the wines of 20 countries. Fourteen American states made the cut, with California getting mega attention for the regions of Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Mendocino, The Sierra Foothills, the North Central Coast, the Livermore Valley, Paso Robles and York Mountains, and the South Central Coast. Add this one to your reference bookshelf.

The Grandparent Economy: How Baby Boomers Are Bridging the Generation Gap by Lori K. Bitter (Paramount Market Publishing, 2015, $34.95, 138 pp.)

Mature consumer market maven Lori K. Bitter, an Alameda resident, was raised by her grandparents and uses her personal narrative as the segue into the economics of modern grandparenting. Her book is full of graphs, charts, and case studies that together offer a complete picture of this growing sector, the weight it wields, and how better to market toward it. She is gung-ho about harnessing the spending power of those whose lives are expected to lengthen, a conundrum that she says must be resolved with ethical discussions on aging and by establishing relevant policy for elders.

Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me from Myself by Julie Barton (Think Piece Publishing, 2015, $14.95, 234 pp.)

Animals are masters at helping humans through depression, and that is exactly what Piedmont author Julie Barton found in her beloved Bunker, a golden retriever she adopted when she was at her lowest, a distraught 22-year-old bent on suicide. The exuberant pup’s arrival set her on a healing path that she recounts in her memoir, one full of enriching instances of love, loyalty, and devotion that each being—dog and human—felt toward and extend to the other. The publisher is donating 5 percent of first-year sales to Wonder Dog Rescue in San Francisco.