The New York Times Book Review — June 18, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – JUNE 18, 2023: Stephen King reviews of S. A. Cosby’s blistering new Southern gothic, “All the Sinners Bleed,” which graces our cover this week. Also featured are  John Vaillant’s chillingly prescient book about a 2016 Canadian wildfirea history that pieces together a botany expedition in the Grand Canyon some 85 years ago; and the spiky, percussive, heavy-metal-infused novel “Gone to the Wolves.

In This Thriller, the Psycho Killers Have a Southern Drawl

This illustration shows a sheriff on a dark rural street, one hand on the grip of his holstered pistol and the other hand shining a flashlight into the woods. Out of his line of sight, the silhouette of a man in a wolf mask lurks behind a tree, watching ominously.

Stephen King reviews S.A. Cosby’s latest novel, “All the Sinners Bleed.”

Titus Crown is an ex-F.B.I. agent who gets a sheriff’s job, almost by accident, in a rural Virginia community. He’s Black. Mr. Spearman teaches geography and wears a coat of many countries on Earth Day. He’s white. Given the name of the town and county where these two live — Charon — one can expect bad things to happen, and they certainly do. As in S.A. Cosby’s previous two novels, “Blacktop Wasteland” and “Razorblade Tears,” the body count is high and the action pretty much nonstop.

They Overcame Hazards — and Doubters — to Make Botanical History

In a black-and-white photograph from 1938, two women and four men sit in a boat looking at the camera. One woman wears a white dress and hat; the other wears slacks and a blouse. Three of the men are shirtless; two wear pith helmets.

In Melissa Sevigny’s “Brave the Wild River,” we meet the two scientists who explored unknown terrain — and broke barriers.

Let’s start this story on a sun-blistered evening in August 1938. A small band of adventurers had just concluded a 43-day journey from Utah to Nevada — although perhaps “journey” is too tame a description for a trip that had required weeks of small wooden boats tumbling down more than 600 miles of rock-strewn rivers. The goal was twofold. First, to simply survive. And then, to chart the plants building homes along the serrated walls of the Grand Canyon.

Travel Guide: The 12 Best Places To Visit In Colombia

touropia (June 16, 2023) – Colombia, officially Republic of Colombia,  country of northwestern  South America. Its 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of coast to the north are bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and its 800 miles (1,300 km) of coast to the west are washed by the Pacific Ocean.

Colombia

The country is bordered by Panama, which divides the two bodies of water, on the northwest, by Venezuela and Brazil on the east, and by Peru  and  Ecuador  on the south. It is more than twice the size of France and includes the San Andrés y Providencia archipelago, located off the Nicaraguan coast in the Caribbean, some 400 miles (650 km) northwest of the Colombian mainland. The population is largely concentrated in the mountainous interior, where Bogotá, the national capital, is situated on a high plateau in the northern Andes Mountains.

The only American nation that is named for Christopher Columbus, the “discoverer” of the New World, Colombia presents a remarkable study in contrasts, in both its geography and its society. The lofty snow-tipped peaks of the country’s interior cordilleras tower high above equatorial forests and savannas where surviving indigenous groups still follow the lifeways and traditions of their ancestors. In the cooler mountains, at intermediate elevations, modern cities are juxtaposed with traditional rural landscapes where mestizo farmers cultivate their small plots of coffee, corn (maize), and other crops. The more accessible Atlantic lowlands, dominated by large livestock haciendas and a tri-ethnic population, have a distinctively different character.

Design: A Tour Of Moore House In Los Angeles

The Local Project (June 16, 2023) – Though Moore House was originally designed by Craig Ellwood in 1965, the newly restored house by Woods + Dangaran is a respectful design that enhances its rich history for both the owners and the wider Los Angeles architectural community.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Magical Restored House 00:30 – The Clients Simple Goals 00:43 – The History of Mid-Century Tropical Modernism 01:05 – The Restoration Process 01:46 – Designing Inline with Craig Ellwood’s Style 02:34 – Playing on High Contrast and Linking Spaces 03:32 – Background Architecture 03:53 – The Advantage of Hillside Properties 04:22 – Interesting Features of the Home 04:44 – Respecting the History 05:00 – Preservation and Timeless Design

However, once owned by a local band that left it in disrepair, the home needed a complete renovation of both exterior and interior design. Tasked with this challenge, Woods + Dangaran has infused contemporary design methods that restore the midcentury home’s character in a modern light. As the architect and interior designer, Woods + Dangaran were able to save the home through a thoughtful and delicate renovation.

From the street, the finished design of the restored house appears above the carport and unfolds in a rectangular form, where the majority of the original structural and interior elements have been kept. Throughout the restored house, two of the main kept character elements are seen in the two bookends of the original home. The first bookend holds the new fireplace, which is maintained in both its original proportion and location and modernised with a patinaed brass that wraps around it.

Preview: New York Times Magazine – June 18, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (June 16, 2023) – Three young Iranian women share their diaries; plus, a profile of the YouTube superstar MrBeast; and inside the moral crisis of America’s doctors.

The Moral Crisis of America’s Doctors

A black-and-white photograph of Keith Corl in scrubs.

The corporatization of health care has changed the practice of medicine, causing many physicians to feel alienated from their work.

By Eyal Press

Some years ago, a psychiatrist named Wendy Dean read an article about a physician who died by suicide. Such deaths were distressingly common, she discovered. The suicide rate among doctors appeared to be even higher than the rate among active military members, a notion that startled Dean, who was then working as an administrator at a U.S. Army medical research center in Maryland. Dean started asking the physicians she knew how they felt about their jobs, and many of them confided that they were struggling. Some complained that they didn’t have enough time to talk to their patients because they were too busy filling out electronic medical records. 

How MrBeast Became the Willy Wonka of YouTube

An illustration of MrBeast, surrounded by amazed faces and stacks of cash.

Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, has become a viral sensation for his absurd acts of altruism. Why do so many people think he’s evil?

Even within this context, Donaldson stands out for his dedication to understanding how YouTube works. For most of his teenage years, “I woke up, I studied YouTube, I studied videos, I studied filmmaking, I went to bed and that was my life,” Donaldson once told Bloomberg. “I hardly had any friends because I was so obsessed with YouTube,” he said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year.

News: Peace Mission From Africa, Rural France Plan, Brussels Urban Summit

The Globalist Podcast, Friday, June 16, 2023: We give you the latest as African leaders begin their peace mission in Ukraine.

Plus: a new rural plan for France, a check-in from the Brussels Urban Summit and Andrew Mueller’s rundown of the week’s more unusual stories.

The New York Times – Friday, June 16, 2023

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Supreme Court Upholds Native American Adoption Law

Nita Battise, a member of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe, celebrated the ruling on the steps of the Supreme Court on Thursday.

At issue in the case was whether a law aimed at keeping Native American adoptees within tribes is constitutional.

The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After’ Biden

“I will totally obliterate the Deep State,” Donald Trump said on Tuesday evening at an event at his club in Bedminster, N.J., hours after his arraignment on federal charges.

Conservatives with close ties to Donald J. Trump are laying out a “paradigm-shifting” legal rationale to erase the Justice Department’s independence from the president.

Retaking Villages Leaves Ukrainian Troops Exposed and Diving for Cover

The Ukrainian counteroffensive has enjoyed some early successes, but with every step forward, the soldiers are increasingly exposed to Russian firepower.

At the Heart of the Documents Case: Trump’s Attachment to His Boxes

The former president has long stowed papers and odds and ends in cartons that he liked to keep close. His aides have called it the “beautiful mind” material.

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

The Art Newspaper (June 16, 2023): As her new series for the BBC, Africa Rising, takes Afua Hirsch to Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa, we talk to her about the artists and art scenes she encountered and what she took away from her experiences.

The Liverpool Biennial’s latest edition opened last weekend and has a South African curator, Khanyisile Mbongwa, and an IsiZulu title, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, visited the biennial and reviews it for us. And it is Art Basel this week, in its original Swiss location, so this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the most notable works for sale at the fair.

Valentine was painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1984 and given to his then girlfriend, Paige Powell, on Valentine’s Day. Jeffrey Deitch, who is selling the work at Art Basel, tells us its story.

Africa Rising: Morocco is on the BBC iPlayer now. The Nigeria episode is on BBC Two on 20 June at 9pm for UK viewers and on BBC iPlayer, and South Africa is broadcast on BBC Two at 27 June at 9pm. For listeners outside the UK, check your local listings.