This week’s @TheTLS, featuring @francescawade on Gertrude Stein; @nfergus on AI; @DrJanMachielsen on witches; Carol Rumens and @WesleyStace on the Beatles; @Holly_bops on Michael Billington – and more pic.twitter.com/IxxKvW6yk8
— George Berridge (@George_Berridge) December 8, 2021
Category Archives: Books
Shakespeare & Company: ‘Matrix’ Author Lauren Groff Interview (Podcast)
Lauren Groff is the author of six books of fiction, the most recent the novel MATRIX (September 2021). Her work has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, and France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne, was a three time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and twice for the Kirkus Prize, and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Prize, the Southern Book Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Prize.
She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.
Previews: Times Literary Supplement – December 3
Book Review: ‘Building The Brooklyn Bridge, 1869 – 1883’ By Jeffrey Richman
The Brooklyn Bridge has been an indelible part of the New York City skyline for 140 years. When it was completed in 1883, it was hailed as an engineering marvel and called the Eighth Wonder of the World. It also linked what were then two of America’s largest cities — New York and Brooklyn. The story of its construction is a drama in itself and now a new book, “Building the Brooklyn Bridge,” gives readers an inside view of the 14-year construction process that has been largely out of sight, until now. Michelle Miller has the details.
Shakespeare & Company: Poets Richard Barnett & Luke Kennard (Podcast)
Previews: London Review Of Books – December 2
Architecture: ‘The Stahl House – Inside LA’s Most Iconic Modernist Home’
“Buck wanted to stand in every room from his house, turn his head, and see every view. Even the bathroom. And so that was kind of what inspired the design of the house.”

Among the most famous photographs of modern architecture is Julius Shulman’s picture of Case Study House #22, also known as the Stahl House after the family that commissioned it. Two girls in white dresses sit inside a glass cube that seems to float atop a cliff over the illuminated grid of Los Angeles at night. Built by a family with a “beer budget and champagne tastes,” the two-bedroom home designed by architect Pierre Koenig changed residential design in LA. While Shulman’s image and others of the building have appeared in countless publications, advertisements, films, and TV shows, the story of how the house came to be and what it was like to live there is less well known.
In this episode, Bruce Stahl and Shari Stahl Gronwald and writer Kim Cross discuss the story of how Case Study House #22 came to be and share personal stories about what it was like to grow up and live in the home, from roller skating across the concrete floors to diving off the roof into the pool. Stahl, Gronwald, and Cross are co-authors of the recent book The Stahl House: Case Study House #22; The Making of a Modernist Icon.
To buy the book The Stahl House: Case Study House #22; The Making of a Modernist Icon.
Previews: Times Literary Supplement – November 26
Research: How CRISPR Can Save Lives And End Disease
CRISPR is a technology that can be used to edit genes and, as such, will likely change the world. The essence of CRISPR is simple: it’s a way of finding a specific bit of DNA inside a cell. After that, the next step in CRISPR gene editing is usually to alter that piece of DNA.
New Book Reviews: ‘A (Very) Short History Of Life On Earth’ By Henry Gee (2021)
