Category Archives: Reviews

Books: New York Review Of Books- February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023 issue cover

The New York Review of Books – February 9, 2023:


Beyond the Pale

After the Russian Revolution, Jews had to navigate a new identity: aspiring muscular worker and New Soviet Man.

How the Soviet Jew Was Made by Sasha Senderovich


Going to Extremes

For Matisse art was a perpetual emergency, a matter of testing boundaries, breaking through.

Matisse: The Red Studio – an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, May 1–September 10, 2022; and SMK–National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, October 13, 2022–February 26, 2023

Matisse in the 1930s – an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 20, 2022–January 29, 2023; the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, March 1–May 29, 2023; and the Musée Matisse Nice, June 23–September 24, 2023


Reckoning with Silence

Dionne Brand’s poetry has the weight and sonority of prophetic utterance without a hint of melodrama.

Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems by Dionne Brand


Arias of Despair

What can opera elicit from The Hours that the page and the screen cannot?

The Hours – an opera by Kevin Puts, with a libretto by Greg Pierce, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, November 22–December 15, 2022


Previews: The Economist Magazine- January 21, 2023

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The Economist – January 21, 2023 issue:

Turkey could be on the brink of dictatorship

President Erdogan could tip his country over the edge

Disney’s troubles show how technology has changed the business of culture

At 100, the mouse can still roar. But it faces a new kind of rival

Excess deaths are soaring as health-care systems wobble

What lessons can be learned from a miserable winter across the rich world?

Previews: History Today Magazine – February 2023

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History Today Magazine – February 2023 issue:

Secrets of the Silk Road

Silk Road

The discovery of a cave full of manuscripts on the edge of the Gobi Desert reveals the details of everyday life on the Silk Road.

Heirs and Spares

It was not easy to be the second son. The younger brothers of the French kings could choose either to rebel or reconcile, but neither option was straightforward.

The Nazi Spider in the Spanish Press

Francisco Franco with Adolf Hitler, 1940.

Hans Josef Lazar pulled the strings of Hitler’s propaganda in wartime Spain. Then he disappeared. Who was he?

Previews: New Scientist Magazine- January 21, 2023

ISSUE 3422 | MAGAZINE COVER DATE: 21 January 2023 | New Scientist

New Scientist Magazine – 21 January 2023:

Web3 promises to reclaim the internet from tech giants – will it work?

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the idea of a decentralised version of the internet that would give more power to ordinary users. Here’s what it would take to make it happen

Fresh ideas about the causes of depression are bringing new treatments

By upending the idea that a chemical imbalance in the brain is behind depression, we are starting to understand some of its mysteries and develop better treatments

How we finally tracked European eels all the way to the Sargasso Sea

Where European eels start and end their lives was long a mystery, but an audacious expedition has finally revealed the last details of their incredible migration

Research Preview: Nature Magazine- January 19, 2023

Volume 613 Issue 7944

nature Magazine – January 19, 2023 issue:

How the periodic table survived a war to secure chemistry’s future

A century ago, the discovery of hafnium confirmed the validity of the periodic table — but only thanks to scientists who stood up for evidence at a time of global turmoil.

How to make wearable devices people could forget they’re wearing

A metal–polymer composite conducts electricity and conforms to the skin, making it suitable for medical devices applied directly to the body.

Demon goddess moon takes control of a planet

Dwarf planet Eris’ rotation is constrained by its large moon Dysnomia, named after the Greek goddess of lawlessness.

Huge genomic study shows varicose veins’ links to height and weight

Analysis of more than one million people suggests that roughly 16% of the condition can be attributed to genetic factors.

Egypt Culture: A Look At 5 Ancient Craft Traditions

Insider Business – A traditional dyehouse, Fez hats and a thousand-year-old ancient hieroglyphs carving method have nearly disappeared in Egypt in recent decades. But five artisans are determined to keep their traditions alive. Here’s how they do it.

Video timeline: 00:00 Introduction 00:46 Tiles 07:13 Fez 14:40 Papyrus 22:13 Dyehouse 27:27 Stone Carving

Lifestyle: Country Life Magazine – Jan 18, 2023

Country Life Magazine – – 18 January 2023:

Blue-sky thinking

Glasshouses can be havens for people as well as their plants, Caroline Donald discovers

Getting a few words in hedgewise

Alan Titchmarsh speaks out in defence of the privet hedge

All aboard for Ironhenge!

In the first of a two-part series Marcus Binney explores the park of Fawley Hill, Berkshire

Are you stark raven mad?

Ian Morton lauds the intelligence of the much-maligned corvid

Books: TLS/Times Literary Supplement – Jan 20, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement @TheTLS (January 20, 2023) features an extract from Lawfare by Geoffrey Robertson KC (published tomorrow by TLS Books); @NoreenMasud and Jade French on H. D.; Michael Hofmann on Shirley Hazzard; Gwendoline Riley on Michael Bracewell; Jenny Uglow on Anthony Gross – and more.

Cover Preview: Scientific American – February 2023

February 2023

Scientific American – February 2023:

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don’t Know It

Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings

Satellite Constellations Are an Existential Threat for Astronomy

Growing swarms of spacecraft in orbit are outshining the stars, and scientists fear no one will do anything to stop it

Solving Cement’s Massive Carbon Problem

New techniques and novel ingredients can greatly reduce the immense carbon emissions from cement and concrete production

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – February 2023

Harper’s Magazine – February 2023 issue:

Is Liberalism Worth Saving?

Where once disagreements concerned differing interpretations of liberalism’s demands or balancing liberalism’s conflicting goals of freedom and equality, now populist movements on both the left and the right are challenging the legitimacy of liberalism itself.

Swamplandia

The money behind Ron DeSantis’s populist façade

Falling Like Leaves

The war in Ethiopia and its crimes against civilians