Tag Archives: Book Reviews

Books: London Review Of Books – January 19, 2023

Contents · Vol. 45 No. 2 · 19 January 2023 · LRB

London Review of Books (LRB) – January 19, 2023:

Puzzled Puss

Buster Keaton by James Curtis

Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis.

From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis—a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern—and irresistible—today as they were when they beguiled audiences almost a century ago.

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I want to be queen

The Drunken Boat: Selected Writings by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Mark Polizzotti

Poet, prodigy, precursor, punk: the short, precocious, uncompromisingly rebellious career of the poet Arthur Rimbaud is one of the legends of modern literature. By the time he was twenty, Rimbaud had written a series of poems that are not only masterpieces in themselves but that forever transformed the idea of what poetry is. Without him, surrealism is inconceivable, and his influence is palpable in artists as diverse as Henry Miller, John Ashbery, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith.

‘Everyone is terribly kind’


The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler 
by Kathryn Olmsted

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Jan 13, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (January 13, 2023):

Three in this marriage

Why Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law was responsible for his worldwide fame

A real papist plot

How did Henry VIII’s love letters to Anne Boleyn get to the Vatican?

Et in Arcadia ego

The eccentric members of the Hypocrites set

Books: The New York Times Book Review – Jan 8, 2023

Photograph by Howard Sochurek

The New York Times Book Review (January 8, 2023):

When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress Others

Jefferson Cowie’s powerful and sobering new history, “Freedom’s Dominion,” traces the close association between the rhetoric of liberty in an Alabama county and the politics of white supremacy.

Two Days of Terror in Washington, D.C.

“American Caliph,” by Shahan Mufti, recounts the complex story of a largely forgotten episode from 1977, when an armed Muslim group held dozens of people hostage.

The Power of a Good Narrative, in Your Ear or Otherwise

From Bloomsbury to the Billboard Hot 100, these audiobooks will hook you based on story alone.

Books: The New York Times Book Review – Jan 1, 2023

The New York Times Book Review – January 1, 2023:

What a 1985 Novel Can Tell Us About Life in the 2020s: Almost Everything

Don DeLillo’s book “White Noise,” newly adapted for the screen by Noah Baumbach, precisely diagnosed the modern condition, Dana Spiotta writes.

Read Your Way Through Tangier

Tangier’s many facets have long inspired writers. Here, the Moroccan-born novelist Laila Lalami introduces readers to the books and writers that, to her, best capture the city.

The Sound of Sonny

Aidan Levy has written a revealing, comprehensive biography of the improviser-hero Sonny Rollins.

Culture: The New Review Magazine – January 1, 2023

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The New Review Magazine – January 1, 2023 issue:

Director Sam Mendes answers questions from readers and famous fans including @Aiannucci, @DMiliband, olivia colman, judi dench…..

+ Classical music diet – By @FionaMaddocks + Arts & books for 2023 + Q&S Actor Siobhan Finneran @michaelhogan

Books: New York Review Of Books – Jan 19, 2023

January 19, 2023 issue cover

The New York Review of Books – January 19, 2023 issue:

Alphabet Politics

What prompted the development of systems of writing?

The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts by Silvia Ferrara, translated from the Italian by Todd Portnowitz

Inventing the Alphabet: The Origins of Letters from Antiquity to the Present by Johanna Drucker


The Instrumentalist

At the heart of Todd Field’s new film is a conductor who cannot see beyond her generation’s field of vision.

Tár a film written and directed by Todd Field


Dress Rehearsal

Trump’s attempt almost two years ago to undermine the 2020 election reads today like a blueprint drawn for a future autocrat.

Feinting Spells

The thesis of an exhibition on the inspiration a subset of Cubism took from trompe l’oeil is convincingly built with objects made across four centuries.

Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition – an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, October 20, 2022–January 22, 2023


Ukraine’s Volunteers

Even more impressive than Ukraine’s will to fight is the vast network of citizens who are supporting the armed forces and helping those in need of food and supplies.


Books: Literary Review Of Canada – January 2023

January–February 2023 | Literary Review of Canada

Literary Review of Canada: January–February 2023:

What the Blazes?

Dark Days at Noon: The Future of Fire

Dark Days at Noon

By Edward Struzik

The catastrophic runaway wildfires advancing through North America and other parts of the world are not unprecedented. Fires loomed large once human activity began to warm the climate in the 1820s, leading to an aggressive firefighting strategy that has left many of the continent’s forests too old and vulnerable to the fires that many tree species need to regenerate.

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Books: The New York Times Book Review – Dec 25, 2022

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The New York Times Book Review @nytimesbooks (December 25, 2022):

Courtly Love Can Be Deadly

In the historian Sarah Gristwood’s “The Tudors in Love,” for both monarchs and courtiers the stakes are higher than romance.

Newly Published, From Worker Justice to Sound Waves

A selection of recently published books.

AUDIOBOOKS

The Power of a Good Narrative, in Your Ear or Otherwise

CREDITLIBBY VANDERPLOEG

From Bloomsbury to the Billboard Hot 100, these audiobooks will hook you based on story alone.

Top New Science Books: ‘Oceans Under Glass’ By Samantha Muka (Dec ’22)

Oceans under Glass

Oceans under Glass – Tank Craft and the Sciences of the Sea

By Samantha Muka

Aquarist knowledge is an often overlooked but vital part of marine research

A welcome dive into the world of aquarium craft that offers much-needed knowledge about undersea environments.

The art of aquarium science

Atlantic coral is rapidly disappearing in the wild. To save the species, they will have to be reproduced quickly in captivity, and so for the last decade conservationists have been at work trying to preserve their lingering numbers and figure out how to rebuild once-thriving coral reefs from a few survivors. Captive environments, built in dedicated aquariums, offer some hope for these corals. This book examines these specialized tanks, charting the development of tank craft throughout the twentieth century to better understand how aquarium modeling has enhanced our knowledge of the marine environment.

Science Magazine – December 22, 2022

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