Tag Archives: Books

Travel & Culture: Greek Island Of Hydra In 1960’s – “A Theatre For Dreamers” By Novelist Polly Samson

From The Guardian (May 23, 2020):

A Theatre For Dreamers - Polly Samson - April 2020I first went to Hydra six years ago, when it was simply a beautiful Greek island and not a place I went to commune with its ghosts. I don’t think I was even aware that it was the island Leonard Cohen had lived on, and knew nothing of Charmian Clift, George Johnston and the bohemian community they fostered.

Bloomsbury Publishers: 1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen.

Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels.

Burning with the heat and light of Greece, A Theatre for Dreamers is a spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost – and the wars waged between men and women on the battlegrounds of genius.

Polly Samson is an English novelist, lyricist and journalist. She is married to musician David Gilmour, and has written the lyrics to many of Gilmour’s works, both as a solo artist and with the group Pink Floyd.

 

Top Photography Books: “Zanzibar” By Aline Coquelle (Assouline)

Zanzibar Travel & Photography Book - Assouline May 2020Off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean sits an archipelago known as Zanzibar. It all started ten million years ago when the island of Pemba separated from mainland Africa and then ten thousand years ago, the island of Unguja followed suit. Thus, begins the legend of Zanzibar.

For centuries, Zanzibar has been the haven and gateway for explorers including Richard Burton and David Livingstone to penetrate the unknown African Continent. Forward to present day, and it is still possible to experience the unique wildlife whether that is by scuba diving off the coast of a private island, infinite lagoons, visiting mangroves or endemic wild forests; getting lost and immersing yourself into the historical labyrinthine streets of Stonetown.

Zanzibar Travel & Photography Book - Assouline May 2020

This cluster of islands is at a crossroads of cultures, featuring Omani architecture, Portuguese and British heritages as well as Swahili rituals.

Photographer Aline Coquelle shares an intimate portrait of a community bursting with life. With original photography, a disappearing, indigenous culture is preserved and celebrated. This volume invites the reader to experience the paradise that is Zanzibar.

With a degree in art history and anthropology, nomadic Parisian photographer Aline Coquelle has always traveled the world—she has lived and worked in Central and South America, Asia, and Africa and has been visiting Zanzibar for over twenty years. She contributes to prestigious international publications, and shoots marketing campaigns for luxury brands. Coquelle often works with silver film in order to keep alive the magic of old-time photography because she believes “transcending tradition is the new modernity” and her gelatin silver prints are sought by collectors worldwide. Her other books with Assouline are Palm Springs Style (2005); The Cartier Polo Games (2006); Polo: The Nomadic Tribe (2009); The Italian Dream: Wine, Heritage, Soul (2016); and Be Extraordinary, The Spirit of Bentley (2017).

Mirella Ricciardi is a renowned photographer and author. Her childhood in Kenya has inspired her work and she has published several volumes of photographs including Vanishing Africa (1971), African Saga (1981), and Vanishing Amazon (1991).

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Interviews: Writers Marianne Julia Strauss And Patrick J. McGinnis

The StackMonocle 24’s “The Stack” speaks to Marianne Julia Strauss on her new book “Do You Read Me?” on the best bookshops around the globe. Then, author Patrick McGinnis on his new release “Fear Of Missing Out”.

 

New Art History Books: “Finding Dora Maar – An Artist, An Address Book, A Life” – Brigitte Benkemoun

Finding Doram MaarIn search of a replacement for his lost Hermès agenda, Brigitte Benkemoun’s husband buys a vintage diary on eBay. When it arrives, she opens it and finds inside private notes dating back to 1951—twenty pages of phone numbers and addresses for Balthus, Brassaï, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Paul Éluard, Leonor Fini, Jacqueline Lamba, and other artistic luminaries of the European avant-garde.

After realizing that the address book belonged to Dora Maar—Picasso’s famous “Weeping Woman” and a brilliant artist in her own right—Benkemoun embarks on a two-year voyage of discovery to learn more about this provocative, passionate, and enigmatic woman, and the role that each of these figures played in her life.

Longlisted for the prestigious literary award Prix Renaudot, Finding Dora Maar is a fascinating and breathtaking portrait of the artist.

Brigitte Benkemoun is a journalist and writer. She is the author of La petite fille sur la photo (2012) and Albert le Magnifique (2016). Jody Gladding is a poet and translator. She has translated some thirty books from French, including, most recently, Roland Barthes’s Album: Unpublished Correspondence and Texts (2018), Michel Pastoureau’s Yellow: The History of a Color (2019), and Jean Giono’s Occupation Journal (2020).

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Travel & Wellness Books: “Be Well” By Kari Molvar

Be Well - Gestalten BookBe Well delves into one of life’s greatest pleasures; a day spent rejuvenating the body and nourishing the spirit. Humans have practiced self-care for centuries—in the sweat lodges of the American Southwest, Roman baths, the hammams of the Ottoman Empire, Japanese onsens, and Finnish saunas. Today, a new interest in self-care is redefining how we accomplish wellness, and there have never been more options.

 

In our increasingly switched-on lives, a growing industry of highly choreographed experiences is geared to help us switch off. Be Well is a journey around the world’s most extraordinary spaces for achieving this, looking at the innovative practices they offer and how to carry them into everyday life.

Be Well - Gestalten Book

Kari Molvar is a writer and editor focusing on wellness as seen through the lens of design, culture, and style. She is an online contributor to T: The New York Times Style Magazine and the founder of Rutine Matters. Her work appears in Vogue and The Wall Street Journal, among other titles.

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New Art Books: “Titian – Love, Desire, Death” By Matthias Wivel (May 2020)

Titian Love Desire DeathTitian (active 1506–1576) produced a masterful group of paintings for Philip II of Spain, celebrating the loves of gods, goddesses, and mortals. Depicting scenes from Ovid’s narrative poem Metamorphoses, Titian named them “poesie” and considered the works as visual equivalents of poetry.

This volume presents a detailed study of the complete series—Danaë, Venus and Adonis, Perseus and Andromeda, Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto, and The Rape of Europa, as well as The Death of Actaeon—lavishly illustrated with details of these emotionally charged paintings. The book explores Titian’s creative process and technique, in addition to his use of literary and visual sources and his correspondence with Philip II.

The artistic legacy of the series for later European painting is also examined in the works of artists such as Rubens, Velázquez, and Rembrandt. Offering the most comprehensive overview of these remarkable works, Titian: Love, Desire, Death is an indispensable resource for scholars and admirers of Renaissance painting.

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Interviews: XL Recordings CEO Richard Russell – “Liberation Through Hearing” (Podcast)

Monocle on Culture“Monocle On Culture” speaks to Richard Russell, head of XL Recordings about his brand new book and his incredible career producing records for everyone from Damon Albarn to Bobby Womack, his life in New York that kicked everything off and the unusual start of his collaboration with Gil Scott Heron.

For almost 30 years as label boss, producer and talent conductor at XL Recordings, Richard Russell has discovered, shaped and nurtured the artists who have rewritten the musical dictionary of the 21st century, artists like The Prodigy, The White Stripes, Adele, M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal and Giggs. Growing up in north London in thrall to the raw energy of ’80s US hip hop, Russell emerged as one part of rave outfit Kicks Like a Mule in 1991 at a moment when new technology enabled a truly punk aesthetic on the fledgling free party scene. For most of the ’90s identified with breakbeat and hardcore, Russell’s stewardship at the label was always uncompromising and open to radical influences rather than conventional business decisions.

Liberation Through Hearing tells the remarkable story of XL Recordings and their three decades on the front line of innovation in music; the eclectic chorus of artists who came to define the label’s unique aesthetic and Russell’s own story; his highs and lows steering the fortunes of an independent label in a rapidly changing industry, his celebrated work with Bobby Womack and Gil Scot Heron on their late-career masterpieces; and his own development as a musician in Everything Is Recorded.

Always searching for new sounds and new truths, Liberation Through Hearing is a portrait of a man who believes in the spiritual power of music to change reality. It is also the story of a label that refused to be categorised by genre and in the process cut an idiosyncratic groove which was often underground in feel but mainstream in impact.

New Photography Books: “The Coral Triangle” By Chris Leidy (May 2020)

The Coral Triangle by Chris Leidy Assouline May 25 2020Comprising the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet, oceans are humanity’s life-support system, processing more carbon dioxide than rainforests. Featuring a passionate text by Fabien Cousteau, The Coral Triangle presents the underwater world as a complex realm filled with vibrant life, inviting readers to fall in love with its majesty, and inspiring deeper understanding of the fragility of coral reefs and the unparalleled importance of taking action to protect our oceans.

Take a breathtaking plunge into the colorful world of the Coral Triangle, the waters that cradle Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

The Coral Triangle by Chris Leidy Assouline May 25 2020

One of the world’s most mature reef networks, home to 30 percent of all the world’s coral, this magnificent marine expanse boasts the highest diversity of coral and fish species on the planet. Underwater photographer Chris Leidy beautifully captures a vision of this wonderland through his lens and conveys the inherent complexities of each singular, fleeting scene, illustrating the vital magic of the Coral Triangle.

Christopher P. Leidy is the great-great-grandson of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and the grandson of fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau. Over his career, Leidy has established his own legacy as one of the world’s foremost underwater photographers, finding inspiration in the depths of the world’s oceans.

The eldest grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Fabien Cousteau is an aquanaut, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker devoted to furthering our understanding of the underwater world. An active member of multiple cause-driven and charitable boards, Cousteau works with local communities and children worldwide to help restore local water ecosystems. He dedicates much of his time to the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center, a nonprofit founded in 2016.

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Interior Design Books: “Splendor Of Marble – Marvelous Spaces” By Karen Pearse (Rizolli)

Splendor of Marble Karen Pearse RizzoliThe first book to examine the many ways this beautiful stone can be incorporated into a home environment, describing the unique nature of marble and the leading role it plays in the best of interior design today.

For spectacular drama, fabulous luxury, or simply the warm glow of organic textures, colors, and patterns, marble is like no other natural material. Marble has been favored by architects and designers for millennia, and as this book attests, the love affair with marble continues today. Featured are rooms showcasing marble by many of the world’s most prominent decorators, including Kelly Wearstler, Vincente Wolf, Juan Pablo Molyneux, Bjarke Ingels, Ryan Korban, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Robert Kime, the Haas Brothers, and Joseph Dirand, among many others.

Splendor of Marble Karen Pearse RizzoliThis is the first book that explores the many ways marble can bring color, pattern, and warmth to the home, as well as the vast array of beautiful types of marble that are available. It is a hugely popular material for home kitchens and bathrooms in particular, but it also is incorporated in outdoor patio spaces, hallways, and stairwells, even living rooms. All are featured here in gorgeous images, providing new inspiration for design lovers.

About The Author

Karen Pearse is a marble expert and founder of Karen Pearse Direct, the foremost international purveyor of stone and marble for private and commercial spaces. Massimo Ferragamo is chairman of Ferragamo USA.

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Top Photographers: 65-Year Old William Neill “Light On The Landscape”

Drawing from the tradition of behind-the-scenes books like Ansel Adams’ Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs and Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape, Light on the Landscape covers in detail the core photographic fundamentals such as light, composition, camera angle, and exposure choices, but it also deftly considers those subjects that are less frequently examined: portfolio development, marketing, printmaking, nature stewardship, inspiration, preparation, self-improvement, and more. The result is a profound and wide-ranging exploration of that magical convergence of light, land, and camera.

Light On The Landscape - William Neill 2020

For more than two decades, William Neill has been offering his thoughts and insights about photography and the beauty of nature in essays that cover the techniques, business, and spirit of his photographic life. Curated and collected here for the first time, and accompanying 128 beautiful reproductions of Neill’s photographs, these essays are both pragmatic and profound, offering readers an intimate look behind the scenes at Neill’s creative process behind individual photographs as well as a discussion of the larger and more foundational topics that are key to his philosophy and approach to work.

Light On The Landscape - William Neill 2020

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Filled with beautiful and inspiring photographs, Light on the Landscape is also full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from a deeply thoughtful photographer who has spent a lifetime communicating with a camera. Incorporating the lessons within the book, you too can learn to achieve not only technically excellent and beautiful images, but photographs that truly rise above your best and reveal your deeply personal and creative perspective―your vision, your voice.

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