Books: World Literature Today – November 2023
Tag Archives: New Books
Book Reviews: ‘What An Owl Knows’ By Jennifer Ackerman (June 2023)
With their unnerving stare and eerie ways, it is small wonder that owls provoke superstition—and flights of fancy, as in the owl who sails with the pussycat in Edward Lear’s poem. In myths, stories and art, “owls speak of wisdom and luck, of misfortune and malevolence”, the author writes. They were associated with Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom.
Ms Ackerman is a natural-history writer who specialises in the avian world. In “What an Owl Knows” she offers an absorbing ear-tuft-to-tail appreciation of the raptor that Mary Oliver, a poet, called a “god of plunge and blood”. Owls, it seems, know a lot. Ms Ackerman draws on recent research to explain what and how.
To begin with, she stresses, there is no generic owl, but rather a diversity of some 260 species found on every continent bar Antarctica. They stretch from the fire-hydrant-sized Blakiston’s Fish Owl to the Elf Owl, which could fit in your palm. Most, but not all, are nocturnal.
Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for almost three decades. Her most recent book, What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds, explores recent findings on the biology, behavior, and conservation of owls. Her previous book, The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think, was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her New York Times bestselling book, The Genius of Birds, has been translated into twenty-five languages and was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2016 by The Wall Street Journal, a Best Science Book by NPR’s Science Friday, and a Nature Book of the Year by The Sunday Times.
Books: ‘Concrete Jungle – Tropical Architecture And Its Surprising Origins’
The clash of rational architecture with the organic lushness of tropical vegetation has created some of the most visionary and futuristic buildings we know.
Based on the concepts of Modernist style and Bauhaus aesthetics, tropical countries like Brazil or Mexico have developed their highly unique visions of an international style and an architecture which is both timeless and desirable, which continues to be highly influential around the globe.
In Concrete Jungle we embark on a journey through the works of architects influenced by the tropical modernist style, from Luis Barragán to Paulo Mendes da Rocha, to Marcio Kogan.
Most Anticipated Books: ‘The Pole’ By Nobel Prize Winner J. M. Coetzee (2023)
LitHub (March 28, 2023): Literary Hub is very pleased to reveal the cover for Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee’s new novel The Pole, which will be published by Liveright this September. Here’s more about the book from the publisher:
Exacting yet maddeningly unpredictable, J. M. Coetzee’s The Pole tells the story of Wittold Walccyzkiecz, a vigorous, “extravagantly white-haired” Polish pianist who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his Barcelona concert. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold, she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into the world of the journeyman performer. As he sends her letters, extends countless invitations to travel, and even visits her husband’s summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though, it seems, only on her terms. The power struggle between them intensifies—Is it Beatriz who limits their passion by controlling her emotions? Or is it Wittold, trying to force into life his dream of love?
READ MORE AT LITHUB
New Books: Wanderlust Nordics – May 2023
Wanderlust Nordics invites you to boast into this distinctive wilderness with a wide range and appealing mix of trails. This is a book that will have you heading north.
Cam Honan has trekked across 61 countries and six continents, logging over 60,000 mi (96,500 km) in three decades. He has authored four bestselling titles for gestalten—Wanderlust, Wanderlust USA, Wanderlust Himalaya, and The Hidden Tracks. Cam has been described by Backpacker Magazine as “the most travelled hiker on Earth”.
Top New Books: ‘The Story Of Architecture’ – Witold Rybczynski (Nov 29, 2022)
An inviting exploration of architecture across cultures and centuries by one of the field’s eminent authors
In this sweeping history, from the Stone Age to the present day, Witold Rybczynski shows how architectural ideals have been affected by technological, economic, and social changes—and by changes in taste. The host of examples ranges from places of worship such as Hagia Sophia and Brunelleschi’s Duomo to living spaces such as the Katsura Imperial Villa and the Alhambra, national icons such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Sydney Opera House, and skyscrapers such as the Seagram Building and Beijing’s CCTV headquarters. Rybczynski’s narrative emphasizes the ways that buildings across time and space are united by the human desire for order, meaning, and beauty.
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK
This is the story of architecture’s physical manifestation of the universal aspiration to celebrate, honor, and commemorate, and an exploration of the ways that each building is a unique product of patrons, architects, and builders. Firm in opinion, even-handed, and rooted in scholarship, this book will delight anyone interested in understanding the buildings they use, visit, and pass by each day.
READ A REVIEW
New Books: ‘What To Read’ The New York Times (Oct 5)
Oct. 5, 2022
IN A TIME OF PANTHERS: Early Photographs, by Jeffrey Henson Scales. (SPQR Editions, $49.95.) Scales, a photography editor at The Times, has dug up intimate images taken of Black Panther members and protests during the late 1960s to share a “time capsule” that has taken on new urgency for the author and for our country at large.
CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN: Body Politics, edited by Lotte Johnson and Chris Bayley. (Yale University, $50.) This collection gathers six decades of work from the late experimental artist, including paintings, multimedia installations and films, to shed new light on Schneemann’s ideas about the body, war and more.
IN THE BLACK FANTASTIC, by Ekow Eshun. (MIT, $39.95.) In this exciting, wide-ranging collection, Eshun presents speculative art and imagery from the African diaspora with a focus on folklore and Afrofuturism and explores works such as the paintings of Kara Walker and Chris Ofili and Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.”
FIELD OF PLAY: 60 Years of NFL Photography, by Steve Cassady and Michael Zagaris. (Abrams, $80.) Zagaris’s images — covering 42 Super Bowls, 49 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and more — provide glimpses into moments of tension, pain and intensity over 60 years of N.F.L. history.
New Books: ‘The Mind Of A Bee’ – Lars Chittka (2022)
Most of us are aware of the hive mind—the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities.
He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess consciousness. Taking readers deep into the sensory world of bees, Chittka illustrates how bee brains are unparalleled in the animal kingdom in terms of how much sophisticated material is packed into their tiny nervous systems.
He looks at their innate behaviors and the ways their evolution as foragers may have contributed to their keen spatial memory. Chittka also examines the psychological differences between bees and the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees feel and think. Throughout, he touches on the fascinating history behind the study of bee behavior. Exploring an insect whose sensory experiences rival those of humans, The Mind of a Bee reveals the singular abilities of some of the world’s most incredible creatures.
Travel & Photography: ‘Greek Islands’ (May 2022)
An endless expanse of shimmering waters paired with unmatched Greek hospitality awaits visitors to the islands of the Aegean Sea. Each island is home to a unique spirit and mythology.
From Patmos (a favorite of Aga Khan) to Hydra (which captivated Henry Miller, Leonard Cohen and Sophia Loren), the islands are imbued with a seductive sense of history, tradition and adventure.
Several films over the decades have been filmed on them, including Boy on a Dolphin (1957) on Hydra, The Big Blue (1988) on Amorgos and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) on Santorini.
Sources of inspiration for millennia, the ancient ruins, cliffside monasteries and volcanic rims are all can’t-miss sights. Venturing on an Odyssey of their own, the author and the photographer boarded a traditional Greek sailboat and set out to capture the calming atmosphere, quintessential characters and breathtaking architecture of these gems of the Aegean. A spectacular journey re-created in the pages of Greek Islands.
New Books: ‘Otherlands’ By Thomas Halliday (2022)
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