Tag Archives: Reviews

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Previews: Country Life Magazine-January 10, 2024

January 9, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine – January 9, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Walk This Way’ – England’s secret sunken roads; Return of the curly-coated retriever; Tom Parker Bowles on the comfort of pie; Britain’s most poisonous plants, and more…

Curls, curls, curls

The intelligent, powerful curly-coated retriever was favoured by the Victorians and is still winning plaudits as a working breed, discovers Katy Birchall

Rolling in the deep

Ben Lerwill follows in the foot-steps of our ancestors to explore the history of holloways, those sunken and often secret routes criss-crossing the countryside

Little crop of horrors

From hemlock and henbane to giant hogweed, Britain is home to a host of poisonous plants. John Wright reveals how to spot the dangerous and the deadly

Why we all cry for pie

Tom Parker Bowles earns his crust with an ode to the enduring appeal of this humble, yet oh so heavenly savoury creation

Lady Violet Manners’s favourite painting

The broadcaster chooses a poignant work that speaks of absolute parental devotion

A distant horizon conquered

Fiona Reynolds explores the ancient Wiltshire Downs, with her sights set firmly on the far-off landmark of Cherhill Monument

The future as a footstool

The landmark 1980s restoration of London’s Liverpool Street Station is under threat from new proposals, argues Ptolemy Dean

The Midas touch

In the first of two articles, John Goodall investigates the early history of Madresfield Court, Worcestershire, which has been in the same family for 900 years

I can’t believe it’s British butter

Butter is making a comeback in a welcome celebration of our dairy heritage—Jenny Linford meets the artisan makers who are helping to spread the word

The good stuff

Tackle the snow in style this winter with Hetty Lintell’s pick of the best skiing accessories

Sweet dreams are made of these

The gardens at Villa Durazzo-Pallacini in Italy are Heaven on Earth for Charles Quest-Ritson

‘I have seen a very pretty thing…’

Lucien de Guise reveals how you can add a true touch of Ottoman opulence to your home

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe selects the hottest new stoves, fires and range cookers, and Giles Kime examines the growing range of options fuelled by bioethanol

Money for old rope

Deborah Nicholls-Lee looks at how hemp can help in the battle against climate change

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Poetry, Previews, Reviews

Arts & Literature: Kenyon Review – Winter 2024

January 9, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Kenyon Review – Winter 2024: The Winter 2024 issue of The Kenyon Review includes an essay by Carrie Cogan, the winner of the 2023 Kenyon Review Nonfiction Contest, selected by Leslie Jamison; work by the 2021 Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellows, Allison Albino, Emily Stoddard, and Jane Walton; poetry by Sara Abou Rashed, Sarah Ghazal Ali, David Joez Villaverde, and Kim Garcia; fiction by K-Ming Chang, Melissa Yancy, and Brian Ma; nonfiction by Oz Johnson and Sarah Minor; and much more. The cover art is by DARNstudio, which consists of Ron Norsworthy and David Anthone.

Lowest of the Low on a High Red Hill

By Carrie Cogan

I rode west with a childhood friend who was driving to a job in California. We passed through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and still there was no sign of the Commander. My friend placed a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans on the console between us, jumble of rich dark gems, glittering like they were wet. I crunched them in my teeth without thinking. Sometimes I drove and let her sleep. When clouds clotted the sun her hair still glowed, some mix of orange and yellow and pink. Toast, or the honey for it, or the cinnamon.

After we spent a day and a night in a certain desert town, I told my friend to go on without me. I’d stay. The town was bordered by empty hills and endless sky: room to disappear. I found an unopened pack of Juicy Fruit gum on the sidewalk, which I took for a sign.

Innovations, Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Technology

Preview: MIT Technology Review – January 2024

January 8, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

MIT Technology Review (January/February 2024) – The new issue features 10 Innovations that could change our World.

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Every year, we look for promising technologies poised to have a real impact on the world. Here are the advances that we think matter most right now.

AI for everything

We now live in the age of AI. Hundreds of millions of people have interacted directly with generative tools like ChatGPT that produce text, images, videos, and more from prompts. Their popularity has reshaped the tech industry, making OpenAI a household name and compelling Google, Meta, and Microsoft to invest heavily in the technology.

Super-efficient solar cells

Solar power is being rapidly deployed around the world, and it’s key to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. But most of the sunlight that hits today’s panels isn’t being converted into electricity. Adding a layer of tiny crystals could make solar panels more efficient. WHY IT MATTERS

Apple Vision Pro

Apple will start shipping its first mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, this year. Its killer feature is the highest-resolution display ever made for such a device. Will there be a killer app? It’s early, but the world’s most valuable company has made a bold bet that the answer is yes. WHY IT MATTERS

Weight-loss drugs

The global rise in obesity has been called an epidemic by the World Health Organization. Medications like Mounjaro and Wegovy are now among the most powerful tools that patients and physicians have to treat it. Evidence suggests they can even protect against heart attacks and strokes. WHY IT MATTERS

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Jan 15, 2024

January 8, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Former President Donald Trump marching on pavement blocks that read “2023” and “2024.”

The New Yorker – January 15, 2024 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Barry Blitt’s “Back to the Future” – The artist depicts a goose-stepping Donald Trump, determined to march back into political relevance.

Has School Become Optional?

A silhouette of a kid sitting on a desk revealing two people walking.

In the past few years, chronic absenteeism has nearly doubled. The fight to get students back in classrooms has only just begun.

By Alec MacGillis

Absenteeism underlies much of what has beset young people, including falling school achievement, deteriorating mental health, and elevated youth violence.

What Frantz Fanon and Ian Fleming Agreed On

Portraits of men divided by photos of protest.

From opposite directions, the revolutionary intellectual and the creator of James Bond saw violence as essential—psychologically and strategically—to solving the crisis of colonialism.

By Daniel Immerwahr

More than fifty years later, Zohra Drif could still picture the Milk Bar in Algiers on September 30, 1956. It was white and shining, she recalled, awash in laughter, young voices, “summer colors, the smell of pastries, and even the distant twittering of birds.” Drif, a well-coiffed law student in a stylish lavender dress, ordered a peach-Melba ice cream and wedged her beach bag against the counter. She paid, tipped, and left without her bag. The bomb inside it exploded soon afterward.

Culture, Lifestyle, Magazines, Reviews, Society

Lifestyle: The Observer Magazine – January 7, 2024

January 6, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Observer Magazine (January 6, 2024) – The latest issue features ‘Willem Dafoe’ – Hollywood legend, art lover, lifetime yogi and gentleman farmer; What sport can teach us about the game of life; Yalda Hakim on the human side of war reporting, and more…

Financial, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Reviews

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – January 8, 2024

January 6, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JANUARY 8, 2024 ISSUE:

The Power Grid Is Changing. What It Means for Utility Stocks—and Your Electricity Bill.

Renewable energy will make life more complicated but could be a boon for the companies providing it.

Watch Out for This Rude Surprise From Medicare

If your Medicare modified adjusted gross income is on the edge of a tax bracket, you could save thousands of dollars a year by keeping it from going over.

Home Builders’ Stocks Soared in 2023. Brace for a Dip.

High expectations for the spring buying season are already priced into most of the stocks, analysts say.

Japan Is Hot. Here Are the Best Funds to Play It.

Japan was once the world’s hottest stock market, before falling into a decadeslong slumber. It revived in 2023, awakening investors to its long-term potential. How to invest in the country now.

The Right Balanced Fund Can Carry Your Portfolio. Where to Find It.

The rise in bond interest rates makes the classic 60/40 balanced fund attractive again.

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – January 7, 2024

January 5, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 5): The latest issue features ‘Read This And Learn’ – For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel García Márquez to Write His Own

A black-and-white photograph of a man resting his chin on his hand over a small wooden table. An Aztec skull sits next to his face.

For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

By Valeria Luiselli

Readers of Latin American literature may have heard one of the many versions of this story:

It is 1961 and Gabriel García Márquez has just arrived in Mexico City, penniless but full of literary ambition, trying desperately to work on a new novel. One day, he is sitting in the legendary Café La Habana, where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were said to have plotted the Cuban Revolution. Julio Cortázar walks in, carrying a copy of Juan Rulfo’s novel “Pedro Páramo.” With a swift gesture, as if he’s dealing cards, Cortázar throws the book on García Márquez’s table. “Tenga, pa que aprenda,” he says. “Read this and learn.”

Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin: An Unlikely, Unwavering Friendship

A pair of black-and-white historical photographs show Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin, holding a violin.

These two titans of 20th-century literature and music formed a profound, yearslong relationship across generations and backgrounds.

By Joshua Barone

Early in 1935, a blizzard blew through New York City. The storm was so fierce, it virtually emptied Central Park. But Willa Cather spent her morning there, sledding with the violin prodigy Yehudi Menuhin and his sisters.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine – January 7, 2024

January 5, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 5, 2024): The new issue features “Letting Naomi Die” – Treatment wasn’t helping her anorexia, so doctors allowed her to stop, no matter the consequences. But is a ‘palliative’ approach to mental illness really ethical?

Should Patients Be Allowed to Die From Anorexia?

Treatment wasn’t helping her anorexia, so doctors allowed her to stop — no matter the consequences. But is a “palliative” approach to mental illness really ethical?

By Katie Engelhart

The doctors told Naomi that she could not leave the hospital. She was lying in a narrow bed at Denver Health Medical Center. Someone said something about a judge and a court order. Someone used the phrase “gravely disabled.” Naomi did not think she was gravely disabled. Still, she decided not to fight it. She could deny that she was mentally incompetent — but this would probably just be taken as proof of her mental incompetence. Of her lack of insight. She would, instead, “succumb to it.”

What If People Don’t Need to Care About Climate Change to Fix It?

By David Marchese

“It seems like we’ve been battling climate change for decades and made no progress,” Dr. Hannah Ritchie says. “I want to push back on that.” Ritchie, a senior researcher in the Program on Global Development at the University of Oxford and deputy editor at the online publication Our World in Data, is the author of the upcoming book, “Not the End of the World.” In it, she argues that the flood of doom-laden stats and stories about climate change is obscuring our ability to imagine solutions to the crisis and envision a sustainable, livable future.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Science Magazine – January 5, 2024

January 4, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Science Magazine – December 21, 2023: The new issue features a carnivorous Nepenthes gracilis pitcher plant luring an ant into a precarious position under the roof-like trap lid.

Dopamine regulates attitude toward risk

Specific brain pathways can lower or raise the willingness of monkeys to take risks

Magellanic cloud may be two galaxies, not one

Rethink of familiar object may boost odds that its name, offensive to some, will be changed

Economics, Financial, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

The Economist Magazine – January 6, 2024 Preview

January 4, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Economist Magazine (January 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old; Israel-Hizbullah – Can war be avoided?; The stakes in Taiwan’s election; An interview with Volodymyr Zelensky; The surge in AI nationalism…