Books: Literary Review Of Canada – October 2022
Tag Archives: Reviews
Reviews: ‘The Book Report’ Best Reading For Fall 2022
When Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in literature last year, most Americans had never read anything by this fascinating author.
Born in 1948 in Tanzania, Gurnah fled to England after the 1964 uprising in Zanzibar. Over the years, he’s written 10 critically-acclaimed novels.
The latest, “Afterlives” (Riverhead), offers an intimate look at village life in East Africa during the period of German colonialism at the start of the 20th century. This is a book that reclaims forgotten history and honors lost people in a way that’s heartbreaking and revelatory.
“Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Riverhead), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel “Hamnet,” about the death of William Shakespeare’s only son, was one of the best books of 2020.
Now O’Farrell is back with “The Marriage Portrait” (Knopf), a terrific historical thriller that drops us into the panicked mind of a teenage girl who knows her husband is plotting to kill her.
The girl is Lucrezia de’ Medici, immortalized by Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess.” History tells us she died in 1561 before she could celebrate her first anniversary, but O’Farrell will have you guessing ’til the very last page.
“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available September 27 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
What if Americans elected a narcissistic psychopath to the White House?
Some people might say we’ve already seen what that would be like. But James Patterson’s breathless new thriller, “Blowback” (Little, Brown), takes that scenario to the brink of World War III.
Written with Brendan DuBois, “Blowback” imagines a president determined to defeat America’s enemies once and for all.
A pair of secret agents are honored to help the president’s plan – until they realize he’s about to destroy the country.
“Blowback” by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown and Company), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Mary Rodgers, who died in 2014, lived her life in the melodies of American musical theater. She was Richard Rodgers’ daughter, composer Adam Guettel’s mother, and Stephen Sondheim’s friend – and she was an accomplished composer and author herself.
Now, all these wonderful stories take center stage in “Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), written with New York Times theater critic Jesse Green.
Through painful relationships and happy ones, disappointments and successes, Rodgers is never anything but candid, forgiving and witty. So, take a seat and let the curtain rise.
“Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers” by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Follow @JesseKGreen on Twitter
Books: Kirkus Reviews – September 15, 2022 Issue
An Athlete and Activist Shares His Story With Kids
Here is the truly amazing thing that few people besides Tommie Smith remember about his gold medal–winning 200-meter run in the 1968 Olympics: He broke the world record in just under 20 seconds on one good leg.
‘The Rushdie Affair,’ Back in the News
As we were editing our Sept. 15 issue in mid-August, news broke that author Salman Rushdie had been attacked at a lecture in western New York state. The story sent shock waves through the literary community—a stark reminder that violence can lurk in the corners of literary debate. Rushdie is the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction and is most celebrated for his 1981 novel, Midnight’s Children, a kaleidoscopic epic of Indian life after independence that won the Booker Prize as well as two subsequent honors, the Booker of Bookers in 1993 and the Best of the Booker in 2008.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Sept 15, 2022
Monkeypox, COVID-19, AIDS: have we progressed so little?
Deaths and sufferings are not a failure of technology or knowledge, but a failure of will.
The world’s reservoirs are ageing — and belching out more methane
But carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the global reservoir-building spree in the 1960s and 1970s are falling.
The Jurassic vomit that stood the test of time
A fossilized pile of small bones is probably a meal that an animal heaved up 150 million years ago.
Rarest of elements yield their secrets with help from mighty metals
Surrounding an ion of curium with radiation-resistant clusters of other ions allows scientists to study the scarce substance.
Why some female hummingbirds mimic males: it’s all about nectar
Some female white-necked jacobins nab good feeding spots by adopting the flashy plumage of their bigger, brasher male counterparts.
A sugary diet wrecks gut microbes — and their anti-obesity efforts
A high-sugar diet unbalances the microbiome, so the body makes fewer of the gut immune cells that help to prevent metabolic disorders.
Design: Architect Reviews Batman’s ‘Wayne Manor’
Michael Wyetzner of Michielli + Wyetzner Architects returns to AD, this time breaking down details from the many on-screen depictions of Wayne Manor – home to mysterious playboy millionaire Bruce Wayne and (more importantly) the headquarters for Batman. From the more humble depictions in comics and on television to the cosmopolitan high rise seen in 2022’s “The Batman,” see how the hero Gotham deserves has lived from the 1930’s to now.
Tech Reviews: The iPhone 14 + Dynamic Island (2022)
Apple’s iPhone 14 Pros have a new multitasking feature called the “dynamic island.” WSJ’s Joanna Stern went out to a real island to test the Pros’ new always-on screen cameras, including the new 48-megapixel main camera and the new action mode.
She also compares them to the more affordable iPhone 14. 0:00 Welcome to Joanna’s dynamic island 1:07 iPhone 14 screen size and tests: always-on and dynamic island 3:41 iPhone 14 camera specs and tests 4:58 iPhone 14 action mode tests 5:35 Emergency SOS and crash detection: the iPhone 14 features Joanna couldn’t test
2023 Reviews: Top Electric & Plug-In Hybrid SUVs (CR)
Alfa Romeo Tonale (2023)
The Tonale rounds out the trio of cars in Alfa Romeo’s small, stylish lineup, bringing small-SUV utility and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) powertrain into the fold. Both the PHEV and the more conventional turbocharged, 2.0-liter gasoline versions of the Tonale will be all-wheel drive, showcasing an interior and exterior aesthetic that will be familiar to Alfa aficionados.
Chevrolet Blazer EV (2023)
The Blazer EV is based on GM’s Ultium platform that underpins the latest automaker’s electric models. This midsized SUV will meet the competition, notably the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4, and Hyundai-Kia pair in terms of price, functionality, and range. It will be offered in several trims, initially starting with the 2LT trim for $47,595 with a 293-mile estimated range.
Fisker Ocean (2023)
The Fisker Ocean pure-electric SUV features a solar roof and a 17-inch center touchscreen that can be rotated 90 degrees for either a horizontal or vertical display layout. The interior, which features recycled materials throughout, seats five passengers.
Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV (2023)
The EQS SUV takes all the opulence and engineering marvel long associated with the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan and applies these concepts to a large, three-row electric SUV. It comes standard in a rear-drive, one-motor configuration, with the 4Matic upgrade granting it all-wheel and two motors.
Preview: London Review Of Books – Sept 22, 2022
Arts Preview: Sculpture Magazine – Sep/Oct 2022
September/October 2022 Issue
| FeaturesReal Light and Real Angles: A Conversation with Larry Bell Between Two Knowns: A Conversation with Nathaniel Rackowe Cracks in the System: A Conversation with Agustina Woodgate Gregor Schneider: A Sense of Distance Thinking Through Place: A Conversation with Anina Major |
BETWEEN TWO KNOWNS: A CONVERSATION WITH NATHANIEL RACKOWE
Nathaniel Rackowe’s large-scale, futuristic works are fundamentally influenced by modern urban architecture. Spanning sculpture, installation, and public art, his practice is concerned with abstracting the metropolis into units of form. Scaffolding poles, cement blocks, corrugated sheets, Perspex, glass, and fluorescent tubing are the building blocks of his sculptural vocabulary. The British artist has created cuboids of light that seem to hover eerily in the air (“Spin” series, 2006–ongoing), upturned sheds that appear frozen in mid-explosion (“Black Shed Expanded” series, 2008–ongoing), and flanks of moving mechanical doors edged with fluorescent lights that close in claustrophobically on visitors (Sixty Eight Doors, 2005). It’s no surprise that he is an admirer of science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick and Iain M. Banks and films like Brazil (1985) and Blade Runner (1982).
Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’
This week: is art censorship on the rise? The Art Newspaper’s chief contributing editor, Gareth Harris, joins Ben Luke to discuss his new book, Censored Art Today.
We look at the different ways in which freedom of expression is being curbed across the globe and at the debates around contested history and cancel culture. This episode’s Work of the Week is Diane Arbus’s Puerto Rican woman with a beauty mark, N.Y.C., 1965, one of the 90 images that feature in Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956-1971, which opens at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada, on 15 September. Sophie Hackett, the exhibition’s curator, discusses Arbus’s remarkable eye and technical brilliance.
As the Guggenheim Bilbao celebrates its 25th anniversary, Thomas Krens, the director and chief artistic officer of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation from 1988 to 2008, reflects on the genesis and development of a museum that had a dramatic impact on contemporary art and museums’ role in the cultural regeneration of cities across the world.
Boomers Daily 
