Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-4 Oct.-Dec.

Continues: Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-3 July-September

NYRB Online Oct. 5 2023
NYRB tends to date its issues a couple weeks ahead; these articles & reviews were actually posted in Sept.

Literature

Jennifer Wilson. Mother Russia. Review of: Kidnapped: A Story in Crimes / Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz.

A.E. Stallings. ‘Obedient to Their Words.’ Review of: Simonides: Epigrams and Elegies / edited and translated from the Greek by David Sider.

Larry Rohter. Searching for the True Brazil. Review of: Macunaíma: The Hero with No Character / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson -- The Apprentice Tourist: Travels Along the Amazon to Peru, Along the Madeira to Bolivia, and Around Marajó Before Saying Enough Already / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese and with an introduction and notes by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux -- Amar, Verbo Intransitivo/ To Love, Intransitive Verb / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese by Ana Lessa-Schmidt.

Arts

George B. Stauffer. Where Are the Women Composers? Review of: Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World / Leah Broad.

E. Tammy Kim. Storyboards and Solidarity. Review of: The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age / by Jake S. Friedman.

Christopher Benfey. Constable’s Quiet Tumult. Review of: John Constable: A Portrait / James Hamilton -- Constable’s White Horse / William Kentridge and Aimee Ng -- Late Constable / Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargraves, and others.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Lynn Hunt. The Orphan Among Revolutions. Review of: Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848–1849 / Christopher Clark.

Daniel J. Kevles. Unreasonable Terms. Review of: Owning the Sun: A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to Covid-19 Vaccines / Alexander Zaitchik.

Noah Feldman. The Court’s Conservative Constitutional Revolution. (Essay)

Bill McKibben. Toward a Land of Buses and Bikes. Review of: Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet / Ben Goldfarb -- Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World / Henry Grabar.

Tim Judah. Ukraine’s New Normal. (Essay)

Daniel M. Lavery. Coq au Pépin. Review of: Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird / Jacques Pépin.

NYRB Online Oct. 19 2023

Literature

Cathleen Schine. The Voyage Out. Review of: After Sappho / Selby Wynn Schwartz.

Michael Hofmann. Punning for Germany. Review of: The Short End of the Sonnenallee / Thomas Brussig, translated from the German by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson, with an introduction by Jonathan Franzen.

Charlie Lee. The Way of All Flesh. Review of: The Love of Singular Men / Victor Heringer, translated from the Portuguese by James Young.

Arts

Jenny Uglow. ‘A Haughty Independence.’ Review of: Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris / Alicia Foster -- Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, an exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, England, May 13–October 8, 2023.

Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo. ‘Give Me All the Power.’ Review of: Break It All: The History of Rock in Latin America / a Netflix documentary series written by Nicolas Entel and Nicolas Gueilburt and directed by Picky Talarico.

Megan O'Grady. Art as Action. Review of: Stuff: Instead of a Memoir / Lucy R. Lippard.

Adam Kirsch. Intolerable Freedoms. Review of: Three Colors: Blue, White, and Red,
a trilogy of films written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, and cowritten by Krzysztof Piesiewicz.

Philip Clark. The Transgressor. Review of: Chuck Berry: An American Life / RJ Smith.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Gary Younge. ‘We Return Fighting.’ Review of: Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad / Matthew F. Delmont.

David Shulman. Heading Toward a Second Nakba. Review of: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy / Nathan Thrall.

Suzy Hansen. Twenty Years of Outsourced War. Review of: Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War / Phil Klay -- Missionaries / Phil Klay.

Kim Phillips-Fein. Conspicuous Destruction. Review of: Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America / Brendan Ballou -- These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America / Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.

Natalie Angier. Not Milk? Review of: Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood / Anne Mendelson.

David Motadel. Is Prussian Militarism a Myth? Review of: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500 / Peter H. Wilson.

Gregory Afinogenov. Field Maneuvers. Review of: Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace / Alexander Mikaberidze.

Susan Neiman. Historical Reckoning Gone Haywire. (Essay: "Germans’ efforts to confront their country’s criminal history and to root out antisemitism have shifted from vigilance to a philosemitic McCarthyism that threatens their rich cultural life.")

Graeme Wood. The Atlantic, 10/02/2023: What Emily Wilson's Iliad Misses: Her new translation is inviting to modern readers, but doesn’t capture the barbaric world of the original.

Adam Kirsch. Jewish Review of Books, fall 2023: Ruthless Cosmopolitans. Review of: Maestros & Monsters: Days & Nights with Susan Sontag & George Steiner / Robert Boyers.

An interview: "The writer’s painstaking attention to the smallest units of language scales up to momentous questions about how errors of communication shape human relations."

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 10/01/2023: Why Lydia Davis Loves Misunderstandings.

Two more from The New Yorker:

Margaret Talbot. 10/02/2023: What Really Started the Great Chicago Fire? Review of: The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul / Scott W. Berg.

Ruth Franklin. 10/02/2023: How Queer Is “Frankenstein”? Review of: Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein: A Novel / Anne Eeekhout -- Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel / C.E. McGill -- Reproduction: A Novel / Louisa Hall.

Elizabeth A. Harris. NYT, 10/03/2023: Here Are the Finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards.

Note: the longlist is on the previous thread, item 78.

Fiction:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk

Paul Harding, This Other Eden

Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time

Justin Torres, Blackouts

Nonfiction:

Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice

Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes

Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

Poetry:

John Lee Clark, How to Communicate: poems

Craig Santos Perez, from unincorporated territory åmot

Evie Shockley, suddenly we

Brandon Som, Tripas: poems

Monica Youn, From From: poems

Translated Literature:

Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny
Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain
Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato

Pilar Quintana, Abyss
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness
Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott

Young People's Literature

Kenneth M. Cadow, Gather

Huda Fahmy, Huda F Cares?

Vashti Harrison, Big

Katherine Marsh, The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine

Dan Santat, A First Time for Everything

Also:

Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 10/03/2023: Here are the finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards.

Adrian Horton. Guardian, 10/03/2023: Paul Harding and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah among National Book Award finalists.

Emma Sarappo. The Atlantic, 10/02/2023: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I Worry That What We’re Looking at Is the End of Curiosity.’

TLS October 6, 2023|No. 6288

Featured:

Marion Turner. When poetry was everything: English verse before and after Chaucer. Review of: THE OXFORD HISTORY OF POETRY IN ENGLISH: Volume 2: Medieval poetry 1100-1400 / Helen Cooper and Robert R. Edwards, editors -- THE OXFORD HISTORY OF POETRY IN ENGLISH: Volume 3: Medieval poetry 1400-1500 / Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, editors.

Nick Lowe. Finding a voice of bronze: A new translation of the Iliad and a quest for its author. Review of: HOMER AND HIS ILIAD / Robin Lane Fox -- THE ILIAD / Homer; translated by Emily Wilson.

Nelly Kaprièlian. Trouble makers: When French women write about sexual freedom. (Essay)

Claire Lowden. Into the woods: A young girl sets out for safety in seventeenth-century Virginia. Review of: THE VASTER WILDS / Lauren Groff.

Literature & Bibliography

Clifford Thompson. Working for the Man: Murder and racism in a counterfactual 1920s America. Review of: CAHOKIA JAZZ / Francis Spufford.

Catriona Seth. Big bad wolves: French chivalrous tales in a contemporary context. Review of: AU NON DES FEMMES: Libérer nos classiques du regard masculin / Jennifer Tamas.

Henry Hitchings. Book burning: Is the destruction of printed matter always a tragedy? Review of: THE BOOK AT WAR: Libraries and readers in an age of conflict / Andrew Pettegree.

Susie Thomas. Kureishi’s chronicles: A writer who redefined what it means to be English. Review of: HANIF KUREISHI: Writing the self / Ruvani Ranasinha.

Irina Dumitrescu. The Devil’s shortcuts: ChatGPT and moralizing medieval tales.

In Brief Review of: RATTLEBONE / Maxine Clark.

In Brief Review of: THE PORPOISE AND THE OTTER: The literary friendship of Max Beerbohm and G. K. Chesterton / William Blissett.

Norma Clarke. Asleep with eyes open: An eighteenth-century botanist reckons with his colonial past. Review of: BEYOND THE DOOR OF NO RETURN / David Diop; translated by Sam Taylor.

Horticulture

Ysende Maxtone Graham. Bloomin’ marvellous: How women gardeners won the struggle to be taken seriously. Review of: AN ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE THING: The radical lives of Britain’s pioneering women gardeners / Fiona Davison.

Ann Kennedy Smith. Roddons and cruck barns: An archaeologist makes the English desert bloom. Review of: A FENLAND GARDEN: Creating a haven for people, plants and wildlife / Francis Pryor.

In Brief Review of: UPROOTING: From the Caribbean to the countryside – finding home in an English country garden / Marchelle Farrell.

Arts

Lucy Dallas. Letting the days go by: Talking Heads in their prime, captured on stage. Review of the Jonathan Demme film of the Talking Heads performance Stop Making Sense.

Guy Dammann. The death of a child: George Benjamin’s new opera: the expression of a fundamental mystery. Review of: George Benjamin's opera PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House.

Michael Caines. Chemistry lessons: A starry two-hander set on Hampstead Heath. Review of Ben Weatherill's play FRANK AND PERCY, The Other Palace, London, until December 17.

Religion

David Aberbach. Sins of the fatherland: The author of I and Thou was rejected by the country he loved. Review of: I AND THOU: 100th anniversary reissue / Martin Buber; translated by Ro.

History, Politics, & Society

Mick Gidley. Trails of tears: The destruction of the Native American tribes in the South. Review of: A BRUTAL RECKONING: The Creek Indians and the epic war for the American South / Peter Cozzens.

Colin Rose. Murder most common: Why homicide rates rose as Europe became more ‘civilized.’ Review of: ENMITY AND VIOLENCE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE / Stuart Carroll.

Waqar Zaidi. Great British boffins?: The inventors of radio beams and the bouncing bomb. Review of: The Battle of the Beams: The secret science of radar that turned the tide of the Second World War / Tom Whipple -- DAM BUSTER: Barnes Wallis: An engineer’s life/ Richard Morris.

Hannah White. Parliament of fouls: Rule-breaking and criminality in the UK’s democratic institution. Review of: THE ABUSE OF POWER: Confronting injustice in public life / Theresa May -- CODES OF CONDUCT: Why we need to fix parliament – and how to do it / Chris Bryant.

Ian Cawood. Cleaning up: Labour governments past, and the examples they set. Review of: The Men of 1924 / Peter Clark -- AGE OF HOPE: Labour, 1945, and the birth of modern Britain / Richard Toye.

Robin Fodor. Friends in high places: Chris Mullin looks on from the sidelines. Review of: DIDN’T YOU USE TO BE CHRIS MULLIN?: Diaries 2010–22 / Chris Mullin.

In Brief Review of: The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge / Joshua Ehrlich.

In Brief Review of: MY RUSSIA: War or peace? / Mikhail Shishkin; translated by Gesche Ipsen.

Geography

In Brief Review of: A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma / Noreen Masud.

In Brief Review of: THE WAY OF THE HERMIT: My incredible 40 years living in the wilderness / Ken Smith, with Will Millard.

Recent reviews from The New Yorker:

Corey Robin. 10/04/2023: How Do We Survive the Constitution?. Review of: How Democracies Die / Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (2019) -- and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point / Levitsky and Ziblatt (2023).

Emily Witt. 09/27/2023 (missed this last month): How the AR-15 Became an American Brand. Review of: American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 / Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson.

Jonathan Kirshner. LARB, 10/02/2023: Addressing the China Challenge: Realisms Right and Wrong. Review of: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics / John J. Mearsheimer (2014 updated version) -- Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? / Graham Allison.

Suzanne Eckes. The Conversation, 10/02/2023: Where the Supreme Court stands on banning books.

"The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to the Norwegian novelist and playwright Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”"

Alex Marshall. NYT, 10/05/2023: Nobel Prize in Literature: Jon Fosse Is the 2023 Laureate.

Randy Boyagada. NYT, 10/05/2023: Jon Fosse’s Books Seek and Find the Divine: The Nobel Prize winner writes about characters trying to transcend their worldly lives.

Damion Searls. Atlantic, 10/05/2023: The Nobel Winner Whose Writing Speaks to Everyone: Jon Fosse’s English translator on the author’s evocation of peacefulness.

Catherine Taylor. Guardian, 10/05/2023: Where to start with: Jon Fosse: Having long been tipped as the next Nobel laureate, the Norwegian writer has this year been awarded the prize. For those new to the acclaimed playwright and novelist, here are some good ways in.

Jill Pellettieri. WaPo, 10/05/2023: Norwegian writer Jon Fosse receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alex Shepherd. TNR, 10/05/2023: With Jon Fosse’s Win, the Nobel Prize in Literature Is So Back: The once wild-and-woolly literary award has entered its steady and serious era.

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 10/06/2023: Jon Fosse, the Nobel Prize, and the Art of What Can’t Be Named.

From 2022:

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 11/13/2022: Jon Fosse’s Search for Peace. (An interview)

Remo Verdickt, Emiel Roothooft. LARB, 12/31/2022: A Second, Silent Language: A Conversation with Jon Fosse. On the occasion of the publication of Septology I–VII / Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls.

From 2021:

Ruth Margalit. NYRB, 10/23/2021: The Mystical Realist: Jon Fosse’s Septology is suffused with religious symbolism, taking on, in its incantatory language and repetitions, the rhythm of the rosary. Review of: The Other Name: Septology I–II / Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls -- I Is Another: Septology III–V / Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls.

Dan Sinykin. Slate, 10/01/2023: The Man Who Invented Fantasy: All those wizards, ogres, and barely-clad elf queens in the bookstore? You have Lester del Rey to thank.

"A new exhibition tells the story of the Armed Services Editions, pocket-size paperback weapons in the fight for democracy."

Jennifer Schuessler. NYT, 10/06/2023: How the Humble Paperback Helped Win World War II. (At the Grolier Club, Manhattan, through Dec. 30)

Complaints about reading stuff on the Internet:

David Samuels. Table, 10/02/2023: The Chained Reader: How the logic of machines makes us less human.

Newsworthy books & authors in The New Yorker:

Gideon Lewis-Kraus. 10/04/2023: Michael Lewis’s Big Contrarian Bet. Regarding Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon / Michael Lewis, regarding crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.

Margret Grebowicz. 10/07/2023: Terry Bisson’s History of the Future. On science fiction writer Terry Bisson: "Each month, for the Bay Area sci-fi trade magazine Locus, Bisson drafts four short paragraphs about future events. The paragraphs, with brief headlines (“Pope weds,” “Apple buys Estée Lauder,” “Suez Canal closes”) appear in little boxes under the title “This Month in History,” and are each associated with specific dates (July 16, 2049; May 26, 2105; and June 7, 2255, respectively)."

Jay Kaspian Kang. 10/07/2023: Ibram X. Kendi, Hasan Minhaj, and the Question of Selling Out. Hasan Minhaj is a comedian whose semi-autobiographical takes are somewhat fictional, Ibram Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning & How to be an Antiracist.

A new biography of the author of the James Bond books:

D J Taylor. Literary Review, 10/2023: Becoming James Bond. Review of: Ian Fleming: The Complete Man / Nicholas Shakespeare.

Assorted book recommendations from fivebooks.com:

Arianna Reiche, interviewed by Uri Bram. 10/03/2023: The Best Ergodic Fiction. Lecturer in metafiction at City, University of London, & the author of At the End of Every Day: a novel, recommends:

Christopher Manson, Maze: solve the world's most challenging puzzle

Mark Z. Danielewski. House of Leaves

Anna Burns. Milkman: a novel

Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities

Susanna Clarke. Piranesi

Sophie Roell. 10/08/2023: Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023. Roell, a fivebooks editor/interviewer, recommends:

Tom Holland. Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age

Sarah Ruden. Vergil: The Poet's Life (Ancient Lives)

Nicholas Shakespeare. Ian Fleming: the complete Man (see also >19 featherbear:)

Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell. The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math's Unsung Trailblazers (per Amazon, to be published in the US July 2024; keep in mind that fivebooks is British)

Sebastian Edwards. The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism

Be warned that Roell is an industrious reader & recommends even more books in her notes.

Finally, books on sound recommended by the author of the forthcoming (Nov 2023 per Amazon) A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous:

Caspar Henderson, interviewed by Cal Flyn. The best books on Sound. Recommendations:

Bernie Krause. The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places

Nina Kraus. Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World

Michael Spitzer. The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

Thomas Mann. Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend

Karen Bakker. The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

Literary Hub, 10/09/2023: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction announces the shortlist for its £50,000 prize.

The nominees:

Hannah Barnes. Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children

Tania Branigan. Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution

Christopher Clark. Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848- 1849

Jeremy Eichler. Time’s Echo: The Second World War, The Holocaust, and The Music of Remembrance

Jennifer Homans. Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century

John Vaillant. Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

Tolstoy, Bram Stoker, & Stephen King:

Alexander Chee. Guernica, 10/02/2023: When Horror Is the Truth-teller.

Chris Klimek. Smithsonian, 10/02/2023: A Brief History of Banned Books in America.

"In addition to political censorship and budget cuts, libraries are being undermined by rapacious digital licensing agreements."

Brewster Kahle. Guardian, 10/09/2023: The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts.

Kate Womersley. Guardian, 10/10/2023: Eve by Cat Bohannon review – long overdue evolutionary account of women and their bodies. Review of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution / Cat Bohannon.

Michelle Orange. New Yorker, 10/09/2023: The Meaning of Madonna. Review of: Madonna: A Rebel Life / Mary Gabriel.

Dan Sinykin. The Nation, 10/10/2023: What Was Literary Fiction?

TLS, October 13, 2023|No. 6289

Featured

Regina Rini. What is woke?: The dangers of identity politics without a belief in progress. Review of: THE IDENTITY TRAP: A story of ideas and power in our time / Yascha Mounk -- LEFT IS NOT WOKE / Susan Neiman.

Philip Ball. Where there’s a will: The quest to determine whether humanity has the freedom to choose. Review of: DETERMINED: Life without free will / Robert Sapolsky -- FREE AGENTS: How evolution gave us free will / Kevin J. Mitchell.

Tim Parks. The scars of love: Elsa Morante’s urgent, exhilarating novel of falsehood and secrecy. Review of: LIES AND SORCERY / Elsa Morante; translated by Jenny McPhee.

Paul Binding. The quiet genius of Jon Fosse: ‘Intense verbal minimalism’ is the hallmark of the Nobel laureate. (Essay)

Literature

Ann Aslanyan. Down with the street kids: Writing by the Marxist-cum-Catholic enfant terrible. Review of: BOYS ALIVE / Pier Paolo Pasolini; translated by Tim Parks -- HERETICAL AESTHETICS: Pasolini on painting / Pier Paolo Pasolini; edited and translated by Ara H. Merjian and Alessandro Giammei -- THEOREM / Pier Paolo Pasolini; translated by Stuart Hood.

Alex Peake-Tomkinson. Oysters, chocolate, cream and froth: A dystopian thriller with a gastronomic bent. Review of: LAND OF MILK AND HONEY: a novel / C. Pam Zhang.

Kim Sherwood. A political hunger: The failure to address poverty in eighteenth-century France. Review of: THE GLUTTON: a novel / A.K. Blakemore.

Miranda France. Spoilt brats: A murder story of self-absorption and timeless human cruelty. Review of: THE CITY OF THE LIVING / Nicola Lagioia; translated by Ann Goldstein.

Nick Holdstock. Spin the wheel: Myth and karmic rebirth in a village in western France. Review of: THE ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE GRAVEDIGGERS' GUILD / Mathias Énard; translated by Frank Wynne.

Elizabeth Dearnley. Wishful thinking: A shy novelist is bedazzled by a mysterious lover. Review of: BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE: a novel / Anna Biller.

In Brief Review of: THE NENOQUICH / Henry Bean.

In Brief Review of: BLOOD FEATHER / Patrick McGuinness.

In Brief Review of: CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ: A California life / Cynthia L. Haven.

In Brief Review of: The Translator / Harriet Crawley.

Arts & Culture

Sophie Oliver. Dress for excess: How the Bloomsbury group expressed liberation through their clothes. Review of: BRING NO CLOTHES: Bloomsbury and the philosophy of fashion / Charlie Porter & the exhibition Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and fashion, Charleston in Lewes, East Sussex, until January 7.

Emily May. The Rite stuff: A new imagining of Les Noces. Review of the English National Ballet's OUR VOICES, Sadler’s Wells, London.

Theo Zenou. Heavy weight reading: The outsize contribution of Jewish boxers. Review of: STARS AND SCARS: The story of Jewish boxing in London / Jeff Jones.

Roger Fry. ‘Shall we wear top hats?’: A previously unpublished amusement by Roger Fry, introduced by Michael Caines.

Ian Sansom. Lasting impressions: The people who become part of us. (Essay on impressionist Mike Yarwood)

History, Politics, & Society

Elizabeth Frood. Kings and spin doctors: Pomp and propaganda in ancient Egypt. Review of: RAMESSES THE GREAT: Egypt’s king of kings / Toby Wilkinson -- A HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT: Volume Three: From the shepherd kings to the end of the Theban monarchy / John Romer.

Joe Moran. Getting personal: A New York Times columnist urges us to talk to strangers. Review of: HOW TO KNOW A PERSON: The art of seeing others deeply and being deeply seen / David Brooks.

Nat Segnit. Everyman’s war: The life and death in the trenches of Michael Palin’s great-uncle. Review of: GREAT-UNCLE HARRY: A tale of war and empire / Michael Palin.

Wendy Moore. Light in darkness: A strident, angry and funny account of blindness. Review of: LIFE UNSEEN: A story of blindness / Selina Mills.

Norma Clarke. How it really was: A BBC journalist is gripped by the papers his mother left behind. Review of: RUSKIN PARK: Sylvia, me and the BBC / Rory Cellan-Jones.

In Brief Review of: MERITS OF THE PLAGUE / Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī; Edited and translated by Joel Blecher and Mairaj Syed.

In Brief Review of: UN UOMO DI POCHE PAROLE: Storia di Lorenzo, che salvò Primo / Carlo Greppi.

In Brief Review of: WAR AND PUNISHMENT: The story of Russian oppression and Ukrainian resistance / Mikhail Zygar.

"The Indian authorities have charged the renowned novelist Arundhati Roy over public comments she made 13 years ago about the restive Kashmir region, the latest step in an intensifying crackdown on free speech by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ... The lieutenant governor of the Delhi region said the government had considered filing a more serious charge of sedition against Ms. Roy and Mr. Hussain in the case, which sprang from a complaint filed in October 2010 by a right-wing Kashmiri Hindu activist against speakers at a conference on Kashmir."

Sameer Yasir. NYT, 10/11/2023: India Charges Novelist Arundhati Roy Over a 2010 Speech.

"The curious origins of the Athenaeum, a library on a nondescript Midtown block that is devoted to the psychedelic experience."

Rachel Nuwer. NYT, 10/07/2023: The Quiet Reading Room That Gets Trippy After Dark.

Denis Duncan. NYT, 10/13/2023: In the Beginning Were the Word Nerds. Review of: THE DICTIONARY PEOPLE: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary / Sarah Ogilvie.

Mary Norris. New Yorker, 10/12/2023: The Edith Hamilton Way. Review of: American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton / Victoria Houseman.

"Written for laymen, read by women and kings, Christian Wolff’s mathematical method made him a key Enlightenment philosopher."

Michael Walschots. Aeon, 10/12/2023: The Great, Forgotten Wolff.

NYRB Online Nov. 2, 2023: 60th Anniversary Issue

Literature

Catherine Nicholson. Theater for a New Audience. Review of: Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book / Emma Smith -- Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare / Chris Laoutaris -- Shakespeare’s Syndicate: The First Folio, Its Publishers, and the Early Modern Book Trade / Ben Higgins.

Pankaj Mishra. When the Barbarians Take Over. "Uwe Wittstock’s new account of writers considering whether to flee or to remain in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power sheds light on the choices faced by many writers in India and Russia today." Review of: February 1933: The Winter of Literature / Uwe Wittstock, translated from the German by Daniel Bowles.

Hermione Lee. A Wider Devotion. Review of: The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life / Clare Carlisle.

Namwalli Serpell. ‘Such Womanly Touches.’ (Essay, with remarks on George Eliot)

Deborah Eisenberg. Virtuosos of Self-Deception. Review of: Lies and Sorcery / Elsa Morante, translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee.

Michael Gorra. Who Are These People? Review of: The Pole: a novel / J.M. Coetzee.

Alma Guillermoprieto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen. Ghosts of Aracataca. (Essay: "In a series of early short stories and novellas based on his childhood memories, Gabriel García Márquez found the style, voice, and sense of place that culminate in One Hundred Years of Solitude.")

Meghan O'Gieblyn. Up All Night. Review of: Awake / Harald Voetmann, translated from the Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen -- Sublunar / Harald Voetmann, translated from the Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen.

Arts

Lucy Sante. Rhapsodies in Bop. "A recent exhibition at the Morgan showed how thoroughly at home the poet Blaise Cendrars was among visual artists." Review of Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything, an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, May 26–September 24, 2023.

Simon Callow. Mozart the Modernist. Review of: Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces / Patrick Mackie.

Martin Filler. The Neotraditionalist. "The architect Robert A. M. Stern is America’s most vociferous and successful exponent of a Classicism that would be considered anachronistic in much of the rest of the world." Review of: Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture / Robert A.M. Stern with Leopoldo Villardi.

Ingrid D. Rowland. ‘A Great Glory to Wealth.’ Review of: The Villa Farnesina: Palace of Venus in Renaissance Rome / James Grantham Turner. "Like so many of the Tuscan banker Agostino Chigi’s undertakings, the Villa Farnesina burst through all the old categories—social, architectural, and cultural—for a merchant’s house."

Jed Perl. Picasso’s Transformations. Review of: Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn, exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, September 14, 2023–January 14, 2024, catalog byAnna Jozefacka with Lauren Rosati -- Picasso in Fontainebleau, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, October 8, 2023–February 17, 2024, catalog of the exhibition edited by Anne Umland with Francesca Ferrari and Alexandra Morrison -- It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, June 2–September 24, 2023 -- Picasso and the Spanish Classics, an exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, New York City, November 2, 2023–February 4, 2024 -- Andy Warhol: Thirty Are Better Than One, an exhibition at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, New York City, May 10–July 30, 2023 -- Looking at Picasso / Pepe Karmel -- Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma / Claire Dederer -- Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America / Hugh Eakin.

Stacy Schiff. ‘Hallucinatory Spitballs.’ (Essay: "Arthur Miller wrote that The Crucible should not pass as a true story. Why has the play become ubiquitous in American high schools? What have we done with the actual greatest witch hunt in American history?")

Natural History & Philosophy

Martha C. Nussbaum. Where the Orcas Swim. Review of: Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling / Ryan Tucker Jones -- Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest / Nora Nickum -- Sonic Sea, a documentary film written by Mark Monroe and directed by Michelle Dougherty and Daniel Hinerfeld -- We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility / Michael J. Moore.

Politics, Society, & History

Mark Danner. The Grievance Artist. Review of: Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump / Miles Taylor -- American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation / David Rothkopf -- The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017–2021 / Peter Baker and Susan Glasser -- The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible / Luke Mogelson.

Marilynne Robinson. Dismantling Iowa. (Essay: "American higher education is premised on liberal ideals, intended to make young people independent thinkers and capable citizens. What’s happening in Iowa undermines that legacy.")

Fintan O'Toole. Defying Tribalism. Review of: Left Is Not Woke / Susan Neiman. "In her new polemic, the philosopher Susan Neiman charges her fellow leftists with intellectual betrayal and calls for a return to universal ideals of justice and humanity."

Howard W. French. China’s Foreclosed Possibilities. Review of: China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower / Frank Dikötter -- Never Turn Back: China and the Forbidden History of the 1980s / Julian Gewirtz -- Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise / Susan L. Shirk -- “Avec toi au pouvoir, je suis tranquille” = “With you in charge, I am at ease” : Hua Guofeng (1921–2008) / Stéphane Malsagne.

Timothy Garton Ash. ‘Europe Whole and Free.’ (Essay: "After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Europe looked forward to finally being whole, free, and at peace. Is that vision coming closer or receding?")

Susan Faludi. ‘Hag of Misery.’ Review of: The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime / Nicholas L. Syrett -- Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist / Jennifer Wright.

Sue Halpern. The Bull’s-Eye on Your Thoughts. Review of: The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology / Nita A. Farahany -- Reading Our Minds: The Rise of Big Data Psychiatry / Daniel Barron.

Here's one I overlooked in the July-Sept thread. Less for the recommendations, rather because of the interviewee's readerly enthusiasm:

Lesley Thomsen, interviewed by Sophie Roell, 09/20/2023: The Best Historical Fiction Set in England.

Louise Glück, 1943-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück, Nobel-Winning Poet Who Explored Trauma and Loss, Dies at 80. Author of: Triumph of Achilles -- Ararat -- The Wild Iris -- Poems, 1962-2012 -- Winter Recipes from the Collective -- Faithful and Virtuous Night.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück, lyrical poet who won Nobel Prize, dies at 80. "She received virtually all of America’s top literary honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for her 1993 collection The Wild Iris, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020 'for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.'"

Dan Chiasson. NYRB, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück (1943–2023).

New Yorker, 10/16/2023: Louise Glück, Remembered by Writers. "Henri Cole, Elisa Gonzalez, Jiayang Fan, Katy Waldman, Kevin Young, and Hilton Als commemorate the Nobel-winning poet."

Meghan O'Rourke. Yale Review, 10/18/2023: Louise Glück: The poet who taught me to write books.

From 2021:

Kate Kellaway. Guardian, 08/31/2021: Louise Glück: Poems 1962-2020 review – a grand introduction to the Nobel prize winner.

From 2020:

Hannah Aizenmann. New Yorker, 10/09/2020: The Nobel Laureate Louise Glück in The New Yorker.

Walt Hunter. The Atlantic, 10/10/2020: The Many Beginnings of Louise Glück.

Richard Sandomir. NYT, 10/13/2023: Louise Meriwether Dies at 100; in 1970, a New, Black Literary Voice. Author of Daddy Was a Numbers Runner.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 10/13/2023: Louise Meriwether, novelist who conjured 1930s Harlem, dies at 100.

Imani Perry. NYT Magazine, 10/13/2023: How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature.

Jennifer Wilson. NYT, 10/20/2023: In Jesmyn Ward’s New Novel, Slavery Is Hell and Dante Is Our Guide. Review of: Let Us Descend / Jesmyn Ward.

Areeba Shah. Salon, 10/14/2023: Expert sounds alarm as Texas book bans grow: These efforts are “well-organized and well-funded.”

"Transit Books, the American publisher of Nobel Prize-winning author Jon Fosse, is the rare publishing house that literally operates out of a house."

Jacob Brogan. WaPo, 10/13/2023: This couple just published a Nobel winner from their living room.

Molly Young. NYT, 10/15/2023: The Essential Vladimir Nabokov.

Is the exclamation point the typographical equivalent of junk food?! Literary examples.

Florence Hazart. The Millions, 10/11/20232: How to Exclaim!

Matthew Pressman. WaPo, 10/15/2023: An inside look at the scandals and successes of the New York Times. Review of: The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism / Adam Nagourney.

Isa Arsén. LitHub, 10/12/2023: In Praise of Pulp Fiction: Isa Arsén on Carving Out a Home in a Bygone Genre.

Scott Feinberg. Hollywood Reporter, 10/12/2023: The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time. (By people selected by the Hollywood Reporter; with additional suggestions under each listing)

Amanda Perry. The Walrus, 10/17/2023: I Changed My Mind about Reading Problematic Male Authors.

Pamela Paul. NYT, 10/18/2023: A Chill Has Been Cast Over the Book World. Palestinian author Adania Shibli & her book Minor Detail canceled at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

LitHub, 10/17/2023: An Open Letter in Support of Adania Shibli From More Than 350 Writers, Editors, and Publishers.

Rebecca Onion. Slate, 10/17/2023: Et Tu, Scholastic Book Fair?

Rachel Treisman. Npr, 10/17/2023: U.S. book bans are taking a toll on a beloved tradition: Scholastic Book Fairs.

Adrian Horton. Guardian, 10/18/2023: Scholastic to separate books on race, gender and sexuality for book fairs.

Dana Goldstein. NYT, 10/25/2023: Publisher Scholastic Backtracks on Isolating Works on Race and Gender.

Praveena Somasundaram, Hannah Natanson and Kim Bellware. WaPo, 10/25/2023: Scholastic reverses course on segregating ‘diverse’ book fair titles.

Recently from The New Yorker:

Paul Grimstad. 10/11/2023: Confessions of an Audiobook Addict.

Ian Penman. 10/16/2023: The Stubborn Mysteries of Lou Reed. Review of: Lou Reed: The King of New York / Will Hermes.

Ian Buruma. 10/16/2023: What the Tokyo Trial Reveals About Empire, Memory, and Judgment. Review of: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia / Gary J. Bass.

TLS October 20, 2023|No. 6290

Featured

Nigel Warburton. Slow thinking: Daniel Dennett’s evolutionary philosophy of mind. Review of: I’VE BEEN THINKING / Daniel C. Dennett.

Ruth Scurr. His three muses: A portrait of Monet’s interior life. Review of: MONET: The restless vision / Jackie Wullschläger.

Claire Lowdon. . Review of: TREMOR: a novel / Teju Cole.

Katie Stallard. Rogue state: Why it is time to stop mocking – and underestimating – North Korea. Review of: NORTH KOREA AND THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR ORDER: When bad behaviour pays / Edward Howell -- THE LAZARUS HEIST: From Hollywood to high finance – inside North Korea’s global cyber war / Geoff White -- BLACK GIRL FROM PYONGYANG: In search of my identity / Monica Macias -- THE HARD ROAD OUT: One woman’s escape from North Korea / Jihyun Park and Seh-Lynn Chai; translated by Sarah Baldwin.

Literature

Joanna Neilly. The message in a bottle: Ten tales by E. T. A. Hoffmann, master of the uncanny. Review of: THE GOLDEN POT: And other tales of the uncanny / E. T. A. Hoffmann; selected and translated by Peter Wortsman.

Anne E. Duggan. The colours of magic: Lively, intriguing reworkings of classic fairy tales. Review of: 3 books by Romer Wilson, all edited by Jack Zipes: Green Magic -- Silver Magic -- Red Magic.

Peter Filkins. High-wire act: Remembering Ingeborg Bachmann. (Essay)

Jayne Thomas. Too deep for tears: Mind, nature and God in Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode. Review of: THE INTELLIGIBLE ODE: Intimations of paradise / Graham Davidson.

Fiona Stafford. A visionary world: Trees in Wordsworth’s poetic landscape. Review of: VERSED IN LIVING NATURE: Wordsworth’s trees / Peter Dale and Brandon C. Yen.

Douglas Field. Revenants’ return: Sorrow, lyricism and memory in the work of Jesmyn Ward. Review of: LET US DESCEND / Jesmyn Ward -- JESMYN WARD: New critical essays / Sheri-Marie Harrison, Arin Keeble and Maria Elena Torres-Quevedo, editors.

Robert Potts. The art of deception: Le Carré’s biographer revisits the author’s manipulative love life. Review of: THE SECRET LIFE OF JOHN LE CARRÉ / Adam Sisman.

Mark Wickham Jones. Letter drop: A mysterious postcard from the young John le Carré. (Essay)

Mia Levitin. Grief is the thing with no illusions: Stories of mourning and intimacy. Review of: WEDNESDAY’S CHILD / Yiyun Li.

Kevin Brazil. Pure acoustic material: The human voice and the listening it creates. Review of: CANOES / Maylis de Kerangal; translated by Jessica Moore.

In Brief Review of: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION / Evelyn McDonnell.

In Brief Review of: MY WEIL / Lars Iyer. "Simone Weil comes to Manchester in Lars Iyer’s latest campus novel."

In Brief Review of: SEVENTEEN / Joe Gibson. "Written under the pseudonym Joe Gibson, Seventeen is a fictionalized narrative of a seventeen-year-old’s sexual relationship with his thirty-five-year-old teacher, “Miss P”."

Arts

Anna Aslanyan. ‘My art has no gender’: The first female artist to be given the run of the Royal Academy. Review of: MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: A visual biography / Marina Abramović with Katya Tylevich and the exhibition MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Royal Academy of Arts, London, until January 1.

Norma Clarke. Cocking a snook: Sarah Lucas’s riposte to the tabloid objectification of women. Review of the exhibition SARAH LUCAS: Happy Gas, Tate Britain, London, until January 14.

In Brief Review of: All the President’s Men (BFI Film Classics) / Robert B. Ray and Christian Keathley.

In Brief Review of: ALL EXCEPT YOU / Roland Barthes; translated and with a commentary by Joe Milutis. "Roland Barthes’s cryptic reflections on Saul Steinberg."

Politics, Society, & Culture

Barnaby Phillips. Hating America, loving Coke: How a dark, sticky drink from Atlanta conquered Africa. Review of: BOTTLED: How Coca-Cola became African / Sara Byala.

Lindsey Hilsum. No way forwards, or back: The plight of West African migrants stuck in Niger. (Essay)

Regina Rini. Ancient wisdom: Today's politicians are not the retiring sort. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: IN SEARCH OF SHEBA / Barbara Toy. "Motoring solo through North Africa as a woman in the 1950s."

In Brief Review of: TRAVELLERS OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION: A global history of the Communist International / Brigitte Studer; translated by Dafydd Roberts.

Recently on LARB:

Rani Neutill. 10/17/2023: Prohibition and Hope: The Politics of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Writings.

Kaya Genç. 10/16/2023: Turkey’s Feminist Autofictionalist. Review of: Cold Nights of Childhood / Tezer Özlü.

Sharon Marcus. Public Books, 10/18/2023: Capitalism Alone Is Not the Problem. Review of: Birnam Wood: a novel / Eleanor Catton.

Maureen O'Connor. NYT, 10/17/2023: Barnes & Noble Sets Itself Free. "The new layouts at Barnes & Noble stores across the country put a stronger emphasis on books rather than impulse-purchase items."

Cullen Murphy. Atlantic, 10/24/2023: Will the Expelled People of Chagos Finally Find Justice? On The Last Colony / Philippe Sands.

Recent philosophy reviews from LARB:

Kieran Setiya. 10/24/2023: Reflections of a Moral Realist. Review of: Moral Feelings, Moral Reality, and Moral Progress / Thomas Nagel.

Julien Crockett. 10/22/2023: Everything Is Embedded in What Came Before. Interview regarding Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will / Robert M. Sapolsky.

Natalie Zemon Davis, 1928-2023

Elsa Dixler. NYT, 10/23/2023: Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian of the Marginalized, Dies at 94. Historian author of: The Return of Martin Guerre -- Society and Culture in Early Modern France -- Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and Their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France -- Women on the Margins -- The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France -- Slaves on Screen -- Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds.

Hounded out of the U.S. by the House Un-American Activities Committee, she & her husband had their academic careers in Canada.

"In 1971, she and a colleague, Jill Ker Conway, shook up Toronto’s conservative history department by teaching a course on the history of women and gender, one of the first in North America. (Dr. Conway went on to become the first woman to be named president of Smith College.)"

The Secret Author, The Critic, 10/2023: Meeting the masses: With scant audiences and paltry remuneration, author’s tours can be far from glamorous.

"In Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Marguerite Young held a mirror to the country’s ambition, delusion, and insatiable quest for perfection."

Ryan Ruby. New Yorker, 10/24/2023: The Longest, Least-Remembered Great American Novel.

Hilary Plum. LARB, 10/24/2023: Reading in the Conglomerate Era: Or, Do Small Presses Even Exist?

TLS October 27, 2023|No. 6291

Featured

Andrew David Irvine. Asking all the right questions: How Plato moved from utopianism to practical politics. Review of: PLATO OF ATHENS: A life in philosophy / Robin Waterfield -- OF RULE AND OFFICE: Plato’s ideas of the political / Melissa Lane -- PLATONISM: A concise history from the early Academy to late antiquity / Mauro Bonazzi; translated by Sergio Knipe.

Edward N. Luttwak. Greed and glory: A survey of war, from personal combat to grand strategy. Review of: ON WARS / Michael Mann.

Frances Wilson. The crime of being alive: The visionary brilliance of an author who believed in nothing. Review of: SELECTED NONFICTION, 1962-2007 / J.G. Ballard; edited by Mark Blacklock.

Colin Jones. Mood altering: How the French Revolution emerged from the streets. Review of: THE REVOLUTIONARY TEMPER: Paris, 1748–1789 / Robert Darnton.

Literature

Margaret Drabble. Literary anacondas: Two critics gulp down the modern novel. Review of: THE NOVEL, WHO NEEDS IT? / Joseph Epstein -- RETROLAND: A reader’s guide to the dazzling diversity of modern fiction / Peter Kemp.

Ladee Hubbard. Blue notes: Essays by a Black feminist intellectual. Review of: IN SEARCH OF A BEAUTIFUL FREEDOM: New and selected essays / Farah Jasmine Griffin.

Nat Segnit. Ghosts in the machine: Spitalfields, the metaverse and other realms of the uncanny. Review of: NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER: Ghost stories / Jeanette Winterson.

Jude Cook. Power, corruption and lies: An epic roman-fleuve of Israel’s criminal underworld. Review of: MAROR and ADAMA / Lavie Tidhor.

Craig Raine. The wind: A powerful literary symbol. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: HUMAN SACRIFICES / María Fernanda Ampuero; translated by Frances Riddle.

In Brief Review of: CANADIAN LITERARY FARE / Nathalie Cooke and Shelley Boyd, with Alexia Moyer. ("Savoury insights into Canadian literature")

Arts

Colin Grant. American amnesia: Martin Scorsese resurrects a true story of racial hatred and murder. Review of the film KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON directed by Martin Scorsese.

Alice Robb. Jackie, Daniel and the Cello: A sensitive portrayal of the life and work of Jacqueline du Pré. Review of: THE CELLIST, Royal Opera House, until November 2, a ballet inspired by the life of Jacqueline du Pre.

In Brief Review of: THE WORLD AND ITS DOUBLE: The life and work of Otto Preminger / Chris Fujiwara.

Philosophy

Costica Bradatan. Sound and smell of a philosophy: Diogenes the Cynic made the city his classroom. Review of: THE DANGEROUS LIFE OF DIOGENES THE CYNIC / Jean-Manuel Roubineau; translated by Malcolm DeBevoise.

Science & Technology

Angela Saini. When Adam delved: Sex differences and similarities between women and men. Review of: EVE: How the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution / Cat Bohannon.

Paul Duguid. Suicide Valley: Meritocracy and technocracy among the Palo Alto elite. Review of: PALO ALTO: A history of California, capitalism, and the world / Malcolm Harris.

Richard Norton-Taylor. Your image in the frame: A facial recognition app’s threat to privacy. Review of: YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US: The secretive startup dismantling your privacy / Kashmir Hill.

In Brief Review of: THE BRIDLEWAY: How horses shaped the British landscape / Tiffany Francis-Baker.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Ben Hutchinson. New moral order: A younger generation’s clash with the wartime generation. Review of: AFTER THE NAZIS: The story of culture in West Germany / Michael H. Kater -- OUT OF THE DARKNESS: The Germans 1942–2022 / Frank Trentmann.

Catriona Seth. Memento mori: What it means to be a secular Jew in France after Auschwitz. Review of: THE POSTCARD / Anne Berest; translated by Tina Kover.

Samantha Ellis. Ascent or descent?: A contentious account of the Jewish exodus from Iraq. Review of: THREE WORLDS: Memoir of an Arab-Jew / Avi Shlaim.

Anna Katharina Schaffner. The real you?: Striving to become your ‘best possible self’ in mind and body. Review of: SELF-MADE: Creating our identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians / Tara Isabella Burton.

In Brief Review of: TENDER MAPS: Travels in search of the emotions of place / Alice Maddicott.

In Brief Review of: A PEBBLE IN THE THROAT: Growing up between two continents / Aasmah Mir.

In Brief Review of: EDGELAND: A slow walk west / Sasha Swire.

"One of Australia’s most beloved writers, Garner—who has published novels, nonfiction, and three volumes of diaries—is finally catching on in the U.S."

Helen Sullivan. New Yorker, 10/26/2023: The Startling Candor of Helen Garner.

"With a free library card and the right app, you can check out e-books, audiobooks and more from your local branch."

J.D. Biersdorfer. NYT, 10/25/2023: Visit the Library From the Comfort of Your Own Phone.

Victoria Woollaston. BBC Future, 10/25/2023: The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language.

>62 featherbear: I had to double-check the date on this one — it reads like something published at the start of the pandemic in 2020. But no, it's from this month. Odd.

Frank Guan. n+1, fall 2023: Speaking in Tongues: On Don DeLillo. Review of: Don DeLillo: Three Novels of the 1980s / Ed. Mark Osteen. Library of America, 2022 -- Don DeLillo: Mao II, Underworld / Ed. Mark Osteen. Library of America, 2023.

Mara Cerri. WaPo, 10/29/2023: How I made Elena Ferrante’s ‘My Brilliant Friend’ into a graphic novel.

Recent books & authors in The New Yorker:

Katy Waldman. 10/29/2023: Jeanette Winterson Has No Idea What Happens Next. Her latest is Night Side of the River.

Jennifer Wilson. 10/27/2023: Marie NDiaye’s Drama of Exclusion and Revenge. Review of the novel Vengeance Is Mine: A novel / Marie NDiaye; translated by Jordan Stump.

Rebecca Mead. 10/23/2023: Why We Need to Talk About Marriage. Review of: On Marriage / Devorah Baum and The Two-Parent Privilege / Melissa Kearney.

Yiyun Li. 10/23/2023: What Gardening Offered After a Son’s Death.

Anthony Lane. 10/16/2023: Can Happiness Be Taught? Review of: Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier / Arthur Brooks & Oprah Winfrey.

Molly Fischer. 11/18/2023: How Glossier Made Effortlessness a Billion-Dollar Brand. Review of: Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier / Marissa Meltzer.

Robert Brustein, 1927-2023

"A critic and dramatist himself, he started repertory companies at Yale and Harvard and fiercely defended the art form, even if it meant feuding with playwrights."

Bruce Weber. NYT, 10/29/2023: Robert Brustein, Passionate Force in Nonprofit Theater, Dies at 96.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 10/31/2023: Robert Brustein, fiery champion of nonprofit theater, dies at 96.

"To meet consumer demand for instant gratification, writers have increasingly adopted the neutered rhetoric of brand management."

Kenneth Dillon. Noema, 10/26/2023: The Emptiness Of Literature Written For The Market.

Alexander Alter. NYT, 10/30/2023: ‘You Can’t Hide It’: Georgette Heyer and the Perils of Posthumous Revision.

Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter. NYT, 10/30/2023: KKR Closes Deal to Buy Simon & Schuster.

"Book Tour is a new series in which notable people show us their personal libraries."

John Williams. WaPo, 10/30/2023: Book Tour: At home with Stephen King.

Muzib Khan. Quillette, 11/01/2023: Destiny of Earth. Review of: A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going / Michael Muthukrishna.

Kevin Lozano. New Yorker, 11/01/2023: How Has Big Publishing Changed American Fiction?. Review of: Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature / Dan Sinykin.

TLS November 3, 2023|No. 6292

Features

Lawrence Douglas. Loser takes all: Why the US Constitution is no longer fit for purpose. Review of: TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point / Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt. (TLS/UK subtitle has the more optimistic: How to reverse an authoritarian turn)

D.J. Taylor. The fiction department: Two reworkings of Orwell’s masterpieces. Review of: JULIA / Sandra Newman -- BEASTS OF ENGLAND / Adam Biles.

Diane Mehta. Whitman at war: The poet’s Civil War diaries and his reflections on nature. Review of: SPECIMEN DAYS / Walt Whitman; edited by Max Cavitch -- WALT WHITMAN AND THE MAKING OF JEWISH AMERICAN POETRY / Dara Barnat.

Adam Mars-Jones. All that Hollywood allowed: Lives lived in public, lives blighted by illness and lives tragically devoted to religion. (Essay)

Literature, Bibliography, & Periodicals

Irina Dumitrescu. Grief and terror: The words of war in Beowulf. (Essay)

Adam Begley. Hunger games: A New York critic’s gluttony for books and food. Review of: THE UPSTAIRS DELICATESSEN: On eating, reading, reading about eating, and eating while reading / Dwight Garner.

James Marcus. High priests of culture: Two major critics of the modern era. Review of: MAESTROS & MONSTERS: Days & nights with Susan Sontag & George Steiner / Robert Boyers. (TLS spells out the ampersands)

Laura Beers. Behind the aspidistra: How Eileen O’Shaughnessy sacrificed herself to George Orwell’s career. Review of: WIFEDOM: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life / Anna Funder.

James Waddell. Paper trails: A journal dedicated to the fabric and display of writing. Review of: INSCRIPTION: The journal of material text – theory, practice, history @inscriptionjournal.com. Annual. £55 per issue, plus postage.

Susana Medina. A meeting of minds: celebrating European writing and the art of translation. Review of: THE RIVETER, @eurolitnetwork.com. Two issues a year. Free. Rosie Goldsmith, Editor.

Margaret Drabble. Dark battles of the home: Revisiting Dinah Brooke’s kings, queens, judges and lords. Review of: LORD JIM AT HOME / Dinah Brooke.

George Berridge. Vice and VIRTUE: A novel in the shadow of Joseph Conrad. Review of: THE DIMENSIONS OF A CAVE / Greg Jackson.

Michael LaPointe. Missing in action: Schemes and delusions in small-town America. Review of: THE CARETAKER / Ron Rash.

In Brief Review of: THE PHILOSOPHY OF LITERARY TRANSLATION: Dialogue, movement, ecology / Clive Scott.

Arts

James Cook. Down the rabbit hole: An online magazine for underground rock music. Review of: THE QUIETUS @thequietus.com; updated regularly. Free, with subscriber options. John Doran and Luke Turner, editors.

In Brief Review of: IMMORTAL THOUGHTS: Late style in a time of plague / Christopher Neve. ("Drawing on a lifetime’s engagement with western art, reflects on the last days and late style of twenty painters")

In Brief Review of: THE ENGLISH ACTOR: From medieval to modern / Peter Ackroyd.

In Brief Review of: HEAVEN’S GATE: The diary of an extra / Vivian Ridler; edited by Colin Ridler (regarding the Harvard graduation scene, filmed at Oxford University)

History, Politics, & Society

Krishan Kumar. World on the move: The plight of displaced people in the modern era. Review of: WRITING AGAINST EXPULSION IN THE POST-WAR WORLD: Making space for the human / David Herd.

David Herman. Saved from the fires: The Kindertransport and British refugee policy. Review of: THE KINDERTRANSPORT: What really happened / Andrea Hammel -- ALIENS: The chequered history of Britain’s wartime refugees / Paul Dowswell -- ESTHER SIMPSON: The true story of her mission to save scholars from Hitler’s persecution / John Eidinow.

Henry Hitchings. Sketches from life: A history of the notebook and its owners, from Florentine merchants to Bob Dylan. Review of: THE NOTEBOOK: A history of thinking on paper / Roland Allen.

Jonathan Sumption. A Trump-proof constitution: How the British system absorbs any amount of shock. Review of: THE CAMBRIDGE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM Volume 1: Exploring the constitution -- Volume 2: The changing constitution / Peter Cane and H. Kumarasingham, editors.

Nick Holdstock. Good fanatics: A new forum for locally sourced long-form reporting. Review of: THE DIAL, @thedial.world. Published online monthly. Free (donations welcome). Madeleine Schwartz and Linda Kinstler, editors.

In Brief Review of: STONE WILL ANSWER: A journey guided by craft, myth and geology / Beatrice Searle.

In Brief Review of: MY LIFE IN FRAGMENTS / Zygmunt Bauman; edited by Izabela Wagner; translated by Katarzyna Bartoszyńska.

"Mixing the medical and the personal, several memoirists find literary analogies the best way to capture unwelcome visits to “unimaginable lands.”

Alexandra Jacobs. NYT, 10/31/2023: Books Offer Shelter From the Storm of Dementia. On THE DAY AFTER YESTERDAY: Resilience in the Face of Dementia / Joe Wallace -- TRAVELERS TO UNIMAGINABLE LANDS: dementia and the hidden workings of the mind / Dasha Kiper -- MY FATHER’S BRAIN: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's / Sandeep Jauhar -- with allusions to 2 memoirs by John Bayley, Elegy for Iris & Iris and her Friends.

WaPo reporter covering the culture wars.

Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 11/03/2023: Students hated ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Their teachers tried to dump it. "Four progressive teachers in Washington’s Mukilteo School District wanted to protect students from a book (To Kill a Mockingbird) they saw as outdated and harmful. The blowback was fierce."

Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/28/2023: She challenges one school book a week. She says she’ll never stop. "The majority of all school book challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from just 11 people. Meet Jennifer Petersen."

Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/18/2023: Her students reported her for a lesson on race. Can she trust them again? "Mary Wood’s school reprimanded her for teaching a book by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Now she hopes her bond with students can survive South Carolina’s politics."

Siobhan Lyons. Aeon, 11/02/2023: Whither philosophy? "The discipline today is balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help."

"IN NOVEMBER 2021, LINGUISTS FROM around the world met in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the seventh edition of a conference focusing specifically on the “R” sound. The conference, called ‘R-Atics, included a presentation on the intrusive R used in the Falkland Islands, a reconstruction of what R sounded like in historical Armenian, and a discussion of the R sounds in Shiwiar, an indigenous Ecuadorian language spoken by well under 10,000 people, among other events and talks. Don’t be too surprised if, at a future ‘R-Atics conference, the “crispy R” joins the ranks of esoteric presentations from linguists obsessed with the weirdness and variation of this particular sound."

Dan Nosowitz. Atlas Obscura, 11/02/2023: The ‘Crispy R’ and Why R Is the Weirdest Letter.

>79 featherbear: This kind of article is right up my alley. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

"While climate catastrophes have been beyond our control, human choice has often made the difference between social collapse and survival."

Christopher de Bellaigue. NYRB, 11/23/2023: A World Off the Hinges. Review of: The Earth Transformed: An Untold History / Peter Frankopan.

"Why I Quit Books"

Verity Babbs. The Guardian, 11/06/2023: Swapping books for audiobooks has reignited my love of literature.

Ashwanta Jackson. JSTOR Daily, 11/03/2023: Book Thieves Take the Story and Run with It.

Alexandra Alter. NYT, 11/06/2023: How Rebecca Yarros Packed Dragons, Magic and Steamy Sex Into a Blockbuster Fantasy. The book is Fourth Wing.

Alexander Manshel & Melanie Walsh. Public Books, 11/06/2023: WHAT 35 YEARS OF DATA CAN TELL US ABOUT WHO WILL WIN THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD.

Ed Simon. The Millions, 11/02/2023: The Miracle of Photography. (Bibliographic essay)

"Technologies such as skyscrapers, airplanes, and sewage systems are fundamental—and confusing. These titles explain how they actually work."

Chelsea Leu. The Atlantic, 11/07/2023: Eight Books That Explain How the World Works.

The books are:

Built: the hidden stories behind our structures / Roma Agrawal

The Perfectionists - How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World / Simon Winchester

How Infrastructure Works - Inside the Systems That Shape our World / Deb Charchra

The Way Things Work / David Macaulay

Arriving Today: From Factory To Front Door—Why Everything Has Changed About How And What We Buy / Christopher Mims

The Master Switch - The Rise and Fall of Information Empires / Tim Wu

Flying Blind - The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing / Tim Robison

Chip War - The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology / Chris Miller

TLS November 10, 2023|No. 6293

Featured

Ari Shavit. Under the volcano: The terrible events that led to the conflict in Israel and Gaza. (Essay)

Stephen Kotkin. The home front: Nationalisms at war in Russia and Ukraine. Review of: I LOVE RUSSIA: Reporting from a lost country / Elena Kostyuchenko; translated by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse -- PUTIN’S EXILES: Their fight for a better Russia / Paul Starobin -- THE DISSIDENT: Alexey Navalny – Profile of a political prisoner / David M. Herszenhorn -- MEDIA, HISTORY, AND EDUCATION: Three ways to Ukrainian independence / Serhiy Kvit.

Simone Gubler. Ethics without humanism: Why our willingness to let animals suffer is pure bigotry. Review of: ANIMAL LIBERATION NOW / Peter Singer -- ETHICS IN THE REAL WORLD: 90 essays on things that matter / Peter Singer.

Zachary Leader. A social climber of genius: The urbane publisher who gave Britain Lolita and Herzog. Review of: THE MAVERICK: George Weidenfeld and the golden age of publishing / Thomas Harding.

Literature

Jacqueline Banerjee. Eastward Ho!: The Victorians came to prize a knowledge of Asian cultures. Review of: ASIAN CLASSICS ON THE VICTORIAN BOOKSHELF: Flights of translation / Alexander Bubb -- WORDS IN COLLISION: Multilingualism in English-language fiction / Michael L. Ross.

Carol Apollonio. Bad seed: A new translation of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece. Review of: THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV / Fyodor Dostoevsky; translated by Michael R. Katz.

Randy Boyagoda. Signs taken for wonders: Paul Auster plays with ghostly personas and roads not taken. Review of: BAUMGARTNER / Paul Auster.

Nat Segnit. There goes the neighbourhood: The American novel in the age of white male guilt. Review of: BROOKLYN CRIME NOVEL / Jonathan Lethem.

Susie Mesure. Dreams sunk into soil: Errant fathers, mixed identity and the search for home. Review of: IF I SURVIVE YOU / Jonathan Escoffery.

Olawaseun Olayiwola. Pleasure! pleasure! pleasure! everywhere: The feverish, persistent voice of the late Mark Hyatt. Review of: SO MUCH FOR LIFE: selected poems / Mark Hyatt; edited by Sam Ladkin and Luke Roberts.

Beverley Bie Brahic. Into the splendour of ruins: Poetry and fiction out of Haiti’s ‘living hell.’ Review of: NO WAY IN THE SKIN WITHOUT THIS BLOODY EMBRACE / Jean d’Amérique; translated by Conor Bracken -- A SUN TO BE SEWN: A novel / Jean d’Amérique; translated by Thierry Kehou.

Samantha Schnee. A portion of paradise: The ‘pleasurable mystery’ of Ida Vitale’s poems. Review of: TIME WITHOUT KEYS: Selected poems / Ida Vitale; translated by Sarah Pollack.

In Brief Review of: WATCH AND WARD / Henry James; edited by Pierre A. Walker and Jay S. Spina (Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James)

In Brief Review of: THE HOME CHILD / Liz Berry.

In Brief Review of: LOVE IN A LOST LAND / James MacManus.

Arts

James Hall. Twenty-seven shades of black: Frans Hals’s flushed faces and glinting eyes. Review of the catalog FRANS HALS / Bart Cornelis, Jaap van der Veen, Friso Lammertse and Justine Rinnooy Kan & the exhibition at the National Gallery, London, until January 21; then Amsterdam and Berlin.

Maria Maragonis. View from a Ferris wheel" Bringing Murakami’s ‘existentially troubled characters’ to life. Review of: SPUTNIK SWEETHEART / play adapted from the novel by Haruki Murakami by Bryony Lavery; Arcola Theatre, London, until November 25.

Russell Williams. Gainsbourg confidentiel: Crossing the threshold of the singer’s home. Review of: MAISON GAINSBOURG, 5 bis Rue de Verneuil, Paris (the singer's home, converted to a museum/memorial).

Sarah Knights. Pictures of party people: A photographer of the Bright Young Things. Review of: THOROUGHLY MODERN: The pioneering life of Barbara Ker-Seymer, photographer, and her brilliant bohemian friends / Sarah Knights.

Natural History & Medical History

Sean Carroll. Flight paths: The complex rules that guide birds on the wing. Review of: IN A FLIGHT OF STARLINGS: The wonder of complex systems / Giorgio Parisi in collaboration with Anna Parisi; translated by Simon Carnell. (American subtitle: How Nature Unlocks the Wonders of Physics)

In Brief Review of: ENDING EPIDEMICS: A history of escape from contagion / Richard Conniff.

History, Politics & Society, Culture

Daniel Trilling. Never far from enemies: A journalist murdered for exposing corruption. Review of: A DEATH IN MALTA: An assassination and a family’s quest for justice / Paul Caruana Galizia.

Miranda France. Patriarchs of Albion: A tour of Britain’s islands through history and gender. Review of: THE BRITANNIAS: An island quest / Alice Albinia.

Ian Sansom. Melancholy face of battle: How we speak of war. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: GREAT KINGDOMS OF AFRICA / John Parker, editor.

In Brief Review of: LILIANA’S INVINCIBLE SUMMER: A sister’s search for justice / Cristina Rivera Garza; translated by the author.

In Brief Review of: BETWEEN MEALS: An appetite for Paris / A. J. Liebling.

Articles from one of the TLS archive collections devoted to libraries:

Irina Dumitrescu. 07/07/2023: Echoes of Eco in his library: A portrait of the writer through his books. Arts review of the documentary UMBERTO ECO: A LIBRARY OF THE WORLD (Various cinemas)

James Waddell. 11/05/2023: Tales of lost virtue in the stacks: A 3,000-year survey of libraries, and the personalities behind them. Review of: THE LIBRARY: A fragile history / Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen.

James Waddell. 04/29/2022: Sorcery and the apprentice: A bibliophile critic’s powerful ‘shelfie’-portrait. Review of: PORTABLE MAGIC: A history of books and their readers / Emma Smith.

A. N. Wilson. 07/23/2021: Shelf lives: A history of private libraries from the Sumerians to the age of Kindle. Review of: THE PRIVATE LIBRARY: The history of the architecture and furnishing of the domestic bookroom / Reid Byers.

J. Michael Lennon. 03/09/2018: The naked and the read: On the library of Norman Mailer (Essay)

Gill Partington. 01/20/2017: Index fingers" Various exotic – and embattled – futures of the library. Review of: FANTASIES OF THE LIBRARY / Etienne Turpin and Anna-Sophie Springer, editors.

Peter Webb. 09/02/2016: Library look: A glimpse at what medieval Muslims were reading. Review of: MEDIEVAL DAMASCUS: Plurality and diversity in an Arabic library / Konrad Hirschler.

Roger Atwood. 08/12/2016: Library renewals: The heroic story of the men who saved thousands of manuscripts from being destroyed by al-Qaeda. Review of: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts / Joshua Hammer.

"In the almost eight hundred pages that make up Lies and Sorcery, Elsa Morante wrote about women’s lives without apology or fear of ugliness."

Jess Bergman. New Yorker, 11/08/2023: The Novelist Who Inspired Elena Ferrante.

Tom Mead, interviewed by Sophie Roell. fivebooks.com, 11/09/2023: The Best Locked-Room or Puzzle Mysteries. Mead's current book is The Murder Wheel.

The books are:

The Hollow Man / John Dickson Carr (USA title: The Three Coffins)

Green for Danger / Christianna Brand

Mrs. McGinty's Dead / Agatha Christie

Bloodhounds / Peter Lovesey

Snowblind / Ragnar Jónasson

Association item from 2020:

Caroline Crampton, interviewed by Cal Flynn. fivebooks.com, 12/22/2020: The Best Classic Christmas Mysteries.

"The Necklace of Pearls" by Dorothy Sayers in Silent Nights: A Collection of Christmas Mysteries

Tied Up in Tinsel / Ngaio Marsh

Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story / J. Jefferson Farjeon

Envious Casca / Georgette Heyer

An English Murder / Cyril Hare

Nikhil Krishnan. New Yorker, 11/06/2023: How Can Determinists Believe in Free Will? Review of: Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will / Robert M. Sapolsky.

J.D. Porter et al. Public Books, 11/10/2023: GENRE JUGGERNAUT: MEASURING “ROMANCE.”

"Amid historic disruption in the publishing industry, big questions are—rightfully—being asked. Here, experts weigh in on how books (and the ways we discover them) are going to change."

Kate Dwyer. Esquire, 11/09/2023: What's the Future of Books?

Walter Stephens. LitHub, 11/10/2023: The History of Writing is the History of Humanity. Excerpt from How Writing Made Us Human, 3000 Bce to Now.

"Benjamin Taylor’s incisive and accessible biography pays tribute to Cather, whose many books, including ‘My Ántonia’ and ‘A Lost Lady,’ are finally getting their due."

Maureen Corrigan. WaPo, 11/20/2023: At last, literary pioneer Willa Cather is having a moment. Review of: Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather / Benjamin Taylor.

Florence Hazrat. The Millions, 11/08/2023: The Book that Made the Bard: 400 Years of Shakespeare’s Folio.

Tanya Kirk. The Millions, 11/08/2023: How the World’s Most Famous Book Was Made.

David Ferry, 1924-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 11/11/2023: David Ferry, Poet and Translator Who Won Acclaim Late in Life, Dies at 99.

Recently finished reading his translations of The Aeneid, Georgics, &
Eclogues. Recommended!

"His final book, “Some Things I Said,” will be published in December. A day before he died, Mr. Ferry received an advance copy at his retirement home. His family and friends gave an impromptu reading from the book by his bedside as he lay there, listening."

"“The first condition is silence,” says the 2022 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose most recent book is “The Young Man.” “The when and where do not matter.”

Annie Ernaux, interview translated by Alison Strayer. NYT Book Review, 11/12/2023, Annie Ernaux Can Read Anywhere, So Long as It’s Quiet.

"She loved books. And in a time of spreading book bans in public schools, that’s why this Florida librarian had to quit."

Ruby Cramer. WaPo, 11/11/2023: The librarian who couldn’t take it anymore.

Jill Pellettieri. WaPo, 11/12/2023: The 12 best thrillers of 2023.

David Marchese. NYT Magazine, 11/10/2023: When Ruthless Cultural Elitism Is Exactly the Job. An interview with literary agent Andrew Wylie.

"The author’s widely celebrated 2013 novel, The Orenda, helped educate Canadians about their country’s colonial roots. It shouldn’t be cast into literary oblivion just because Boyden misrepresented his ancestry."

Andy Lamey. Quillette, 11/11/2023: Joseph Boyden Isn’t Indigenous. But his Historical Fiction Is Still Worth Reading.

Fernando Vallespin. El Pais, 11/07/2023: Jürgen Habermas: The important thinker’s rise to the pinnacle of philosophy. Regarding: Also a History of Philosophy / Jürgen Habermas (vol 1 published in translation; translation to be complete in 3 v.)

24 new university press books:

Jane Bunker. LitHub, 11/13/2023: This Year’s University Press Week Showcases Work That Sparks Conversation.

Karen MacPherson. WaPo, 11/14/2023: The 10 best mystery novels of 2023.

Recent books in The New Yorker:

Louis Menand. 11/13/2023: The War on Charlie Chaplin. Review of: Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided / Scott Eyman.

Alexandra Schwartz. 11/12/2023: For a Hungry Book Critic, Every Word Is a Feast. Review of: The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading / Dwight Garner.

TLS November 17, 2023|No. 6294

Featured

Books of the Year 2023: Our contributors select their favourites.

Emma Smith. An irregular life: Shakespeare’s biographers, from first to last. Review of: SHAKESPEARE WITHOUT A LIFE / Margreta De Grazia -- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A brief life / Paul Menzer -- SHAKESPEARE, MALONE AND THE PROBLEMS OF CHRONOLOGY / Tiffany Stern.

Skye C. Cleary. Thought in action: Four female philosophers who tried to change the world. Review of: THE VISIONARIES: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil and the salvation of philosophy / Wolfram Eilenberger; translated by Shaun Whiteside.

Jesse Armstrong. Downfall of the crypto king: Sam Bankman-Fried: hollow fake or ineffective altruist? Review of: GOING INFINITE: The rise and fall of a new tycoon / Michael Lewis.

Literature

Helen Tyson. Home truths: Three female writers inspired by their mothers. Review of: MOTHERS OF THE MIND: The remarkable women who shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath / Rachel Trethewey.

Patricia Craig. Out of Ireland: The adventures of John Mitchel: insurgent, convict, journalist. Review of: FANATIC HEART / Thomas Keneally.

Andrew Motion. Body and soul: A family across the generations, set against a world in flux. Review of: Held / Anne Michaels.

Sarah Moss. Real-life Monopoly: The rise and fall and rise of an Australian family. Review of: RESTLESS DOLLY MAUNDER / Kate Grenville.

In Brief Review of: SHAKESPEARE’S MAD MEN: A crisis of authority / Richard van Oort.

In Brief Review of: ALL THE EYES I HAVE OPENED / Franca Mancinelli; translated by John Taylor.

Arts

Harry Strawson. Olympus moves to Hollywood: The face that launched a thousand films. Review of: HELEN OF TROY IN HOLLYWOOD / Ruby Blondell.

Anna Picard. How dark are Thy decrees: War, family and religion at the Royal Opera House. Review of a performance of George Frideric Handel's JEPTHA, Royal Opera House, until November 24.

Guy Dammann. The end of the world as they know it: Death and the apocalypse in two twenty-first-century operas. Review of: Jake Heggie's DEAD MAN WALKING, Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and various cinemas -- Mikael Karlsson's MELANCHOLIA, Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm.

In Brief Review of: JAN KAPLICKÝ: For the future and for beauty / Ivan Margolius.

Philosophy

Madoc Cairns. Spiritual revolutionary: A new translation of the work Simone Weil considered her greatest. Review of: THE NEED FOR ROOTS / Simone Weil; translated by Ros Schwartz.

Regina Rini. Expert opinion: Philosophers can make a practical difference. (Essay)

Science & Technology

In Brief Review of: BIOCIVILISATIONS: A new look at the science of life / Predrag B. Slijepčević.

In Brief Review of: THE LAST DROP: Solving the world’s water crisis / Tim Smedley.

History, Politics, & Society

Matthew Kelly. Protestant nationalist: An Irish patriot who understood unionism. Review of: ANCESTRAL VOICES IN IRISH POLITICS: Judging Dillon and Parnell / Paul Bew.

Patricia Craig. Tribal loyalties: A young woman who fought back against ‘sexual abuse’ and her republican ‘family.’ Review of: ROUGH BEAST: My story and the reality of Sinn Féin / Máiría Cahill.

In Brief Review of: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF FOOTBALL / Mickaël Correia; translated by Fionn Petch.

In Brief Review of: A WOMAN’S WILL: The changing lives of British women told through the things they have left behind / Viki Holton.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 11/16/2023: Some books are meant to be reread. Here are 22 I would turn to again.

"Some have thought that logic will one day be completed and all its problems solved. Now we know it is an endless task."

Timothy Williamson. Aeon, 11/14/2023: The patterns of reality.

George Packer. The Atlantic, 11/15/2023: WHY ACTIVISM LEADS TO SO MUCH BAD WRITING.

A.S. Byatt, 1936-2023

"One of Britain’s most ambitious and intellectual novelists, she won the Booker Prize with Possession, her 1990 tale of illicit love spanning two centuries."

Rebecca Chace. NYT, 11/17/2023: A.S. Byatt, Scholar Who Found Literary Fame With Fiction, Dies at 87.

Richard Lea & Ella Creamer. Guardian, 11/17/2023: AS Byatt, author and critic, dies aged 87.

Survived by her sister, Margaret Drabble.

Joseph Luzzi. NYT, 11/17/2023: A Masterpiece About a Masterpiece, for All Ages. Review of: GLOWRUSHES / Roberto Piumini; translated by Leah Janeczko.

Daniel Immerwahr. New Yorker, 11/13/2023: What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes. About A History of Fake Things on the Internet / Walter Scheirer & some other books & articles on the topic.

2023 non-fiction prize shortlists via fivebooks.com:

Sudhir Hazareesingh, inteviewed by Sophie Roell. 11/12/2023: The Best History Books of 2023: The Wolfson History Prize.

The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe / James Belich

Resistance: the underground war in Europe, 1939-1945 / Halik Kochanski. (Eventual winner of the Wolfson prize)

Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers / Emma Smith

The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire / Henrietta Harrison

African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History / Hakim Adi

Vagabonds: life on the streets of nineteenth-century London / Oskar Jensen

Frederick Studemann, interviewed by Sophie Roell. 11/15/2023: The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist.

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World / John Vaillant (Eventual winner of the Gifford Prize)

Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century / Jennifer Homans

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance / Jeremy Eichler

Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849 / Christopher Clark

Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution / Tania Branigan

Time to Think: the inside story of the collapse of the Tavistock Gender Service for Children / Hannah Barnes

Vox, 11/15/2023: All of this year’s National Book Award finalists, reviewed by Vox.

November 2023 book reviews from The Critic (UK):

John Marshall. A history of the world set in stone. Review of: Unearthing the Underworld: A Natural History of Rocks / Ken McNamara.

Sophie Nicholls. Just a little note to say “I hate you.” Review of: Penning Poison: A History of Anonymous Letters / Emily Cockayne.

Alexander Lee. Why a great artist stopped painting. Review of: Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World / Ulinka Rublack.

John Mullan. Guardian, 11/16/2023: The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens by Helena Kelly review – great speculations. LT anchor: The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens.

Books & authors in The New Yorker:

Rachel Aviv. 11/20/2023: Joyce Carol Oates’s Relentless, Prolific Search for a Self.

Nathan Heller. 11/21/2023: All the Newspapers’ Men. Review of: Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and THE WASHINGTON POST / Martin Baron -- The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism / Adam Nagourney.

Zadie Smith. 11/20/2023: The Fall of My Teen-Age Self.

Thomas Mallon. 11/20/2023: What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be? Review of: Yesterday: A New History of Nostalgia / Tobias Becker. Also mentioned: Retrotopia / Zygmunt Bauman.

Katy Waldman. 11/21/2023: The Surprising Sweetness of the Ayn Rand Fangirl Novel. Review of: The Book of Ayn: A Novel / Lexi Freiman. Also related: Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed / Lisa Duggan.

Rachel Syme. 11/14/2023: Barbra Streisand’s Mother of All Memoirs. Review of: My Name Is Barbra / Barbra Streisand.

Two more lists from fivebooks.com:

Rebecca Henry, interviewer Sophie Roell. 11/21/2023: The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize:

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us / Ed Yong

Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus / David Quammen

Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity / Nicklas Brendborg

Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way / Roma Agrawal

Taking Flight: the evolutionary story of life on the wing / Lev Parikian

The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science / Kate Zernike

"The Royal Society Book Prize is an annual award that’s been ongoing for the past 30 years. It’s had some notable winners, including Stephen Hawking and Bill Bryson. Each year, the award celebrates excellent popular science writing over a broad range of topics."

Philip Goff, interviewer Nigel Warburton. 11/19/2023: The best books on Cosmic Purpose:

Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False / Thomas Nagel

A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos / Geraint F. Lewis & Luke A. Barnes

Purpose in the Universe: the moral and metaphysical case for Ananthropocentric Purposivism / Tim Mulgan

God, Purpose, and Reality: A Euteleological Understanding of Theism / John Bishop & Ken Perszyk

Universes / John Leslie

Philip Goff is author of: Why: the purpose of the universe

New York Times Book Review. 100 Notable Books of 2023.

TLS November 24, 2023|No. 6295

Featured:

Andrew Motion. A critic’s critic: Edward Thomas: heir to Matthew Arnold and precursor of Ezra Pound. Review of: PROSE WRITINGS: Volume IV: Selected writings on poetry / Edward Thomas; edited by Edna Longley.

Nat Segnit. A mumbling manchild: Ridley Scott’s historical romp is ‘very nearly a very good film.’ Review of Scott's movie Napoleon

Eric Rauchway. Mermaids and unicorns: Why the welfare state may be preferable to tech utopia. Review of: THE HANDOVER: How we gave control of our lives to corporations, states and AIs / David Runciman -- TECHNOFEUDALISM: What killed capitalism / Yanis Varoufakis.

Mary C. Flannery. Leading charmed lives
The ubiquity of magic in medieval England. Review of: TEXTUAL MAGIC: Charms and written amulets in medieval England /Katherine Storm Hindley -- LOVE SPELLS AND LOST TREASURE: Service magic in England from the later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era / Tabitha Stanmore.

Literature

Alex Clark. Those damned sentences: The humour and compassion of Hilary Mantel. Review of: A MEMOIR OF MY FORMER SELF: A life in writing / Hilary Mantel.

Heather Cass White. She’s got a lovely bunch of coconuts: Lydia Davis shows us how it’s done. Review of: OUR STRANGERS / Lydia Davis.

Justin Warshaw. Clues to a life: A memoir by the creator of Inspector Brunetti. Review of: WANDERING THROUGH LIFE: A memoir / Donna Leon.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson. An unusual patriot: How Wilfred Owen’s letters betray his sense of social inferiority. Review of: SELECTED LETTERS OF WILFRED OWEN / Jane Potter, editor.

Will McMorran. What Sade did next: Novels and short stories written from confinement. Review of: LA MARQUISE DE GANGE ET AUTRES ROMANS HISTORIQUES / D. A. F. de Sade.

Peter Parker. Out of the shadows: An unfairly neglected poet and verse dramatist. Review of: COMRADES IN LETTERS: Edward Thomas and Gordon Bottomley / William Cooke -- AN UNEXPECTED LIFE / Gordon Bottomley; edited by William Cooke.

Vesna Goldsworthy. Neukölln nights: A Ukrainian and a Russian, in exile and love. Review of: NADEZHDA IN THE DARK / Yelena Moskovich.

George Cochrane. Factory settings: Clever premisses in search of character and plot. Review of: THE COILED SERPENT / Camilla Grudova.

Russell Williams. Artful dodgers: A fast-paced whodunnit set in sixteenth-century Florence. Review of: PERSPECTIVE(S) / Laurent Binet.

Muriel Zagha. Is it cake?: violent tragedy erupts in an otherworldly Mauritius. Review of: LE JOUR DES CAMÉLÉONS / Ananda Devi.

In Brief Review of: CERVANTES THE POET: The Don Quijote, poetic practice, and the conception of the first modern novel / Gabrielle Ponce-Hegenauer.

In Brief Review of: SHAKESPEARE ON CONSENT / Amanda Bailey.

In Brief Review of: THE CHASE AND RUINS: Zora Neale Hurston in Honduras.

Arts

Charles Darwent. Perpetual motion: The many incarnations of Philip Guston. Review of the exhibition Philip Guston, Tate Modern, London, until February 25, & its catalog, by Harry Cooper et al.

Milo Nesbitt. Nostalgie de la boue: Songs that celebrated sex, drugs and violence. Review of: LOADED: The life (and afterlife) of the Velvet Underground / Dylan Jones.

Cathi Unworth. In dead men’s suits: A cult Liverpool band from the 1980s Review of: ECHOES: A memoir continued ... / Will Sergeant. (Echo and the Bunnymen)

Craig Raine. Hardware, software: How art lends significance to life. (Essay)

Philosophy

Michael Moriarty. Winning the wager: Pascal talks to our own spiritual ennui. Review of: Blaise Pascal: l'oeuvre / Edited by Pierre Lyraud and Laurence Plazenet -- PASCAL / Pierre Lyraud -- PHILOSOPHIE DE PASCAL: Le principe d’inquiétude / Laurence Devillairs.

Science & Technology

Eliezer Yudkowsky. No extinction rebel: A DeepMind founder hedges his bets on the threat from AI. Review of: THE COMING WAVE: AI, power and the 21st century’s greatest dilemma / Mustafa Suleyman, with Michael Baskar.

In Brief Review of: MEAT LOVE: An ideology of the flesh / Amber Husain.

History, Politics, & Society

Fredrik Logevall. Opening American minds: The golden age of bestselling scholarly history. Review of: POPULARIZING THE PAST: Historians, publishers, and readers in postwar America / Nick Witham.

Daniel Beer. The politics of last resort: Russian liberalism’s fatal flaw. Review of: RUSSIAN LIBERALISM / Paul Robinson.

Wendy Slater. No turning back: Why the Whites and the Allies failed to defeat the Bolsheviks. Review of: A NASTY LITTLE WAR: The West’s fight to reverse the Russian Revolution / Anna Reid -- BLOOD ON THE SNOW: The Russian Revolution 1914–1924 / Robert Service.

Joe Moran. The rules of the game: Sport as a ‘distorting mirror’ of British society. Review of: MORE THAN A GAME: A history of how sport made Britain / David Horspool.

Jean Wilson. The French connection: Anne Boleyn was a pawn in a wider diplomatic game. Review of: HUNTING THE FALCON: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the marriage that shook Europe / John Guy and Julia Fox.

In Brief Review of: AGE OF EMERGENCY: Living with violence at the end of the British Empire / Erik Linstrum.

A.S. Byatt

The late novelist also wrote book reviews for TLS; NB has a brief survey of her opinions in this issue of TLS.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 11/22/2023: Three new ways to cherish Kij Johnson, Gene Wolfe and Terry Pratchett. Review of 3 new short story collections: The Privilege of the Happy Ending / Kij Johnson -- The Wolfe at the Door / Gene Wolfe -- A Stroke of the Pen: the lost stories / Terry Pratchett.

Simon van Zuylen-Wood. New York, 11/20/2023: TORN UP AND APART: 92NY Splits With the Cultural Elite A venerable institution digs in.

Patrick J. Deneen. American Affairs, Winter 2023, v. VII: n.4: Liberalism Against Itself. Review of: Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times / Samuel Moyn.

Alexander Manshel. LitHub, 11/21/2023: The History of the United States According to Colson Whitehead. Excerpt from Manshel's Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon.

Three from The Millions:

Zachary Issenberg. 11/21/2023: José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature.

Michael O'Donnell. 11/202/23: The Searing Clarity of Hilary Mantel.

Afton Montgomery. 11/16/2023: The Sublime Poetics of Linda Gregg.

Elyse Graham. Public Books, 11/22/2023: THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON BOOKS. Review of: The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts / Christopher De Hamel -- The Science of Reading: Information, Media, and Mind in Modern America / Adrian Johns.

NYRB Online 12/07/2023:

Literature

Perry Link. A Fallen Artist in Mao’s China. Review of: The Woman Back from Moscow: In Pursuit of Beauty / Ha Jin.

Aminatta Forna. Prelude to Empire. Review of: Afterlives / Abdulrazak Gurnah -- Paradise / Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Caleb Crain. Fatal Embracements. Review of: The New Life / Tom Crewe.

Julia Kornberg. Strangers in the City. Review of: Seven Empty Houses / Samanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell.

Science & Technology

Nitin K. Ahuja. Gut Instincts. Review of: A Silent Fire: The Story of Inflammation, Diet, and Disease / Shilpa Ravella -- Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure / Bryn Nelson -- The Anti-Viral Gut: Tackling Pathogens from the Inside Out / Robynne Chutkan.

History, Politics, & Society

Adam Hochschild. Mildred Rutherford’s War. (Essay: "The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the Old South and slavery in US history textbooks that continues today.")

Edward Chancellor. The Naturalist. Review of: Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950 / Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger -- Liberalism’s Last Man: Hayek in the Age of Political Capitalism / Vikash Yadav.

Nicolas Niarchos. In Congo’s Cobalt Mines. Review of: Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives / Siddharth Kara -- Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Addressing Root Causes of Human Rights Abuses: a report / Dorothée Baumann-Pauly -- Conflict Minerals Inc.: War, Profit and White Saviourism in Eastern Congo / Christoph N. Vogel -- Eating the Congo: Unveiling State Governance of Copper and Cobalt Mining in Former Katanga / Claude Iguma Wakenge -- The Eyes of the World: Mining the Digital Age in the Eastern DR Congo / James H. Smith.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft. The Collaborator in Chief. Review of: France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain / Julian Jackson.

Sophie Pinkham. Invasion, Day by Day. Review of: War Diary / Yevgenia Belorusets, translated from the German by Greg Nissan. (War being the Russian invasion of Ukraine)

Fintan O'Toole. No Endgame in Gaza. (Essay)

Magda Teter. Found in Translation. Review of: The Cultural Legacy of the Pre-Ashkenazic Jews in Eastern Europe / Moshe Taube.

Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, 1929-2023

Jonathan Kandell. NYT, 11/23/2023: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Who Looked at History From the Bottom Up, Dies at 94. Author of: Montaillou -- Carnival in Romans.

"He led a movement that rejected historiography’s traditional emphasis on great events and leaders in favor of mining the “mental universe” of peasants, merchants and clergymen."

Brian Murphy. WaPo, 11/25/2023: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, historian of the downtrodden, dies at 94. "He put historians in two categories: the “parachutists” with a sweeping take on events, and the “truffle hunters” such as him who sought telling details."

"Elmer Kelton’s ‘The Time It Never Rained’ is an overlooked classic."

Kevin Mims. Quillette, 11/23/2023: The Greatest American Western Novel of All.

Charles Peters, 1926-2023

Robert D. McFadden. NYT, 11/23/2023: Charles Peters, Founder of The Washington Monthly, Dies at 96. Memoir: Tilting at Windmills: an autobiography.

"Mr. Peters, a tough mentor, launched the careers of dozens of young reporters and editors who took low wages to learn serious advocacy journalism. ... The alumni included James Fallows, a correspondent for The Atlantic; Nicholas Lemann, the former dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Jonathan Alter, an author and former Newsweek editor; Suzannah Lessard, a writer for The New Yorker; Taylor Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian; David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist; James Bennet, the former editor of The Times’s editorial page and now a senior editor of The Economist; and Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist."

Timothy R. Smith. WaPo, 11/23/2023: Charles Peters, Washington Monthly founder, dies at 96.

"He vowed his magazine, a training ground for generations of reporters, would probe official Washington ‘the way that an anthropologist looks at a South Sea island.’"

As a graduate of the same university, I note that we had similar aspirations!

"In the hospital, he came across a copy of a book by the Columbia University cultural historian Jacques Barzun, and its description of the New York intellectual firmament “sounded wonderful to me,” he once told the Boston Globe. “But the other thing that, unquestionably, went right along with that was the image of myself going to New York and dating chorus girls every night.”"

Hope Corrigan. WaPo, 11/23/2023: On Instagram and TikTok, annotating books is an art.

Becca Rothfeld. WaPo, 11/22/2023: Flaubert’s letters are as hilarious and humane as his best fiction. Review of: The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, edited & translated by Francis Steegmuller (NYRB books)

"From “unabridged” to “slanguage,” Madeline Kripke’s library is a logophile’s heaven (or hell)."

April White. Atlas Obscura, 11/14/2023: The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World.

It's that time of the year, so,

WaPo Book World Staff, 11/16/2023: The 10 best books of 2023.

Fiction
The Bee Sting / Paul Murray
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / James McBride
Loot / Tania James
The MANIAC / Benjamín Labatut
North Woods / Daniel Mason

Non-fiction
The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths / Brad Fox
How to Say Babylon / Safiya Sinclair
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia / Gary J. Bass
King: A Life / Jonathan Eig
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative / Gregg Hecimovich

Andrew Schenker. Baffler, 11/22/2023: After Melville: The great author is eternally pursued and rediscovered.

Recently on LARB (with its new web design!):

Ed Simon. 11/25/2023: Nightmares of Reason. Review of: The MANIAC / Benjamín Labatut.

Joy Horowitz. 11/22/2023: The Wisdom of Oscar Hammerstein II: A Conversation with Laurie Winer. Regarding Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical / Laurie Winer.

>131 featherbear: Thanks for putting Kelton on my radar. My library has several of his other works but not this one, unfortunately.

Jacob Phillips. The Critic, 11/26/2023: A.S. Byatt and the follies of magical progressivism. Review of: The Children's Book / A.S. Byatt.

Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 11/26/2023: Paul Lynch’s ‘Prophet Song’ wins the Booker Prize. Anchor to Prophet Song.

From TLS's NB column, 12/01/2023:

"This year’s Booker prize has been won by Paul Lynch for his novel Prophet Song. The Guardian approvingly says that this is “perhaps the most timely and urgent” of the shortlisted books. The Telegraph calls it “overwritten and often illogical”. The Times is even less impressed, dismissing it as a “knockoff Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Mirroring these critical disagreements, Prophet Song was not the Booker judges’ unanimous choice, either; we would have more confidence in a critical version of pin the tail on the donkey. The TLS, by the way, found it “thunderously powerful” (September 22). NB goes on about the Booker in subsequent paragraphs.

Nicholas Dames. The Millions, 11/27/2023: The Forgotten History of the Chapter. Excerpt from: The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century / Nicholas Dames.

Publishing gets the Golden Age of Hollywood treatment:

Dwight Garner. NYT, 11/27/2023: The Good Old Days of Book Publishing, Martinis and All. Review of: AMONG FRIENDS: An Illustrated Oral History of American Book Publishing and Bookselling in the 20th Century / edited by Buz Teacher and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher.

"Costin Alamariu’s doctoral dissertation is attracting a lot of interest but it doesn’t add up to much." Note: Alamariu sometimes goes by the pseud Bronze Age Pervert.

Oliver Traldi. Quillette, 11/25/2023: The Pervert’s Guide to Philosophy. Review of: Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy / Costin Alamariu.

"In May, 2021, Tennessee became one of the first states in the country to impose legal limits on class discussions about racism and white privilege. The law, passed by the Republican-dominated legislature, prohibits schools from teaching fourteen concepts, including that any individual is “inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously” and that “this state or the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.”"

Robert Samuels. New Yorker, 11/27/2023: When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars. The book is His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice / Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa.

Recommended books from an odd genre:

Greg Jackson, interviewer Cal Flyn. fivebooks.com, 10/19/2023: The Best Metaphysical Thrillers.

The recommendations:
The Invention of Morel / Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler / Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver.
Chess Story / Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg
The Intuitionist: A Novel / Colson Whitehead
The Lost Daughter / Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein.

Jackson is the author of the novel The Dimensions of a Cave, though I'm not sure how he characterizes it; see the interview for his definition of the metaphysical thriller genre.

"The staff of The New York Times Book Review choose the year’s standout fiction and nonfiction." (When last I checked, the article had 307 comments, many offering alternative favorites)

NYT, 11/28/2023: The 10 Best Books of 2023:

Fiction:
The Bee Sting / Paul Murray
Chain Gang All Stars / Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Eastbound / Maylis de Kerangal, translated from the French by Jessica Moore
The Fraud / Zadie Smith
North Woods / Daniel Mason

Non-fiction
The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions / Jonathan Rosen
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: a journey through the deep state / Kerry Howley
Fire Weather: a true story from a hotter world / John Vaillant
Master Slave Husband Wife: an epic journey from slavery to freedom / Ilyon Woo

The article has links to the original reviews. And don't forget >121 featherbear: New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2023

David Mikics. Tablet, 11/26/2023: The Last Jewish Intellectuals: Susan Sontag and George Steiner star in Maestros & Monsters / Robert Boyers.

"Why in classical contemporary music do so many people equate challenging with intimidating—or even infuriating?

Anthony Tommasini. Atlantic, 11/27/2023: The Case for Challenging Music. Review of: Schoenberg: Why He Matters / Harvey Sachs.

A celebration of the late author. I've only read Lanark which was gloomy/wonderful, but other mentions include: Poor Things -- Unlikely Stories, Mostly -- The Book of Prefaces -- 1982 Janine -- Dante's Divine Trilogy.

Mazin Saleem. LitHub, 11/29/2023: Beyond Poor Things: An Ode to Alasdair Gray’s Lesser-Known, Equally Deserving Books.

TLS, December 1, 2023|No. 6296

Featured

Bryan Karetnyk. After the mushroom cloud: The origin story of the king of monsters. Review of: GODZILLA AND GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN / Shigeru Kayama; translated by Jeffrey Angles.

Pablo Scheffer. Pocket miracle: How the humble calculator changed the world. Review of: EMPIRE OF THE SUM: The rise and reign of the pocket calculator / Keith Houston.

Emily Kopley. Between pinnacle and chasm: How Virginia Woolf strove to close the gap between reality and language. Review of: THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (Granta, 5 v.) / Virginia Woolf.

Nat Segnit. Respites from reality: A look at some of the best children’s books of 2023. (Review essay)

Literature

Elaine Showalter. The prose takes off: Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying at 50. (Essay on Fear of Flying)

Kate McLoughlin. Review of: ORBITAL / Samantha Harvey.

Astrid Edwards. Law vs lore: A non-linear First Nations epic, set ‘in every time.’ Review of: PRAISEWORTHY / Alexis Wright.

Nicholas Clee. Smoke and mercy: A chieftain’s daughter and a slave set off for safety in Roman Britain. Review of: RUN TO THE WESTERN SHORE / Tim Pears.

Marcia Lynx Qualey. We couldn’t be heroes: A reissued 1970s novel of Palestinian liberation. Review of: WILD THORNS / Sahar Khalifeh; translated by Trevor LeGassick and Elizabeth Warnock Fernea.

In Brief Review of: CIVIC STORYTELLING: The rise of short forms and the agency of literature / Florian Fuchs.

In Brief Review of: A WREATH FOR THE ENEMY / Pamela Frankau.

Arts

Sophie Oliver. The handover: A bridge between Paris and the New York School. Review of: SURREALISTS IN NEW YORK: Atelier 17 and the birth of abstract expressionism / Charles Derwent.

Larry Wolff. Raptures in the rainforest: The first Spanish-language opera at the Met for almost a century. Review of Daniel Catán's opera FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS, Metropolitan Opera, New York, until December 14.

Kathryn Hughes. Purple progress: From the ‘mauve measles’ to yellow books: how the Victorians saw colour. Review of the exhibition COLOUR REVOLUTION: Victorian art, fashion and design,
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, until February 18.

Philosophy

Richard Swinburne. Design for living: The improbability of intelligent life in the universe. Review of: WHY?: The purpose of the universe / Philip Goff.

Science & Technology

Bill McGuire. Flame in a sea of gold: A tour of the world’s volcanoes. Review of: MOUNTAINS OF FIRE: The secret lives of volcanoes / Clive Oppenheimer.

History, Politics, Culture, & Society

Ian Sansom. Furnishing a mind: In unexpected praise of audiobooks. (Essay)

Paul Levy. Consuming passions: The cultural anthropology of food production. Review of: WAYS OF EATING: Exploring food through history and culture / Benjamin A. Wurgaft and Merry I. White.

Lucy Hughes Hallett. Taxi rank to the top: Visitors came to study and shiver over Vesuvius. Review of: VOLCANIC: Vesuvius in the age of revolutions / John Brewer.

Mehreen Khan. Identity crisis: A polemic against racial prejudice at the heart of Europe. Review of: EUROWHITENESS: Culture, empire and race in the European project / Hans Kundnani.

Sally Hayley. Voices from the chorus: Portraits of migrants in Europe. Review of: THIS IS EUROPE: The way we live now / Ben Judah.

In Brief Review of: THE WHISKY DISTILLERIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM / Alfred Barnard; with an introduction by Richard Joynson.

In Brief Review of: NO COMMENT: What I wish I’d known about becoming a detective / Jess McDonald.

In Brief Review of: UNIVERSITIES ON FIRE: Higher education in the climate crisis / Bryan Alexander.

In Brief Review of: PROSTITUTE LAUNDRY / Charlotte Shane.

In Brief Review of: THE DEORHORD: An Old English bestiary / Hana Videen.

British Travel

Richard Smyth. Tyke cast: What do the people of Yorkshire really have in common? Review of: NOW THEN: A biography of Yorkshire / Rick Broadbent.

Jonathan Drummond. The other way is Essex too: There is more to the county than its least lovely parts. Review of: THE INVENTION OF ESSEX: The making of an English county / Tim Burrows.

Re-evaulating the Hollywood films of the 1950's:

Richard Brody. New Yorker, 11/30/2023 (NYorker has 10/30, which I assume is a typo): When Hollywood Was Hip and How It Got That Way. Review of: Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television / Foster Hirsch.

Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023

David Sanger. NYT, 11/29/2023: Henry Kissinger Is Dead at 100; Shaped Nation’s Cold War History. Author of, among others: White House Years -- Years of Upheaval -- Diplomacy -- World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History.

Valeria Luiselli. NYT, 11/29/2023: A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel García Márquez to Write His Own. Review of: Pedro Páramo / Juan Rulfo, in a new translation by Douglas Weatherford.

"Pedro Páramo, first published in Mexico in 1955, often produces a feverish response. Jorge Luis Borges said it was one of the greatest works of literature ever written. Susan Sontag called it one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. Enrique Vila-Matas has said that it is the “perfect novel.” Roberto Bolaño’s “2666” would probably not exist without it. The book shows its readers how to read all over again, the same way “The Waste Land” or “Ulysses” does, by bending the rules of literature so skillfully, so freely, that the rules must change thereafter."

Robert Zaretsky. American Scholar, 11/27/2023: Thought Experimenters: making sense of a broken world. Review of: The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times / Wolfram Eilenberger.

Another end of the year list:

New Yorker. 11/29/2023: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2023. If you keep scrolling, you also get Picks of the Week going back in time.

Microfilm, librarians, & WWII:

Katie McBride Moench. JStor daily, 11/29/2023: How American Librarians Helped Defeat the Nazis.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 11/30/2023: 14 books that aren’t bestsellers — and that’s what makes them special. Dirda's gift giving recs. Happy to learn Library of America has assigned a volume to Joanna Russ.

Chris Yogerst. LARB, 12/01/2023: Endless Culture Wars. Review of: Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars / Kliph Nesteroff.

NYRB Online, 12/21/2023:

Literature

Nathaniel Rich. Writing Under Fire. Review of: Politics and Literature at the Dawn of World War II / James A.W. Heffernan.

Ursula Lindsey. The Ghost in the Labyrinth. Review of: The Most Secret Memory of Men / Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.

Kathryn Hughes. Jane Austen Gets Dressed. Review of: Jane Austen’s Wardrobe / Hilary Davidson.

Ange Mlinko. Patterns of Uprooting. Review of: Time Without Keys / Ida Vitale, translated from the Spanish by Sarah Pollack -- To the Letter / Tomasz Różycki, translated from the Polish by Mira Rosenthal.

Colm Tóibín. In the Streets of Barcelona. Review of: Antagony /Luis Goytisolo, translated from the Spanish by Brendan Riley, with a prologue by Ignacio Echevarría.

Christopher Benfey. A Leaf or Two from Whitman. Review of: The Lights / Ben Lerner -- The Auburn Conference / Tom Piazza.

Arts

Colin B. Bailey. A New Language of Modern Art. Review of: Manet/Degas / Catalog of the exhibition by Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, March 28–July 23, 2023; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024.

Julian Bell. The Emptied Cosmos. Review of: Nature and Imagination in Ancient and Early Modern Roman Art / Gabriel Pihas.

Adam Shatz. Ever-New Sound Worlds. Review of: Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music / Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards.

Elaine Blair. Uninhibited Questions. Review of: Porn: An Oral History / Polly Barton.

Susan Tallman. ‘What Happens at the Edges?’ Review of: William Kentridge: Prints and Posters 1974–1990 / compiled by Warren Siebrits -- Words: A Collation / William Kentridge -- William Kentridge / catalog of an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, by Stephen Clingman -- William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows / catalog of an exhibition at the Broad, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, organized by Ed Schad.

Mark O'Connell. Shooting Werner Herzog. Review of: Every Man for Himself and God Against All / Werner Herzog, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann.

Gabriel Winslow-Yost. Out of Time. Review of: The Mysteries / Bill Watterson, illustrated by John Kascht and Bill Watterson.

Bibliography

Robert Darnton. The Dream of a Universal Library. Review of: Athena Unbound: Why and How Scholarly Knowledge Should Be Free for All / Peter Baldwin.

Science & Technology

Rebecca Giggs. The Lost World. Review of: Prehistoric Planet, a BBC Studios series streaming on Apple TV+ -- Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds / Thomas Halliday.

Politics, Society, & Culture

Neil Ascherson. Becoming European. Review of: Homelands: A Personal History of Europe / Timothy Garton Ash.

Linda Greenhouse. An Unhealthy Definition of Rights. Review of: Constitutional Contagion: Covid, the Courts, and Public Health / Wendy E. Parmet.

John Banville. Back to the State of Nature. Review of: The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism / John Gray.

Samanth Subramanian. The Weight of One Story. Review of: What Have You Left Behind?: Voices from a Forgotten War / Bushra al-Maqtari, translated from the Arabic by Sawad Hussain.

Sherrilyn Ifill. How America Ends and Begins Again. "This essay is adapted from a talk presented as the Robert B. Silvers Lecture at the New York Public Library earlier this year."

David Shulman. A Bitter Season in the West Bank. (Essay)

Claire Wang. Guardian, 12/01/2023: Lucy Yu’s thriving New York bookstore burned down. How can she rebuild without burning out?

Sandra Day O'Connor, 1930-2023

Linda Greenhouse. NYT, 12/01/2023: Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93.

Fred Barbash. WaPo, 12/01/2023: Sandra Day O’Connor, pathbreaking woman on Supreme Court, dies at 93.

LT's bibliography of her works: https://www.librarything.com/author/oconnorsandraday

Ezra Klein. NYT, 12/03/2023: The Books That Explain Where We Are in 2023, which are:

God, Human, Animal, Machine: TECHNOLOGY, METAPHOR, AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING / Meghan O'Gieblyn
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology / Chris Miller
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era / Gary Gerstle
Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation / William Fischel
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better / Jennifer Pahlka
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon / Michael Lewis
Number Go Up: INSIDE CRYPTO'S WILD RISE AND STAGGERING FALL / Zeke Faux
My Promised Land: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF ISRAEL / Ari Shavit
A Half-Built Garden / Ruthanna Emrys

Klein's comments justifying his selections are interesting

Parul Sehgal. New Yorker, 12/04/2023: What We Learn from the Lives of Critics.

Paul Nedelisky. Hedgehog, fall 2023: Nothing Personal: How ideas made Derek Parfit. Review of: Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality / David Edmonds.

John Nichols, 1940-2023

Sam Roberts. 12/02/2023: John Nichols, Author of ‘The Milagro Beanfield War,’ Dies at 83.

The Milagro Beanfield War formed part of a trilogy, the other two novels being: The Magic Journey and The Nirvana Blues.

Amal El-Mohtar. NYT, 12/04/2023: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2023. The 10 best (in the author's opinion) are:

THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS / Vajra Chandrasekera: "the best book I’ve read this year."
INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE / Emma Törzs
INFINITY GATE / M.R. Carey
UNRAVELLER / Frances Hardinge
EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES / Heather Fawcett
UNTETHERED SKY / Fonda Lee
TITANIUM NOIR / Nick Harkaway
WHITE CAT, BLACK DOG / Kelly Link
WITCH KING / Martha Wells
THE SCANDALOUS CONFESSIONS OF LYDIA BENNET, WITCH / Melinda Taub

"YIR gathers together some of today’s most exciting writers, thinkers, and tastemakers to share the books that shaped their year. What makes the series special is that it celebrates the subjectivity of reading: where yearend best-of lists pass off their value judgement as definitive, YIR essayists take a more phenomenological tact, focusing instead on capturing the experience of the books they read."

The Millions. 12/04/2023: A Year in Reading: 2023.

Initial bibliographic essays by Emily Wilson, Vauhini Vara, & Jenn Shapland. Links to additonal essays added throughout the month.

"Translators Megan McDowell and Esther Allen discuss the state of Latin American letters in English and honor the legacy of Edith Grossman."

Luisa Leme and Chase Harrison. AS/COA (American Society/Council of the Americas website), 11/30/2023: LatAm in Focus: Beyond the Boom—Latin American Writing in Translation.

Headline makes them sound like political prisoners, but it's a best of reading list! "We were drawn to ambitious projects, and looked for writing that was clear and beautiful. Most important, we searched for books that you won’t be able to put down."

The Atlantic Culture Desk. Atlantic, 12/05/2023: THE ATLANTIC 10: The books that made us think the most this year.

Most thought provoking 2023:
Birnam Wood / Eleanor Catton
Beyond the Door of No Return / David Diop (translated by Sam Taylor)
Our Share of Night / Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell)
The Country of the Blind: a memoir at the end of sight / by Andrew Leland
Ours Was the Shining Future: the story of the American Dream / David Leonhardt
Couplets: a love story / Maggie Millner
The Best Minds: a story of friendship, madness, and the tragedy of good intentions / Jonathan Rosen
Ordinary Notes / Christina Sharpe
How to Say Babylon: a memoir / Safiya Sinclair
The Iliad translated by Emily Wilson

"The emphasis in new African writing is away from politics towards how the individual responds to events, says South African novelist Mphuthumi Ntabeni, author of The Broken River Tent and The Wanderers."

Mphuthumi Ntabeni, interviewer Sophie Roell. fivebooks.com, 12/04/2023: The Best African Contemporary Writing.

The recommendations:
Season of Migration to the North / Tayeb Salih
The Land Is Ours: South Africa’s First Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism / Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa / MacSmart Ojiludu, editor
A Library To Flee / Etienne van Heerden; Henrietta Rose-Innes (Translator)
A General Theory of Oblivion / José Eduardo Agualusa; Daniel Hahn (Translator)

TLS, December 8, 2023|No. 6297

Featured

Seamus Perry. Generous to a fault: Seamus Heaney’s letters reveal his kindness, and the weight of public expectation. Review of: THE LETTERS OF SEAMUS HEANEY / Christopher Reid, editor.

Muriel Zagha. Dance until you drop: Powell and Pressburger’s tribute to art as a form of possession. Review of the exhibition THE RED SHOES: BEYOND THE MIRROR, BFI Southbank, London, until January 7.

Irina Dumitrescu. Terrible beauty: Unearthly good looks, from Beowulf to YouTube. (Essay)

Martin Ivens. Road to perdition: Why the Conservative Party faces an end to its political hegemony. Review of: THE PARTY’S OVER: The rise and fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak / Phil Burton-Cartledge -- THE RIGHT TO RULE: Thirteen years, five prime ministers and the implosion of the Tories / Ben Riley-Smith -- THE CASE FOR THE CENTRE RIGHT / David Gauke.

Literature

Emily McLaughlin. Poetry and hope: The Pléiade edition of Yves Bonnefoy, crafted by its author. Review of: Yves Bonnefoy: ŒUVRES POÉTIQUES.

Jess Cotton. Dark dark things: A lament for the ‘authentic talent’ of Susan Taubes. Review of: LAMENT FOR JULIA: And other stories / Susan Taubes -- THE PHILOSOPHICAL PATHOS OF SUSAN TAUBES: Between nihilism and hope / Elliot R. Wolfson.

James Cahill. Must you remember?: A Platonic dialogue of youth, age, erasure and art. Review of: BLACKOUTS / Justin Torres.

Ben Hutchinson. Tales of what might have been: A collector of his own past comes up against his present. Review of: THE ARCHIVE OF FEELINGS: a novel / Peter Stamm; translated by Michael Hofmann.

Jane Yager. The Nazis, and all that jazz: A collage of memory from a Second World War adolescence. Review of: AN ORDINARY YOUTH / Walter Kemposwski; translated by Michael Lipkin.

Alice Jolly. So many parties!: A diplomat’s wife reflects on the early years of the Vietnam War. Review of: ABSOLUTION / Alice McDermott.

Imogen Cassels. Elusive magnetism: Poetry pamphlets and the Michael Marks awards in 2023. (Article)

In Brief Review of: KIBOGO / Scholastique Mukasonga; translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti. ("A group portrait of rural colonial Rwanda")

In Brief Review of: EVERY DROP IS A MAN’S NIGHTMARE / Megan Kamalei Kakimoto ("Stories that explore the tension at the heart of Hawaii’s economy")

Arts

Breeze Barrington. In the flesh: An exhibition that tells us ‘too little’ about the women in the artist’s life. Review of the exhibition RUBENS AND WOMEN, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until January 28.

Jane Yager. Staying alive: The enduring appeal of a band who were never hip. Review of: BEE GEES: Children of the world / Bob Stanley.

Journals

In Brief Review of: TOLKA, Biannual. Liam Harrison, Seán Hayes and Catherine Hearn, editors.

Religion

Eugene R. Sheppard. The world was not enough: A Jewish intellectual who fused the secular with the sacred. Review of: PROFESSOR OF APOCALYPSE: The many lives of Jacob Taubes / Jerry Z. Muller (Taubes was the author of The Political Theology of Paul)

Science & Technology

In Brief Review of: Walking the Bones of Britain: a 3 billion year journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary / Christopher Somerville.

History, Politics & Society

Anthony Bale. Knees without wrinkles: How something called Europe came to be. Review of: BEATRICE’S LAST SMILE: A new history of the Middle Ages / Mark Gregory Pegg.

Jan Machielsen. Impossible feats or impossible liars?: Tales of levitating saints and witches. Review of: THEY FLEW: A history of the impossible / Carlos Eire.

Gary Sheffield. Tactics and strategy: Continuity and change in modern warfare. Review of: CONFLICT: The evolution of warfare from 1945 to Ukraine / General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts,

John Keay. When all else fails there are gunboats: Britain and China have reversed imperial role. Review of: THE LION AND THE DRAGON: Britain and China: A history of conflict / Lawrence James.

Ann Kennedy Smith. Following the tracks: A travel writer confronts her past. Review of: UNFINISHED WOMAN: a memoir / Robyn Davidson.

David Horspool. This sporting afterlife: A search for consolation through football. Review of: A FAN FOR ALL SEASONS: A journey through life and sport / Jon Harvey.

James O'Brien. Going quiet: A generous portrait of Britain’s current prime minister. Review of: ALL TO PLAY FOR: The advance of Rishi Sunak / Michael Ashcroft.

Stephen Glover. Twins peaked: The secretive owners of the Telegraph Media Group under the spotlight. Review of: YOU MAY NEVER SEE US AGAIN: The Barclay dynasty: A story of survival, secrecy and succession / Jane Martinson.

In Brief Review of: THE FUNNY THING ABOUT DEATH / Jo Caulfield ("Jo Caulfield grapples with the loss of her sister")

In Brief Review of: LA VIE: A year in rural France / John Lewis-Stempel.

In Brief Review of: TAKE TWO / Caroline Thonger and Vivian Thonger; illustrations by Alan Thomas.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 12/07/2023: You need not be a history buff to delight in ‘The Manuscripts Club.’ Review of: The Manuscripts Club: the people behind a thousand years of Medieval manuscripts / Christopher De Hamel, with a tip of the hat to Hamel's Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World.

Unpaywalled book reviews from the December 2023 Literary Review:

Pratinav Anil. Midnight's Playboys. Review of: Dethroned: The Downfall of India’s Princely States / John Zubrzycki.

Joanna Kavenna. Unlimited Dream Company. Review of: Selected Nonfiction, 1962-2007 / J G Ballard (Edited by Mark Blacklock).

Rowan Williams. The Poet’s Burden. Review of: On Czesław Miłosz: Visions from the Other Europe / Eva Hoffman.

Just before fall turns to winter, here are selections from the fall 2023 issue of the resurrected Bookforum:

Fiction

Blair McClendon. Finder, Keeper: Teju Cole’s new novel of mourning and premonition. Review of: TREMOR: a novel / TEJU COLE.

Fiona Maazel. Factory of Facts: Ed Park’s conspiracy-laden alternative history. Review of: SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS: a novel / ED PARK.

Ayesha A. Siddiqui. The Overcorrections: The paradox of Zadie Smith’s new historical novel. Review of: THE FRAUD: a novel / ZADIE SMITH.

Jane Hu. Background Poise: Sigrid Nunez breaks the rules. Review of: THE VULNERABLES / SIGRID NUNEZ.

Non-Fiction

Laura Kipnis. The Journalist and the Editor: Janet Malcolm’s late confessions. Review of: STILL PICTURES: ON PHOTOGRAPHY AND MEMORY / JANET MALCOLM.

Michael W. Clune. Surface Tension: A memoir of New York, music, anxiety, and love. Review of: EARLIER / SASHA FRERE-JONES.

Amber Husain. What’s the Use?: A new cultural history examines the efficacy of political loss. Review of: POLITICAL DISAPPOINTMENT: A CULTURAL HISTORY FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE AIDS CRISIS / SARA MARCUS.

Phoebe Chen. Seeing and Being Scene: A new biography of Chinese American movie star Anna May Wong. Review of: DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON: ANNA MAY WONG’S RENDEZVOUS WITH AMERICAN HISTORY / YUNTE HUANG.

Hanif Abdurraqib. Let It Reed: A biography captures a musician’s personae, obsessions, and connection to New York. Review of: LOU REED: THE KING OF NEW YORK / WILL HERMES.

Carl Wilson. On the Sly: A memoir of the Family Stone. Review of: THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN) / SLY STONE WITH BEN GREENMAN.

Two recent recommendation lists from fivebooks.com -- perhaps on opposite sides of the epistemological fence:

Nigel Warburton. interviewed by Cal Flyn. 12/08/2023: The Best Philosophy Books of 2023:

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope / Sarah Bakewell
The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic / Jean-Manuel Roubineau
Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality / David Edmonds
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality / Andy Clark
For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun / Rebecca Roache

Richard Swan, interviewed by Sylvia Bishop. 12/07/2023: The Best High Fantasy Novels:

The Way of Unity (Velspar - Elegies) / Sarah K. Balstrup
Between Two Fires: an epic tale of Medieval horror / Christopher Buehlman
The Hand of the Sun King (Pact & Pattern) / J.T. Greenhouse
The Scar (Bas-Lag) / China Miéville
Jade War (The Green Bone Saga, 2) / Fonda Lee

British crime fiction:

Jeremy Black. The Critic (UK), 12/08/2023: Murders for December: A cornucopia of killings for the Christmas season.

May-lee Chai. NYT, 12/08/2023: Ghost Stories, Both Literal and Figurative. Review of: NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER: Ghost Stories / Jeanette Winterson -- THE HIVE AND THE HONEY: Stories / Paul Yoon -- THE END OF THE WORLD IS A CUL DE SAC: Stories / Louise Kennedy.

Elena Lappin. WaPo, 12/08/2023: The novel Elena Ferrante keeps on a list of ‘books of encouragement.’ Review of a new translation of: Her Side of the Story / Alba de Céspedes; translated by Jill Foulston. Also mentioned: her Forbidden Notebook.

Ella Creamer. Guardian, 12/08/2023: Danger Sound Klaxon! wins oddest book title award. With info about the runners-up.

Odds & ends from LitHub:

Marion Turner. 12/11/2023: Canterbury Tales Down the Centuries: How Each Era Has Reinvented Chaucer.

Lewis Buzbee. 12/11/2023: On the Difficulty of Giving Books as Gifts.

Helen Molesworth. 12/11/2023: Embracing Uncertainty: In Defense of Question-Seeking Criticism.

"A charming exhibition at London’s Charles Dickens Museum provides a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of two great English writers."

Hannah Gal. Quillette, 12/11/2023: Mutual Friends: The Adventures of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

Michael Bishop, 1945-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 12/12/2023: Michael Bishop, Genre-Busting Writer Known for Science Fiction, Dies. Author of: No Enemy But Time -- Brittle Innings

"Mr. Bishop’s son, Jamie, a graphic artist, illustrated the covers for several of his books. In 2007, while teaching at Virginia Tech, Jamie was among the 32 people killed by a gunman on campus.

"He cowrote two noir mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, both under a single pseudonym, Philip Lawson: “Would It Kill You to Smile?” (1998) and “Muskrat Courage” (2000). In 2019, he published a collection of almost entirely nonscience-fiction, “Other Arms Reach Out to Me: Georgia Stories” (2019).

Kim Scott. NYT, 12/13/2023: Will Books Survive Spotify?

Tyler Malone. Poetry Foundation, n.d.: Waiting for Form: How Robert Frost made poetry modern.

Adam Morgan. LitHub, 12/11/2023: The 10 Best Book Reviews of 2023.

John Adams. New Yorker, 12/04/2023 (print 12/11/2023): What Can Musical Monuments Achieve That Physical Ones Can’t? Review of: Time's Echo: the Second World War, The Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance / Jeremy Eichler.

TLS December 15, 2023|No. 6298

Featured

Frank Trentmann. Germans into Nazis: How contemporary accounts challenge stereotypes of fanatics, victims and bystanders. Review of: “A THIRD REICH, AS I SEE IT”: Politics, society, and private life in the diaries of Nazi Germany, 1933–1939 / Janosch Steuwer; translated by Bernard Heise -- BYSTANDER SOCIETY: Conformity and complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust / Mary Fulbrook.

Maria Margaronis. Queen of the frontier: How people and the land shaped each other in Willa Cather’s fiction. Review of: CHASING BRIGHT MEDUSAS: A Life of Willa Cather / Benjamin Taylor.

Fay Bound Alberti. There will be blood: A scandalous tale of greed, medical negligence and political cowardice. Review of: THE POISON LINE: A true story of death, deception and infected blood / Cara McGoogan -- DEATH IN THE BLOOD: The inside story of the NHS infected blood scandal / Caroline Wheeler.

Regina Rini. Robo-reporters: The pitfalls of AI journalism. (Essay)

Literature

Matthew Ward. The dark poem of antiquity: A new translation of a ‘baffling and brilliant’ Greek tragedy. Review of: ALEXANDRA / Lycophron; translated by Simon Hornblower.

Catharine Morris. A class act: Writers reflect on the teachers who inspired them. Review of: WRITERS AND THEIR TEACHERS / Dale Salwak, editor.

Tadzio Koelb. Pile them high!: The case against the publishing conglomerates. Review of: BIG FICTION: How conglomeration changed the publishing industry and American literature / Dan Sinykin.

Franklin Nelson. A game for everyone?: C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary at 60. (Essay)

Miranda France. The horror and wonder: A murderer is reborn in the desert. Review of: THE APPLE IN THE DARK / Clarice Lispector; translated by Benjamin Moser.

Harry Strawson. World of marvels: An acquitted prisoner receives a late-night phone call. Review of: THIS PLAGUE OF SOULS / Mike McCormack.

David Collard. Verbal outrage: Words take on a physical form in 1930s Britain. Review of: JABBERWOCK / Dara Kavanagh.

Keith Hopper. Another epiphany: What if Nora Joyce had abandoned James? Review of: PENELOPE UNBOUND / Penny Morissy.

Nina Allen. The words given to you: Shakespeare’s Ophelia seizes control of her own story. Review of 2 novels by Paul Griffiths: LET ME TELL YOU & LET ME GO ON.

In Brief Review of: A STRANGE LIFE: Selected essays of Louisa May Alcott / Liz Rosenberg, editor.

Arts

Lauren Elkin. The godmother of us all: Gertrude Stein’s influence on Pablo Picasso and other artists. Review of the exhibition GERTRUDE STEIN ET PABLO PICASSO: L’invention du langage, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, until January 28.

Rod Mengham. Rattles and death’s heads: Foreboding and humour in the sculptures of Georg Baselitz. Review of the exhibition GEORG BASELITZ: Sculptures 2011–2015, Serpentine South Gallery, London, until January 7.

Felipe Fernández-Armesto. City lights: The creative intensity of urban centres down the ages. Review of: THE POWER OF ART: A world history in fifteen cities / Caroline Campbell.

Duncan Wheeler. Where the two Spains met: The tertulia and café society in Madrid before the Civil War. Review of: CONFIGURATIONS OF A CULTURAL SCENE: Young writers and artists in Madrid, 1918-1930 / Andrew A. Anderson.

Nat Segnit. Not a pretty picture: The life of an American fashion photographer who knew everyone. Review of: TWENTIETH-CENTURY MAN: The wild life of Peter Beard / Christopher Wallace.

Daniel Orrells. Burial rites: Antigone’s relevance to Latin American politics and theatre. Review of: ANTÍGONAS: Writing from Latin America / Moira Fradinger.

DENNIS MCCARTHY AND JUNE SCHLUETER. Murder will speak: The author of the first Hamlet and the real-life assassination of the Duke of Urbino. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: FLAME MUSIC: Rock and Roll Is Life part II: The true story of Resurgam Records by one who was there / J. Taylor.

Science and Technology

Gregory Radick. Review of: TYRANNY OF THE GENE: Personalized medicine and its threat to public health / James Tabery.

In Brief Review of: LOVEBUG / Daisy Lafarge. ("a poetics of infection": Philosophy? Anthropology? Literature?)

In Brief Review of: THE LOST FLOCK: Rare wool, wild isles, and one woman’s journey to save Scotland’s original sheep / Jane Cooper.

History, Politics, & Society

Lily Ford. Airship of fools: The dream of an Empire united by lighter-than-air flight. Review of: HIS MAJESTY’S AIRSHIP: The life and tragic death of the world’s largest flying machine / S. C. Gwynne.

Libby Purves. Star crossed lovers: A couple divided by conflict. Review of: DAMN THIS WAR: Between the Blitz and the desert, a story of war-crossed love / Julie Hankey.

Sara Watling. Always out of step: Cuba’s singular destiny. Review of: CUBANTHROPY: Two futures that happened while you were busy thinking / Iván de la Nuez; translated by Ellen Jones.

In Brief Review of: A FAITHFUL SPY / Jimmy Burns.

In Brief Review of: DIRECTIONS TO MYSELF / Heidi Julavits.

In Brief Review of: EDGE OF ENGLAND: Landfall in Lincolnshire / Derek Turner.

Ella Creamer. Guardian, 12/15/2023: Reading print improves comprehension far more than looking at digital text, say researchers.

Georgina Lawton. Guardian, 12/15/2023: You be the judge: should my boyfriend start clearing out his piles of books? "Rupert wants more bookshelves to house his growing collection, but Ari thinks a clearout is due. You decide who is on the right page."

Ted Morgan aka Sanche de Gramont, 1932-2023

Jonathan Kandell. NYT, 12/14/2023: Ted Morgan, 91, Dies; Pulitzer-Winning Writer Straddled Two Cultures. Author of: On Becoming American -- FDR: a biography -- Maugham: a biography -- Literary Outlaw: the life and times of William S. Burroughs -- Reds: McCarthyism in twentieth-century America -- Churchill: young man in a hurry, 1874-1915 -- My Battle of Algiers: a memoir. As Sanche de Gramont: The Strong Brown God: the story of the Niger River -- The French: portrait of a people -- The Secret War. He wrote novels too.

"On October 31, 2023, the British Library suffered a massive cyberattack. As of publication, the Library remains physically open, but its digital infrastructure is almost completely disabled."

Carolyn Dever. Public Books, 12/14/2023: HOW TO LOSE A LIBRARY.

Kyle Frances Williams. Public Books, 12/12/2023: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD BOOK. Review of: The Art of Libromancy: Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century / Josh Cook.

Krys Lee. Atlantic, 12/15/2023: WHEN HISTORY DOESN’T DO WHAT WE WISH IT WOULD. Review of: Same Bed, Different Dreams: a novel / Ed Park.

Two book reviews from the Dec/Jan issue of The Critic (UK), on war & population (unrelated):

Daniel Johnson. From the Trojan War to conflict in Ukraine. Review of: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine / David Petraeus & Andrew Roberts.

Nina Power. Time to ask “But what about the children?” Review of: The Two-Parent Privilege: how Americans stopped getting married and started falling behind / Melissa S. Kearney.

Josh Lambert. Atlantic, 12/18/2023: The Invisible Forces Behind the Books We Read (and why they're hard to measure). Review essay of: Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature / Dan Sinykin.

Book Marks. LitHub, 12/14/2023: The Award-Winning Novels of 2023: THE BOOKS THAT TOOK HOME THIS YEAR'S BIGGEST LITERARY PRIZES. The finalists are also provided via the link.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Trust / Hernan Diaz
National Book Award: Blackouts / Justin Torres
Booker Prize: Prophet Song / Paul Lynch
International Booker Prize: Time Shelter / Georgi Gospodinov, tr. from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
National Book Critics Circle Award: Bliss Montage: stories / Ling Ma
Kirkus Prize: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store / James McBride
Women's Prize for Fiction: Demon Copperhead / Barbara Kingsolver
Pen/Faulkner Award: The Book of Goose / Yiyun Li
Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction: Night of the Living Rez / Morgan Talty
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction: The Swimmers / Julie Otsuka
International Dublin Literary Award: Marzahn, Mon Amour / Katja Oskamp, trans. by Jo Heinrich
Center for Fiction First Novel Award: We Are a Haunting / Tyriek White
Los Angeles Times Book Prize/Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: The Return of Faraz Ali / Aamina Ahmad
Edgar Award: Notes on an Execution / Danya Kukafka
Nebula Award: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution / R. F. Kuang
Hugo Award: Nettle & Bone / T. Kingfisher
Bram Stoker Award: The Devil Takes You Home / Gabino Iglesias

No Formal Award Name:

New York Times Book Review Fiction (Best Fiction): Solenoid / Mircea Cărtărescu, tr. Sean Cotter
USA Today Best First (Crime) Novel: Don’t Know Tough / Eli Cranor

See also: Cal Flynn. fivebooks.com, 12/15/2023: Award-Winnning Novels of 2023.

Crimereads, 12/18/2023: THE BEST NOIR FICTION OF 2023.

Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery / Margot Doualhy
Dark Ride: A Thriller / Lou Berney
Lowdown Road / Scott Von Doviak
How Can I Help You / Laura Sims
Nothing Is Lost / Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis
The Berry Pickers / Amanda Peters
All the Sinners Bleed / S.A. Cosby
Everybody Knows / Jordan Harper
Age of Vice / Deepti Kapoor
Ozark Dogs / Eli Cranor

"T. Kingfisher won the Best Novel category for her “dark fairytale” Nettle and Bone. And there’s another standout winner, not officially named: Tor Publishing, whose imprints published five of this year’s nominees in that category."

Sylvia Bishop. fivebooks.com, 12/17/2023: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2023: The Hugo Award Nominees.

The finalists:
Legends & Lattes: A Heartwarming Cosy Fantasy / Travis Baldree
The Spare Man / Mary Robinette Kowal
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau / Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Series, 3) / Tamsyn Muir
The Kaiju Preservation Society / John Scalzi

Elizabeth Barber. New Yorker, 12/16/2023: What Would It Mean to Treat Animals Fairly? Review of: Animal Liberation Now / Peter Singer and Justice for Animals / Martha C. Nussbaum.

"Bereft and suicidal, I lay on my sofa. Only David Foster Wallace’s novel kept me tethered to life, and still does."

Mala Chatterjee. Aeon, 12/19/2023: Saved by Infinite Jest.

"Reading All the Lists So You Don’t Have To Since 2017."

Emily Temple. LitHub, 12/20/2023: The Ultimate Best Books of 2023 List.

"Had a bad relationship with a man? Mr. Darcy’s not to blame."

Chels Upton. Slate, 12/18/2023: We Think Only of Him. Review of: The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters They Taught Us to Love / Rachel Feder.

"Earlier this month, Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres was banned from the Iowa City Schools. Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 17 novels, two collections of short fiction, five nonfiction books, and eight books for young adults. She spoke to The Little Hawk, the student newspaper of City High School in Iowa City."

Jane Smiley, interviewed by Tai Caputo. LitHub, 12/19/2023: Jane Smiley on What It’s Like to Have Your Book Banned.

"Tai Caputo is a junior at Iowa City High School, where she writes for The Little Hawk. Her work has also appeared in Little Village Magazine. She has won a Top Ten Emerging Journalist Award from the Iowa High School Press Association."

Kevin Mims. Quillette, 12/19/2023: In Memoriam, 2023: A tribute to three pop-fiction authors who passed away this year. The authors are: Gabrielle Carey, John Jakes, & John Nichols.

With its newly designed website, LARB is a headache to navigate. Two recent book reviews I managed to winkle out:

Mariella Rudi. 12/17/2023: A People’s History of Slime: On Two New Books About Ooze. Review of: Slime: A Natural History / Susanne Wedlich and File Under: Slime / Christopher Michlig.

Carey Mott. 12/18/2023: Capitalists Inside a Communist State: On Two Books and the Puzzle of Chinese Billionaires. Review of: Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise / Kunyuan Qiao and Christopher Marquis and China’s Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology Are Reshaping China’s Rise and the World’s Future / Scott Moore.

TLS December 22 / 29, 2023|No. 6299

Featured

Dinah Birch. ‘God bless us, every one!’: Charles Dickens and the Victorian Christmas Book. (Essay)

Brian Morton. Get them in and singing: The surprisingly modern history of carols. Review of: DECK THE HALL: The stories of our favourite Christmas carols / Andrew Gant.

John Fuller. A done deal: Theme and variations on the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice. (Essay)

Miranda France. Cute quake: The successful fusion of consumerism with sentimentality. Review of: IRRESISTIBLE: How cuteness wired our brains and conquered the world / Joshua Paul Dale.

Religion

Rowan Williams. A cold coming: The festive challenge to the values and priorities of society. Review of: THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CHRISTMAS / Timothy Larsen, ed.

Huw Nesbit. Searching for a scapegoat: A French thinker in revolt against Freud and post-structuralism. Review of: ALL DESIRE IS A DESIRE FOR BEING / René Girard; edited by Cynthia L. Haven.

Bibliography

Sarah Lonsdale. ‘I would like to thank my wife’: An acknowledgement of acknowledgements. (Essay)

Nicola Shulman. The writing on the wall: A digital-age elegy for a dying art form. Review of: HANDWRITTEN: Remarkable people on the page / Lesley Smith.

In Brief Review of: DIGITAL CODICOLOGY: Medieval books and modern labour / Bridget Whearty.

Literature

Anna Aslanyan. Learning not to die: Literary maximalism as a counter to mortality. Review of: THE WOLVES OF ETERNITY / Karl Ove Knausgaard; translated by Martin Aitken.

Kathryn Sutherland. Austen in America: The gravitational pull of the novelist’s transatlantic admirers. Review of: A NEW JANE AUSTEN: How Americans brought us the world’s greatest novelist / Juliette Wells.

Hal Jensen. Sin is a slithering thing: Sigrid Undset’s ‘north-facing’ tetralogy of faith, family and power politics. Review of Undset's OLAV AUDUNSSØN (aka The Master of Hestviken) tetralogy, translated by Tiina Nunnally: 1. Vows -- 2. Providence -- 3. Crossroads -- 4. Winter.

Catherine Tayler. Learning how to die: Jon Fosse’s numinous hinterland. Review of: A SHINING / Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls.

Maren Meinhardt. Tonight you dine with Christ!: A band of Vikings arrive on ninth-century Iona. Review of: COLUMBA’S BONES / David Greig.

Craig Raine. Homer nods: When novelists lose the plot. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: NAMASTE TRUMP: And other stories / Tabish Khair.

In Brief Review of: I COULD READ THE SKY / Timothy O'Grady and Steve Pyke ("a novel with photographs")

Arts

Michael Caines. A final flight of fancy: Hiyao Miyazaki’s grand closing statement. Review of Miyazaki's movie The Boy and the Heron.

Toby Lichtig. Bittersweet treats: New approaches to Roald Dahl’s world. Review of the movie Wonka and a theatrical adaptation by Lucy Kirkwood of Roald Dahl's The Witches, National Theatre (Olivier), until January 27.

Frances Spalding. Lived-in beauty: The life and work of the man who created Kettle’s Yard and secured Van Goghs for the Tate. Review of: WAYS OF LIFE: Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard artists / Laura Freeman.

Food and Drink

Andrew Irwin. Who owns borsch?: Food that carries the charge of a flag and an anthem. Review of: NATIONAL DISH: Around the world in search of food, history and the meaning of home / Anya von Bremzen.

Olivia Potts. Ailing for cakes: A quest for ‘the True Slice.’ Review of: CAKE: A slice of British life / Andrew Baker.

History, Politics, & Society

Robert Mayhew. Hero and villain: Thomas Malthus: critic of capitalism or enemy of the poor? Review of: THE INVENTION OF SCARCITY: Malthus and the margins of history / Deborah Valenze -- SCARCITY: A history from the origins of capitalism to the climate crisis / Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind.

Christopher Cusack. A forgotten great hunger: The last Irish famine of 1879–80. Review of: THE LAND WAR IN IRELAND: Famine, philanthropy and moonlighting / Laurence M. Geary.

In Brief Review of: METROPOLITAIN: An ode to the Paris Metro / Andrew Martin.

In Brief Review of: FARLEY AND CLAIRE: A love story / Michael Harris. ("An intimate portrait of Claire and Farley Mowat")

In Brief Review of: THE FARMER'S WIFE: My life in days / Helen Rebanks.

In Brief Review of: PENNING POISON: A history of anonymous letters / Emily Cockayne.

Literary Quizzes

Tony Lurcock. The TLS Christmas Quiz: Our annual literary quiz. Impossible.

Also, in the NB column, Rising to the occasions, M.C. references a new book, Charles Dickens Puzzles by Julian Morgan. "We took the test, alas, and found our knowledge mortifyingly lacking in certain areas of the Inimitable oeuvre."

Recent music biography from LARB:

Alex Harvey. 12/22/2023: Soy Califa! On Dexter Gordon’s Life and Music. More of a biographical essay largely based on Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon / Maxine Gordon.

Olivia Giovetti. 12/21/2023: The Callas Myth. Again, a biographical essay loosely based on My Daughter Maria Callas / Evangelia Callas.

A wonderful essay on a forgotten English crime writer.

Martin Edwards. crimereads.com, 12/22/2023: AN UNCONVENTIONAL CHRISTMAS NOVEL BY AN UNCONVENTIONAL WRITER. Ostensibly a review of A Christmas Egg: a season mystery / Mary Kelly.

J. G. A. (John Greville Agard) Pocock, 1924-2023

Emily Langer. WaPo, 12/22/2023: J.G.A. Pocock, historian who placed the past in context, dies at 99. Author of: Barbarism and Religion -- Three British Revolutions -- Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method -- Politics, Language, and Time: Essays on Political Thought and History -- The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Political Tradition.

"J.G.A. Pocock, a historian who delivered revelatory insights on topics from republicanism to the Enlightenment, from English common law to the American Revolution, and from Aristotle to Machiavelli by rigorously placing his subjects in the context of their times, died Dec. 12 at an assisting living center in Baltimore. He was 99."

Neil Genzlinger. NYT, 12/19/2023: J.G.A. Pocock, Historian Who Argued for Historical Context, Dies at 99. "He helped forge a movement asserting that scholars must put aside their modern-day assumptions and prejudices to fully understand how people acted and thought in the past."

"Professor Pocock, Quentin Skinner and other like-minded scholars, known collectively as the Cambridge School, came to prominence in the late 1960s with a fresh approach to the study of political thought, characterized by an emphasis on context and an unwillingness to assume that all ideas and problems were viewed in the past as they would be viewed today.

"“Pocock’s central contention,” the Oxford historian Keith Thomas wrote in The New York Review of Books in 1986, “is that a work of political thought can only be understood if the reader is aware of the contemporary linguistic constraints to which its author was subject, for these constraints prescribed both his subject matter and the way in which that subject matter was conceptualized.”

Antonio Negri, 1933-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 12/22/2023: Antonio Negri, 90, Philosopher Who Wrote a Surprise Best Seller, Dies.

"He became famous twice: first in 1979, for his imprisonment related to the murder of a former Italian premier, and then 20 years later, for his influential book “Empire.” (written from prison with Michael Hardt)

Robert M. Solow, 1924-2023

Robert D. Hershey Jr. and Michael M. Weinstein. NYT, 12/21/2023: Robert M. Solow, Groundbreaking Economist and Nobelist, Dies at 99. "His elegant work established that the main determinant of economic growth was technology, not growing capital and labor."

"Professor Solow (pronounced solo) taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he and a fellow Nobel laureate, Paul A. Samuelson, forged the M.I.T. style of economic analysis, which emerged as a leading approach in the second half of the 20th century and played an important role in economic policymaking. ...

"The Solow growth model, propounded in his book “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” in 1956, and its empirical follow-up, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” published in 1957, made his reputation while he was in his early 30s and led in due course to the Clark Medal and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences."

Books cataloged in LT include: Growth theory: an exposition -- Inflation, Unemployment, and Monetary Policy -- Work and Welfare -- Learning from 'Learning by Doing:' Lessons for Economic Growth -- What's Right with Macroeconomics? -- An Almost Practical Step Toward Sustainability & more.

The Post has the School Book Wars at the top of its online page this morning:

Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 12/23/2023: Half of challenged books return to schools. LGBTQ books are banned most.

Reshma Kirpalani and Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 12/21/2023: The lives upended by Florida’s school book wars. "In a fight over books, Escambia County saw thousands of titles removed, two lawsuits and jobs lost — including that of its superintendent."

Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 12/23/2023: The Post reviewed 1,000 school book challenges. Here’s what we found.

Washington Post Staff. WaPo, 12/14/2023: Staff Picks: What Book World writers and editors treasured in 2023.

The Critic (UK). 12/24/2023: The Critic books of the year. Some rather curmudgeonly preferences, tbh.

David Butterfield liked: Knowing What We Know: from ancient wisdom to modern magic / Simon Winchester.

Ellen Pasternack chose a few: Heartburn / Nora Ephron -- Calypso / David Sedaris -- Hags / Victoria Smith.

Fred Skulthorp recs: Obedience is Freedom / Jacob Phillips.

Sebastian Milbank was reading: Simone Weil's The Iliad, or the Poem of Force & The Need for Roots, and (for fun), The Worm Ouroboros / E.R. Eddison.

Victoria Smith (author of Hags see above) liked: Yellowface / R.F. Kuang, and non-fiction, Number Go Up / Zeke Faux & In Her Nature / Rachel Hewitt.

Joe Bartosch preferences were: Feminism Against Progress / Mary Harrington ("without a doubt, the most interesting book I’ve read this year."), but also: The Premonitions Bureau / Sam Knight & Detrans: when transition is not the solution / Az Hakeem.

Lola Salem, a conservative evoking the Titanic praises: Covenant: The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood and Nation / Danny Kruger (held by 0 LT members as of this writing).

Christopher Montgomery wants to recover the children's/YA books of his youth: The Guardians / John Chistopher/Sam Youd.

Ben Sixsmith: Death and the Penguin / Andrei Kurkov.

Maris Kreizman. NYT, 12/24/2023: Let’s Rescue Book Lovers From This Online Hellscape. Issues with Goodreads.

"American Christmas: 48 American Poets Celebrate the Beauty of Christmas, first published in 1965, includes both classic and nearly unknown works, and widens a reader’s sense of what the holiday might mean.

Casey Cep. New Yorker, 12/23/2023: A Forgotten Book of Christmas Poem.

This one goes back to August, but I thought I'd squeeze it in before 2024:

Thomas M. Ward. Aeon, 08/03/2023: Who was Duns Scotus?

"In novels from “The Guest” to “Biography of X,” vaguely menacing wallflowers took center stage."

Katy Waldman. New Yorker, 12/29/2023: The Year of the Female Creep.

This came up on Twitter/X but I couldn't find it on New Yorker Online, so for the record:

New Yorker via Twitter, 12/29/2023: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2023. Probably just a re-issue (slightly tweaked?) of The New Yorker, 12/20/2023: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2023. Useful checklist either way.

Rebecca Laurence & Lindsey Baker. BBC Culture, 12/29/2023: Sandra Newman to Justin Torres: 33 of the best books of 2023.

Michael Dirda. WaPo, 12/29/2023: What can we look forward to in 2024? Books, always books. I'll probably re-post in next quarter's thread.

Arno J. Mayer, 1926-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 01/06/2024: Arno J. Mayer, Unorthodox Historian of Europe’s Crises, Dies at 97. Best known for his book Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: the Final Solution in history.