Can somebody tell me, tell me please, why there’s suddenly such a profusion, a torrent… almost a glut, of significant art history books entering the marketplace right about now?
Books
Television Interview: “Poetry in America” Host Elisa New — “Poetry is in all of us”
Viewers are drawn into an active, immersive experience watching the series. They come away with the feeling that poetry is in them.
Book Review: “Home Reading Service” — Beyond Empty Words
In Home Reading Service the literary and the illiterate rub shoulders, and we are given a vision of people tentatively emerging from behind walls.
Short Fuse Podcast #49: “Race for Tomorrow” — On the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis
Host Elizabeth Howard and journalist Simon Mundy talk about his book “Race for Tomorrow,” which examines the implications of climate change, from the micro to the macro.
Book Review: “Through a Screen Darkly” — Psychological Strategies for Moving Beyond the Pandemic
I found Through a Screen Darkly to be as enlightening as it is useful: we don’t just read about and invest our emotions in other lives; we learn what to do about our own.
Poetry Review: The Word-Whipped Verse of “Flame in a Stable”
Flame in a Stable admits the reader into the committed life of a literate, far-reaching, colloquial, passionate, playful, and witty poetic voice,
Book Review: “Drawing the Line” — How to Respond to “Immoral” Artists
Drawing the Line is grounded in the work of ethicists and psychologists. Its prose is clear and its arguments systematic. But every avenue of investigation only opens up another pathway that ends as a cul-de-sac or doubles back on itself.
Book Review: #ClassicalMusicSoWhite? — How It Got That Way and What to Do About It
Joseph Horowitz’s short, punchy, well-sourced, and compulsively readable book argues for bringing back the forgotten works of important Black composers.
Children’s Book Review: “The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol” — Superficial Scorcery
Is it at all remotely important to know how gift-giving became a Hanukkah tradition in America?
Arts Feature: Recommended Books, 2021
An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics, including some disappointments.