Books
Big Swiss is effervescent and funny, even if overcooked to some extent.
If historian Thomas Crow’s goal is to explain how these rebels of the counterculture reshaped American art, he is at least partly successful.
The magazine is excited to announce its new feature “Poetry at The Arts Fuse,” which will present a poem every Thursday.
As cultural critique, Curtis White’s Transcendent comes across as a modest if chilly yip of Zen resignation.
Although science is Andrea Barrett’s springboard, she is writing fiction about the people who do scientific research and teach it: memorable people who have hearts and secrets and feelings and hopes and dreams and goals.
Given the increasing backlash against books that promote equity and diversity, and the fact that many schools still spotlight Black history in February, here is a sampling of the many excellent Black history and biography books for children published in the past few years.
Aleksandar Hemon’s latest novel is simply dizzying, filled with texture, startling imagery, language in multiple tongues (keep Google within reach!), and it succeeds in most every respect.
There’s no question the Beatles come out of John Higgs’ superb book Love and Let Die looking far better than James Bond. Love tends to play better than death and it’s easier to root for working class underdogs than Establishment snobs.
This incisive, compelling, and spirited analysis of the screwball maestro’s life and oeuvre illuminates the art of an overlooked genius.
Arts Commentary: The Last Laugh — Stephen Colbert, Comedy, and Cultural Resistance