Donato Ndongo, author of the recently published Shadows of Your Black Memory, was interviewed by the Columbia Missourian about his work as a novelist in exile from his native Equatorial Guinea. The interview is on the Columbia Missourian website.
Read the Columbia Missourian interview of Donato Ndongo
Learn more about Donato Ndongo's Shadows of Your Black Memory
Dan Gordon, editor of the forthcoming Your Brain on Cubs, was interviewed yesterday on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio's newsmagazine "848". Dan ably explained some of the intriguing ideas contained in the book, including the way our brain works when we're despairing over another Cubs loss, why we prefer to root for the underdog, and the ways that a ballplayer's brain works as he plays the game.
Bloggers have also taken notice of the book: It was discussed here and here.
Listen to the "848" interview of Dan Gordon
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs
Stephen Eisenman's The Abu Ghraib Effect was reviewed last week on the Art Blog By Bob blog. It was also reviewed last month in CAA Reviews:
Gwendolyn Wright's keynote lecture at the "Women and Modernism" colloquium at the Museum of Modern Art was featured in the October 31st New York Times column by architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. Using the colloquium and Wright's comments as a launching point, Oursoussoff considers the reasons why females continue to be underpresented in the architecture profession:
Continue reading "Author in the News: Gwendolyn Wright and USA" »
Staten Island has the lowest profile of the five New York boroughs, but from The Godfather to The Wu Tang Clan, it has cemented its place in New York character and history. New York Calling essayists will talk about the fascinating culture of the Island on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00 p.m. at the Everything Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay Street, in the Tompkinsville neighborhood on Staten Island.
Staten Island native essayist Steve Maluk, Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema, and photographer and New York Calling co-editor Brian Berger will lead a lively evening of words, photos, and discussion that's sure to interest everyone. The event has garnered local attention, including on Dan Icolari's Walking Is Transportation blog.
New York Calling event at Everything Goes Book Cafe
Check out more postings about Staten Island on Brian Berger's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling
Library Journal recently published a glowing review of Peter Whitfield's London: A Life in Maps:
Whitfield, the author of several books on maps, including Cities of the World, has produced a fascinating history of London organized around some 100 of the countless maps, panoramas, and plans created of the city over the last 500 years, going back to the earliest extant map. . . . Whitfield serves up an enjoyable mix of facts, both familiar and obscure, handsomely supported with contemporary illustrations in addition to the maps. As with any book reproducing graphics in a reduced size, some detail is lost, but anyone with an interest in the history of London or of maps generally will find much to enjoy. Recommended highly for public and academic libraries.
Read the full Library Journal review
Learn more about London: A Life in Maps
New York Calling essayists Luc Sante, Tim McLoughlin, and Brian Berger will be reading from their pieces on Wednesday, October 24th at 7:00 p.m. at Spoonbill & Sugartown, 218 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. An audience Q&A and book signing will follow the sure to be lively reading, which has already been previewed on several local Brooklyn blogs.
Spoonbill & Sugartown Books
Check out the author's official New York Calling blog
Learn more about New York Calling
Gwendolyn Wright will be speaking on Thursday, October 25th at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She will be giving the keynote address at the Women in Modernism—Making Places in Architecture colloquium, which is sponsored by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.
Wright's address will be followed by a discussion panel featuring leading architectural scholars and practitioners Toshiko Mori, Sarah Herda, Karen Stein, and moderator Barry Bergdoll. Wright is author of the forthcoming USA: Modern Architectures in History.
"At last, the book I have been waiting for: the story of modern American architecture deeply contextualized in the history of the last century and a half. Wright is that rare scholar who understands how intricately the built environment is laced into larger historical trends. This is a wonderful book for all who care about architecture and the long history of modern work, housing, and public life in the United States."
—Lizabeth Cohen, professor of history, Harvard University, and author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation Women in Modernism colloquium at the Museum of Modern Art
Learn more about USA: Modern Architectures in History
Newly published this month is The Other Venice, a lyrical collection of nonfiction essays written by prolific essayist Predrag Matvejević and translated by Russell Valentino. Matvejević plumbs the depths of Venice's canals and peers into its narrow alleys, reimagining this ancient city through the people, places, and ideas that flourished within its confines. Whether the trattoria and taverns that line the canals, the culinary history of regional bread and breadmaking, or the excavation of islands and ships from swampy lagoons, The Other Venice infuses the city with the mystery and intrigue of ancient traditions and treasured secrets. An intimate and compelling travel memoir, The Other Venice sweeps us into an unfamiliar cityscape where the mysteries of the Old World mingle with modern life.
Read The Other Venice press release.
Learn more about The Other Venice.
Partha Mitter will give a lecture on Sunday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His talk will be drawn from his newly published book The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde 1922–47. A book signing will follow the lecture.
National Gallery of Art Lectures
Learn more about Partha Mitter's The Triumph of Modernism
New York Calling essayists Tom Robbins, Margaret Morton, and Brian Berger will be reading this Friday, October 19th at 7:00pm at Bluestocking Books, 172 Allen Street in New York City.
Time Out New York recently praised the book saying, "With Rudy running for President and Hilly Kristal dead, the timing couldn't be better for New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg. This fascinating, enlightening and sometimes irritating collection of essays pokes through the rubble of the past three decades and asks: What is the Apple without its worms—without its grifters, goombahs, B-boys, bohos and bums?"
Read the Time Out New York review
Check out the New York Calling author blog
Learn more about New York Calling
Donald Pfaff's forthcoming The Neuroscience of Fair Play recently was reviewed in the October 8th issue of Publishers Weekly:
"[Pfaff] claims he's surveyed the world's religions and found some variant of the Golden Rule in every one, leading him to conclude that this trait is likely to be under some sort of genetic control. . . . The author goes into great detail about how neurobiology and neurochemistry interact to help shape behavior. His sections on parenting, sexual love, and aggression are intriguing, but the technical information will make this appeal primarily to those with a strong interest in the brain and the science of behavior."
Read the full Publishers Weekly article
Learn more about The Neuroscience of Fair Play
Professor Partha Mitter will be giving a talk entitled "Early Indian Photography and the Complex Legacy of the Mughal Era" this Thursday, October 18th at 6:00p.m. in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art at Harvard University. Admission is free.
Mitter is the author of the newly published The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-47.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art lecture series
Learn more about The Triumph of Modernism
Danny Postel's Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran was recently reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Society and Culture:
In Persian there is a piece of proverbial wisdom that praises a statement, a report, an analysis, or even a book, for being brief—and thereby beneficial. To a person who is not getting to the point, Iranians politely plead to be "brief and beneficial." Danny Postel's book, Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran, does a good deal of justice to this Persian wisdom by succinctly broaching very important issues about the current political struggle in Iran and the attitude of western progressive forces to it. . . .This is very timely book that addresses a crucial question in our time, namely, the solidarity and sympathy that the progressive forces in the west and the United States can extend to their counterparts in Iran. The progressive forces, the NGOs, and intellectuals can do much more that just opposing a war in Iran; they can and should actively get involved in supporting the reforms in Iran. Postel's plea in this direction is quite helpful and persuasive. We can fruitfully compare the current situation of Iran to that of the last years of Soviet time and the failure of the progressive forces in the west to support the movement of the people in the Soviet societies and the disastrous consequences thereof. Hence the importance of Postel's warning and plea.
Read the full Logos review
Learn more about Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran