Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for linking to a review of Ernst Jünger’s recently translated World War II diary A German Officer in Occupied Paris. The article is titled “A Dandy Goes to War”, authored by Michael Lewis. I’ve been interested in Jünger since reading On the Marble Cliffs, probably the strangest book I’ve […]
Since I missed this when it happened three years ago… From MyModernMet.com back in 2016: Salvador Dalí’s Eccentric Cookbook Is Being Reissued for the First Time in Over 40 Years. First published in 1973, Les Diners de Gala was a bizarre dream come true—a cookbook filled with surreal illustrations and recipes inspired by the lavish […]
How to Think about War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy by Thucydides Speeches from The History of the Peloponnesian War Selected, translated, and introduced by Johanna Hanink Princeton University Press, 2019 Hardcover, 336 pages Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers SeriesI had not read any of the releases in Princeton University Press’ Ancient Wisdom “How […]
Elemental: How the Periodic Table Can Now Explain (Nearly) Everything by Tim James Abrams Press, 2019 Hardcover, 224 pages Chemistry is not an abstract subject happening in dingy laboratories: it’s happening everywhere around us and everywhere within us. In order to understand chemistry, therefore, we have to understand the periodic table, that hideous thing you […]
If you have wanted to see the National Theatre Live’s 2015 version of Hamlet and haven’t had a chance yet, check the Fathom Events site [note: link has been removed] to see if there will be a screening near you on July 8th. The time I saw it, the audience had a nice mix of ages […]
Several years ago I posted on Women of the Gulag: Portraits of Five Remarkable Lives by Paul R. Gregory. A moving and powerful book, Gregory detailed some of the problems that five Soviet women faced when victimized by the gulag system. I believe I first found out about the book from Cynthia Haven at The […]
Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe, with Tom DeSavia and Friends Da Capo Press, 2016 Hardcover, 336 pages Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it’s never been told before. Authors John Doe and […]
Robert Chandler has a short article in The New Yorker on the censorship of Grossman’s book For a Just Cause (the recent English translation uses the title Grossman wanted—Stalingrad). The original publication process of the novel is a case study of Soviet editorial practices and censorship. Grossman worked on the manuscript from 1943 until 1949 […]
The poetry of Ronnie Lane…two songs that capture some challenging aspects of father/son dynamics. In a good way, at least to me.
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman Translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler NYRB Classics, 2019 Paperback, 1088 pages Judging by how limited my time was yesterday and only making my way through Robert Chandler’s introduction to Stalingrad, this may be a true “summer(-long) read” for me. And I’m fine with that. A few quick notes on […]
Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff Yale University Press, 2019 Hardcover, 424 pagesStalingrad by Vasily Grossman is officially released today. While I’m waiting for my copy to arrive by mail, I wanted to share a little about this outstanding biography. Alexandra Popoff has written several literary biographies and is a former Moscow […]
“The Secret Oral History of Bennington: The 1980s’ Most Decadent College” by Lili Anolik, Esquire Fall, 1982. A new freshman class arrives at arty, louche, and expensive Bennington College. Among the druggies, rebels, heirs, and posers: future Gen X literary stars Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jonathan Lethem. What happened over the next four […]
What to do with students in the summer? When they were younger, it was fairly easy. Take them to the pool. Get together with friends. Go to summer camps and amusement parks. Take them on trips. Wear them out, somehow. For school? If you wanted, you could do the summer “bridge” activities books, but of […]
My oldest expressed interest in seeing The Cold Blue tonight instead of waiting for it on HBO, and who was I to say no? So we’re excited about going tonight for the movie and the extra “making of” short. Plus I’m happy to see the score is provided by Richard Thompson. A good article on […]
In the Books section of each weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal is a list of “five best books” on a particular topic. I’ve found some good leads on books I’d like to read every now and then from this feature. This past weekend edition had a list from Alexandra Popoff, former Moscow journalist and […]
Picture from Old Maps, Expeditions, and Explorations blog The Voynich manuscript has been in the news off and on over the past few years. From Wikipedia: The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), […]
I’ve only read a few things by Karl Ove Knausgård, and it’s been hit or miss on what I like and what hasn’t connected. One thing I did enjoy is his recent conversation with Tyler Cowen, which I saw linked at Marginal Revolution. The wide-ranging interview starts with a discussion of mimesis and ends with […]
It’s been a while since I’ve fallen out of love with baseball, but I still enjoy a good baseball movie. Here are a couple of films I’ve watched recently that I can highly recommend. Picture sourceThe first is The Catcher Was a Spy, based on the 1994 biography The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious […]
I feel like I need to apologize for blog silence lately. I’ll pass on the enjoyable find I stumbled across today on Shout Factory TV: Graham Parker And The Rumour: This Is Live. “Filmed for a scene in Judd Apatow’s 2012 motion picture This Is 40, Graham Parker & The Rumour: This Is Live presents […]
I just noticed that Legend of the Holy Drinker, based on Joseph Roth’s novella, is available to view for free on Amazon Prime. I loved Roth’s story and found this movie version with Rutger Hauer very well done. In one of his letters, Joseph Roth wrote, “There are miracles in my life, poor little miracles, […]