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Holiday Picks in Nonfiction
By John Berger
How lucky we are to have John Berger still waxing aesthetic. As he crests 90, he's in fine form and though reflective, no less provocative.
Landscapes, the companion book to the excellent
Portraits, is barely about landscapes, but then his writing always shirks convention and definition. More shrewd, insurgent, voluminous essays about art, politics, creation, philosophy, beauty, observation. More! More!
(Alexis A.)
By J. M. DuPont & Mezzo
If you know somebody who likes graphic novels OR if you know somebody who likes blues music (or both), well... this is a locked-down, rock-solid great gift guarantee.
Love In Vain: Robert Johnson 1911-1938 is a great story, well told, full of stunningly gorgeous illustrations evocative of the panels of Robert Crumb and the woodcuts of Rockwell Kent. A beautiful addition to the RJ saga and companion to RJ's haunted, emphatic music.
(Christien S.)
By Ruth Franklin
Shirley Jackson had a sharp eye for the uncanny, strange detail, and her deep understanding of the evil impulses in mankind were always devastatingly accurate. Her famous and frequently anthologized short story "The Lottery" is an eviscerating tale about the lurking ever-present cruelty of a small town community living on the fringes of society. The story is particularly instructive in the light of Jackson's own life. Even as it carries conspicuously mythic qualities, like a fable or Borgesian parable, it was fueled by the very real circumstances of her experience as a woman, mother, and housewife in Bennington, Vermont during the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Ruth Franklin's biography of the writer is as consuming and unwavering in its truth-seeking as any Shirley Jackson story I've read.
(Maya S.)
SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
By David Hajdu
"Pop music" is a term as enduring as it is enigmatic. Its capacity to apply to so many different types of music makes David Hajdu's
Love for Sale read like an anthology of music journalism based on its varied subject matter alone. This book has essays on anything from punk to disco (sometimes in the same essay, as is the case of those two examples), so if you're shopping for a gift, there's a great chance the music lover in your life will enjoy any number of these essays.
(Geo O.)
By Siri Hustvedt
Poet Matthew Zapruder, from "Pocket": "Then/ tried standing in an actual stance of mystery/ and not knowingness towards the world./ Which is my job." Siri Hustvedt is a novelist, a poet, an essayist, whose work combines remarkble scholarship in science and art like no other writer. Yet its erudition never conceals its deep personal stakes. In this book she stands with the reader in that stance of not knowingness, where meaning in its variegation can calcify, and she doesn't cower.
(Stephanie B.)
By Josh Katz
Sub, Hoagie, or Hero? Pee-KHAN, PEE-can, or Pick-AHN? Water fountain, drinking fountain, or... bubbler!? Josh Katz, a statistician and graphics editor for the
New York Times, has published a book of maps showing the curious variations of American speech across the continental United States. Colorful, entertaining, and informative,
Speaking American shows how we are a people occasionally separated by a common language. It may also help to avoid confusion when someone invites you over for Devil's Night. A great gift for lovers of linguistics, data, and funny accents of all ages.
(Nick T.)
SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
By Haruki Murakami & Seiji Ozawa
Each well-known for his own creative talents (Murakami for his beloved novels, Ozawa as the renowned former conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), this book's authors also share a vibrant friendship built on their mutual love of music. In these transcribed conversations, Murakami and Ozawa draw readers into that friendship, sharing their reflections on everything from the intricacies of classical compositions to the progressions and surprises of their creative careers. For Murakami fans and music lovers, as well as anyone interested in life as an artist.
(Hannah S.)
By David Salle
In David Salle's new essay collection, he writes about what art does and why. The essence of each essay is in the details, which are as much about art world personalities as individual works. Salle's extended observations tie art-viewing to life-living in surprising, innovative ways, yet somehow each connection feels inevitable: a work of art is "a story you didn't even know needed telling"; it is a "rare alloy of sensibility and materiality"; it is generous; it is harder than it looks; it might exude a spirit of "irreverent fun" if you let it. A work of art can be likened to the subtle yet decisive act of catching a butterfly "without damaging its wings."
(Stormy B.)
SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE
By David Sax
The Revenge of Analog is a timely piece of nonfiction, with chapters covering topics like vinyl, paper, film, board games, print, retail, and so on, and of course, it highlights their comeback, and resurgence in popularity. This isn't a chain vs indies book, although indies certainly get their fair share of love in it. It's more a book about the David and Goliath struggle between the internet and the actual, with humanity's soul playing center stage. It's an encouraging, optimistic book, urging people to re-engage with the actual, or rather, the analog. There is a chapter (my favorite!) on independent bookstores, where Sax lovingly defines 'hand selling.' It never occurred to me that this phrase would need defining, but his description 'Hand selling is a book industry term, which essentially means that sales associates will place books people want to read into their hands' is so simple and perfect. In fact this entire book full of anecdotes and observations equally cheerful, and is philosophical about the analog experience. It reminds me all over again why it is we do this thing we do, and why we love the physical place and the physical object of a book.
(Rebecca F.)
By Peter Wohlleben
The subtitle alone is probably enough to convince interested readers to pick this book up, and it doesn't disappoint. Drawing on his experience as a forest manager in Germany, Wohlleben casts trees as the stars of their own quiet dramas: they wage whispered wars, form centuries-long friendships, and govern entire forest nations.Though it reads like a fairy tale at times, Wohlleben's work is grounded in recent scientific advances, which makes it an eerie reality check and a peaceful meditation all at once. Crucial reading for those with a vested interest in the natural world, which is to say, all of us.
(Hannah S.)
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WE ARE OPEN! Greenlight's new bookstore at 632 Flatbush officially started selling books over the weekend to our neighbors in PLG! Take a look at the pictures on our