1/5/2024 Front Table Newsletter
The Library
(Basic Books)
Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen
The history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes—and remakes—the institution anew.
On Divas
(Atlantic Editions)
Spencer Kornhaber
A collection of essays on musicians, celebrities, and aesthetic movements and moments that, taken together, characterize the often used, yet widely misunderstood term diva. With keen insight and genuine enthusiasm, On Divas offers readers an original understanding of an age-old phenomenon by drawing together figures as diverse as Beyoncé, Björk, and Donald Trump.
My Friends
(Random House)
Hisham Matar
One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat, and has the sense that his life has been changed forever. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh. A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author working at the peak of his powers.
Twinkind: The Singular Significance of Twins
(Princeton University Press)
William Viney
Twins have captivated the imagination for centuries, occupying a unique place in our cultural and scientific history. Twinkind looks at twins in myth and legend; anatomy, sociology, and genetics; and as sources of spectacle, entertainment, and community. A visual journey like no other, this book sheds critical light on the competing visions of twins around the world and throughout history, showing how the lived experience of twinkind has elicited profound attraction and respect, but also puzzlement, fear, and fascination.
Academia
(Abbeville Press)
William Morgan
The Collegiate Gothic style, which flourished between the Gilded Age and the Jazz Age, was intended to lend an air of dignified history to America's relatively youthful seats of higher learning. Today the ivy-covered monuments of Collegiate Gothic still exercise a powerful hold on the public imagination--as evidenced, for example, by their prominent place in the Dark Academia aesthetic that has swept social media. In Academia, the noted architectural historian William Morgan traces the entire arc of Collegiate Gothic, from its first emergence at campuses like Kenyon and Bowdoin to its apotheosis in James Gamble Rogers's intricately detailed confections at Yale. Ever alert to the complicated cultural and social implications of this style, Morgan devotes special sections to its manifestations at prep schools and in the American South, and to contemporary revivals by architects like Robert A. M. Stern. Illustrated throughout with well-chosen color photographs, Academia offers the ultimate campus tour of our faux-medieval cathedrals of learning.
The Vulnerables
(Riverhead Books)
Sigrid Nunez
Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez's ninth novel. The Vulnerables offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past. Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. The Vulnerables reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another's distress. A search for understanding about some of the most critical matters of our time, Nunez's new novel is also an inquiry into the nature and purpose of writing itself.
Organ Meats
(One World)
K-Ming Chang
Best friends Anita and Rainie find refuge by an old sycamore tree with its neighboring lot of stray dogs who have a mysterious ability to communicate with humans. The girls learn that they are preceded by generations of dog-headed women and woman-headed dogs whose bloodlines bind them together. Anita convinces Rainie to become a dog with her, tying a collar of red string around each of their necks to preserve their kinship forever. But when the two girls are separated, Anita sinks into a dreamworld that only Rainie knows how to rescue her from. As Anita's body begins to rot, it is up to Rainie to rebuild Anita's body and keep her friend from being lost forever. Filled with ghosts and bodily entrails, this is a story about the horror and beauty of intimacy, written in K-Ming Chang's signature poetic and visceral lore.
Related Titles
The "engaging" and "ambitious" (Washington Post) history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age.
The history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and...
A critic's notebook on sparkle and spectacle. An Atlantic Edition, featuring long-form journalism by Atlantic writers, drawn from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine's 165-year archive.
A collection of essays on musicians, celebrities, and aesthetic...
An arresting illustrated history of twins in mythology, science, and visual culture
Twins have captivated the imagination for centuries, occupying a unique place in our cultural and scientific history. Twinkind looks at twins in myth and legend; anatomy, sociology, and genetics...
The Collegiate Gothic style, which flourished between the Gilded Age and the Jazz Age, was intended to lend an air of dignified history to America's relatively youthful seats of higher learning. In fact, this mash-up of Oxbridge quaintness with piles of new money gave rise--at schools like...
