6/24 Front Table Newsletter

With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? In What an Owl Knows, Jennifer Ackerman joins scientists in the field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their young, and move about from season to season. Ackerman brings this research alive with her own personal field observations; the result is an awe-inspiring exploration of owls across the globe and through human history, and a spellbinding account of the world’s most enigmatic group of birds.

Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin
(W.W. Norton)
Howard Markel

By early morning of June 30, 1860, a large crowd began to congregate in front of Oxford University’s brand-new Museum of Natural History. The occasion was the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the subject of discussion was Charles Darwin’s new treatise: fact or fiction? At stake was the very foundation of modern biology, and yet the author himself was nowhere to be found in the debate hall—instead, he was miles away, seeking respite from a spate of illnesses that had plagued him for much of his adult life. In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period of Darwin’s writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians. The result is a colorful portrait of the man, his friends and enemies, and his seminal work, which resonates to this day.


Carrie Mae Weems: Hasselblad Award 2023
(Walther Konig Verlag) 
Carrie Mae Weems; Dragana Vujanovic Östlind, Louise Wolthers (ed.); Elvira Dyangani Ose (text)

In March 2023, Carrie Mae Weems (born 1953) became the first Black woman to win the Hasselblad Award. Citing her outstanding achievements in the field of photography, the Hasselblad Foundation wrote that "Weems' work has for decades anticipated salient issues of our time--the struggle for racial equality and human rights--with unflinching visual and ethical force." Spanning not only photography but also film and installation, Weems' oeuvre foregrounds both the joys and obstacles of Black womanhood, whether through her own personal experience or a more universal scope. This commemorative monograph showcases Weems' most prominent works, including Family Pictures and Stories (1978-84), Kitchen Table Series (1990), From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried (1995-96), along with her more recent series from 2016 and 2020.


Lost Writings: Two Novels by Mina Loy
(Yale University Press) 
Mina Loy; Karla Kelsey (ed.)

Mina Loy (1882-1966) is an essential figure of the European and American modernist avant-garde. A groundbreaking writer of poetry, novels, essays, plays, and uncategorizable prose, she was also a fashion and lighting designer and an accomplished visual artist. Loy has been best known for her poetry, most notably the long poem "Songs to Joannes" and the autobiographical verse-epic "Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose." Featuring two never-before-published manuscripts of Loy's autobiographical prose--The Child and the Parent and Islands in the Air--this remarkable book expands Loy's rich oeuvre. Interlinked texts written over twenty years, from the 1930s to the 1950s, these fascinating works narrate the feminist struggle of the creative spirit as it comes into consciousness and encounters indoctrinating social norms. The works are accompanied by an introduction and afterword by Karla Kelsey that frame Loy as a poet, prose writer, businesswoman, and visual artist and discuss the texts, their stylistic innovations, and their unique interconnectedness.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women
(Scribner Book Company) 
Lisa See

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian--born into an elite family, yet haunted by death and loneliness--is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations--looking, listening, touching, and asking--something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose--despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it--and they vow to be forever friends. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife and stay forever within the walls of the family compound. How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be remarkable today.

Man Ray: Genius of Light
(Silvana Editoriale)
Man Ray 

Emmanuel Radnitzky, better known as Man Ray (1890-1976), occupies a prominent place in 20th-century art. Living at the heart of the Parisian artistic milieu, he participated in the innovative experiments of the Dadaists and Surrealists, met with painters, poets and intellectuals, and ultimately rose to fame for his portraiture. He developed a career as a fashion photographer,working with notable designers. A tireless experimenter, he rediscovered the technique of "photograms"--which Tristan Tzara named "rayographs"--and developed "solarization" with Lee Miller in 1929. Man Ray is renowned for having revolutionized the art of photography, but he was also a painter, draftsman, sculptor, writer and filmmaker. This monograph synthesizes his entire artistic oeuvre, including painting, sculpture, works on paper and more. The book is thematically divided by medium, and includes such fascinating projects as the Marquis de Sade paintings and cinépoémes. This true panorama of his work allows for a better comprehension of Man Ray's creative process and the importance of his art.

In Tongues
(MCD Books) 
Thomas Grattan

It’s 2001, and twenty-four-year-old Gordon—handsome, sensitive, and eager for direction—takes a bus from Minnesota to New York City because it’s the only place for a young gay man to go. As he begins to settle into the city’s punishing rhythm, he gets a job walking rich Manhattanites’ dogs. But it isn’t until he stumbles into the West Village brownstone of two of his clients, the powerful gallery owners Phillip and Nicola, that Gordon learns how much the world has hidden from him—and what he’s capable of doing in order to get it for himself. As he floats further into Phillip and Nicola’s exclusive universe, and as lines blur between employee, muse, lover, and mentor, Gordon’s charm, manipulation, and growing ambition begin to escape his own control, in turn threatening to unravel the lives, and lies, of those around him. Anchored by winsome lyricism, glinting intellect, and a main character whose yearnings and mistakes come to feel like our own, In Tongues crackles with fierce longing and pointed emotion, further confirming Grattan as a rare chronicler of young adulthood’s joys and devastations.