‘Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art
to K-Pop’ by Martin PuchnerA Harvard professor goes wide in this study
of the humanities and human creativity, looking at standout moments and what
they can tell us about our past and future. As he guides readers along a
Nefertiti to TikTok continuum, he shows how cultural exchange and innovation
help societies address some of life’s most existential questions.
(Norton,
February 7)اضافة اعلان
‘The Critic’s Daughter: A Memoir’ by
Priscilla GilmanIn this autobiography, the author grapples
with her complicated and often painful upbringing in 1970s New York. Her mother
is renowned literary agent Lynn Nesbit, but the real focus here is her late
father, Richard Gilman, a drama critic and professor at the Yale School of
Drama. After the marriage imploded, Nesbit shared revelations about her
husband’s behavior with her adolescent daughter, who was left to make sense of
his behavior and legacy.
(Norton, February 7)
‘Essex Dogs’ by Dan JonesA bestselling historian turns to fiction in
this story of the Hundred Years’ War, which follows a troop of mercenaries
hired to help England invade France in the mid-1300s. There is plenty of action
and bloodshed in this novel, the first in a promised trilogy.
(Viking, February
14)
‘Lives of the Wives: Five Literary
Marriages’ by Carmela CiuraruInfidelity, jealousy, malevolent neediness
— there is all manner of abhorrent behavior in this study of some notably
unhappy relationships. Roald Dahl resented Patricia Neal, an acclaimed actress,
after her star power surpassed his. Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia were
terribly ill-suited, even as they produced some of postwar Italy’s most
enduring literature.
(Harper, February 7)
‘Our Share of Night’ by Mariana
Enriquez. Translated by Megan McDowellEnriquez’s frightening short stories have
made her one of the most popular Latin American authors writing today. This new
novel follows a grieving father, Juan — a medium who can make contact with
dark, supernatural forces — who tries to protect his son from the family of his
late wife.
(Hogarth, February 7)
‘Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in
Gold, Sweat, and Tears’ by Michael SchulmanSchulman, a staff writer at The New Yorker,
gives a spirited, occasionally dishy history of the ceremony, touching on the
award’s most notable controversies and existential questions.
(Harper, February
21)
‘Palo Alto: A History of California,
Capitalism, and the World’ by Malcolm HarrisHarris’ earlier book “Kids These Days” was
a broad cultural history of millennials, zeroing in on the unfair economic
stereotypes that have dogged the generation. Now, he tells an ambitious story
of Silicon Valley, showing how its specific culture and history allowed it to
become the site of both breathtaking technological advancement and capitalist
exploitation.
(Little, Brown, February 14)
‘Sink: A Memoir’ by Joseph Earl ThomasIn his first book, Thomas details a
difficult childhood in Philadelphia. The family battled addiction and poverty,
and Thomas was abused, part of a culture in which “physical prowess was the
only kind of knowledge that was acceptable”, as he said in a later interview.
But video games and all manner of geek culture provided him an escape, and the
author, now a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania,
spins it into a brilliant coming-of-age story.
(Grand Central, February 21)
‘A Spell of Good Things’ by Ayòbámi
AdébáyòIn her second novel, Adébáyò looks at two
young people in Nigeria with vastly different economic circumstances whose
lives intersect amid a period of political and cultural struggle. Eniolá dreams
of getting a better education after his family slid into poverty, while Wúràolá
works as a hospital resident and came from a wealthier background.
(Knopf,
February 7)
‘Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media
Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy’ by James B. Stewart & Rachel AbramsTwo New York Times journalists build on
blockbuster reporting as they dive into the power struggle to control Sumner
Redstone’s entertainment empire, Paramount Global.
(Penguin Press, February 14)
‘Western Lane’ by Chetna MarooIn this debut novel, a Jain girl in London
named Gopi copes with her mother’s death by dedicating herself to squash. She
had always enjoyed the sport, but her new, intense regimen offers a distraction
from grief, even as she encounters cultural and economic obstacles.
(Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, February 7)
Read more Books
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
