Recently Mentioned Books
Showing 25 of 6761 mentions, ordered by most recent.
Sally Rooney, Normal People: A Novel .
Broken Stars: Contemporary Science Fiction in Translation , edited and translated by Ken Liu.
Aladdin , a new translation by Yasmine Seale.
Guzel Yakhina, Zuleikha .
Pekka Hämäläinen , Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power , more here .
Robert Alter, translator, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (or should that go under “fiction”?).
Matthew Gale and Natalia Sidlina, Natalia Goncharova .
I will blog this book a bit more, for now I’ll just say it is very much in the running for very best book of the year. It brings Native American history to life in a conceptual manner better than any other book I know. You can buy it here , I found every section gripping and highly instructive and fun to read as well. Here is a very good and accurate Parul Sehgal NYT review .
I’ve also discovered the amazing music of Sunn O))) , a kind of black death metal, hat tip S, start with Black One .
My favorite rap album this year was Tyler the Creator, IGOR .
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer . At first I thought this was a good pop album, but it kept getting better and better.
Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? , with “You should see me in a crown” as the favorite song.
Makaya McCraven, Universal Beings .
Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, The Other Side of Air .
Most of all, I discovered jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson this year. Start with Code Girl or Meltframe , or of course YouTube .
Most of all, I discovered jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson this year. Start with Code Girl or Meltframe , or of course YouTube .
Shaka joined Tyler to discuss his book Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison , what it was like to return to society not knowing the difference between the internet and a Word document, entrepreneurialism and humor in prison, the unexpected challenges formerly incarcerated people face upon release, his ideas for helping Detroit, what he connects with in Eastern philosophy, how he’s celebrating the upcoming anniversary of his tenth year of freedom, and more.
Consider people who love to consume information, or, as I have labeled them, infovores . They can stay at home every night and read Wikipedia, scan Twitter, click on links, browse through Amazon reviews and search YouTube — all for free. Thirty years ago there was nothing comparable.
Wilhelm Furtwängler, The Radio Recordings, 1939-1945 [sic]. James Altena writes: “…layers of aural varnish have been stripped away to uncover the true glories of one incandescent performance after another, from the conductor’s most inspired period of music-making during the horrors of the Nazi regime and World War II.” Other critics concur, so political correctness has not yet come to classical music reviewing. If you are reluctant to spend so much money, you can always try the Furtwängler 19...
Wilhelm Furtwängler, The Radio Recordings, 1939-1945 [sic]. James Altena writes: “…layers of aural varnish have been stripped away to uncover the true glories of one incandescent performance after another, from the conductor’s most inspired period of music-making during the horrors of the Nazi regime and World War II.” Other critics concur, so political correctness has not yet come to classical music reviewing. If you are reluctant to spend so much money, you can always try the Furtwängler 19...
Feodor Chaliapin, The Complete Recordings , 13 CDs (not my thing).
Poul Ruders, The Thirteenth Child (Danish opera, sung in English).
As for old classics, the Marek Janowski recording of Bruckner’s 4th is my favorite in a crowded (and impressive) field, recommended as a Bruckner introduction too.
James Tenney, Changes: 64 Studies for Two Harps , more listenable than you might think.
Alvin Curran, Endangered Species , two CDs of jazz and popular song classics but done with piano distortion, plenty of spills and turns, a genuinely successful hybrid product.