Antony’s Art Book

We should have figured after Antony Hegarty did the artwork for Zoetrope, more was on the way.  P4K reports: “new album Swanlights is out October 5 in Europe on Rough Trade and a day later in the U.S. via Secretly Canadian. Art book publisher Abrams will release a special edition of the album accompanied by a 144-page tome featuring paintings, collages, photography, and writing by Antony.”

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Bites: Best Book Covers, “Bush-League Method acting,” Social Thuggery, and More

Enough with the literary-merit top 10 lists.  Here are the best book covers of 2009.  I personally love the look of Ruben Toledo’s designs, but not at all for the books they represent.  An awkward confluence of visionary tones.  Who imagines their literary heroines with such artistic flair?  It’s unsettling. Lit. & Academia City University of New York dean Ann Kirschner recently read Little Dorrit four different ways (paperback, Kindle, iPhone, audiobook).  This week, she talks about it on NPR. […]

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Bites: Book Review Highlights, Kakutani Two-Step, Required Reading, the Millennials, and Why Our Media is Getting Scolded

Celebrated artist of the female form, Peter Paul Rubens, was “a man of controlled appetites, with a modest disposition and a reputation for tact and discretion.” He was also a diplomat, spy, and peace-maker, according to Mark Lamster’s new book “Master of Shadows.” Other Book Review Highlights: A history, slightly obsessive, of Strunk & White’s little style book.(NYT) Michael Chabon’s new essays: “First Person Masculine”?(NYT) Has anyone else noticed that James Joyce has been tryin’ to change a lot of […]

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Bites: Sendak Retrospective, Amos Oz as Nobel Fav., Is Teaching Shakespeare a Problem?, Af-Pak Reading, Chicago’s Loss, the age-old Polanski debate, and more

First William Blake, now the Wild Things!   The Maurice Sendak retrospective opens tomorrow at the Morgan Library.  To coincide, the Animazing Gallery presented last Thursday Sendak in SoHo, the world’s largest exhibition & sale of original illustrations from the collection of the legendary artist and author. Lit. Speaking of Where the Wild Things Are, Vice Magazine has a WTWTA blog, which presents work from 24 contributing artists inspired by the story.  A little weird because the site is totally in […]

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