CNPIEC Bookstore booklisting

The China National Publication Import and Export Corporation’s (CNPIEC) bookstore recommends these new arrivals to Beijing Today readers.

The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas

By Robert H. Frank, 240pp, Basic Books, 112 yuan

The book employs basic economic principles to answer scores of intriguing questions from everyday life, and introduces key ideas such as the cost-benefit principle, the “no cash on the table” principle and the law of one price. This is as delightful and painless a way to learn fundamental economics as there is.

Chairs: Catalogue of The Delft Faculty of Architecture Collection

By Otakar Maicel, Sander Woertman and Charlotte van Wijk, 272pp, 010 Publishers, 220 yuan

This collection of 240 chairs reflects the development of chair design since the 17th century and includes both world famous designs and rarities. The entire collection is presented for the first time, accompanied by images, descriptions and analytical texts.

Jackson Pollock

By Leonhard Emmerling, 96pp, Taschen, 88 yuan

A tragic icon of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) took influences from Picasso and Mexican surrealism and developed his own way of seeing, interpreting and expressing. Though his name inevitably conjures up images of the drip paintings for which he is most famous, this technique was only developed midway through his career. The progression from his earlier work to his final action paintings, a veritable revolution of painting as a concept, reveals the genius of this tortured artist whom many call the greatest modern American painter.

(By He Jianwei)