Timezone 8 book listing
January 20, 2012 Filed under Book
Timezone 8 is a Hong Kong-based publisher, distributor and retailer of books on contemporary art, architecture, photography and design. This week, it recommends three upcoming titles to Beijing Today readers.
Zeng Hao: Summer
By Zeng Hao, 149pp, Beijing Center for the Arts, $30
Zeng Hao’s large-format oil paintings depict young Chinese men and women facing the viewer with blank expressions against monochrome backdrops punctuated by oddly isolated trees, occasionally doing away with the figures altogether.
Zhang Yuan: Unspoiled Brats
By Zhang Yuan, 193pp, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, $19
The films and photographs of acclaimed director Zhang Yuan portray individuals on the outskirts of Chinese society. This artist’s book presents a range of his color portraits of disenfranchised youth, lesbians, victims of abuse and monks, all of whom are interviewed about their lives.
We Are Polit-Sheer-Form
Edited by Mathieu Borysevicz, 290pp, Timezone 8 and Shanghai Gallery of Art, $49.95
The Polit-Sheer-Form Office (PSFO) art collective was founded in 2005 by Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua and Leng Lin. PSFO initiates group discussions in locations such as factories, farms, schools, artist’s studios, bathhouses and department stores. Their activities are documented in this substantial overview.
(By He Jianwei)
Trends Lounge book listing
January 6, 2012 Filed under Book
Located at The Place, Trends Lounge is a bookstore and cafe with a wide selection of books about international art, design and architecture.
Eyewear
By Moss Lipow, 392pp, Taschen, $59.99
Eyeglass designer Moss Lipow trawled eBay, auction houses, garage sales and flea markets worldwide to collect photographs of unusual glasses for his massive eyewear collection. This book, which traces eyewear’s journey over the past millennium, features the best examples of Lipow’s collection and models from other world-class collections.
The New York Times 36 Hours
Edited by Barbara Ireland, 700pp, Taschen, $39.99
The New York Times has been offering up dream weekends with practical itineraries in its popular weekly “36 Hours” column since 2002. The many expert contributors, experienced travelers, and accomplished writers all have brought careful research, insider’s knowledge and a sense of fun to hundreds of cities and destinations, always with an eye to getting the most out of a short trip.
Brazil’s Modern Architecture
By Elisabetta Andreoli, 240pp, Phaidon Press, $39.95
In this book, a new generation of Brazilian cities and historians sets the record straight, providing a truly comprehensive survey and analysis of 20th-century Brazilian architecture. This book clarifies the often paradoxical relationship between Brazil’s political, social and economic history and its architectural development.
(By He Jianwei)
Trends Lounge book listing
December 23, 2011 Filed under Book
Located at The Place, Trends Lounge is a bookstore and cafe with a wide selection of books about international art, design and architecture.
Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen
By Juliet Kinchin and Aidan O’Connor, 88pp, MoMA, $24.95
This collection examines the 20th-century transformation of the kitchen through the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, featuring a wide variety of design objects, architectural plans, posters, archival photographs and art, ranging from the iconic Frankfurt Kitchen, mass-produced for German public housing estates in the aftermath of World War I, to an electric tea kettle, heat-resistant glass wares and colorful plastics, such as Tupperware and Japanese artificial food.
Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay
By Matilda McQuaid, 204pp, Thames & Hudson, $50.5
The book focuses not only on abstract painter and colorist Sonia Delaunay’s art but also her avant-garde fashion designs from her own Atelier Simultane in Paris during the 1920s and textiles she designed for the Metz & Co Department store in Amsterdam in the 1930s.
Architects’ Sketchbooks
By Will Jones, 352pp, Metropolis Boos, $49.95
It is the first survey to present pages from the private sketchbooks of 85 international spectrum of architects, who use drawing to express their spatial ideas while revealing their unique thought processes.
(By He Jianwei)
CNPIEC Bookstore book listing
December 16, 2011 Filed under Book
The China National Publication Import and Export Corporation’s (CNPIEC) bookstore recommends these new arrivals to Beijing Today readers.
Seeing Things: From Shakespeare to Pixar
By Alan Ackerman, 192pp, University of Toronto Press, $50
A technological revolution has changed the way we see things. The storytelling media employed by Pixar Animation Studios, Samuel Beckett and William Shakespeare differ greatly, yet these creators share a collective fascination with the nebulous boundary between material objects and our imaginative selves.
Vonnegut and Hemingway: Writers at War
By Lawrence Broer, 240pp, University of South Carolina Press, $39.95
In this comparative study of Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway, Lawrence Broer maps the striking intersections of biography and artistry in the works of both writers and compares the ways in which they blend life and art.
Truman Capote and the Legacy of “In Cold Blood”
By Ralph F. Voss, 264pp, University Alabama Press, $34.95
This book is the anatomy of the origins of an American literary landmark and its legacy. Ralph F. Voss examines Truman Capote and In Cold Blood, not only as the crowning achievement of Capote’s career, but also a story in itself, focusing on Capote’s artfully composed text, his extravagant claims for it as reportage and its larger status in American popular culture.
(By He Jianwei)
Trends Lounge book listing
November 25, 2011 Filed under Book
Located at The Place, Trends Lounge is a bookstore and cafe with a wide selection of books about international art, design and architecture.
Topics of Our Time
By E. H. Gombrich, 223pp, Phaidon Press, 280 yuan
This collection of essays reflects E. H. Gombrich’s preoccupation with the central questions of value and tradition in our culture. His topics include radical proposals for the reform of higher education, an attack on relativism and a plea for the conservation of our cities, alongside thought-provoking and engaging studies of the work of Oskar Kokoschka, Abram Games, Saul Steinberg and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
European Cutlery Design 1948-2000
By W. O. Bauer, 176pp, Arnoldsche, 525 yuan
After World War II, stainless steel was the working material preferred by cutlery designers. This collection features European designs from Scandinavia, the UK, France and Italy. New developments in technology, new materials and processes contributed just as much to the new cutlery culture after 1945 as changes in style, trends and fashions did.
Harper’s Bazaar Fashion
Edited by Lisa Armstrong and Meenal Mistry, 208pp, Hearst, 200 yuan
Through fabulous photos, including a gallery of gorgeous celebrity shots, from Kate Moss to Michelle Obama, Harper’s Bazaar Fashion helps readers express their personality, create a “uniform” they can build on and choose the right pieces to put a distinctive stamp on their wardrobe.
(By He Jianwei)
CNPIEC Bookstore book listing
November 18, 2011 Filed under Book
The China National Publication Import and Export Corporation’s (CNPIEC) bookstore recommends these new arrivals to Beijing Today readers.
John Byrne: Art and Life
By Robert Hewison, 144pp, Lund Humphries, 375 yuan
This is the first monograph to explore Byrne’s artistic journey in both the visual and literary fields, and celebrates his contribution to contemporary Scottish cultural identity. A prolific painter, illustrator and print-maker, Byrne boasts a range of works held in prestigious public collections such as The National Gallery of Art, Edinburgh. Including a valuable catalog of Byrne’s prints, Hewison’s highly readable text provides a chronological, critical account of the work and life of the artist.
Falcon Seven
By James Huston, 560pp, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 70 yuan
A Navy F/A-18 fighter jet gets shot down over Pakistan and its two pilots are tried as war criminals in James Huston’s latest blend of legal and political thrillers. Jack Caskey, a Navy Seal turned defense attorney, is asked to represent the pilots in a court case being heard in The Hague at the International Criminal Court.
Steve Jobs
By Walter Isaacson, 656pp, Simon & Schuster, 180 yuan
Based on more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs conducted during two years, as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues, Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and intense personality of a creative entrepreneur.
(By He Jianwei)
Trends Lounge book listing
November 11, 2011 Filed under Book
Located at The Place, Trends Lounge is a bookstore and cafe with a wide selection of books about international art, design and architecture.
William & Catherine
By David Elliot Cohen, 224pp, Sterling, 200 yuan
Through more than 200 photographs, this book recounts the couple’s wildly different childhood, their romance and engagement, the events leading up to the wedding and the grand affair itself, which was watched by 2 billion people. It also includes a brief pictorial history of British royal weddings from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840 to Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981.
The Encyclopedia of Punk
By Brian Cogan, 400pp, Sterling, 160 yuan
This illustrated A-Z guide leads readers through the fiery history of a furious, rebellious, contradictory and boundary-redefining musical genre and culture movement that remains as massively influential as it is wildly misunderstood.
The Wonderful Future That Never Was
By Gregory Benford, 208pp, Hearst Books, 200 yuan
Between 1903 and 1969, scientists made hundreds of predictions in Popular Mechanics magazine about what the future would hold. Their forecasts ranged from ruefully funny to eerily prescient and optimistically utopian. The book reconstructs their imagined future.
(By He Jianwei)
Bookworm book listing
November 4, 2011 Filed under Book
The Bookworm recommends the following titles to Beijing Today readers.
Learning to Breathe: My Yearlong Quest to Bring Calm to My Life
By Priscilla Warner, 288pp, Free Press, $23
This is Priscilla Warner’s memoir about a daughter returning home to visit her mother, who discovers the threads of history, love and care that hold a family together. It is a universal story about voice, breath, loss, illness and the redemptive power of love.
The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age
By Daniel A. Bell and Avner de-Shalit, 352pp, Princeton University Press, $35
This book revives the classical idea that a city expresses its own distinctive ethos or values. In this original and engaging book, the authors explore how this classical idea can be applied to today’s cities, and explain why philosophy and the social sciences need to rediscover the spirit of cities.
Iran: Persia: Ancient and Modern
By Helen Loveday, Bruce Wannell, Christoph Baumer and Bijan Omarani, 464pp, Odyssey Publications, $24.95
For more than three millennia, Iran has been a melting pot of civilizations. Under Cyrus the Great, Persia was the center of the world’s first empire, which stretched from the Mediterranean to modern-day Pakistan.
(By He Jianwei)
Trends Lounge book listing
October 21, 2011 Filed under Book
Located at The Place, Trends Lounge is a bookstore and cafe with a wide selection of books about international art, design and architecture.
Ancestral Realms of the Naxi: Quentin Roosevelt’s China
Edited by Christine Mathieu and Cindy Ho, 224pp, Arnoldsche, 525 yuan
This book is a comprehensive introduction to 1,000 years of Naxi culture, art and religion. It presents the objects of the Quentin Roosevelt Collection, the most complete collection of Naxi Dongba art.
Edward Weston: The Form of the Nude
By Amy Conger and Edward Weston, 160pp, Phaidon, 480 yuan
This book is a collection of American photographer Edward Weston’s nudes, still-life and landscape art. Born in Illinois in 1886, Weston achieved success as a commercial photographer, shooting portraits in the popular soft-focus style of the time.
Advanced Textiles forHealth and Well-Being
By Marie O’Mahony, 256pp, Thames and Hudson, 330 yuan
This text is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the latest developments in high-tech textiles. From medical implants to space fabrics, advanced textiles have the potential to transform human habitats and transportation, protect the environment and support personal health and well-being.
(By He Jianwei)
Bookworm book listing
September 30, 2011 Filed under Book
The Bookworm recommends the following titles to Beijing Today readers.
Ragnarok: The End of the Gods
By A. S. Byatt, 177pp, Canongate Books, $17.85
During World War II, Antonia Byatt was given a book of Norse myths by her father. She read it and reread it, but there was one myth she was drawn to and which has continued to hold her under its spell: Ragnarok. It foretells the death of the gods Odin, Freya and Thor, the swallowing of the sun and moon by the wolf Fenrir and the crushing of the world by the Midgard serpent as he devours his own tail. It is only after monstrous death and destruction that the world can begin anew.
Into the Silence
By Wade Davis, 672pp, Knopf, $32.5
This is a classic account of exploration and endurance. On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp on an ice ledge just below the lip of Mount Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, at 37, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a young Oxford scholar of 22 with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned.
World and Town
By Gish Jen, 480pp, Vintage, $15.95
Hattie Kong, a retired teacher and a descendant of Confucius, has decided that it is time to start over. She moves to the peaceful New England town of Riverlake, a place that once represented the rock-solid base of American life. Instead of quietude, Kong discovers a town challenged by cell-phone towers, chain stores and struggling farms. Soon she is joined by an immigrant Cambodian family on the run, and – quite unexpectedly – Carter Hatch, a love from her past.
(By He Jianwei)
