1. Anna Bogutskaya, Feeding the Monster: Why Fear Grips Us. A fun read about the importance of horror movies in modern culture, and the lament that we underestimate them.
2. Daniel Tammet, Nine Minds: Inner Life on the Spectrum. This is probably the best profile book on high-achieving autistics, with a chapter on Dan Ackroyd that is very interesting. Note that the writing style is autistic, which you might think of as addition or subtraction. And “Are we there yet?”
3. Michael Haas, Music in Exile: The Untold Story of Composers Fleeing Hitler. A detailed, well-organized and attractive look at this story. My conclusion, however, is that the German creative scene was starting to reach its peak in terms of quality and innovation?
4. Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. A good look at the growing problems that existed before 1948. Among other things, it shows how many of the current conflicts and debates have deep roots, and how far the lack of trust goes back.
5. Luke Stegemann, Madrid: A New Biography. Madrid is now one of the most beautiful cities in the world. You can judge tomes like this by how many other books they have persuaded you to read or buy, and this time the number was eight. I bought a whole catalog of colored plates by the 18th century still life painter Melendez, for example. Recommended.
6. Michael H. Kater, After the Nazis: A Cultural Story in West Germany. Another great job. In this book I drew the (unintended?) conclusion that Germany’s literary and cinematic contributions have not aged well, due to an excessive (but understandable) preoccupation with Nazism and the Second World War. The major cultural contributions of post-war Germany are in fact Richter, Beuys, Kiefer, Baselitz, Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, and Can. Minimal realist art forms deal with war in the most effective and lasting ways, noting that some of Kiefer’s works still have this problem.
Featured by Dana Gioia, Poems Like Witchcraft, and Other Essays. The essays on Frost, Auden, and Bradbury are some of my favorites.
Jordan Ott’s Back to the Future: How to Dominate American Innovation is.
Speaking of Kraftwerk, I also enjoyed Simon Reynolds’ new book Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Wish Machines, and the Music of the Future Today Reynolds is very good at bringing together parts of music history that some people ignore.
More to come!
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