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January 26, 2017
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week - January 26, 2017
In the weekly Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week, the Montreal bookstore recommends several new works of fiction, art books, periodicals, and comics.
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is one of Montreal's premiere independent bookstores.
The Abominable Mr. Seabrook
by Joe Ollmann
New D+Q! William Seabrook led an entirely remarkable life. The American, famous for bringing the term “zombie” into common English usage, was a world-famous travel writer and journalist from the Lost Generation. He was also a raging alcoholic, obsessed with bondage, and apparently dabbled in cannibalism. Seabrook’s life and exploits were researched meticulously over a seven year period by Joe Ollmann, whose comic biography is one of the most vivid and delightful in recent memory.
Transit: A Novel
by Rachel Cusk
Transit, the newest release from Canadian author Rachel Cusk, is a tremendous follow-up to her acclaimed novel Outline. Following a family implosion, a creative-writing teacher moves to London with her two sons. She must recalibrate after this upheaval, and create a new reality for both herself and her children. Formally inventive yet readable, Transit expands on the themes explored in Outline, while Cusk’s cut-glass style continues to sharpen.
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey To Quantum Gravity
by Carlo Rovelli
After the wild success of Rovelli’s pocket-sized Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, it’s no surprise that his more expansive exploration of theoretical physics has now been translated into English. Rovelli’s gift is clarity; with zealous, elegant prose he is able to whittle down immensely complicated ideas into comprehensible shapes. When the author describes the familial ties between science and poetry, his enthusiasm prances from every line. Reality Is Not What It Seems is invigorating—a pleasure to read!
Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life
by Nato Thompson
Nato Thompson is the Artistic Director of Creative Time, one of New York’s most prominent non-profit arts organizations, and he is a prolific commentator on art and activism. In his latest book, he offers a history of persuasion and cultural manipulation that encompasses the whole 20th-century, from wartime propaganda and electioneering to Pentagon counterinsurgency theories, the Culture Wars of the 80s and the lifestyle marketing of Apple and IKEA. At the same time, artistic collectives and radical groups were recognizing the power of the same techniques, and Thompson explores topics from Dada and Andy Warhol to Saul Alinsky and the Black Lives Matter movement. In the dawning era of Trump, this book is a timely examination of how culture can change the world -- for good or ill.
Birds Art Life: a Year of Observation
by Kyo Maclear
In this beautifully-crafted memoir, beloved Toronto-based children’s author Kyo Maclear (known, among other things, for The Liszts, The Wish Tree, The Specific Ocean, and Julia, Child) recounts the humble joys of urban bird-watching. During a difficult year in which her responsibilities to her aging father, her children, and the strain of her ‘’roomy marriage’’ conspired to derail her creatively, Maclear turned to avian observation to find a new sense of balance. Birds Art Life is an inspiring book about introspection and creativity, love and solitude.
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other Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly new comics and graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
WORD Bookstores Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
