USALIBRI
Rassegna della stampa culturale americana e inglese. Segnalazioni di novità in libreria, articoli, interviste, dibattiti, idee e pettegolezzi.
17.11.24
The Position of Spoons and Other Intimacies
10.11.24
Alan Bennett at 90
e poi Alan Bennett continua a parlare, parlare di tutto e tutti...
3.11.24
Meet the Italian ‘Fruit Detective’
She steers us to one more Madonna with Child, the center of an altarpiece painted by Bernardino di Betto, better known as Pintoricchio, in 1495 or 1496. It is all glimmering blues and reds and golds. “Look, there,” she exclaims, pointing to the bottom of the painting. At the Madonna’s feet, just off the gold hem of her azure robe, are three gnarly looking apples—oddly shaped varieties you’d never see in a market today.
For most viewers, they would be an afterthought. For Dalla Ragione, the apples, including a variety known in the fruit science lexicon as api piccola, represent a key to restoring Italy’s disappearing fruit agriculture, with characteristics not found in today’s apples: Crunchy and tart, they are capable of being stored at room temperature for about seven months and maintain their best qualities outside the fridge. Mark Schapiro, Smithsonian27.10.24
Sonny Boy
Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino is published by Century
20.10.24
Bookselling Out
My daughter and I were the only browsers in a small bookstore when a woman entered to ask how to find a nearby donut shop. “So I’m in the wrong place altogether,” she replied to the bookseller’s instructions. “Unless you’d like to buy a book,” said the bookseller. The woman laughed and left. [...]
Bookstores are struggling. We might say The Bookshop is the story of a rise and fall. Friss offers a bleak analysis in his final pages, explaining how the vaunted indie comeback of the last few years depends on misleading data from the ABA. According to the U.S. Census, “between 2012 and 2021, the number of bookstores dropped by 34 percent.” Dan Sinykin, The Baffler
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss (Viking).
13.10.24
The Jazz Singer
Il primo film sonoro – prodotto dalla stessa Warner e proiettato per la prima volta il 27 ottobre 1927 – fu Il cantante di jazz (The Jazz Singer) nel quale, oltre a varie canzoni, si udivano una frase rivolta al pubblico dal protagonista e un breve dialogo tra questi e la madre. Il protagonista, interpretato da Al Johnson, è un ragazzo ebreo che non vuole cantare in sinagoga, come hanno fatto tutti i maschi di famiglia prima di lui, perché ama il jazz. Nel film canta però Kol Nidre, in una versione molto commovente. A proposito del Kippur appena trascorso.
7.10.24
7 ottobre, un anno dal pogrom
What shocked many people about the student letter was its heartlessness. Even as the bodies were being counted, the signers told us not to blame the killers but to redirect our gaze, and fix all responsibility on Israel. The Chronicle of Higher Education
6.10.24
Rebecca Watson: ‘What are siblings: twisted reflections of ourselves? Allies? Enemies?
I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson is published by Faber.
29.9.24
The 2024 Booker prize shortlist
Shortlisted alongside them are American
writer Rachel Kushner with Creation Lake and Yael van der Wouden, the
first Dutch writer to be shortlisted and lone debut novelist to feature
with The Safekeep. Completing this year’s shortlist is Percival Everett
with James, his retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of
the enslaved Jim. The Guardian
22.9.24
Tell me everything
sempre sul Guardian, un elenco dei libri di narrativa e saggistica in uscita quest'autunno