Don't miss out on this special Labor Day surprise. The internationally revered Kennedy shares with us her comedic repertoire. “Her stand-up is startlingly good. She works the audience and makes the most of her cleverness with words, her knack for seeing things freshly. She has a great riff about people scraping moss off each other every morning in Scotland, but the audience seems most to enjoy the material about pubic hair." - The Guardian
She's assertive, well-timed, and she will be at McNally Jackson Books for one night only.
News of Note
Staff Picks
Translations from Drawing to Building
Written by Carlos
By Robin Evans (Architectural Association, $24.95)
In case you were wondering what the history of the hallway is, here you go. It's strange to think about the emergence of such a trope as a passageway, but I'm sure we're all thankful that it arrived. Robin Evans is that rare intelligence that is able to track and define unwieldy concepts such as passage, privacy and exclusion.
The Complete Maus
Written by David
By Art Spiegelman (Random House, $35.00)
It seems really absurd to be recommending such a seminal and universally acclaimed (and read) book as Art Spiegelman's Maus. It's readership, after all, is enormous. It's for those of you who like me have put off reading it for one reason or another, that I've chosen it as a staff pick this month. I just read it and was truly and utterly blown away. And I don't even like graphic novels.
Extra Lives
Written by Sam
By Tom Bissell (Pantheon, $22.95)
Rarely have I read and thought "Finally!" more often and with such vigor. Sure, the highbrowed will say there's no art in absorption, and parents just won't understand, but Bissell's book--which aims "to explain why video games matter, and why they do not matter more"--does so in smart, sharp, funny prose. It's the first best book on the power and potential (often frustratingly unrealized) of the video game as a new medium for stories. Maybe even art.
In case you were wondering what the history of the hallway is, here you go. It's strange to think about the emergence of such a trope as a passageway, but I'm sure we're all thankful that it arrived. Robin Evans is that rare intelligence that is able to track and define unwieldy concepts such as passage, privacy and exclusion.
It seems really absurd to be recommending such a seminal and universally acclaimed (and read) book as Art Spiegelman's Maus. It's readership, after all, is enormous. It's for those of you who like me have put off reading it for one reason or another, that I've chosen it as a staff pick this month. I just read it and was truly and utterly blown away. And I don't even like graphic novels.
Rarely have I read and thought "Finally!" more often and with such vigor. Sure, the highbrowed will say there's no art in absorption, and parents just won't understand, but Bissell's book--which aims "to explain why video games matter, and why they do not matter more"--does so in smart, sharp, funny prose. It's the first best book on the power and potential (often frustratingly unrealized) of the video game as a new medium for stories. Maybe even art.