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
The Blank Slate
Written by Stewart
By Steven Pinker (Penguin, $17.00)
Scientists make great rebels. This book turns out to be a well-placed brick thrown through the window of every Humanities Department, as Pinker uses his tightly construed empiricism to battle what most of us have been taught is human nature. It's not only a good read, but an important one.
Shades of Grey
Written by Javier
By Jasper Fforde (Viking, $29.95)
One of the best science fiction novels of the last 10 years and, amazingly enough, not by a classic science fiction writer. It sometimes happens that writers like to make advances into other fields of writing at a publisher’s request, and usually the results are devastatingly bad. Not here. Fforde creates a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is divided into castes according to color perception. People who can see the purple wavelength are at the top of society and those who can see grey, of course, are at the bottom. Marriage is arranged to get the newborn a specific hue; healers and addicts use colors as drugs. So far, so psychedelic until we learn more about a society where everyone bears a barcode, is subject to regular leapbacks (like vanishing history and books) and if you don´t fit, you are sent to reboot. And at the end the spectrum shifts toward black. A great book.
The Poetics of a Wall Projection
Written by Carlos
By Jan Turnovsky (Architectural Association, $19.95)
This lovely little red book is ostensibly about the house that Ludwig Wittgenstein designed for his sisters in Vienna. Rather than dealing with the building more generally though, it focuses on a small moment in the breakfast room when the wall protrudes slightly, interrupting an otherwise highly controlled attempt at symmetry and formal order. Turnovsky seizes upon this to explore the space between design and building, exterior and interior, and theory and poetics. It is undoubtedly a very specific topic, but manages to be both beautiful and helpful.
Scientists make great rebels. This book turns out to be a well-placed brick thrown through the window of every Humanities Department, as Pinker uses his tightly construed empiricism to battle what most of us have been taught is human nature. It's not only a good read, but an important one.
One of the best science fiction novels of the last 10 years and, amazingly enough, not by a classic science fiction writer. It sometimes happens that writers like to make advances into other fields of writing at a publisher’s request, and usually the results are devastatingly bad. Not here. Fforde creates a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is divided into castes according to color perception. People who can see the purple wavelength are at the top of society and those who can see grey, of course, are at the bottom. Marriage is arranged to get the newborn a specific hue; healers and addicts use colors as drugs. So far, so psychedelic until we learn more about a society where everyone bears a barcode, is subject to regular leapbacks (like vanishing history and books) and if you don´t fit, you are sent to reboot. And at the end the spectrum shifts toward black. A great book.
This lovely little red book is ostensibly about the house that Ludwig Wittgenstein designed for his sisters in Vienna. Rather than dealing with the building more generally though, it focuses on a small moment in the breakfast room when the wall protrudes slightly, interrupting an otherwise highly controlled attempt at symmetry and formal order. Turnovsky seizes upon this to explore the space between design and building, exterior and interior, and theory and poetics. It is undoubtedly a very specific topic, but manages to be both beautiful and helpful.