Book of the Day Roundup: November 20-24, 2023
Under Our Skin
A Journey
Joaquim Arena
Jethro Soutar, translator
The Unnamed Press
Softcover $18.00 (220pp)
978-1-951213-52-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Acclaimed journalist Joaquim Arena traverses the hidden byways of Portugal’s slave trade while reconstructing his own fractured identity in his evocative book Under Our Skin.
After receiving news of his stepfather’s death in Portugal, Arena left Cape Verde and returned to the land where his family emigrated when he was a child “to reclaim my other life.” A chance friendship with Leopoldina, an amateur historian descended from eighteenth-century African slaves, steeped him in the nation’s legacy of slavery. From his childhood bedroom in his mother’s Lisbon apartment, Arena set off on a peripatetic trip through multiple layers of history, weaving Leopoldina’s ancestry and his own experiences into the long story of other Africans in Europe.
Pensive and erudite, the book peers into overlooked periods—walking into the small towns of Portugal’s interior to find the malaria-ridden rice fields that Africans tended in the nineteenth century; recounting the stories of slaves who rose to improbable heights of power in early modern Europe. From the Black French military general Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (father of the famed writer Alexandre Dumas and competitor to Napoleon) to the Congolese-born João de Sá Panasco, who rose from a slave and court jester to become a distinguished Portuguese knight in the sixteenth century, Arena reveals the contradictions and the atrocities imprinted on Portugal’s medieval streets.
This ambitious, polyphonic text moves between travel writing, deep observations of Renaissance art, and searing reflections on the meaning of home, as with “I’m sometimes taken by a strong urge to be a part of this natural balance… [to] simply belong without questioning.” Quiet and somber scraps of evidence and memories are drawn into a glittering whole that evokes history’s forgotten voices.
Under Our Skin is an enigmatic story about how pain and struggles reverberate through the generations.
WILLEM MARX (October 27, 2023)
Picturing Joy
Stories of Connection
George Lange
Flashpoint
Hardcover $25.95 (144pp)
978-1-959411-35-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
George Lange’s emotive, retrospective photography collection Picturing Joy captures the personalities of his subjects. In one exuberant image, a group of young African refugees plays on the beach, their likenesses caught mid-leap. Another picture focuses on Spike Lee; though he often seems dour in photographs by others, in Lange’s image, he is shown with a shy smile on his face and is photographed with children. Another shot shows the Violent Femmes peering out of the windshield of a car on a frosty night, illustrating the rigors of touring; their lack of pretension characterizes the alternative 1980s music scene.
Lange’s brief accompanying essays are full of anecdotes about public figures; he serves as a witness to moments in which people become vulnerable and reveal their true selves. Of a session with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who were photographed together while taunting each other under their breath, Lange remembers Jobs saying to Gates “You may tie me but you’ll never beat me.”
Picturing Joy is a striking collection of photographs and essays by a talented and insightful artist.
MATT BENZING (October 27, 2023)
Pilgrims of the Upper World
Jamieson Findlay
University of New Orleans Press
Softcover $24.95 (424pp)
978-1-60801-251-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A grieving antiquarian chases after a Kabbalistic manuscript in Jamieson Findlay’s absorbing mystery novel Pilgrims of the Upper World.
Zarandok, a secretive Jewish man, asks Tavish, a bookseller in Geneva, to revive his Aramaic skills and help translate a page copied from an old manuscript that includes anachronistic equations by Erwin Schrödinger. Tavish is skeptical but intrigued. He doesn’t know if the manuscript is authentic; he wonders about its origins—and about how quantum mechanics figured into it. When an excerpt from it reveals a sixteenth-century conversation between a student and his master about other universes, Tavish is hooked.
Then Zarandok vanishes.
Tavish is an observant but impressionistic narrator. In poetic sequences, he covers Switzerland’s elegance (garden chess boards, painterly light, and manicured cemeteries), which exists in beautiful contrast to his untamed sorrow over the long-ago death of his daughter. Meanwhile, his zigzagging search for Zarandok, who is presumed to be holding onto the full manuscript, along an old pilgrimage route leads to encounters with beguiling personalities, including an uncanny young woman, a monk, and clandestine book club members. All the while, Tavish grasps at cryptic clues and follows his hunches. Danger mounts when others who seek Zarandok make threats against Tavish, leading to instances of surveillance and a double-cross. Heartbreaking, subtle hints about people’s desire to believe in the missing book’s promises ramp up the urgency, culminating in a dreamlike elegy.
As much a tale about a midlife reawakening as it is about hope for an afterlife, Pilgrims of the Upper World is an eloquent, atmospheric mystery novel set in the rare book world.
KAREN RIGBY (October 27, 2023)
Midcentury Modern Style
An Approachable Guide to Inspired Rooms
Karen Nepacena
Christopher Dibble, photographer
Gibbs Smith
Hardcover $35.00 (224pp)
978-1-4236-6395-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Karen Nepacena surveys the midcentury modern aesthetic with panache in this vibrant, accessible book—perfect for retro-vibe home makeover inspiration with its photographs, decorating tips, and design history.
A manual for recreating the authentic MCM look, the book encourages incorporating the clean lines, chrome and natural materials, futuristic and organic shapes, and funky color palettes into cool, homey environments. There are design discussions for every room, highlighting function and options for individual expression—including for office spaces, well-designed outdoor areas, and pet-friendly places. Appealing color-coded sidebars cover iconic designers and contemporary vendors too.
The reuse and refurbishment of secondhand furnishings is highlighted, as with playful Sputnik light fixtures and Danish modern seating. There are examples from Nepacena’s own house and from her interior design clients alongside suggestions for do-it-yourself alternatives to the pricier featured renovations and statement pieces.
An inspiring and useful resource for home designers from a range of financial backgrounds, Midcentury Modern Style is a smart, fun guide to the major design concepts of a popular retro style.
RACHEL JAGARESKI (October 27, 2023)
The Bear and Her Book
Frances Tosdevin
Sophia O’Connor, illustrator
Jolly Fish Press
Hardcover $19.99 (32pp)
978-1-63163-764-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
As if plucked from dreamscapes, the swirling paint illustrations of this picture book will sweep children away into a magical tale about the power of books. A curious bear sets out in search of a place to belong, bringing only her copy of Bear’s Big Book of Being Wise; with it, she helps creatures she meets along the way, forging new friendships. Ultimately, her book guides her to a place where even her boundless curiosity can be satisfied.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (October 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
