september 16–30, 2020

Books

  • The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Volume 3, selected and translated by Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, Rakesh Khanna, V. Vinod & Nirmal Rajagopalan
  • Sadia Hassan, Enumeration
  • Jamila Osman, A Girl Is a Sovereign State
  • Safia Jama, Notes on Resilience
  • Tove Jansson, Fair Play, trans. Thomas Teal
  • Michelle K. Angwenyi, Gray Latitudes
  • Nadra Mabrouk, Measurement of Holy
  • Tryphena Yeboah, A Mouthful of Home
  • W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz, trans. Anthea Bell
  • Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door
  • Stanisław Lem, The Star Diaries, trans. Michael Kandel
  • Stanisław Lem, The Futurological Congress, trans. Michael Kandel
  • Stanisław Lem, Memoirs of a Space Traveler, trans. Joel Stern, Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek & Antonia Lloyd-Jones
  • Edmund White, A Saint from Texas
  • Iris Murdoch, The Book and the Brotherhood
  • Jenny Offill, Weather

Films

  • Esto no es Berlín (This Is Not Berlin), directed by Hari Sama
  • El sueño de Mara’akame (Mara’akame’s Dream), dir. Federico Cecchetti

september 1–15, 2020

Books

  • P. G. Wodehouse, Mike & Psmith
  • P. G. Wodehouse, Psmith, Journalist
  • Gianni Rodari, Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto, translated by Anthony Shugaar
  • Daljit Nagra, Look We Have Coming to Dover!
  • Daljit Nagra, Tippoo Sultans Incredible White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy-Machine!!!
  • P. G. Wodehouse, Psmith in the City
  • Daljit Nagra, British Museum
  • Lee Lozano, Notebooks 1967–70
  • David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
  • Ben Katchor, The Dairy Restaurant
  • Stanisław Lem, Return from the Stars, trans. Barbara Marszal & Frank Simpson

Films

  • Tread, directed by Paul Solet
  • The Baron of Arizona, dir. Samuel Fuller

august 16–31, 2020

Books

  • James Sallis, Moth
  • Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh, translated by Sarah Moses
  • Alice Oswald, Woods Etc.
  • Michael Glover, John Ruskin: An Idiosyncratic Dictionary Encompassing His Passions, His Delusions & His Prophecies
  • Kathryn Hummel, Lamentville
  • Alvin Pang, What Gives Us Our Names
  • Joshua Ip & Martin Villanueva, editors, 11 × 9: Co-Authored Poetry from the Philippines and Singapore
  • Annaliza Bakri, ed., Sikit-Sikit Lama-Lama Jadi Bukit: An Anthology
  • Stephanie Anderson, In the Key of Those Who Can No Longer Organize Their Environments
  • Renee Gladman, Houses of Ravicka
  • Jean Echenoz, We Three, trans. Jesse Anderson
  • Jean Echenoz, Special Envoy, trans. Sam Taylor
  • Cyril Wong, Animal Season
  • Ng Yi-Sheng, Black Waters, Pink Sands
  • Jean Echenoz, Piano, trans. Mark Polizzotti
  • Patrick Modiano, Suspended Sentences, trans. Mark Polizzotti
  • Alice Oswald, The Thing in the Gap Stone Stile

Films

  • Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi
  • Tesla, dir. Michael Almereyda
  • Sicilia!, dir. Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub

august 1–15, 2020

Books

  • Volker Kutscher, Babylon Berlin, translated by Niall Sellar
  • Volker Kutscher, The Silent Death, trans. Niall Sellar
  • James Sallis, The Long-Legged Fly
  • The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, trans. Pritham K. Chakravarthy

Films

  • Planet of the Apes, directed by Tim Burton
  • Batman, dir. Tim Burton
  • Stan & Ollie, dir. Jon S. Baird
  • Never Rarely Sometimes Always, dir. Eliza Hittman
  • The Proposal, dir. Jill Magid

july 16–31, 2020

Books

  • Percival Everett, Walk Me to the Distance
  • Enrico Pellegrini, Something Great and Beautiful
  • Amina Cain, Indelicacy
  • Jean Echenoz, 1914, translated by Linda Coverdale
  • Ngaio Marsh, When in Rome
  • Jean Echenoz, The Queen’s Caprice, trans. Linda Coverdale
  • Jean Echenoz, Big Blondes, trans. Mark Polizzotti
  • Jean Echenoz, Cherokee, trans. Mark Polizzotti

Films

  • The More the Merrier, directed by George Stevens
  • The Personal History of David Copperfield, dir. Armando Iannucci
  • Billy Madison, dir. Tama Davis
  • Family Romance LLC, dir. Werner Herzog
  • Planet of the Apes, dir. Franklin J. Schaffner

july 1–15, 2020

Books

  • Megha Majumdar, A Burning
  • Georges Simenon, The Strangers in the House, translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury & David Watson
  • Ira Nadel, Cathay: Ezra Pound’s Orient
  • Patrick Modiano, Little Jewel, trans. Penny Hueston
  • Robert Katz, Naked by the Window The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta

I’m not sure what the current narrative about the death of Ana Mendieta is – it received surprisingly little treatment at a retrospective in Berlin a few summers ago – though it’s interesting that this work, written and published immediately after Carl Andre’s trial, which it exhaustively documents, went out of print. Katz sifted through an immense amount of information and interviews to create this record; in his telling, Andre was guilty. What makes this book most worth seeking out, though, is its description of how the art world, including prominent feminists, almost immediately closed ranks around Andre to protect him. There were clear financial incentives for some who did this; others didn’t want to cause problems or were bound by loyalty. It isn’t clear that anything would have been better if Carl Andre had gone to prison – the justice system comes across as largely buffoonish – but it’s astounding how much can simply be swept under a rug and forgotten.

  • Jean Echenoz, I’m Gone, trans. Mark Polizzoti
  • Georges Simenon, A Crime in Holland, trans. Siân Reynolds
  • Jean Echenoz, Ravel, trans. Linda Coverdale
  • Jean Echenoz, Running, trans. Linda Coverdale
  • Jean Echenoz, Lightning, trans. Linda Covedale
  • Georges Simenon, The Grand Banks Café, trans. David Coward
  • Paolo Sorrentino, Youth, trans. N. S. Thompson

Films

  • Looking for Mushrooms, directed by Bruce Conner
  • Spaceship Earth, dir. Matt Wolf

june 16–30, 2020

Books

  • Ng Yi-Sheng, Lion City
  • Russell Edson, What a Man Can See
  • Andrea Yew, In These Curved Spaces
  • Georges Simenon, Pietr the Latvian, translated by David Bellos
  • Stephanie Ye, The Billion Shop
  • Georges Simenon, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, trans. Linda Coverdale
  • Georges Simenon, The Late Monsieur Gallet, trans. Anthea Bell
  • Françoise Gilot & Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso
  • Christopher Brown, Tropic of Kansas
  • Christopher Brown, Rule of Capture
  • Georges Simenon, The Yellow Dog, trans. Linda Asher
  • Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne), Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol
  • Georges Simenon, Night at the Crossroads, trans. Linda Coverdale
  • David Kinloch, In Search of Dustie-Fute
  • Giorgio Agamben, What Is Real, trans. Lorenzo Chiesa

Films

  • Robinson Crusoe on Mars, directed by Byron Haskins

june 1–15, 2020

Books

  • Shirley Hazzard, Greene on Capri: A Memoir
  • Percival Everett, The Book of Training by Colonel Hap Thompson of Roanoke, VA, 1843: Annotated from the Library of John C. Calhoun
  • Shirley Hazzard & Francis Steegmuller, The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples
  • Percival Everett, Telephone
  • Leonor Fini, Rogomelec, translated by William Kulik & Serena Shanken Skwersky
  • Percival Everett, God’s Country
  • Akhil Sharma, A Life of Adventure and Delight
  • Percival Everett, Watershed
  • Percival Everett, American Desert
  • Prince, The Beautiful Ones, edited by Dan Piepenbring
  • Patrik Svensson, The Book of Eels, trans. Agnes Broomé
  • Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic
  • Carmina Archilochi: The Fragments of Archilochos, trans. Guy Davenport
  • Percival Everett, Wounded
  • Augusto Monterroso, The Black Sheep and Other Fables, trans. Walter I. Bradbury

Films

  • Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan), directed by Vittorio de Sica
  • Sähkö the Movie, dir. Jimi Tenor

may 16–31, 2020

Books

  • Samanta Schweblin, Little Eyes, translated by Megan McDowell
  • Michael Dibdin, And Then You Die
  • Michael Dibdin, Medusa
  • Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
  • Michael Dibdin, Back to Bologna
  • Michael Dibdin, End Games
  • Percival Everett, Cutting Lisa
  • Percival Everett, Suder
  • Beatrice Wood, I Shock Myself: The Autobiography of Beatrice Wood
  • Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
  • Paco Ignacio Taibo II, No Happy Ending, trans. William I. Neuman
  • Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Return to the Same City, trans. Laura Dail
  • Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, Roseanna, trans. Lois Roth
  • Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, The Man Who Went up in Smoke, trans. Joan Tate
  • Saul Steinberg & Aldo Buzzi, Reflections and Shadows, trans. John Shepley

Films

  • What’s Up, Doc?, directed by Peter Bogdanovich
  • Best in Show, dir. Christopher Guest
  • Первые на Луне (First on the Moon), dir. Aleksei Fedorchenko

reluctance to draw from life

“Why am I so reluctant to draw from life, and why do I look for any excuse not to? It’s hard to tell the truth about anything, or to portray oneself in terms of something else. What I try to do is to say with painting something more than what the eye sees. My paintings are not so much paintings in themselves as parts of a table, objects of a drawing able, the painter’s work table. The pencils and other things I do are there to say that this is not a painting of mine but a painting by someone else, maybe a painting by ‘that painter’ but not by me. In that case, I’m more an orchestra conductor than a painter doing a painting. My work says something about something else, if it’s painting it says something about painting, not about the fact that this is what it is. If I use a rubber stamp on the painting, I do it to show that this paint is not real paint, it’s a symbol of the thing painted, just as the stamp is a symbol of the man. I’m not sure whether this is a sign of modesty or the reverse.”

(Saul Steinberg & Aldo Buzzi, Reflections and Shadows, trans. John Shepley, p. 71.)