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

may 1–15, 2020

Books

  • Manuel Puig, The Buenos Aires Affair, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine
  • Shirley Hazzard, The Evening of the Holiday
  • Jean Cocteau, My Contemporaries, trans. Margaret Crosland
  • Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood
  • Chester Himes, The Crazy Kill
  • Chester Himes, Plan B
  • Chester Himes, Pinktoes
  • Christine Chia, The Law of Second Marriages
  • Christine Chia, Separation: A History
  • Michael Dibdin, A Long Finish
  • Paco Ignacio Taibo II, An Easy Thing, trans. Willie Neuman
  • Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Some Clouds, trans. Willie Neuman
  • Michael Dibdin, Blood Rain

Films

  • Dial M for Murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  • Robinson Crusoe, dir. Luis Buñuel

april 16–31, 2020

Books

  • Primo Levi, The Wrench, translated by William Weaver
  • Michael Dibdin, Dead Lagoon
  • Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One
  • Primo Levi, Moments of Reprieve, trans. Ruth Feldman
  • Michael Dibdin, Così fan tutti
  • Eimear McBride, Strange Hotel
  • Gianrico Carofiglio, Involuntary Witness, trans. Patrick Creagh
  • Sabrina Orah Mark, Wild Milk
  • Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony
  • Cyril Wong, Satori Blues
  • S. C. Gordon, Harbouring
  • Anthony Burgess, Beard’s Roman Women
  • Hafiz Hamzah, Blooms of Ire, trans. Ede A. Hamid
  • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
  • Evelyn Waugh, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
  • Gianrico Carofiglio, A Walk in the Dark, trans. Howard Curtis
  • Maurice Sachs, Witches’ Sabbath, trans. Richard Howard
  • Evelyn Waugh, Love Among the Ruins
  • V. S. Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur
  • Richard Kennedy, A Boy at the Hogarth Press
  • Valerio Varesi, River of Shadows, trans. Joseph Farrell

Films

  • True Grit, directed by Henry Hathaway
  • The Ladykillers, dir. Alexander McKendrick
  • Jane, dir. Brett Morgen
  • The Kid Brother, dir. Ted Wilde
  • Portrait of Jennie, dir. William Dieterle
  • Joe Versus the Volcano, dir. John Patrick Shanley
  • Death on the Nile, dir. John Guillermin
  • Evil under the Sun, dir. Guy Hamilton
  • Appointment with Death, dir. Michael Winner

april 1–15, 2020

Books

  • Michael Dibdin, Cabal
  • Emmanuel Carrère, 97, 196 Words, translated by John Lambert
  • Boileau-Narcejac, Vertigo, trans. Geoffrey Sainsbury
  • Boileau-Narcejac, She Who Was No More, trans. Geoffrey Sainsbury
  • Piero Chiara, The Bishop’s Bedroom, trans. Jill Foulston
  • Patrick Modiano, Young Once, trans. Damion Searls
  • Jean-Philippe Blondel, The 6:41 to Paris, trans. Alison Anderson
  • Boileau-Narcejac, Choice Cuts, trans. Brian Rawson
  • Leonardo Sciascia, Salt in the Wound, trans. Judith Green
  • J. G. Ballard, Vermilion Sands
  • John Crowley, Totalitopia
  • Elio Viottorini, In Sicily, trans. Wilfrid David
  • Cordwainer Smith, Nostrilia
  • Leonardo Sciascia, The Death of the Inquisitor, trans. Judith Green
  • Alberto Savinio, Childhood of Nivasio Dolcemare, trans. Richard Pevear
  • Samuel R. Delany, The Atheist in the Attic

Films

  • Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  • The Bank Dick, dir. Edward F. Cline & Ralph Ceder
  • Sons of the Desert, dir. William A. Seiter
  • The Green Fog, dir. Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson
  • Murder on the Orient Express, dir. Sidney Lumet
  • Rasing Arizona, dir. Joel Coen
  • Way Out West, dir. James W. Horne

march 16–31, 2020

Books

  • Natalia Ginzburg, The City and the House, translated by Dick Davis
  • Theodore Sturgeon, The Dreaming Jewels
  • Brad Fox, To Remain Nameless
  • Fred Vargas, The Chalk Circle Man, trans. Siân Reynolds
  • Fred Vargas, The Three Evangelists, trans. Siân Reynolds
  • Fred Vargas, Dog Will Have His Day, trans. Siân Reynolds
  • Fred Vargas, The Accordianist, trans. Siân Reynolds
  • Michael Dibdin, Ratking
  • Michael Dibdin, Vendetta

Films

  • The Last Man on Earth, directed by Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow
  • Panic in the Streets, dir. Elia Kazan

march 1–15, 2020

Books

  • J. G. Ballard, High-Rise
  • Aleksandar Hemon, My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You
  • Jacques Rancière, Short Voyages to the Land of the People, translated by James B. Swenson
  • Dante Alighieri, Hell: Dante’s Divine Trilogy Part One Decorated and Englished in Prosaic Verse, trans. Alasdair Gray
  • Primo Levi, Flaw of Form, trans. Jenny McPhee
  • Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo, An Ossuary of the North Lagoon, and Other Stories
  • Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
  • Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
  • Gerald Durrell, The Garden of the Gods
  • John Bayley, Elegy for Iris
  • Cristina Rivera Garza, The Iliac Crest, trans. Sarah Booker
  • Monique Truong, The Sweetest Fruits
  • Primo Levi, The Truce, trans. Stuart Woolf

Films

  • Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), directed by Céline Sciamma
  • The Souvenir, dir. Joanna Hogg
  • Uncut Gems, dir. Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie

february 15–29, 2020

Books

  • Dexter Palmer, Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
  • Charles Portis, Masters of Atlantis
  • Charles Portis, Norwood
  • Francesco Pacifico, Class
  • Amelia Rosselli, Obtuse Diary, translated by Deborah Woodard, Roberta Antognini & Dario De Pasquale
  • Primo Levi, Natural Histories, trans. Jenny McPhee
  • Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honorable Defeat
  • Elias Canetti, Party in the Blitz: The English Years, trans. Michael Hofmann