A gorgeous and thoughtful overview that will bring joy to any bibliophile.
A tribute to literary oases.
Mollier and Sorel are French, so it makes sense that the scholars of the history of bookselling begin their global photographic tour of bookstores in their home country. Beyond any practical considerations, there’s good reason to start in France: It is, they write, “a world leader in book outlets per capita, and the first country to pass a law to protect ‘bibliodiversity’”—restricting online retailers from undercutting the country’s 3,500 independent bookstores. “Bookdealers have always been highly vulnerable,” the authors add, “whether burned at the stake in the sixteenth century (like Michel Servet in Geneva and Étienne Dolet in Paris), heavily fined in London in the late nineteenth century (like Henry Vizetelly, guilty of selling the English translation of Émile Zola’s allegedly ‘obscene’ The Soil), or imprisoned in Brazil in the late twentieth century, for selling Marxist literature during the military dictatorship.” This book can therefore be read as a celebration of a trade that has existed against all odds. Readers will be familiar with many of the beloved shops featured here. In Paris, there is Shakespeare and Company, the English-language store that has attracted readers since the 1950s. Vibrant photographs capture its charm, from its wood beam ceilings to its upright piano. We see graceful interior and exterior shots of London’s capacious Foyles, as well as the equally mighty Strand Bookstore in New York City and Powell’s Books in Portland. Happily, the book highlights many lesser-known stores, including ones in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In Cameroon, the authors write, the Librairie des Peuples Noirs—the Black Peoples’ Bookshop—“symbolizes the struggle of its founder, Mongo Beti, and of all African people to make their rights and cultures known.” As the authors observe, “Bookstores are surprisingly diverse and inventive….Gigantic or tiny, with or without a roof, fixed or itinerant, bookshops all convey the same love of books—a love that brings people together.”
A gorgeous and thoughtful overview that will bring joy to any bibliophile.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780789215161
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Abbeville Press
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.
Celebrating a beloved artist.
Published to coincide with a major exhibition of works by British-born artist David Hockney (b. 1937) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, this lushly illustrated volume offers a detailed overview of the artist’s life and work, along with chapters focused on his various styles and subject matter, a chronology, and a glossary of the many techniques he employed in his art, including camera lucida, computer, and video. Contributors of essays include noted art historians and curators, such as Norman Rosenthal, who edited the volume; Simon Schama; Anne Lyles; James Cahill; and François Michaud. Growing up in the north of England, Hockney was drawn to the light and sparkle that he found in Hollywood movies. When he finally arrived in Los Angeles, the sunlit landscapes inspired him, and his new sense of artistic freedom concurred with sexual freedom: As a gay man, he felt liberated from the constraints that had weighed on him in Britain, even in the “relative Bohemia” of the Royal College of Art. Essayists reflect on his artistic interests, such as landscapes, portraiture, flowers, and the opera—for which he created boldly exuberant sets—as well as on his influences and experimentation. Michaud examines the impact on Hockney of a visit to Paris in the 1970s, where he became familiar with Henri Matisse and his contemporaries from museum exhibitions. In the 1990s, visiting his mother and friends in Yorkshire, Hockney painted both outdoors and in the studio, experimenting with various media—including the photocopier and fax machine—as he worked to render the woodsy landscape. As a companion to the exhibition, the volume offers stunning reproductions of Hockney’s prolific works. Enormously popular with museumgoers, Hockney, Rosenthal exults, “transforms the ordinary and the everyday into the remarkable.”
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780500029527
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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