An engaging insider’s look at the history and value of Renaissance festivals.
In this nonfiction book, a figure in America’s Renaissance festival movement celebrates the history of the popular fairs.
More than just serving as venues for giving “paying customers the illusion of stepping back in time to a sixteenth century village immersed in celebration,” for more than a half-century, Renaissance festivals have offered “real-life adventure” and “the opportunity to invent yourself.” Despite being the occasional butt of jokes, the once-maligned festivals have only grown in popularity in the 21st century, with yearly attendance in the millions. This history, from the movement’s origins in the California Pleasure Faires of the early 1960s to contemporary festivals that are found across all regions of the United States, forms the basis of Olson’s account. While much of his welcoming text is celebratory, the volume also draws on the theoretical work of C. Wright Mills and other social scientists (who are cited in the book’s rich body of footnotes). These experts provide insights into the social and psychological value of the ubiquitous “fantasy playgrounds,” from comic conventions to theme parks that transport visitors to the worlds of Star Wars and Harry Potter. But the work’s strength lies in its profiles of “rennies,” the insider term for those who organize and work at festivals. A rennie himself, the author toured the country for more than two decades as a member of Smee and Bogg, the Singing Executioners, and offers readers an intimate, behind-the-scenes perspective of “camping out in forests, mountains and seaside” with his “extended family of artists, performers, and beautiful souls.” The book’s inviting prose is accompanied by a treasure trove of full-color photographs from various sources of jugglers, swordsmen, duchesses, and other rennies that adorn nearly every page. A charming concluding chapter on festival ephemera gives readers a visual menagerie of Renaissance fair art, posters, newspaper clippings, tickets, brochures, and T-shirts. While some readers may object to Olson’s occasionally corny writing style (which is effectively evocative of the movement’s festive mise en scène), this is a delightful and visually impressive book.
An engaging insider’s look at the history and value of Renaissance festivals.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-78254-219-1
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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