NOTE BOOK

Name: NOTE BOOK
Author: Jeff Nunokawa
ISBN: 978-0-691-16649-0

by Jeff Nunokawa ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2015

An engaging multimedia project offering even more food for thought when translated to the linearity of the printed page.

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Literary-based reflections on and of the virtual age.

Nunokawa (English/Princeton Univ.), whose professional interests run the gamut from George Eliot and Henry James to Oscar Wilde (Tame Passions of Wilde: The Styles of Manageable Desire, 2003, etc.), here excerpts favorite musings on random topics that happened to cross his mind daily from August 2007 through July 2014. Over this time period, Nunokawa used Facebook’s notes feature to post a daily entry consisting of a title or inspirational quotation, a brief personal reflection, a footnote, and an accompanying photo, all with the aim of communicating “some version of ‘me’ to some version of ‘you,’ as near and far as the closest heart.” For example, “3095. ‘Why this overmastering need to communicate with others?’ / Virginia Woolf, ‘Montaigne’ / I used to think it was because I was good at it. Now I think it’s because it may be my only shot at being good.” Though not deeply wedded to their chronology, Nunokawa’s posts have both an episodic and journalistic feel to them. Though best read in several sittings, the collected notes convey an urgency for audience, whether it be through deep existential contemplation or identification of common interests like soccer and Joni Mitchell. Because Nunokawa is quite introspective and revelatory about the unusually public medium selected for his diarylike, more typically private enterprise, one takes at face value his somewhat Whitmanesque belief that “the loneliness at the heart of my project is not mine alone” but “the hunger for a feeling of connection” that “flows from a common break in a common heart.” Looking to befriend the reader yet not exactly open a conversation, Nunokawa draws one in with these temptingly lyric essays while resisting the larger buffers of narrative or explicit chronological context.

An engaging multimedia project offering even more food for thought when translated to the linearity of the printed page.

Pub Date: May 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-691-16649-0

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Princeton Univ.

Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.