Times Literary Supplement (December 9, 2022) @TheTLS: Features @jennieerinsmith on the Huxleys; @TristramHuntVA on Birkbeck; @lib_thinks on Lady Glenconner; @jamesbpcook on fatherhood; @MisakCheryl on John Venn; @snsyquia on this year’s Michael @MarksAwards – and more.
An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art displays the extravagant Tudor taste for jewels, artworks, tapestries, and other finery.
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, October 10, 2022–January 8, 2023; the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 26–May 14, 2023; and the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, June 24–September 24, 2023
The essayist Judith Thurman has made a career of profiling complicated, often unstoppable women.
A Left-Handed Woman by Judith Thurman
Rachel Carson’s ocean books reveal an author profoundly engaged with the problem of how to convey ecological knowledge—and how to decenter human life.
The Sea Trilogy: Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson, edited by Sandra Steingraber
Colm Tóibín on the Art of Fiction: “No matter what you do in a novel there’s a secret DNA of whatever it is that you’ve suffered.” N. Scott Momaday on the Art of Poetry: “I was writing lines that looked like lines of poetry, recollecting my early days on the reservation, but I didn’t know the difference between a spondee and a dactyl.”
Prose by Avigayl Sharp, Lucas Hnath, and Mieko Kanai.
Poetry by William IX of Aquitaine, Cynthia Cruz, and Peter Mishler.
Art by Mary Manning and Lily van der Stokker.
Cover by Uman.
When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe.
The primary product sold by all management consultants – both software developers and strategic organisers – is the theology of capital. This holds that workers are expendable. They can be replaced by machines, or by harder-working employees grateful they weren’t let go in the last round of redundancies. Managers are necessary to the functioning of corporations – or universities, or non-profit organisations – and the more of them the better.
Writing about the press by Andrew O’Hagan, Ross McKibbin, Jenny Diski, James Meek, Suzanne Moore, Mary-Kay Wilmers, Alan Rusbridger, Thomas Nagel and Raymond Williams.
Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick | Anupama Kundoo | Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky | João Batista Vilanova Artigas | Laurie Simmons | Kochi Architects Studio | Ekar Architects | Atelier Tho.A | Chat Architects | Fernanda Canales Arquitectura | Brillhart Architecture
Very few people have the resources to realise the house of their dreams, yet the results can be extraordinary. From the London home of Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick, which is a manifestation of their postmodern fantasies, to the local materials and construction techniques of Anupama Kundoo’s Wall House in Auroville, this issue revisits houses designed by architects for themselves, and sometimes their families. Also celebrated are the winning projects of the 2022 AR House Awards, featuring innovative and intriguing dwellings from Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Bahamas.
— High blood pressure, or hypertension, is common in older adults. The good news is that blood pressure can be controlled in most people.
— Menopause is a normal part of aging for women, but it affects every woman differently.
— As you age, you may wonder about the difference between normal, age-related forgetfulness and a serious memory problem, such as dementia.
— Shingles is a disease that triggers a painful skin rash. About one in three people will get shingles, but there is a vaccine for older adults to help prevent the disease.
— Vitamins and minerals are types of nutrients that your body needs to survive and stay healthy.
Jack also discusses how the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched in 2009, has helped reinterpret Apollo-era data and given us new information about the lunar terrain that will help pave the way for the upcoming Artemis missions.
Apollo 17 was the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. Following a 2-hour 40-minute delay, it launched at 11:33 p.m. CST on December 6, 1972, the only night launch of the Apollo program. Prior missions had explored the Moon’s early volcanic history and the role of large impact basins such as Imbrium. Accordingly, Apollo 17 was planned to collect ancient highlands crustal material far from the Imbrium basin and to search for possible young lunar volcanic activity, which would help to constrain our knowledge of the Moon’s thermal evolution.
Selected by Alicia Tatone
“This cover feels simultaneously classic and entirely new. It’s slightly reminiscent of 1970s science fiction covers (albeit much more restrained), and yet I’ve never seen anything quite like it. That custom type! That illustration! Is it a world? An eye? Something else? All of the above? As a reader, I don’t typically gravitate toward sci-fi, but this cover is so compelling that it made me immediately want to buy the book.”
Selected by Henry Sene Yee
“There were so many eye-catching covers this year, but the one that constantly stood out for me because of its stunning simplicity, beauty and mystery was designed by John Gall: No Land in Sight. In a sea of gorgeous covers exploding with kaleidoscopic colorful backgrounds, with elements twisting and intertwining, with the title and author type set in sans-serif condensed fonts, Gall’s cover was refreshing for its clean layout, tasteful typography, elements that are balanced and non-overlapping, in an austere monochromatic palette. Timeless.”
Selected by Grace Han
“The whole package is stunning and smart—words I use a lot to describe Pablo Delcan’s works. The covers evoke introspectiveness and intimacy in such a beautiful way. Everything from the type to the flower placement feels considered and intentional. I love how both sides mirror and work with each other visually and conceptually.”
Selected by Jack Smyth
“This cover is a feast of dualities: both a figurative scene and an abstract texture; a figure seen far off in the distance and a marbled paper viewed at almost 1:1 in scale; a formal, rigid, block colored layout, and a big, expressive interruption in the middle. The slightly muted colors are so refreshing, especially in a year when we’re reaching peak ‘pop,’ and David shows us here that you don’t need neon Pantones or massive type to create a big, bold, absorbing cover. I love that the type is almost pushed to the peripheries by the sprawl of the illustration, as if it’s something that’s happened over centuries; it makes everything feel massive in scale. Also, the silhouette of the figure is from a photo of the author, which is a perfect Pearson point of detail! There are worlds existing in this book cover, and I find it very easy to get lost in them.”
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy, why trustbusters should let Microsoft buy Activision Blizzard (11:44) and why emigration is in the air for Britons (16:38).
