30 Canadian books to read in winter 2024
Six Art Books To Read This Juneteenth
Support Independent Arts JournalismAs an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism and keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today.
In our 2021 special edition celebrating Juneteenth, scholar Leigh Raiford spoke with Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian about the multifaceted potential of photography, particularly by Black artists. "It never performs a single function," she explained. "It's a document, it's performance, it's surveillance, it's violence; it's speculative and fabulation, it's aspiration, it's comfort." We've gathered six photography and art books that offer entry points into the history of this growing latticework of Black American artistry, with a focus on the camera's shifting role as a means of self-determination, opacity, and expression. Check out these titles through the Black-owned bookstores near you, including Adanne in Brooklyn, Marcus Books in Oakland, and Black Pearl Books in Austin. Happy reading, and happy Juneteenth!
The New Black West: Photographs from America's Only Touring Black Rodeo by Gabriela HasbunThis year marks the 40th anniversary of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, the only touring Black rodeo in the country. Photographer Gabriela Hasbun's The New Black West is an ode to the organization and the community it has cultivated over the years, spanning generations and geographies in celebration of Black cowboy culture and featuring a foreword by the rodeo's Bay Area coordinator, Jeff Douvel. Tender snapshots of parents embracing their children, a cowgirl and her horse, and rodeo host waving artist David Hammons's African-American flag are among a wealth of photographs that provide a glimpse into the spirit of the Black Western rodeo, long appropriated by mainstream White narratives of the American South.
Read the ReportBuy on BookshopChronicle Books, 2022
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics by bell hooksThe legacy of late critic and scholar bell hooks looms large across creative disciplines, and visual art is no exception. Though celebrated for her Love Song to the Nation trilogy (1999–2001) and theorization of white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy, hooks's 1995 Art on My Mind fuses her academic interests with a focus on Black American artists. She brings the practice of artists such as Alison Saar, Emma Amos, and Margo Humphrey into conversation with her political and aesthetic interests, often revealing as much about her as the artists themselves. Her introduction lays out the explicitly political stakes of her essay collection and invites us into her conception of "the radical place that art occupies within the freedom struggle and of the way in which experiencing art can enhance our understanding of what it means to live as free subjects in an unfree world."
Buy on BookshopThe New Press, 1995
The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson and Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party by Ericka Huggins and Stephen ShamesThe Black Panther Party's multifaceted approach to community organizing embodied the phrase in the truest sense, spanning protest, childhood, education, and free food programs. Comic artists David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson chronologize the Party's history in a brilliantly illustrated graphic novel, beginning with its precursors in the Civil Rights Movement and continuing through its decline in the late 1980s.
Meanwhile, Party leader Ericka Huggins narrates the history of women in the organization in Comrade Sisters, which pairs her reflections with Stephen Shames's introspective photos. Read together, these two books complement each other in demystifying the oft-mythologized activist group's radical politics and imagination.
Buy The Black Panther Party and Comrade Sisters on BookshopTen Speed Press, 2021 and ACC Art Books, 2022
Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery by Deborah Willis and Barbara KrauthamerIn a 2018 interview with Hyperallergic, curator and photographer Deborah Willis discussed founding the Center for Black Visual Culture at New York University, a corollary to her earlier work and collaboration with historian Barbara Krauthamer on the publication Envisioning Emancipation. This comprehensive study brings together over 150 images from the years before the abolition of slavery through the 1930s, prying open archival fissures to shine a light on Black Americans documenting their freedom, community, and self-regard through the photographic lens.
Buy on BookshopTemple University Press, 2012
Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers, edited by Brian PiperRooted in a 2022–23 exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Called to the Camera builds upon previous work — including that of Willis and Krauthamer — to flesh out the world of Black American studio photography through today. Portraits by familiar names like James Van Der Zee appear alongside those by unsung artists, including New Orleans portrait photographer Florestine Perrault Collins. Essays contextualizing the wealth of images accompany crisply reproduced photos, which guide us along a journey through the church gatherings and sports games of everyday life, and pivotal figures in Black American history, including Eartha Kitt (teaching a dance class), Booker T. Washington (posed on his favorite horse, Dexter), and Frederick Douglass (seated alongside his grandson).
Buy on BookshopNew Orleans Museum of Art, 2023
Support Independent Arts JournalismAs an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism and keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today.
14 Books Like 'Bridgerton' To Read Next, According To Historical Romance Authors
Dearest gentle readers: Are you looking for a book as satisfying, sweeping and romantic as Season Three of "Bridgerton"?
TODAY.Com has collected a series of the best books like "Bridgerton" courtesy of historical romance novelists Vanessa Riley, Sarah McLean, Liana De la Rosa, Sophie Jordan and Lorraine Heath.
While not all the picks are set in Regency England like "Bridgerton," most will whisk you away to another era, and certainly another feeling.
Read on to imagine what it's like to live in a world where going out clothes are ballgowns — but finding love is seemingly just as complicated as it is today.
Check out the books below for your next read.
"Ana María and the Fox" by Liana De la Rosa$15.81
$17.00
Bookshop.Org
$12.99
$17.00
Amazon
$17.00
Barnes and Noble
Vanessa Riley, author of books like "Island Queen" and "Queen of Exiles," recommended "Ana María and the Fox," a slow-burn story set during the French occupation of Mexico in the 1860s. She calls it a "tale of forbidden love amidst opulent world-building."
"Aphrodite and the Duke" by J.J. McAvoy$15.81
$17.00
Bookshop.Org
$9.99
Amazon
$17.00
Barnes and Noble
Riley also shouted out "Aphrodite and the Duke," J.J. McAvoy's tale set in Regency England. Aphrodite Du Bell is summoned back to London for her's sister debut. Her plan is to avoid the man who jilted her years ago. His plan is to find her back.
"The Heiress" by Molly Greeley$15.80
$16.99
Bookshop.Org
$14.99
$16.99
Amazon
$14.99
$16.99
Barnes and Noble
Riley said "The Heiress" by Molly Greeley adds a Gothic layer to "Bridgerton's" appeal. The book imagines the life of Anne de Bourgh, the character in "Pride and Prejudice" originally meant to marry Fitzwilliam Darcy (though we know who he ended up marrying).
"Pride and Protest" by Nikki Payne$15.81
$17.00
Bookshop.Org
$12.99
$17.00
Amazon
$17.00
Barnes and Noble
For more Austen-inspired reads, Riley recommended "Pride and Protest" by Nikki Payne and "The Bennet Women" by Eden Appiah-Kubie, "contemporary romances that draw inspiration from Austen's Regency rules, delivering fast-paced 'Bridgerton'-esque moments."
"Pride and Protest" is set in the modern day, where a DJ goes up against a property developer for the soul of her neighborhood.
"The Bennet Women" by Eden Appiah-Kubi$12.04
$12.95
Bookshop.Org
$8.92
$12.95
Amazon
$12.95
Barnes and Noble
"The Bennet Women" is another spin on "Pride and Prejudice," following a group of friends in an all-women's dorm called, fittingly, Bennet House.
"Something Like Love" by Beverly Jenkins
$8.36
$8.99
Bookshop.Org
$8.99
Amazon
$8.99
Barnes and Noble
For a "throwback," Riley recommended a book by the legendary Beverly Jenkins. Our heroine Olivia Sterling escapes an arranged marriage and moves to Chicago, where she falls for the man who once robbed her train. The book "captures the hijinks, sexiness, and humor of the Bridgerton universe," Riley said.
"Her Night with the Duke" by Diana Quincy$7.43
$7.99
Bookshop.Org
$7.99
Amazon
$7.99
Barnes and Noble
Sarah MacLean, author of the "Hell's Belles" and the "Bareknuckle Bastards" series, among others, said "Her Night with the Duke" is ideal for people who rooted for the Sharma sisters in Season Two.
"A fierce, feisty heroine is stranded at a roadside inn alone, with no choice but to share the one remaining room — and one reckless night — with a handsome traveler also alone for the evening," she said.
The only problem? The man is engaged to her stepdaughter. MacLean said the book is "sexy, smart and an absolute love letter to female friendship."
"The Virgin and The Rogue" by Sophie Jordan$7.43
$7.99
Bookshop.Org
$7.99
Amazon
$7.99
Barnes and Noble
"Sophie Jordan's entire backlist will deliver on your Bridgerton-y historical romance needs, but you should not miss 'The Virgin and The Rogue,' which will deliver for anyone who loves troublemaking siblings and an absolutely fire romance," MacLean said.
Charlotte unwittingly takes an aphrodisiac, transforming her wallflower personality into someone who wants to track down, and seduce, a rogue.
"An Island Princess Starts a Scandal" by Adriana Herrera$17.66
$18.99
Bookshop.Org
$12.99
$18.99
Amazon
$17.09
$18.99
Barnes and Noble
Liana De la Rosa, whose book "Ana María and the Fox" was previously shouted out, said she loved "An Island Princess Starts a Scandal" the second book in Adriana Herrera's "Las Leonas" series.
The book tells the story of Manuela, a firebrand artist from Latin America and Cora, the stern, business savvy Duchess of Sundridge. "Adriana's writing is lyrical and evocative, romantic and sexy without ignoring the weighty social and political issues of 1880s Paris," she said.
"Wake Me Most Wickedly" by Felicia Grossman$9.29
$9.99
Bookshop.Org
$8.99
$9.99
Amazon
$9.99
Barnes and Noble
Felicia Grossman's "Wake Me Most Wickedly" is a gender-bending retelling of Snow White. "Sol and Hannah's romance offers a fascinating view of Jewish life in the Regency. Felicia's writing is rich and descriptive, and her characters and the world of the East End comes alive in beautiful color under her deft hand," De La Rosa said.
"The Duke Gets Desperate" by Diana Quincy$9.29
$9.99
Bookshop.Org
$7.99
$9.99
Amazon
$9.99
Barnes and Noble
De La Rosa called "The Duke Gets Desperate" by Diana Quincy a "wickedly clever story."
It follows an Arab American woman who inherits a British castle, which she learns is claimed by someone else. "Diana does a brilliant job of threading lush details of Arab culture into Raya and Stick's story, and if you thought the fire burned hot between KAnthony, wait until you meet this American heiress and her duke!" she said.
"Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake" by Sarah MacLean$13.94
$14.99
Bookshop.Org
$10.69
$14.99
Amazon
$14.99
Barnes and Noble
Sophie Jordan, author of the "Scandalous Ladies of London" series, called Sarah MacLean the "queen of the modern historical romance," who writes "refreshingly progressive romance while delivering all the swoons that get your heart racing."
"In her debut novel, MacLean writes the ultimate good-girl-rule-follower-wallflower who boldly decides to start living her life by breaking all the rules. It's a wild ride full of high emotions and risk-taking and, of course, sexy times," she said.
"My Season of Scandal" by Julie Anne Long$9.29
$9.99
Bookshop.Org
$7.48
$9.99
Amazon
$9.99
Barnes and Noble
Historical romance novelist Lorraine Heath said "My Season of Scandal" by Julie Anne Long centers importance of love and devotion to family, just like "Bridgerton."
"With 'The Palace of Rogues' series, Julie Anne Long has created a strong familial atmosphere within a boarding house of once-upon-a-time strangers. 'My Season of Scandal' is the first of the series to venture out into ballrooms and the aristocratic world that would be familiar to Bridgerton fans. It's romantic and emotional, with a cast of characters who bring some lighthearted moments but also demonstrate the true value of family," she said.
"My Kind of Earl" by Vivienne Lorret$7.43
$7.99
Bookshop.Org
$7.99
Amazon
$7.99
Barnes and Noble
"My Kind of Earl by Vivienne Lorret has the sort of heroine Bridgerton is known for — feisty, self-assured, and adventurous," Heath said.
It follows a curious heroine who accidentally finds herself in a brawl in a brothel, where she meets a man with a troubled past.
"'My Kind of Earl' includes witty repartee, humor, and a depth of emotion that is sure to please any Bridgerton fan. Lorret's stories always leave me smiling," Heath said.
19 Nonfiction Books To Read This Summer
Judy Garland, Sean Connery, Carrie Fisher: Celebrities abound in the actor's new memoir. Dunne's book is engaging as much for his fame-adjacent vignettes as for his frank exploration of his famous family's complicated history — most notably that of his sister, Dominique Dunne, a rising star in Hollywood whose career was cut short when she was killed by her ex-boyfriend. His account of her death and the subsequent infamous trial is an illuminating perspective.
Penguin Press, June 11
Roctogenarians, by Mo Rocca and Jonathan GreenbergWorried that you're past your prime? Fret not. Rocca and Greenberg make the case that our most remarkable years come later in life. The authors weave their argument from stories about the artist Henri Matisse, the actor Morgan Freeman and even Mr. Pickles, a tortoise who became a first-time father at 90 years old.
Simon & Schuster, June 11
Setoodeh, a co-editor in chief of Variety, draws on hours of interviews with several former contestants of "The Apprentice," Trump's son Eric and Trump himself, among others, to examine the long-running reality show that preceded Trump's tenure at the White House.
Harper, June 18
Comments
Post a Comment