‘In the Older Days there were no women which is why you don't come across them in history lessons at school’ is just one of many highly accurate facts you will learn from this delightful short book. Trouble with Women will not only entertain you and make you sputter and laugh, it will also perfectly explain the election results. It’s history with a heavy dose of snark and sarcasm, making fun of misogyny in the best possible way. Give it to everyone.
There can never be too many New York novels, especially New York novels as vivid and passionate as Christodora (Grove, $26), by Tim Murphy. Murphy paints the lives of his many characters against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, art, and the changing city. The stories he tells are stunning, gritty, and devastating. Murphy takes the reader right into the 1980s and inside the devastation and broken lives of those affected by the epidemic, as well as chronicling lesser-known histories of AIDS activism. The disease is the great equalizer, and yet ultimately Christodora is not just about the fight against AIDS. It is also about struggling against personal demons, addiction, and mental illness as well as about the search for family and forgiveness. Chapter by chapter, the characters’ stories piece together a great narrative quilt that makes this novel one of the most emotionally intense and extraordinary reading experiences.
The history of the Bolshoi is a history of juxtapositions: beauty, grace, incredible dancers and performances, gold leaf and red velvet get as much stage time as arson, abuse, personal grudges, and rivalries. In Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today (Liveright, $35), Simon Morrison, a Princeton professor of music and author of a profile of the Prokofievs, Lina and Serge, looks at all sides of this premier ballet company, from the building that houses it, its directors and managers, to its choreographers, composers, and dancers. He fully justifies the claim that ballet is “the most Russian of arts” (even if the first Moscow ballet was started by an Englishman). Morrison also studies the Bolshoi as a cultural institution, a diplomatic tool, and a symbol of national power and pride. Indeed, the Bolshoi’s backstage life is a microcosm of modern “grime and glitz” Russia, with politics and art inextricably linked.
