As the last color-soaked leaves fall and finals begin, the sometimes-sunny days of fall term soon will be behind us. Heading home for winter break means spending time with family and old friends, shopping for the perfect presents, relaxing after 10 weeks of non-stop work and curling up by a toasty fire to catch up on the latest bestseller.
This holiday season is marked by the release of several brilliant works of fiction and non-fiction.
Start the season feeling inspired by reading John Richardson’s “A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932.” Richardson explores Picasso’s competition and collaboration with other artists of the time, his relationships with women and his struggle to triumph as an artist. The book recounts the artist’s breakaway from cubism to a more neoclassic style, starting with his experience designing vanguard costumes for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Richardson makes an overt connection between the shift in Picasso’s art and his relationships with women like mistress Marie-Thérèse. The 608-page book includes 48 pages of color illustrations and 275 pages of illustrations embedded within the text. Richardson’s precise understanding of Picasso’s life makes his book a must-read.
To lighten up the gloomy days of December, dive into Steve Martin’s autobiographical work, “Born Standing Up.” The book reveals the rise to fame one of the country’s most celebrated comedians, and the struggles and triumphs he encountered along the way. Martin candidly writes about his experiences with other famous comedians – Dan Aykroyd, Johnny Carson and Carl Reiner, among others – his relationships with his family and girlfriends and the feelings of loneliness and anxiety a struggling comedian faces. A quick, enjoyable read, “Born Standing Up” is not only a biography of Martin’s life, but a tool for anyone trying to find success in stand-up comedy.
Junot Díaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” tops fiction reading during the holidays. The sad, sometimes humorous novel stars overweight, Dominican-American, aspiring sci-fi author Wao. Díaz’s highly anticipated first novel conveys the trials and tribulations Wao faces while dreaming to become a writer and to find true love. His story gives insight into Dominican-American culture and explores the strength of people when coping with tragedy and heartbreak.
For those who have been waiting to see the leftist, free trade paradox of Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” head to a bookstore the day after Christmas for Ha-Joon Chang’s “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism.” Chang contests the liberal economic view that capitalism and international free trade will alleviate poverty from developing nations for them to become major players in the global economy. Through the author’s historical examination, he explains how the world’s economic superpowers use practices of globalization to push the first-world agenda onto countries of the developing world. Read this book over winter break and impress your economics professor next term.
For the fashion-obsessed, “Stylist: Interpreters of Fashion” is arguably the best fashion book this year. Compiled by the editors of Style.com and with an introduction by American Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour and text by American Vogue contributing fashion writer Sarah Mower, the book profiles 16 of the world’s most influential fashion stylists, coupled with photography from the greatest photographers of the 20th century. In the book, Mower says, “They are the co-authors of some of the most powerful imagery that hits us every time we flip open a magazine, glimpse a fashion show, flick on a TV or computer or drive past a billboard. (Yet they still remain mysterious).” The 245-page, coffee table-sized book features work from Grace Coddington, creative director of American Vogue, Carine Roitfeld, editor in chief of Paris Vogue, Melanie Ward, senior fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and Paul Cavaco, creative director of Allure. The breathtaking fashion photography from the past 50 years makes this book a holiday must-have for fashion enthusiasts and photographers alike.