Daily Archives: August 28, 2020

One of the very few perks to life in lockdown (and boy, do you really need to look for the silver linings) has been that we've all had a lot more free time to dedicate to that stack of unread books on the nightstand. And as 2020 is officially the year of the staycation, we thought we'd bring you our faves from this year's releases, from gritty thrillers to far-flung fantasy to big idea non-fiction.

1The City We Became: A Novel (The Great Cities Trilogy Book 1)

This innovative modern fantasy epic by the author of The Fifth Season takes place in a version of New York City very much like the one we know except its alive. In Jemisons world, cities have souls, and The City We Became is the story of the human incarnations of the Big Apple as they fight to defend the metropolis they love from an otherworldly, Lovecraftian horror.

2Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays

Playwright and columnist R. Eric Thomas debut collection of personal essays explore big themes of race, sexuality and religion that authors have been grappling with for years and manages to make them funny. With the trademark wit and insight that made his Ellecolumn Eric Reads the News so popular, Thomas recounts some of the most formative, hilarious experiences of his childhood and young adulthood, before turning his wry-yet-hopeful eye to the future.

3The Glass Hotel: A novel

Mandels previous novel, Station Eleven, followed a disparate group of characters through the outbreak of a global plague, then caught up with the remnants of human society decades later. Her latest book may feature fewer apocalypses but is no less sprawling in scope, beginning with one fateful evening at the Hotel Caiette in British Columbia, and tracing the echoes that reverberate through several characters lives over the decades that follow.

4Antkind: A Novel

One of the greatest screenwriting minds of all time takes his shot at the literary with the sprawling, funny, mind-warpingAntkind.Much like he did withBeing John MalkovichandAdaptation,Charlie Kaufman gets very meta in this novel that also invokes the films of Judd Apatow and the surreal, speculative workof Philip K. Dick. With just about every single one ofAntkinds 720 pages, youll be testing your own mind, and getting another rare and exclusive glimpse into Kaufmans (and laughing all along the way).

5The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life

Game show host Alex Trebek has been a beloved part of the American cultural canon for more than 30 years, and when he revealed in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the public responded with unanimous messages of love and support. Trebek says this memoir was written as a kind of thank you to those unwavering fans; each chapter takes its title from a Jeopardy!-style question, and includes never-before-shared stories from Trebeks life and his time on the show.

6Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel

Billed as Oceans Eleven meets Drive, this gritty modern noir follows Bug, a former getaway driver who earned a reputation as the best wheelman on the East coast. Hes trying hard to go legit, but as a Black man living on the brink of poverty in the rural South with a family depending on him, the promise of one last job is all too alluring, and so he agrees to take part in a heist which could change his life for good or be his undoing.

7The Vanishing Half: A Novel

The Vignes sisters are identical twins, and were once inseparable. But when they ran away from home at the age of sixteen, their lives diverged. Ten years later, one of the sisters passes for white, with a husband who has no knowledge of where she comes from, and the other sister lives in the same community they once tried to escape. And then their daughters paths cross. The Vanishing Half weaves together elements of family saga and social commentary to ask the question: what makes us who we are?

8Mexican Gothic

Noemi, a society girl living in Mexico City in the 1950s, receives an alarming letter from her cousin, Catalina, claiming her husband is trying to poison her. What follows is a richly imagined take on the Gothic fiction genre, complete with a baroque remote mansion, a complicated and brooding male lead, and a mystery in dire need of solving.

9Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It

Were living in a time of technological marvels, but all too often, the lofty claims and bombastic headlines surrounding new advances tend to obfuscate or oversimplify. How many times over the last few years have we heard that robots are coming to take our jobs?Through chapters on everything from healthcare to energy to artificial intelligence, science writer Gemma Milne makes the argument that hype is a dangerous tool when it comes to shaping human progress, and that we all need to be able to think critically.

10Such a Fun Age

A young woman of color is accused of kidnapping a white child in a supermarket at the outset of this Booker-longlisted novel. Things only get worse for Emira, the babysitter, when the childs mother Alix tries to make things right by taking to the internet, igniting a series of events that feel both gripping and inevitable.

11If It Bleeds

In addition to churning out one doorstopper of a novel per year, preternaturally prolific horror writer Stephen King is also a master of short-form suspense. His latest collection comprises four characteristically original, unnerving novellas, including the titular If It Bleeds, which functions as a standalone sequel to Kings 2018 thriller The Outsider, which wasrecently adapted into a chilling miniseries by HBO.

12The Paper Girl of Paris

The YA debut of Mens Healths own deputy editor Jordyn Taylor, The Paper Girl of Paris unfolds over two timelines. In the present day, 16-year-old Alice inherits an apartment in Montmartre that has been locked ever since the Second World War. And in the 1940s, a young socialite named Adalyn experiences the first spark of resistance during the Occupation. Part mystery, part love story, The Paper Girl of Paris is a timely novel about coming of age and doing the right thing.

13Utopia Avenue: A Novel

This kaleidoscopic tale of sex, drugs and rocknroll focuses on the fictional band Utopia Avenue and their stratospheric rise in the late 1960s. There are very few genuinely greatbooks about music, and it takes a novelist of David Mitchells talents to satisfactorily capture the ineffable thrill of a live gig. Utopia Avenue is a love letter to a specific time, and a specific kind of band and for Mitchell fans, its also full of Easter eggs that place it firmly in the wider, deeply strange shared universe of his other notable works likeCloud Atlas andThe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

14A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom: A Novel

Ambitious doesnt even begin to describe this novel, which starts out as the story of a family in Biblical times before taking the reader on an epic journey across continents and through centuries, ending in the year 2080. With the introduction of each new character and setting, Boynes thesis becomes increasingly clear: everything (and everyone) is connected, and history will be doomed to repeat itself unless people start to figure shit out.

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The 14 Best New Books of 2020 - Men's Health

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN A new art exhibit opening this week will ask artists to take this moment of "unprecedented turmoil" to imagine a better future for Brooklyn.

"Brooklyn Utopias: 2020" debuted Thursday at the Old Stone House and Washington Park in Park Slope, bringing back an exhibit 10 years ago by asking artists to explore how the borough has changed the last decade and where it can go from here.

"Together, these artworks investigate the possibilities (or limitations) of art in creating a better world by addressing complex topics such as gentrification and environmental justice," Old Stone House writes in a release. "The artists experiment with creative ways to engage with and care for local communities- fostering a greater collective spirit, even with current social distancing measures."

The exhibit includes a mix of indoor, outdoor and virtual art installations that Brooklynites can visit either in-person or online.

The outdoor installations shouldn't be hard to miss. They include a text-based piece on the front of the Old Stone House, posters promoting environmental activism and a garden collaboration that explores the connection between textile crops and enslaved labor.

Inside, exhibits will explore rooftop farming, threats of discrimination and displacement to immigrant communities and redevelopment of iconic spots like Admiral's Row, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Domino Sugar Factory. The indoor gallery will be accessible by appointment-only to help with social distancing.

But even those who don't stop by in-person can participate in the exhibit.

The online programming will include a virtual indigo-dyeing tutorial from the garden exhibit and a webinar about health and justice this Friday. Brooklynites can also submit their own photos of "Brooklyn Utopias" by using the hashtag #BrooklynUtopias2020 and by tagging @oldstonehousebklyn.

WHAT: Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 invites artists to consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn. Participating artists explore how the borough has changed over the past decade, and if/how it can serve as a model for urban and American living on a national scale in a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental turmoil.

In 2020; a tense national election season, COVID-19, and the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd and others, have brought heightened attention and a sense of urgency to Brooklyn's persistent socioeconomic and racial inequities. Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 responds to our current moment with artworks that suggest a Brooklyn Utopia, especially in the COVID era, must include a safe, healthy and affordable physical environment that nurtures the borough's diverse communities and landmarks. It also demands a greater collective spirit and the rejection of "unhealthy levels of independence" in the words of artist Jody Wood, who has created a virtual Independence Treatment Center to mitigate this condition.

WHO: Participating Artists: Asah Boston, Elan Cadiz, Fontaine Capel, Nate Dorr and Nathan Kensinger, Diane Exavier, Tamara Gayer, Amir Hariri, Human Impacts Institute, Anna Lise Jensen, David Kutz, Robin Michals and Lynn Neuman, Jan Mun, Iviva Olenick, Rochelle Shicoff, Jody Wood, Ezra Wube, Betty Yu

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New Exhibit Asks Artists To Imagine The Ideal Brooklyn - Park Slope, NY Patch

Living in Community: 13 Projects That Promote Shared Spaces

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Due to population growth and an increase in urban density and real estate prices, architects and urban planners have been pursuing alternatives for new spatial configurations for settling and housing in the cities. The multiplication of shared housing and workspaces isan example of how the field of architecture is adapting to new ways of living in society.

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Not only co-working and co-coliving facilities, but mixed-use buildings, flexible spaces, and temporary installations are also associated, each in its own way, with the idea of sharing spaces. In an intervention under the pilotis of MAR (Rio Art Museum), for example, Estdio Cho raises a question closely related to living together: "What if we refused to accept the idea that in order to live together we would have to lock ourselves behind walls and avoid the danger we believe to be living outside, the frightening threat of others?

Following, we have gathered13 projects around the world, including mixed-use buildings, temporary installations, co-workings, and co-livings, which promote shared spaces in different ways.

"Concordia Design is a mixed-use building containing co-working spaces, an event venue, a food hall, a caf, and a rooftop terraceon Sodowa Island in Wrocaw, Poland. The project is a renovation and extension of a 19th-century listed building, retaining the faade of the existing building and adding a contemporary extension to create a focal point for the neighboring park and a destination that will enhance the experience of the island for visitors."

"The new unit of SESC - a complex set of recreational facilities and services - that will occupy the headquarters building of the old Mesbla, found on the corner of 24 de Maio Street and Dom Jos de Barros Street, downtown So Paulo, is an exemplary problem of transformation in the built urban heritage."

"Forming the nucleus of the Werksviertel-Mitte district, an urban regeneration plan on a former industrial site, the 7,700m2 mixed-used development located close to Munichs East Station stands out with its bold and expressive art faade featuring five-meter-tall verbal expressions found in German comics."

"Oasis Terrace is a new generation of community centers developed by Singapores Housing and Development Board to serve its public housing neighborhoods. It comprises communal facilities, shopping, amenities, and a government polyclinic. The gardens play more than just an aesthetic role in the community; they are a collective horticultural project. By bringing residents together to plant, maintain, and enjoy them, the gardens help nourish community bonds."

"Due to increasing water levels which occur several times a year, no permanent structure or object can be placed on the riverbanks. Under the main theme of the competition topic of 'Adaptable City,' the project focused on revitalizing the 7 km long riverbank area through ephemeral programmatic injections to experiment with the inclusion of this waterfront public space to the city, enhancing the east-west connection through the river."

"Invited by the Museum of Art of Rio(MAR) to create an arena for the public programming, debates, and performances during the period of the exhibition 'If you don't fight you die - art democracy utopia,' we set ourselves to provoke the very limits of the museum with the public space. We imagined a set of bleachers and platforms that transformed the act of occupying the pilotis of the museum in a gesture of crossing of walls and activation of the public space."

"Urban Bloom is an experiment in urban space and activities taking precedent over a designs intention or infrastructures needs. The only need here was for freedom, and the intention is joy. Urban Bloom renews, and invigorates, urbanism in fact, the original location was a parking lot. Transformed into an ideal urban garden, and constructed entirely from artificial means, it is a project for a city that emphasizes people."

"According to many studies, the coworking phenomenon is intrinsically associated with the urban lifestyle. The density and diversity of people and opportunities that a big metropolis produces, encourages the apparition of places where its fundamental purpose is sharing creativity. This is why it seemed natural for us that our spaces paid tribute and were inspired by great cities."

"Sinergia Cowork originally started as a real estate development project, with 32 offices and 4 rental meeting rooms. Just another operation inside a recycled space that in its history workedascarpentry, mechanical workshop, movie studio, and warehouse. The offices function as a Cowork: A recent concept in contemporary office spaces, where the user inserts himself into a heterogeneous collaborative environment that enhances his work and social skills."

"The refurbishment of this typical warehouse space provides a simple open working space for a group of independent professionals from the architecture world and neighboring disciplines. It has been designed to propel them in developing their work in a transparent manner, sharing ideas, and stimulating potential collaborations."

"The Dutch hotel group The Student Hotel, which provides a unique co-living and co-working hybrid, has just opened its first two student-only Campus properties in the Marina and Poble Sec districts of Barcelona, Spain. The property features communal spaces, such as swimming pools, gaming zones, open and closed seating areas, as well as quiet study rooms to encourage connectivity and exchange while providing enough space for learning and development."

"Contemplating care between generations, a family comprising of two households decides to build a house together. While the younger couple already lives in the city, the grandparents live in the countryside and are keen to move back to the proximity of urban amenities."

"Treehouse is a 72-unit co-living complex in the heart of the Kangnam, the start-up hub of Seoul. Composed of micro-studios and micro-lofts, it is designed for single professionals and their animal companions. Treehouse is centered by an interior garden that is lined with collaborative work areas, relaxing lounge spots, communal kitchen, laundry, and pet baths."

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: How Will We Live Together. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics here. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.

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Living in Community: 13 Projects That Promote Shared Spaces - ArchDaily