The Most Requested Art, Music & Recreation Books - December 2015

 The year-end list of the titles with the most holds is topped by music memoirs, especially by women (Carrie Brownstein of Sleater / Kinney, Patti Smith, Carly Simon and Grace Jones).  Eight months earlier memoirs by Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Viv Albertine (The Slits) were near the top.

One surprising title on this months list is The Arab of the Future, a graphic memoir of life in the Middle East.  There were two history books by noted rock historians - Peter Guralnick's biography of Sam Phillips, and the revised 6th edition of Greil Marcus' classic Mystery Train.

Works on architecture and interior design are popular.  Tiny House Living is a natural fit for 21st century San Francisco and is the only carry over from the April 2015 blog list of requested books.

Two of the more unusual books on the list are Ivory Vikings, an investigation of a set of walrus ivory chess pieces more than a millennia old, and The White Road, a history of porcelain penned by the author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes.

While there may be a queue of people awaiting their holds to be filled on these books, we frequently order extra copies to meet demand, so go ahead and place your holds on these popular new books.


1. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein (Riverhead Books, 2015).

2. M Train by Patti Smith (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015).

3. The Arab of the Future: A Graphic Memoir: A Childhood in the Middle East (1978-1984) by Riad Sattouf, translated by Sam Taylor (Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2015.

4. Boys in the Trees: A Memoir by Carly Simon (Flatiron Books, 2015).

5. I'll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones as told to Paul Morley (Gallery Books, 2015).

6. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello (Blue Rider Press, 2015)

7. Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, From Tabletops to Bookshelves by Emily Henderson with Angelin Borsics (Potter Style, 2015).

8. Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' roll by Peter Guralnick (Little, Brown and Company, 2015).

9. Tiny House Living: Ideas for Building and Living Well in Less than 400 Square Feet by Ryan Mitchell. (Betterway Home, 2014).

10. Love Style Life by Garance Doré (Spiegel & Grau, 2015).

11. Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern by Francine Prose (Yale University Press, 2015).

12. The Kinfolk Home: Interiors for Slow Living by Nathan Williams (Ouur/Artisan, 2015).

13. Becoming by Cindy Crawford (Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2015).

14. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' roll Music by Greil Marcus (Plume, 2015).

15. Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art by Julian Barnes (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015).

16. Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman who Made Them by Nancy Marie Brown (St. Martin's Press, 2015).

17. Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere, collected by Beaver Brook, edited by Zach Klein (Little, Brown and Company, 20150.

18. The White Road: Journey into an Obsession by Edmund de Waal (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015).

"Quotation Marks"

There is a new exhibit to see in the Art, Music and Recreation Center!

When:

Saturday, 11/07/15 - Thursday, 1/28/16

Where:

Art, Music & Recreation Center
Main Library
100 Larkin St.
SF, CA 94102

"Quotation Marks"

The members of Plexus Art Group make art that sheds light on social and political issues.  Their goals are multifaceted in that they hope to heighten the value of books, stories and words to the patrons of the library, as well as show that art, inspired by books and quotes, can highlight important social issues, such as literacy.  Art-inspired quotes can stimulate new ideas and creative thinking for all ages.

This show, "Quotation Marks", was approached from two different, but related angles: Each member chose an individual quote and created an artwork inspired by it.  Additionally, using one particular quote as inspiration, "BOOKS ARE A UNIQUELY PORTABLE MAGIC" by Stephen King, each artist picked a specific book about which they made a  12"x12" art piece.  Utilizing a multiplicity of techniques and materials, including thread, fabric, wire, paper, re-purposed objects, photographs, etc, they create two and three-dimensional artwork, reflecting varying interpretations from personal to metaphoric.

The group was formed 7 years ago and all of its members reside in the Bay Area.

Dirty Laundry

Pamela Leith

Vintage tablecloth and napkins, embroidery, metal plates

"Who has the highest incarceration rate?  America."

The Days of Yay are Here!  Wake Me Up When They're Over"  by Jared Kintz

Forever Free  

Juline Beier

Thread, wire, paper, beeswax and found objects

"Once you learn to read, you are forever free."   Frederick Douglass

Books from the San Francisco Public Library you may enjoy:

Adventures in mixed media : collage, stitch, fuse, and journal your way to a more creative life / Jane Davies. 

Art journal art journey : collage and storytelling for honoring your creative process / artist, Nichole Rae.

The art of whimsical lettering / Joanne Sharpe.

An artist once said : an inspiration book / Hannah Rollings.

An artist's book of inspiration : a collection of thoughts on art, artists, and creativity / compiled and edited by Astrid Fitzgerald.

The cloth paper scissors book : techniques and inspiration for creating mixed-media art / [edited by] Barbara Delaney.

Creative lettering and beyond : inspiring tips, techniques, and ideas for hand-lettering your way to beautiful works of art / Gabri Joy Kirkendall, Laura Lavender, Julie Manwaring, Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn.

Journal fodder 365 : daily doses of inspiration for the art addict / by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler.

Lutradur and the new fibers : creating mixed-media art with spunbonded materials / Wendy Cotterill.

Ten Thousand Years of Pottery

Ten Thousand Years of Pottery is an excellent source for obtaining an overview of the innovations of pottery over the millennia. The author, Emmanuel Cooper, gives context to the achievements in ceramics by underlining the needs of each culture, setting these achievements within a historical context. The chapters advance both chronologically and geographically. In the case of the New World, the American Indian chapter groups both continents together since outside influences were not experienced until quite late.

The first chapter details the first civilizations to use clay and kilns. The author states that pottery seemed to appear around the same time that a society became less nomadic. The more sedentary way of life of farming civilizations required storage units for grains and other produce, and that could also be used for cooking. As containers, pottery was superior to other materials such as woven grasses and animals skins.

The technological leap from these less durable means to the firing of clay to change its properties has not been discovered. The most likely theory is that where fires were tended for cooking and protection, clay may have been used to insulate the area from moisture. This, in turn, transformed the clay from porous to a non-porous, hard medium. It is not until the introduction of fire into the process that pottery became much more long lived: this is when the history of pottery begins.

The invention of the wheel in Mesopotamian culture around 4000-3000 years before the Common Era gave the world the potter’s wheel and changed many aspects of how the clay was formed. The clay could be shaped much more quickly, and because of this it also needed to be more pliable with impurities removed before the potter began to throw. Since this new process involved a higher degree of skill, the potter enjoyed a higher status in society. Though the wheel allowed greater speed in creating pottery, the revolving motion did limit form. Using this method also changed decoration, as horizontal lines were much easier to create. This type of decoration prevailed throughout the area.

In the following chapters the author shows how culture, religion and technological advances influence the methods and forms of pottery. The ample use of color photographs underscores the variety of ceramics forms and decoration within and between cultures.

Un atelier de Céramistes, from the San Francisco Public Library Print and Picture Collection

The last chapter entitled Studio Ceramics Today details the work of ceramicists whose work is a merging of craft and art. Cooper states that “the broad spectrum of ceramics is often referred to as ‘clay work’ to avoid such potentially emotive labeling as potter, ceramicist, or maker.” Back matter includes a glossary, a listing of museum and national collections of pottery, a bibliography, illustration references and an index of names. Unfortunately, the book lacks a general index which would have been very useful.


Ten Thousand Years of Pottery by Emmanuel Cooper (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000).