by Bob Mankoff
Henry Holt
With one of the more famous cartoon captions of recent times as his title, its author and now cartoon editor of the New Yorker writes a breezy history of New Yorker cartoons and the current process of creation and selection as well as his own career. At best it's a Groucho-voiced tour with seldom a dull moment. Since New Yorker cartoons are the most fabled in existence, Mankoff has a well of curiosity to fill. So he pours it on. An entertaining book--with of course lots of cartoons (his own and others.)
If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities
by Benjamin R. Barber
Yale
The U.S. Congress barely meets, and does nothing when it does. National politics is a Twitter war. But governors have to govern at least a little, and according to Barber, the mayor's office is where the rubber meets the road. And that's true in Bogata and Delhi as well as New York City. But Barber doesn't stop with showing how mayors are functioning--he has ideas about how they can participate in global governance, the kind that addressing the climate crisis is going to demand. Barber acknowledges the generations of scholars and writers on the city, and the existing scholarship for which he provides "a megaphone." But his portraits of mayors throughout the world and his challenging ideas are their own significant contribution to the topic, as well as a crucial approach to the challenges of the present and especially the future.
by Barbara Graziosi
Metropolitan Books
Graziosi follows these Greek gods from their origins through several eras of Greek history, showing for example how they were adapted to Athenian democracy. They go with Alexander to the East, are merged with gods of Rome, suffer a mixed fate in Christian Europe and even make appearances in the New World. Right from the beginning their nature is questioned, modified, adapted and yet they recur in story, image and imagination. They are also a bridge between cultures and times, and remain essential figures in the foundation cultures of civilization. She writes: "If the Olympian gods continued to flourish, it was because people valued the ancient cultures they inhabited. From the borders of India to the British Isles, diverse societies continued to engage with ancient philosophy, literature, art, and science and thus constantly met up with the gods of Olympus." Graziosi's prose is engaging, her scholarship seems careful, and her story is fascinating. Her Epilogue on the Olympians after the Renaissance is particularly succinct and witty.
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