The Bulletin Page 1July 12, 2012

summer reading blockbusterAmericAn-born, english writer henry JAmes’s declArAtion, “Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language,” never feels more true than when one of those afternoons is spread out before you and the solitary item on your agenda is to sit in your backyard and dip into the book saved for that very moment. This summer, I’ve finally taken the plunge into James’s works, and I am also reading those of his great admirer and interpreter, the wonderful Irish writer Colm Tóibín, whose book The Master imagines James’s life through his lowest points and his soaring literary successes. Other worthy reads recently encountered include Fransesca Segal’s lovely debut, The Innocents, a contemporary re-imagining of Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, and sun-dappled and swoon-worthy Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (this one is stocked by the bookstore, I noticed). Walter’s sixth novel places Old Hollywood alongside new, and weaves a story set on the Italian coastline visited by a dying American actress in 1962 with a contemporary one that boasts unforgettable characters you don’t want to leave behind. Just begun are the so-far delicious and unconventional novel-cum-literary speculation, A Monster’s Notes, by poet Laurie Sheck, which revivifies Mary Shelley’s “monster” from Frankenstein, and the blackly funny and fierce, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, August: Osage County, by American playwright and actor Tracy Letts.

To launch your own summer reading right and for fun, we’ve added multiple “Top 10” lists to our summer book recommendations from members of our university community. In fact, we received so much great material, some of it has overflowed to U of M’s Facebook site, and you can join the conversation there. Also stay tuned next issue for an interview about his favourite books with the always-fascinating George Toles, distinguished professor in the department of English, film and theatre at the U of M. Happy summer afternoon reading, everyone! - Mariianne Mays Wiebe

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Cliff Eyland’s Top 10 art books

The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968-1978 by Garry Neill Kennedy. MIT Press, 2012: Kennedy’s tome is exhaustive in its account of a radical Canadian art school’s most important years, a page-turner for art nerds.

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2008: This book, by a Canadian ethnographer, is a good introduction to the international art world.

Philosophy & Conceptual Art by P. Goldie and E. Schellekans. Clarendon Press, 2007: This is the first in-depth look at conceptual art by Anglo-American philosophers.

My Winnipeg Guide of the Artistic Scene by Kiendl, Anthony et al. La Maison Rouge/Plug In ICA, 2011: Last year’s roundup of Winnipeg art at a prestigious museum in Paris was a confirmation of the strength of our contemporary art scene.

WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution by Cornelia H. Butler and Lisa Gabrielle Mark. Museum of Contemporary Art and MIT Press, 2007: This gigantic book prompted a revival of interest in the artists of 1970s feminism.

The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton. Bloomsbury Press, 2009: Dutton’s arguments are too general, but make for a good cocktail party defense of the value of culture to human evolution.

Why Art Cannot be Taught, A Handbook for Art Students by James Elkins. University of Illinois Press, 2001: Elsewhere Elkins has defended the PhD in studio art, so this book is in many ways puzzling. Nevertheless, he does a great job of analyzing what happens in the typical art school studio “crit” or review.

Information, a History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick. Fourth Estate, 2011. This book is invaluable for artists even if it does not directly deal with art.

Are You Experienced? How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art by Ken Johnson. Prestel, 2011. Although many may disagree, Johnson makes a convincing argument for altered consciousness as an incubator of contemporary art.

How To Survive and Prosper as an Artist by Carol Michels. Holt, 2009.: Michels’s book is controversial – she hates art dealers, for example – but it is essential reading for young artists.

Cliff Eyland is associate professor, painting, in the School of Art at the U of M.

add your picks to the top ten lists, contribute your summer reading picks and reading placeshere: Facebook.com/umanitobaor here: twitter @umanitoba

email your suggestion for a “top 10” books list to:bulletin@umanitoba.ca

Have an all-time Favourite book or an engroSSing read to recommend?

You and you, members of the U of M Book Lovers Club

Join our summer reading conversations on twitter and facebook!

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>> see the issue in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/Nmv7Ay

Cliff Eyland.

Cliff Eyland is a painter, writer and a curator. He studied at Holland College, Mount Allison University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Since 1981, he has made paintings, drawings, and notes in an index card format — 3"x5". His permanent

installation of over 1000 paintings at Winnipeg’s Millennium Library opened in 2005. Eyland was the director of Gallery One One One at the U of M from 1998 to 2010. He is currently an associate professor of painting at U of M’s School of Art.

left: image from cliff eyland’s winnipeg library installation. the image is a computer scan of a file card-sized (3”x5”) acrylic on board painting of a tree being pulled down by a line. this work was painted by eyland in 1995.