MIT Press Review by David Starkey The Lies of the Artists is a clever title for a book with the subtitle Essays on Italian Art, 1450-1750, but it seems to…
Category: Art & Music
Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin
Doubleday Review by David Starkey 2025 was the year of the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere, but it was also the 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s first great album:…
The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins by Sonny Rollins, Edited by Sam V.H. Reese
New York Review Review by Walter Cummins I’ve been listening to Sonny Rollins’ saxophone for decades, including one live performance with bad acoustics that he still managed to overcome, and…
10 Best Books of 2025
The following list was decided after consultation between California Review of Books co-editors David Starkey and Brian Tanguay and the journal’s most frequent reviewers, Walter Cummins and George Yatchisin. As…
Living in the Present with John Prine by Tom Piazza
Norton Review by David Starkey Living in the Present with John Prine, the new book by Tom Piazza, seems like it shouldn’t work. Piazza’s encounters with Prine were too scattered…
Talking All Night: The New York Poets – Interviews, Photographs, Letters by Mark Hillringhouse
Serving House Review by David Starkey In an interview with Mark Hillringhouse, poet Anne Waldman responds to a question about the literary scene with a quote that could apply to…
Hating Jazz: A History of Its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse by Andrew S. Berish
Chicago Review by Nikolas Mavreas “Jazz is stupid. I mean, just play the right notes!” Though uninspired, this line from The Office TV series encapsulates a very common attitude. The…
American Artifacts by Matt Black
Thames & Hudson Review by David Starkey In 2021, photographer Matt Black published American Geography, a record of his 100,000 mile, 46-state journey to more than 1,200 of the most…
Audubon as Artist: A New Look at The Birds of America by Roberta J. M. Olson
Reaktion Review by David Starkey Before turning to Roberta J.M. Olson’s Audubon as Artist: A New Look at the Birds of America, in a gorgeously reproduced edition by Reaktion Books,…
What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory by Brian Eno and Bette A.
Faber and Faber Review by George Yatchisin At a mere 4.5 by 6.5 inches, only 122 pages long, with a cover that’s bright white and soothing flamingo pink, Brian Eno…