Laura Hutson Hunter

NonfictionLifestylesBody, Mind & Spirit

Flamingo Estate

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Los Angeles-based company Flamingo Estate is known for the home goods it sells, but it’s also an actual estate—a midcentury mansion that has been painstakingly, lovingly transformed into a modern-day oasis and pleasure garden. Flamingo Estate: The Guide to Becoming Alive is a perfect encapsulation of Flamingo Estate itself, which is to say that it’s lush, deeply considered and extremely difficult to describe with any kind of concision. As Flamingo Estate founder Richard Christiansen himself says about the book in its first pages, “It’s less a blueprint and more of a practice.” But beyond its structural extravagance, the book’s premise is simple: It’s a guide to radical pleasure, which Christiansen believes comes from the garden. He crams gorgeous photography, astute personal observations and interviews with visionary entrepreneurs like Martha Stewart and Kelly Wearstler into a nearly 500-page, beautifully bound volume, and what follows is almost like an anthology of high-end design magazines like Purple or Apartmento. The book opens with a conversation with famed environmentalist Jane Goodall, who distills Christiansen’s naturecentric philosophy of living into a series of wise observations. “Even though the world is bleak today, we’re surrounded by little miracles,” she says, “and we’re surrounded by people who tackle the impossible and succeed.” Flamingo Estate may be best known for its luxury candles, but after reading this book, you’re likely to consider it as a self-help resource as well.

Lifestyle company Flamingo Estate is most well known for its niche-but-luxury candles, but after reading its founder’s book, you’re likely to consider it a self-help resource as well.
NonfictionLifestylesDesign

LifeStyled

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Getting the latest book by a professional organizer whose breakthrough concept is minimalism may seem a little counterintuitive, but hear me out: LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organized and Intentional Life might change your life. At least, that’s what Shira Gill aims for. LifeStyled takes Gill’s well-established minimalist organizational principles, which she laid out in 2021’s Minimalista, and applies them to areas like health, relationships and finance. “To me, minimalism doesn’t refer to the lack or absence of something,” she writes. “It’s about having the perfect amount. Just enough without the excess.” The step-by-step guide is thorough and filled with useful insight and practical advice. For example: If the idea of yearly resolutions makes you anxious, consider setting mission statements by season. The book’s first section lays out a tool kit: adjusting volume, creating systems and implementing habits. The second section puts those tools into practice. It’s refreshing to read a lifestyle book that asks you to intentionally lower the bar, then tells you how to get there with grace. Gill shows that she has as much in common with self-help coaches like James Clear as she does with Martha Stewart. This is an elegant, down-to-earth handbook that is as pragmatic as it is inspiring.

Noted minimalist Shira Gill’s LifeStyled is an elegant, down-to-earth handbook that is as pragmatic as it is inspiring.
NonfictionCookbooks

Hot Date!

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

A stylish and unexpected entry into the pantheon of great contemporary cookbooks, Hot Date! Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Date, from Party Food to Everyday Feasts will surpass your expectations. Rawaan Alkhatib, a cook, poet and artist of Palestinian and Indian descent, is a singular talent whose illustrations are reminiscent of the whimsy of Maira Kalman, but with a touch of Josef Frank’s lavish patterns thrown in for good measure. This extraordinary book expounds on a single ingredient—the titular date—and takes it in startling, awe-inspiring directions, all while keeping recipes relatively simple. For example, Alkhatib’s take on grilled cheese pairs kashkaval, “a mild yet unambiguously sheepy cheese from Bulgaria,” with the “sweet unctuousness” of dates. “I’m basically just asking you to add dates to your regular grilled cheese situation and see how that makes you feel,” she writes. But it’s a revelation. She also includes spins on traditional British Indian foods, like malai chicken with creamy stuffed dates, which Alkhatib suggests you serve bundled into warm naan with a squeeze of fresh lime. My favorite parts are the simple party foods and dessert recommendations, like the salted halwa brownie cookies that Alkhatib calls “a salty, chocolaty joy-storm.” Linda Xiao’s vivid photography coupled with full-bleed illustrations and bright pink edged pages have a maximalist ethos, which is a perfect foil for Hot Date!’s humble, single-ingredient focus. With her artful eye and bold style, Alkhatib clearly has her finger on the culinary pulse. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing dates pop up at your coolest friends’ dinner parties.

With an artful eye and bold style, Rawaan Alkhatib elevates the humble date in her brilliantly designed, deliciously concocted cookbook, Hot Date!
NonfictionArtLifestylesArt

At Wit’s End

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Like the New Yorker cartoons of its subjects, At Wit’s End: Cartoonists of the New Yorker is perfectly positioned at the intersection of funny and smart. This bible of modern cartooning comes in honor of the New Yorker’s 100th birthday, and features profiles by longtime contributor Michael Maslin, portraits by photographer Alen MacWeeney and, of course, a selection of single-panel cartoons from the 50-plus artists profiled. There have been cartoons in the New Yorker since it was founded, back when it was billed as a “comic weekly” in 1925, and so it’s unsurprising that the cartoons are the book’s strongest elements. A few are downright hilarious: In a Jason Adam Katzenstein drawing, a man says, “Let me interrupt your expertise with my confidence” to a woman across the table. Another highlight is Maslin’s own cartoon cowboy calling to his horse, who is perched in the branches of a tree, to “giddydown.” The photograph on the book’s cover shows Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Barry Blitt, whose numerous New Yorker covers are legendary—the fist-bumping Obamas from 2008 is among the most memorable magazine covers of the 21st century. Blitt stands underneath a broken umbrella with a look of “What now?” annoyance that beautifully portrays MacWeeney’s skill at capturing humor in still images. This book is recommended for fans of the New Yorker, of course, but also fans of comedy and cartoons, and anyone interested in the ways that media evolves over time.

The smart, funny At Wit's End is a bible of modern cartooning, capturing the funny people of the New Yorker with pithy profiles, portrait photography and, of course, their own wonderful comics.
NonfictionHistoryBlack History

A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

In A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects, Robell Awake has gathered stories about Black craftspeople whose contributions to American art history have long been overlooked. An accomplished chairmaker himself (famously crafty actor Nick Offerman is among his many fans), Awake is acutely aware of the lack of information about the people and objects he writes about: The bulk of the scholarship about Black artisans exists because of only a small handful of historians and folklorists. That deficit makes its presentation here, in carefully researched essays and elegant illustrations by Johnalynn Holland, indispensable. A chapter about quiltmaker Harriet Powers incorporates the significance of astrological events to the Black oral tradition, and another about dressmaker Ann Lowe details the complex relationship Lowe had with one of her clients (she made the gorgeous and heavily photographed wedding dress Jacqueline Bouvier wore when she married JFK). Other chapters examine not only individuals but entire concepts, as in “Black Architecture and the Hidden History of the Front Porch.” The Southern staple of a front porch, Awake explains, comes not from the European settlers, who were clueless about hot climates, but from enslaved Africans. “Understanding the front porch as a distinctly Black architectural tradition challenges deep-seated assumptions about the diffusion of skill and knowledge in early America,” Awake writes. “Black people, whether enslaved or free, have long been portrayed as the recipients, not the bearers, of innovation. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The elegantly illustrated A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects shows that Black Americans have always been the bearers—not merely the recipients—of innovation.
NonfictionLiteratureFood & DrinkCookbooks

Matty Matheson

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Matty Matheson doesn’t have to tell you that Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches isn’t your typical cookbook. You’ll know just by looking at it. The charismatic chef, restaurateur and actor (he consistently steals scenes as Neil Fak in the FX series The Bear) is dressed down in a worn-to-the-point-of-translucency Grateful Dead T-shirt on the book’s cover, tattoos scattered across every bit of skin up to his slicked-back yet still rumpled hair. The simple bowl of tomato soup in front of him looks practically conformist by comparison, and shows that the unfussy nature of his cooking is a byproduct of authentically good taste, not pretension. Matheson seems incapable of faking it, and his audience loves him for it. This isn’t his first cookbook—in fact, it’s his third—but by limiting recipes to three of the most user-friendly, indispensable meals, this one might become his most popular. The section on soups includes more ways to make the dish than I knew existed, including a fish stew called cioppino and a Scottish soup called Cullen skink. (“This soup should make you feel good, like you’re the one last remaining Highlander,” writes Matheson. “You’ve cut everyone’s head off, and you can finally just live your life.”) There are various chowders, phos and vichyssoises, but it’s simple stuff like Matheson’s corn maple Parmesan soup, which is made in a blender with frozen corn, that really highlights his enthusiasm for no-frills tasty food.

Matty Matheson’s new cookbook highlights the chef’s (and The Bear actor’s) unfussy nature and enthusiasm for no-frills tasty food.
NonfictionArtLifestylesArt

Magnum America

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

If you read only one photo book in your lifetime, let it be Magnum America: The United States. An epic collection of images from the prestigious photography cooperative Magnum Photos, Magnum America combines more than 600 captivating images from its collection into 472 pages, and each of them is a hit. The weighty tome is organized by decades, and flipping through any given section is like watching history pass before your eyes. The 1940s includes iconic portraits of figures like Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali, important photojournalism like W. Eugene Smith’s shot of President Truman holding up a newspaper emblazoned with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman,” and a one-two punch of powerful works by Henri Cartier-Bresson: a threesome of young people on a Coney Island beach followed by a hanging dummy advertising used cars in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s the juxtaposition of the images that gives the book its most powerful resonance. Disturbing war photography is followed by documents of family get-togethers and athletes in moments of victory. Special sections devoted to particularly noteworthy collections, like Susan Meiselas’ 1970s Carnival Strippers portraits and Jim Goldberg’s mid-’90s study of runaway teens, Raised by Wolves, provide crash courses in essential works. There are also sections dedicated to multiple photographers working on the same subject, like the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the 9/11 attacks. There is no better introduction to American postwar history than the photographs included in this book. What’s more is that there may be no better introduction to the history of photography, either.

 

Flipping through any given section of the exceptional photography tome Magnum America is like watching history pass before your eyes.
NonfictionPhotographyLifestylesFashion

Icons of Style

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Josh Sims’ Icons of Style: In 100 Garments is like a visual encyclopedia of every piece of clothing that matters, from mini skirts and leather jackets to blazers and T-shirts. Along with a brief summary that contextualizes the garment in both history and popular culture, a slew of visual components accompany each entry. For the section called The Slip, a paparazzi photo of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell in silver slip dresses is positioned next to a concert photo of a slip-clad Courtney Love. Together, the photos tell a story of how glamour and grunge intersected and diverged. The entry for sweatshirts is among the book’s most multifaceted: An image of a young Ronald Reagan is followed by a shot of Wu-Tang Clan’s U-God wearing a hoodie, his arm raised in a gesture of triumph that’s mirrored by Sylvester Stallone in a film still from Rocky. These three seemingly opposite figures are seen here united—in fashion, at least. Icons of Style also has wardrobe inspo for miles: photos of Soul Train dancers, Queen Elizabeth II and Jean Seberg appear alongside shots from 1983’s The Outsiders and 2011’s Drive. You’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more complete history of everyday style.

You’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more complete history of everyday fashion than Josh Sims’ Icons of Style.
NonfictionArtLifestylesArt

Elements

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Stephen Ellcock has been described as an “image alchemist,” which is a term that may sound vague or even nonsensical until you thumb through his tightly focused treasuries of esoteric imagery. Then, the term makes perfect sense. Following The Cosmic Dance and Underworlds, Elements: Chaos, Order and the Five Elemental Forces is the third title in Ellcock’s trilogy of books that explore the natural world. Using the ancient Greek categorization of the five natural elements—air, fire, earth, water and celestial aether—as a springboard, Ellcock has compiled a cabinet of curiosities out of images from across the globe, from ancient to contemporary times. It’s a vast assortment that maintains a singular vision: that elemental forces are the cornerstone of all existence. As Ellcock writes in the book’s introduction, “the five classical elements remain universal symbols, omnipresent archetypes embedded deep within the collective unconscious and the popular imagination.” A photograph of the sea by artist Wolfgang Tillmans makes a new kind of sense when viewed in proximity to Eugene Delacroix’s 1853 painting Christ Asleep During the Tempest. Illustrations from a 17th-century Japanese fireworks catalog take on a different meaning when paired with an 18th-century Indian painting of women lighting fireworks during Diwali, and offer another kind of insight when positioned next to an 1887 photograph of a building on fire. Elements truly is visual alchemy, and will be a treat for anyone who is interested in the intersection of art, science, religion and culture.

Stephen Ellcock returns with his signature visual alchemy in a compendium of images related to the elements of the natural world.
NonfictionArtPhotographyLifestylesLGBTQ+Art

4 gift-worthy art books bound to inspire

List by Laura Hutson Hunter
STARRED REVIEW
November 27, 2024

4 gift-worthy art books bound to inspire

Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.
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Luncheons on the Grass

By Jeffrey Deitch

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.

About Face

By Jonathan D. Katz

Jonathan D. Katz’s About Face celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with deep scholarship and thrilling artworks.

Jonathan D. Katz’s About Face celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with deep scholarship and thrilling artworks.

Casa Susanna

By Sophie Hackett, By Isabelle Bonnet

Casa Susanna is a sumptuous volume of photography that chronicles a midcentury trans enclave.

Casa Susanna is a sumptuous volume of photography that chronicles a midcentury trans enclave.

The Work of Art

By Adam Moss

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.

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Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.
NonfictionArtLifestylesArt

The Work of Art

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

If you’ve ever been curious about how an idea turns into a piece of art, you’ll love The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing. This visionary book’s first two pages lay out its thesis in surprisingly simple terms. First, there’s a sketch that looks like little more than a physician’s signature at the bottom of a prescription pad. Turn the page and you’ll see what that doodle became: the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. But how exactly did Frank Gehry’s messy sketch become the architectural masterpiece? That’s the process writer Adam Moss is concerned with; the “work” in his book’s title is a verb. Moss has been the editor of New York magazine and the New York Times Magazine, and his love for conversational, witty storytelling is clear here. The Work of Art collects conversations with some of the most lauded, interesting artists working—from Kara Walker, who takes readers through the creation of her 2014 public sculpture “A Subtlety,” to Gay Talese, who pores over the copious notes he took to write “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” in 1966. No minutia is too small to examine. In fact, it seems like the smaller the detail, the more information Moss is able to extract. Alongside each story, Moss includes images of the works in various stages of completion. You see Twyla Tharp’s massive choreographic sketches, and the first stages of a Will Shortz crossword. The images elevate the book to a compendium of precious ephemera. It’s possible that Moss has invented a new literary genre that merges self-help, art history and journalism. However it’s classified, you’ll read it cover to cover.

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.
NonfictionArtLifestylesArt

Luncheons on the Grass

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

Edouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe, or Luncheon on the Grass, is often called the first modern painting, and the paintings compiled in Luncheons on the Grass: Reimagining Manet’s Le Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe are like a time machine connecting modern and contemporary art. The 1863 painting, which is in the collection of Musée d’Orsay in Paris, shows a nude woman sitting with two clothed gentlemen in a wooded glade. In the foreground is an overturned picnic basket. In the background, another woman bathes in a stream. In 2021, art dealer and gallerist Jeffrey Deitch asked around 30 leading contemporary artists to respond to Manet’s masterpiece, and the resulting works—as well as several pieces that weren’t commissioned specifically for the show but refer to Le Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe—are collected in this volume. Deitch’s own essay about Manet’s painting includes insight into its history, from its nude model Victorine Meurent to the inspiration the artist drew from Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Diego Velázquez. The inclusion of interviews with artists about their works and Manet’s influence is particularly illuminating. In an interview with Nina Chanel Abney, for example, the artist says, “I pulled from Manet’s beautiful landscapes, scenes, and epic compositions to make a painting that centers Black queer people, creating a new narrative in which I feel seen.” Some artists did away with Manet’s references almost entirely, focusing instead on more obscure ones. It’s here that the interviews become particularly insightful, as in one with artist Ariana Papademetropoulos: She explains that by focusing on the bather in the background of Manet’s painting, she’s able to think about what it means to have a picnic and bring domesticity to the natural world. Some other pieces discussed include work made prior to the project, most famously Robert Colescott’s 1979 painting of the same name, but also a 1965 photograph of a family of nudists by Diane Arbus, which takes on new life here.

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.
NonfictionArtPhotographyLGBTQ+Art

Casa Susanna

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

“Two antique dealers discover a stash of 340 photographs at a flea market.” Thus begins Casa Susanna: The Story of the First Trans Network in the United States, 1959-1968, one of the most captivating photography books in recent memory. Casa Susanna was a secluded bit of property with a few bungalows and a barn in the Catskills. In the 1950s and ’60s, the property belonged to Marie Tornell and her wife, a trans woman who was known to friends as Susanna Valenti. Susanna was a cover girl and contributing editor to Transvestia magazine, and she and Marie opened up their home to other like-minded people—including those who were assigned male at birth but wanted to live authentically as women, if only on holiday. A textured dust jacket gives the volume a sensual quality, so that opening its pages is like admiring a silk taffeta blouse. The photograph chosen for the book’s cover—one among hundreds of candid, unaffected shots—shows four different smartly dressed women pointing their cameras at a friend mid-pose. It speaks to the number of women involved in the project, and also the importance they saw of documenting each other. Elsewhere, the well-coiffed women playing Scrabble or sitting around a dining table at Casa Susanna are charmingly ordinary. Facsimiles of letters, magazine articles and even a handful of Susanna’s own advice column clips, “Susanna Says,” open up a whole world in a few hundred pages. The sheer volume of pictures included will open eyes to the existence of trans people before the contemporary age.

Casa Susanna is a sumptuous volume of photography that chronicles a midcentury trans enclave.

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