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  "description": "I have two reviews of wildly different book reviews published this month. One is an academic work about Kubrick films, and the other is an international best-selling novel about going to museums. But they both involve ekphrasis, which is an excellent word meaning \"writing about art.\"\n\n\nStrangelove Country, D. Harlan Wilson\n\nThere are some prerequisites for enjoying this book. You'd have to have seen at least three of the four films Wilson writes about: Dr. Strangelove, 2001, and A Clockwork Oran",
  "path": "/two-new-book-reviews/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T16:13:34.000Z",
  "site": "https://wingbackworkshop.com",
  "tags": [
    "Nonfiction Review: Kristen Hall-Geisler Visits D. Harlan Wilson’s Kubrickian Filmind Strangelove CountryI was having dinner with a few friends, bookish cinephiles all, so I mentioned that I was reading D. Harlan Wilson’s Strangelove Country. I explained the very basic premise of the book: four of Sta…Heavy Feather Review",
    "“Mona’s Eyes” Offers a Survey of Art History for All AgesA grandfather guides ten-year-old Mona on a journey through the history of art.Reading in Translationsmilkova",
    "https://wingbackworkshop.com/rss",
    "https://bookshop.org/shop/khg",
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  "textContent": "I have two reviews of wildly different book reviews published this month. One is an academic work about Kubrick films, and the other is an international best-selling novel about going to museums. But they both involve ekphrasis, which is an excellent word meaning \"writing about art.\"\n\n## Strangelove Country, D. Harlan Wilson\n\nThere are some prerequisites for enjoying this book. You'd have to have seen at least three of the four films Wilson writes about: _Dr. Strangelove, 2001,_ and _A Clockwork Orange._ He seems to understand that not as many people are familiar with _A.I.,_ which Kubrick handed off to Stephen Speilberg to direct just before Kubrick died, so Wilson has a lot more detailed description of that movie than the others. You also have to enjoy academic writing, since this is a book to engage and advance critical film studies. That said, it's not a difficult read, and it's even occasionally funny. Wilson admires Kubrick immensely, but he doesn't put him on an unassailable pedestal.\n\nNonfiction Review: Kristen Hall-Geisler Visits D. Harlan Wilson’s Kubrickian Filmind Strangelove CountryI was having dinner with a few friends, bookish cinephiles all, so I mentioned that I was reading D. Harlan Wilson’s Strangelove Country. I explained the very basic premise of the book: four of Sta…Heavy Feather Review\n\n## Mona's Eyes, Thomas Schlesser\n\nThis book reads like it was engineered in a lab to be a global blockbuster. It centers on a young girl and her grandfather visiting museums in Paris every Wednesday for a year. They choose a work to contemplate and discuss, making the book a kind of syllabus for a DIY art history course. There's a framing plot--Mona's eyes are failing--and her parents and school friends appear at the opening of each chapter before she and Dadé head off to the Louvre. The plot is just this side of nonsense, if I'm begin honest, but the author is a professor of art history, so he really leans into his strengths. Bonus: if you buy this in hard cover, like the copy I received for the review, it has little images of all 52 works printed in the fold-out dust jacket. Neat.\n\n“Mona’s Eyes” Offers a Survey of Art History for All AgesA grandfather guides ten-year-old Mona on a journey through the history of art.Reading in Translationsmilkova\n\n* * *\n\nSign up for the Wingback Workshop email newsletter (including the email-only Sawdust!) using the Subscribe button at the bottom of your screen.\n\nGet the Wingback Workshop RSS feed here: https://wingbackworkshop.com/rss\n\nFollow the Wingback Workshop on the Fediverse (including Mastodon): @khg@wingbackworkshop.com\n\nBuy KHG's books on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/khg",
  "title": "Two New Book Reviews",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T16:13:34.189Z"
}