The Very Hungry City. Urban Energy Efficiency and the Economic Fate of Cities. Austin Troyl

As global demand for energy grows and prices rise, a city's energy consumption becomes increasingly tied to its economic viability, warns the author of The Very Hungry City. Austin Troy, a seasoned expert in urban environmental management, explains for general readers how a city with a high "urban energy metabolism"—that is, a city that needs large amounts of energy in order to function—will be at a competitive disadvantage in the future. He explores why cities have different energy metabolisms and discusses an array of innovative approaches to the problems of expensive energy consumption.

Troy looks at dozens of cities and suburbs in Europe and the United States—from Los Angeles to Copenhagen, Denver to the Swedish urban redevelopment project Hammarby Sjöstad—to understand the diverse factors that affect their energy use: behavior, climate, water supply, building quality, transportation, and others. He then assesses some of the most imaginative solutions that cities have proposed, among them green building, energy-efficient neighborhoods, symbiotic infrastructure, congestion pricing, transit-oriented development, and water conservation. To conclude, the author addresses planning and policy approaches that can bring about change and transform the best ideas into real solutions.

"Austin Troy delivers a fascinating—and chilling—look at our cities' dangerous dependence on an unpredictable world energy market. He shows why we need to break our addiction to cheap energy, and offers practical solutions on how to do it."— Arianna Huffington, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post

“I felt I had learned a lot about the reasons that energy utilization patterns in urban America are as wasteful and intense as they are. I've not seen another book like this.”—Lawrence E. Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Won Honorable Mention in the 2012 New York Book Festival General Non-Fiction category, sponsored by the New York Book Festival

И пусть вращается прекрасный мир. Колум Маккэнн

«В этом ярком романе, удостоенном одной из престижных ли­тературных премий - Дублинской - новейшие тенденции интел­лектуальной прозы блестяще сочетаются с традицией середины про­шлого века, когда, по мнению автора, и сложились основные со­циальные и культурные реалии, актуальные до сих пор. Хотя многие приметы толерантного мира рухнули в одночасье вместе с башнями-близнецами Всемирного торгового центра в Нью-Йор­ке.

Именно около них начинается действие романа в некий день 1970-х годов - тот, когда отчаянный циркач из Франции тайком пробирается на крышу одного из этих небоскребов, привлекая всеобщее внимание. "Его было видно с парома у Стейтен-Aй­ленд. От мясных складов на Вест-Cайде. С новеньких высоток парка Бэттери. От бродвейских лотков с утренним кофе. С пло­щади внизу. С самих башен". Озадаченно смотрят на канатоход­ца метеорологи из своего вертолета, мчатся к башням поли­цейские машины, выглядывают из окон многочисленные клерки, задирают головы толпы прохожих на оживленных тротуарах…

Писатель показывает, будто щелкая ссылку за ссылкой, что во­круг храбреца, идущего по канату между башнями, вращается не только Нью-Йорк, но и весь мир, причем не только настоящее того момента, но и пестрый калейдоскоп воспоминаний о про­шлом и события наших дней. "Человек застыл посреди неба, в то время как самолет будто ныряет в угол небоскреба. Один мимо­летный фрагмент истории, породнившийся с другим. Слов­но идущий по канату человек как-то предвидел грядущие собы­тия…". Кто знает, какое из современных, на первый взгляд не­значительных, происшествий окажется ключевым спустя трид­цать лет?» Российская газета

National Book Award Winner
Amazon.com's "Book of the Year"
Oprah.com's "Books You Can't Put Down" Summer Reading Selection

Искусство рассуждать о книгах, которые вы не читали. Пьер Байяр

Provocative, challenging and witty…In challenging the line between read­ing and non-reading, Bayard actually whet my appetite to read more. — USA Today

Brilliant…A witty and useful piece of literary sociology. — London Review of Books

"To what end? Bayard finally reveals his diabolical intent: he claims that talking about books you haven’t read is “an authentic creative activity.” As a teacher of literature, he seems to believe that his ultimate goal is to en­courage creativity. “All education,” he writes, “should strive to help those receiving it to gain enough freedom in relation to works of art to them­selves become writers and artists.”

It’s a charming but ultimately terrifying prospect — a world full of writers and artists. In Bayard’s nonreading utopia the printing press would never have been invented, let alone penicillin or the MacBook.

I seriously doubt that pretending to have read this book will boost your creativity. On the other hand, reading it may remind you why you love reading." NYT

Скандальным, непристойным кажется уже название — подумать только: факт незнакомства с какими-то книгами, которые теоретически должны быть про­читаны, принято скрывать — стесняться своей ущербности. Существующая система «обязанностей и запретов» ведет к тому, что мы привыкли «лицемерить, когда речь заходит о том, какие книги на самом деле читали». «Кроме денег и секса есть мало областей жизни, о которых было бы так же трудно услышать от людей правду, как о прочитанных книгах». Меж тем ну сколько вот, сколько книг вы прочли? Десять тысяч? Ну и что, но ведь есть еще десять тысяч — в том числе Очень Важные, — которые вы все равно не читали; стыдно, не правда ли? Но и это еще не все: ведь «…разобраться, что значат слова «я прочел эту книгу», в высшей степени проблематично» — какие-то книги вы прочли «от корки до корки», какие-то — пролистали, ­какие-то — прочли пару абзацев и уловили идею, какие-то — прочли целиком, но ничего не поняли; какие-то — прочли, но забыли; где, собственно, в таком случае ­проходит грань между «прочел» и «не прочел»? - Афиша

When London Was Capital of America. Julie Flavell

Benjamin Franklin secretly loved London more than Philadelphia: it was simply the most exciting place to be in the British Empire. And in the decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution, thousands of his fellow colonists flocked to the Georgian city in its first big wave of American visitors. At the very point of political rupture, mother country and colonies were socially and culturally closer than ever before. In this first-ever portrait of eighteenth-century London as the capital of America, Julie M. Flavell re-creates the famous city’s heyday as the center of an empire that encompassed North America and the West Indies. The momentous years before independence saw more colonial Americans than ever in London’s streets: wealthy Southern plantation owners in quest of culture, slaves hoping for a chance of freedom, Yankee businessmen looking for opportunities in the city, even Ben Franklin seeking a second, more distinguished career. The stories of the colonials, no innocents abroad, vividly re-create a time when Americans saw London as their own and remind us of the complex, multiracial—at times even decadent—nature of America’s colonial British heritage.

"Ambitious... lively.... Beautifully reimagining a city that was a distant but integral part of American life, Flavell's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the colonial period."— New York Times

“Flavell’s study offers wonderfully evocative glimpses into the lives of men such as Benjamin Franklin, who lived in the city for 17 years.”—The Guardian

A Wall Street Journal "Summer Reading" Selection

The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran. David Crist

The dramatic secret history of our undeclared thirty-year conflict with Iran, revealing newsbreaking episodes of covert and deadly operations that brought the two nations to the brink of open war

For three decades, the United States and Iran have engaged in a secret war. It is a conflict that has never been acknowledged and a story that has never been told.
A senior historian for the federal government with unparalleled access to senior officials and key documents of several U.S. administrations, Crist has spent more than ten years researching and writing The Twilight War, and he breaks new ground on virtually every page. Crist describes the series of secret negotiations between Iran and the United States after 9/11, culminating in Iran's proposal for a grand bargain for peace-which the Bush administration turned down. He documents the clandestine counterattack Iran launched after America's 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which thousands of soldiers disguised as reporters, tourists, pilgrims, and aid workers toiled to change the government in Baghdad and undercut American attempts to pa­cify the Iraqi insurgency. And he reveals in vivid detail for the first time a number of important stories of military and intelligence operations by both sides, both successes and failures, and their typically unexpected con­sequences.

Much has changed in the world since 1979, but Iran and America remain each other's biggest national security nightmares. "The Iran problem" is a razor-sharp briar patch that has claimed its sixth presidential victim in Barack Obama and his administration. The Twilight War adds vital new depth to our understanding of this acute dilemma it is also a thrillingly en­grossing read, animated by a healthy irony about human failings in the fog of not-quite war.

"Still, Mr. Crist’s book deserves a spot on the short list of must-read books on United States-Iran relations. Its most important reader is not President Obama, however, but Ali Khamenei. The book isn’t likely to change his views about American policies, but it will help him understand them." NYT

Символизм и творчество Мартироса Сарьяна. Арарат Агасян

В предисловии к новому изданию книги "Символизм и творчество Мартироса Сарьяна" автор, возглавляющий сегодня Институт искусств НАН, напоминает о том, что эта работа два десятилетия назад в силу известных обстоятельств обошлась без иллюстра-ций. Но это, можно сказать, было ей "не к лицу", так как говорить о творчестве художника без отсылок к иллюстративному матери-алу невозможно. На этот раз книга вышла в свет с одноименным текстом, на отличной бумаге и с 51 иллюстрацией.

Творческое новаторство Мартироса Сарьяна ознаменовало поворот армянского искусства и вывело его на авансцену международной культуры XX века. Этот феномен в армянской культуре был и неожиданным, и ожидаемым, ибо Сарьян всем своим творчеством ответил на требование времени и на мощной волне национального самосознания перед лицом мира создал образ Армении. Неожиданным для нас было то, что на первом этапе творчества он вобрал в себя чужой поэтический мир, но сделал его своим. Это явление и стало предметом исследования Арарата Агасяна.

А.Агасян останавливается на пороге того периода, когда происходит окончательный поворот к здравому реализму, когда в работах Сарьяна появляются произведения жанрового характера, обнаруживающие связь с реальностью. Ведь именно армянские горы стали тем потрясшим его переживанием, давшим ему духовную и творческую силу, которая и породила новое качество его живописи. Но это уже совершенно новая страница творчества, начатая с 1909 года, когда даже названия работ ("Гиены", "Зной. Бегущая собака", "Утро в Ставрине" и др.) говорят о разрыве с идеями символизма.

«Գրքերի տաղավար» Լիլիթ Գյոզալյանին` 010 54 33 84:

Тур Хейердал. Биография. Рагнар Квам

Тур Хейердал прожил интересную жизнь, полную приключений. Экспедиция на плоту "Кон-Тики" в 1947 г. принесла ему мировую славу, а последующие путешествия сделали его самым известным норвежцем на планете. Его книги переведены на многие языки мира. Перед нами первая подробная биография известного путешественника, которая охватывает всю его жизнь и карьеру, а также знакомит нас с его личностью.

"Великий был авантюрист, качали его — как Гагарина и Элвиса, Трумэн ему аплодировал, Хрущев; остров Пасхи фактически «открыл», ну в моду ввел; да сами знаете — колосс; как так его пропустили? Хорошо хоть перевели и выпускают потихоньку норвежскую фундаментальную биографию, в трех томах. Вторая часть охватывает период от 1947-го — сразу после триумфально-го завершения плавания «Кон-Тики» — и до 1970-го. То есть прежде всего это экспедиция на остров Пасхи (где Хейердал, ради того чтобы получить доступ к неким примитивным статуэткам, которые для чужаков были табу, чуть ли не объявил себя божеством) и плавание на «Ра» и «Ра-II». Хейердал прожил 87 лет; истории про фиаско «Тигриса», про Мальдивы и про то, как он искал следы викингов на юге России, остались за бортом — на третий том. Чего в книге нет, так это линии «Хейердал как симптом», порождение своей эпохи, эксцентричное существо, наблюдая за которым можно расшифровать код времени. Авось квамовская книга не последняя; найдутся у Хейердала и другие биографы." Афиша

Отставание. Фрэнсис Фукуяма

Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap Between Latin America and the United States

Латинская Америка - и Британская Америка. Еше в начале XVIII века они находились в равных экономических условиях. Почему же три столетия спустя США возглавляет списки самых богатых и сильных государств планеты, а Латинская Америка относится к странам "третьего мира"? Чем обусловлен этот страшный разрыв?

Культурными традициями латиноамериканцев? Неправильной экономической политикой латиноамериканских государств? Вечной политической неустойчивостью, царившей в Латинской Америке? Олигархическими, коррупционными режимами, отсутствием гражданского общества и демократии? В своей яркой, спорной и по-настоящему увлекательной книге Фрэнсис Фукуяма попытался разобраться в причинах экономического и социального разрыва между Латинской Америкой и США.

"Выводы примерно следующие: отставание нельзя объяснить географическим положением, тропическими болезнями, происками США и створаживающим кровь наций «иберийским авторитаризмом». В чем же тогда дело? Слабость демократических институций." Афиша

Manuel de Falla: Works for Stage and Concert Hall

Noches en los jardines de Espana Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
El sombrero de tres picos Raquel Lojendio (soprano)


Nights in the Gardens of Spain is among Falla’s most impressionistic and poetic works, full of shimmering textures that recall Debussy, but with a hard-edged precision brought to the forefront by the piano. Each of the three movements is imbued with a strong sense of location. The first evokes the Generalife gardens of the Alhambra in Granada; the second, and most animated, displays a strong North African quality; and the third is inspired by the gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba. Here Falla’s lustrous and voluptuous writing is contrasted with a dramatic refrain full of energy, colour, and savagery, and the work offers one of the most sensuous endings in all music. It was performed by the BBC Philharmonic and Juanjo Mena, as part of the conductor’s debut performance at the Proms in 2011. On this recording, they are joined by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, the exclusive Chandos artist and multi-award winning pianist.

Based on the novel by Alarcón, The Three-cornered Hat was commissioned in 1916 by the impresario Diaghilev for his Russian ballet company, the Ballets russes. Centred round sexual jealousy, possessiveness, mistaken identity, and deception, it tells the story of the failed attempts by an elderly local magistrate (whose three-cornered hat is a symbol of authority) to seduce the miller’s lovely wife. The music is exuberant, the principal characters wittily characterised, and the original production itself boasted an incredible wealth of talent: choreography by Léonide Massine, set and costume designs by Pablo Picasso, and the star ballerina Karsavina dancing the part of the miller’s wife. It was one of the company’s greatest successes, and put Falla on the international map as a composer.

Also on this disc is the Homenajes, in which Falla pays tribute to fellow musicians and composers. ‘Fanfare sobre el nombre de Arbós’ was written for the seventieth birthday celebrations of the conductor Enrique Fernández Arbós, while ‘Pedrelliana’ pays posthumous homage to Falla’s teacher Felipe Pedrell, who had informed so much of his musical thinking.

International Classical Music Awards -
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

J S Bach: Motets. Recorded live in London, St John’s Smith Square, 2011

Thirty years on from their acclaimed recording for Erato, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir return to the Bach Motets in a new SDG recording, taken from a concert in London last year at the end of a tour which saw performances in Italy, France, The Netherlands and Germany.

The Motets can be seen as some of Bach’s most perfect and hypnotic compositions. Through their extraordinary complexity and density, they require exceptional virtuosity and sensitivity of all the performers.

Each of them is endlessly fascinating, and each inhabits its own sound world, Bach's masterful use of canon, fugue and counterpoint, the brilliant exploitation of double-choir sonorities are perfectly matched by the Monteverdi Choir's virtuosity.
The album is packaged in a hard back book similar to our other releases. It contains 44 pages booklet with original notes by John Eliot Gardiner and texts in German, English and French.

“performances of surpassing beauty and irresistible dancing energy.” Sunday Times
“Utterly sublime.” The Independent

Gramophone Magazine Disc of the Month
BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song Choice

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major. Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, Summer 2011

“This performance curtails the silences in the interests of the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado’s linear approach...This is Bruckner sunny side up, lending a molto espressivo bloom to the string cantilenas in the opening movement and a con amore sparkle to the brass chorales. The orchestra, combining old friends and young talents, radiates a fabulously chamber-musical quality.” Financial Times

“Abbado keeps the music on the move; textures are full rather than thick...Abbado himself is invariably the main focus of attention and he's wonderful to watch: theatrical posing and outsize gestures are evidently foreign to his nature...The players vary in age and appearance: no stiffening dress-code clamps down with unwarranted formality, just well-dressed men and women totally into the business of making great music. And boy, do they deliver!” Gramophone Magazine

Gramophone Magazine DVD of the Month

Milos: Latino

Miloš Karadaglić (guitar),
Studioorchester der Europäischen FilmPhilharmonie, Christoph Israel


On this selection of Latin-American music, from Piazzolla and Villa-Lobos to lesser-known jewels by Brouwer and Dyens, he’s best when he lingers over the nostalgic harmonies. His technique and timbral variety are impressive, but some interpretations sound a little sanitised. The Times

Mingling the familiar with the technically exacting, it's a programme designed to showcase both Miloš's skills and his natural flamboyance...the delicate trills of Mangoré's "Un Sueño en la Floresta", like an insect skating across water, confirm his featherlight command of his instrument. The Independent

Karadaglić is a guitarist of superior musical and technical gifts who allows his personality to sing through the music with taste and intelligence. That being said, the target audience for 'Latino' isn't guitar nerds...it's more those music-lovers who inhabit the periphery of the classical guitar repertoire... But 'Latino' is just so good that is deserves the widest possible audience. And, if the truth were to be known, I loved every minute of it. Gramophone Magazine

The Woodmans. Scott Willis

The story of a family that suffers a tragedy, but perseveres and finds redemption through each other and their work - making art.
A fascinating, unflinching portrait of the late photographer Fran-cesca Woodman, told through the young artist's work (includ­ing experimental videos and journal entries) and remarkably candid interviews with her artist parents Betty and George (an internation­ally renowned ceramic sculptor and painter/photographer), who have continued their own artistic practices while watching Fran-cesca's professional reputation eclipse their own.

Gotham Best Documentary
Tribeca Film Festival Best New York Documentary

My Reincarnation. Yeshi Silvano

Filmed over twenty years by acclaimed documentarian Jennifer Fox (Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman), MY REINCARNA­TION chronicles the epic story of the high Tibetan Buddhist Master ChÃgyal Namkhai Norbu and his western-born son Yeshi. The film follows Namkhai Norbu s rise to greatness as a Buddhist teacher in the West, while Yeshi, recognized at birth as the rein­carnation of a famous spiritual master, breaks away from his father s tradition to embrace the modern world. Can the father convince his son to keep the family s threatened spiritual legacy alive? Nev­er before has a high Tibetan Master allowed such complete access to his private life and it is doubtful that another ever will. With her signature intimate entry to both family and icons including the Dalai Lama, Fox expertly distills a decades-long drama into a universal story about love, transformation and destiny.

Remarkable - The New York Times
Compelling emotional satisfying - Variety
Contemplative - Los Angeles Times

The Code

What makes the world operate the way it does? Are there patterns to what happens or do we live in a universe of random events that cannot be predicted or explained? Author and Oxford University professor Marcus du Sautoy (The Story of Math) sets out to an­swer these and other questions in this engaging and entertaining three-part documentary series about the power of numbers. Con­vinced there is a mathematical formula that can identify patterns and connect everything we see around us, Du Sautoy goes in search of a mysterious hidden code that can unlock the very laws of the universe.

Brings numbers to scintillating life — The Herald
Accessible and entertaining — The Times
Science TV at its best — Daily Record

Michael Wood's Story of England

The Story of England, written and directed by Michael Wood, is one of the most fascinating TV documentary series in recent memory. One doesn't need to be English to find this approach to living history absolutely gripping. The idea was a genius one, yet hard to imagine what the results might be. Wood and his crew decided to pick an ordinary small English town, Kib­worth, and see if they could get the townsfolk to agree to help them figure out how to learn the history of the hamlet. And an amazing history it is, the viewer soon finds. Located in Leicestershire in the heart of England, the area was ruled by Romans, Saxons, descendants of Vikings, tribal leaders, and many others over the centuries-long history of England. Meticu­lously, Wood and the scholars on his team fan out into the town, which enthusiastically agrees to help. This plays out in having living archeological digs dotted all around the town, in regular backyards, fields, streets, and crossroads. And the findings are amazing--tools from the Bronze Age, Viking arti­facts, Roman coins, skeletal remains from the time of the Black Death. Wood's Story of England not only brings history alive, but it puts it into immediate context, and the excitement of the villagers upon each new find is contagious. Don't be sur­prised if, after you've watched the whole series, you find your­self wondering what might be buried just a few feet below the surface in your own backyard. Amazon