The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood

The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood is a collection of first-person stories about what it means to be a man in America today -- from Pulitzer winners and Poet Laureates to ex-cons, Pro Football Hall of Famers and just regular guys. The authors describe their defining challenges, losses and triumphs through honest and simple truths, and are hoping to spark conversations about what it means to be a good man today.

"Offering essays by Wall Street power brokers, a war photographer and a former inmate at Sing Sing prison, the Good Men essays share a humility, a bracing honesty and a willingness to reveal the male mind-set without trying to defend it," declares The Sacramento Bee.

(Click here to pre-order a signed copy of The Good Men Project)

PRADA the Book

We know PRADA as the designers, and we for sure know PRADA the store, but now in front of me we have PRADA the book. It's an amazing document of a dynamic company. Miuccia Prada along with Patrizio Bertelli edited the book with beautiful book design by Michael Rock and Sung Joong Kim of New York City design firm 2x4.

Within this volume there are 3,885 thumbnail photos of Prada runaway shows since 1987. Also PRADA deals with its culture within their world as well as the "outside" world. As far as we know this book is only being sold in various PRADA shops, but we at Book Soup have (at this time) 8 copies for sale. Only $125! We may get more, but the book is a real hot item.

For those who are fascinated by the world of fashion and style, this book is a must for your library. Buy now or cry later!

(Click here to purchase PRADA)

Gary Cox explains 'How to Be an Existentialist'

How to Get Real, Get a Grip and Stop Making Excuses...

For just $19.95 you, too, can become an Existentialist! No need to be nor speak French. No need to smoke cigarettes nor flirt with communism. No need to crash a car to prove a point of meaninglessness, nor proclaim Che Guevara 'the most complete human being of our age.'

Author Gary Cox offers up the in's and out's of Existentialism in humorous doses.

However, Cox nearly blows the proverbial wad on the cover with this explanatory note:

"Existentialists are nihilists because they recognize that life is ultimately absurd and full of terrible, inescapable truths. They are anti-nihilists because they recognize that life does in fact have a meaning: the meaning each person chooses to give his or her own existence. They recognize that each person is free to create themselves and make something worthwhile of themselves by striving against life's difficulties."

A wonderful treasure for philosophers and laypeople alike.

(Click here to purchase How to Be an Existentialist)

Art Cinema

Taschen's new book charts the history of 'Art Cinema'

Cinema's place in art history is a unique one. Films came into this world in the laboratory as a series of photographic experiments, moving very quickly thence to cheap thrills at fairs, nickelodeons and the like, then quickly became a populist entertainment juggernaut through the will of some men with 'horse sense, goddamit! showmanship!' (to quote Jack Lipnick in Barton Fink).

Others, such as the surrealists, attempted to take film into the realm of dreams, discontinuity and symbolism. One might even call Georges Melies a pure art filmmaker, even though his narratives were often popular science fiction.

In the mid-20th century, of course, filmmakers really began experimenting. Stan Brakhage experimented with form (gluing butterfly wings to rolls of film and projecting them); or in Kenneth Anger's case, the supernatural and fetishistic were placed front and center. The experimentation continued by branching out into many different styles and preoccupations.

Beyond the medium of film, artists like Tony Oursler, Nam Jun Paik and Alex Bag took video and elevated it to an art form.

While by no means an exhaustive study, Taschen has managed to assemble a beautiful and educational survey of the more artistic sibling of mainstream cinema.

Book Soup Book Club presents the NYRB edition of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio

December 6th Book Soup's Paige Garver will be leading a discussion of Carlo Collodi's 1883 classic Pinocchio.

Collodi's Pinocchio is not your Uncle Walt's tale of a cute puppet setting out on an adventure to become a 'real' boy. No. This tale is full of anarchy, dark Gilliam-esque strangeness, sadistic violence (a hanging, for instance), a ghostly cricket who delights in taunting his murderer, a maimed cat and a fairy with turquoise hair--just a few of the kaleidoscopic story elements that Collodi explodes inside your consciousness.

Imagine a story conceived by Cervantes, obliterated by the surrealists and put back together again by Lewis Carroll. That is the depth of inspired insanity that one finds in Collodi's Pinocchio.

Join us at Book Soup December 6th for a discussion of the book, which will be accompanied by Donut Ice Cream courtesy of Lake Street Creamery!

Marcel Duchamp: Etant donnes

Incredible images and documentation on Marcel Duchamp's great and his last piece of work "Etant donnes. When everyone thought he was playing chess, Duchamp has been working secretly on his late masterpiece. A work that is still disturbing and frankly shocking.



Violence, eros, and mystery all wrapped in one art work. Yale University did a fantastic job in putting this volume together. There are tons of Duchamp books out there, but this is truly an essential volume. The more one writes about this work, the more mysterious it becomes. Truly unique and one-of-a-kind.

"A Short History of Cahiers du Cinéma" by Emilie Bickerton

No, this is not a gossip filled book on one of the most important film journals that's out there in any language. Well, I should say it used to be the most important film magazine in the world. Now it is just another film magazine.

When it first started it was sort of like Punk Rock. Film obsessed French geeks just wanted to breathe in and out of film history, aesthetic, and production of cinema. In a very fast speed and slightly academic manner, we get the early years turning into the May 68 Mao political years - and then afterwards, it sort of becomes just your typical film review magazine. Cahiers du Cinema nevertheless is sort of a symbol of when cinema was important. i say was, because I feel cinema was perhaps the art medium of the 20th Century. It is no longer that important.

The Ferus Gallery by Kristine McKenna

In the late 1950’s when America was looking at New York as the art capital of the world, Los Angeles was doing things their own way – for instance The Ferus Gallery. Started by visionary Walter Hopps and artist Ed Keinholtz with Art dealer Irving Blum jumping in the second half of its history, the Ferus was responsible for introducing artists Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell and Wallace Berman (I knew him) as well as countless others. And they even had the first solo Andy Warhol exhibition. This book covers the entire history of the Ferus with fantastic text/interviews as well as remarkable photographs of an era that seemed fun, and totally new.  Down below Ferus Artists.


Photo by Patricia Faure/Los Angeles 1958
Copyright the Estate of Patricia Faure

Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater by Eric P. Nash

This is a stunning book on a subject matter that’s fascinating. In Japan, in both rural and urban areas, a storyteller would travel with a kit that was a miniature stage and within this stage was a series of illustrations telling the visual side of the story. Most were adventure tales that were geared to boys and girls, and the big payoff for the storyteller is that he would sell candy after his reading/performance. What we have here in this remarkable book are the illustrations that go with the stories – and they are both beautiful and somewhat disturbing. Especially the works that focused on World War 2 era propaganda. Amazing Japanese pop culture history laid out in a beautiful design.

The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson

As of this writing I haven’t seen the film yet, but looking at the book “The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox” – this stands alone from the film. I am usually not a fan of “making of ….” Film books, but this one is beautifully designed and is almost an art book (well, published by Rizzoli). Anderson has a fetish attraction to these handmade dolls and various sets that are in the film. And yes it has all the stuff that is usually in a “making of ….” Film book, but the detail work that took place and that is in this book, which is simply awesome and beautiful. For those who love craftsmanship to the highest max!