Showing titles in Aesthetics

Discover ancient stone wonders and the secrets of architectural preservation through the eyes and hands of one of the world's greatest stonemasons. Around the world and across time, the buildings of the gods and royalty have mostly been made of stone. For more than forty years, the eminent...

A Sounds True Audio Original: Intimate, life-changing programs with the leading voices in spirituality, personal growth, and healing. “The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion, and in...

A glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from such topics as decluttering, mindfulness, David Cronenberg, sadomasochism, and women who wait. All Things Are Too Small is brilliant cultural and literary critic Becca...

A compelling call to rediscover the transformative power of art in an age of distraction, coercion, and spectacle – featuring an introduction from Pulitzer Prize–winning author Donna Tartt In Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, J. F. Martel offers a compelling and incisive meditation on...

"A tour de force. It is a thoughtful, subtle, beautifully written discussion of what it takes to live a meaningful life." —Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice Throughout history most of us have looked to faith, relationships, or deeds to give our lives purpose. But in A Significant...

From one of our most widely admired art critics comes a bold and timely manifesto reaffirming the independence of all the arts—musical, literary, and visual—and their unique and unparalleled power to excite, disturb, and inspire us. As people look to the arts to promote a particular...

Bloomsbury presents Drone by Adam Rothstein, read by Greg Lockett Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Drones are in the newspaper, on the TV screen, swarming through the networks, and soon, we're told, they'll be delivering...

Bloomsbury presents Dust by Michael Marder, read by Josh Wichard. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. No matter how much you fight against it, dust pervades everything. It gathers in even layers, adapting to the contours of...

As an interiors photographer, Penny Wincer found that walking through a stranger’s home, listening to them explaining the history of the space, and the meaning of precious objects, was one of most joyful aspects of her work. And in Home Matters Penny does exactly that, taking us through the houses of 13 artists, designers and writers, inspiring us to reflect on how we want our own homes to feel.

Uncover the fascinating history of aesthetics and how shifting cultural ideals shape our bodies, art, and power today. Perfect for a thought-provoking commute, this sociological journey traces human desire from ancient cave paintings to modern digital screens. Dive into a reflective exploration...

Bloomsbury presents Concrete by Stephen Parnell, read by Matt Addis. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Concrete has an image problem. Portrayed as boring, cheap, and thoughtless, it is often considered synonymous with bad...

Bloomsbury Presents Ocean by Steve Mentz, read by Greg Lockett Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The ocean comprises the largest object on our planet. Retelling human history from an oceanic rather than terrestrial point of...

Bloomsbury presents Glasses by Adam Geczy, read by Todd Boyce. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Glasses are among the oldest and most commonplace prosthetics we have invented. But what does it mean to wear glasses? There...

‘Expertly crafted’ AMELIA DIMOLDENBERG ‘A beautiful siren song to anyone who has ever felt ashamed of their own taste’ SCARLETT CURTIS 'An ode to both fearless critique and visceral fandom’ BILLIE JD PORTER A deep dive into the joy and power of personal pleasures, quirks, obsessions...

Bloomsbury presents… Driver’s Licence by Meredith Castile read by Barbara Barnes Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. A classic teenage fetish object, the American driver’s license has long symbolized freedom and...

Bloomsbury presents… Coffee by Dinah Lenney read by Lisa Rost-Welling Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Coffee--it's the thing that gets us through, and over, and around. The thing--the beverage, the break, the ritual--we...

Lorsqu'il édita ces Mémoires olympiques, Pierre de Coubertin avait 69 ans en 1931. Ce livre est particulièrement utile pour comprendre l'Esprit des Jeux Olympiques de l'ère moderne tels qu'ils ont été recréés sous l'impulsion de Pierre de Coubertin. Car Pierre de Coubertin dut batailler ferme avant de pouvoir imposer son œuvre qui s'inscrit dans un contexte politique précis dont on retrouve la trace dans son récit.

Part lyric essay, part prose poetry, Where Things Touch grapples with the manifold meanings and possibilities of beauty. Drawing on her experiences as a physician-in-training, Orang considers clinical encounters and how they relate to the concept and very idea of beauty. Such considerations lead her to questions about intimacy, queerness, home, memory, love, and other aspects of human existence. Throughout, beauty is ultimately imagined as something inextricably tied to care: the care of lovers, of patients, of art and literature, and the various non-human worlds that surround us.

The book draws on history and sociology, and more personally on the author's early career as a professional cellist, as well as on his later work as a city planner and social thinker. It traces the evolution of performing spaces in the city; the emergence of actors, musicians, and dancers as independent artists; the inequality between performer and spectator; the uneasy relations between artistic creation and social and religious ritual; the uses and abuses of acting by politicians. The Janus-faced art of performing is both destructive and civilizing.

L'idea che la bellezza sia qualcosa di oggettivo e naturale è una superstizione moderna. Infatti non è mai esistita un'epoca in cui non convivessero estetiche e sensibilità diverse. Il culto della bellezza è diventato una prigione solo di recente: quando le coercizioni materiali verso le donne hanno iniziato ad allentarsi, il canone estetico nei confronti del loro aspetto è diventato rigido e asfissiante, spingendole alla ricerca di una perfezione irraggiungibile.