Set in sixteenth-century Florence, this Renaissance-era whodunit by award-winning French novelist Laurent Binet offers a devilish twist on the modern procedural. Famed painter Jacopo da Pontormo is found dead in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, stabbed through the heart with his own chisel. Left unfinished are his carefully concealed frescoes, widely rumored to match Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel. Left unattended is a scandalous painting of the duke of Florence’s oldest daughter. Acclaimed art historian Giorgio Vasari is charged with solving Pontormo’s murder and righting the lèse majesté. Motive, means, and opportunity are teased out in correspondences among conspirators, political radicals, and the Florentine elite, who come to life in this inventive murder mystery about jealousy, revenge, and the rivalries that inspire great works of art and brutal crimes of passion.
Perspective(s)
A Novel
Laurent Binet
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
$28.00 | 272 pp.
*
What, exactly, are we doing when we ask AI for a grocery list or ideas for our next party? OpenAI’s large-language models seemed to come out of nowhere, but Karen Hao’s Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI provides us with a look into the company’s hidden origins and its transformation into a closed-source, for-profit corporation. Hao’s in-depth research provides personal accounts ranging from content moderators in Kenya to quotes from OpenAI’s Slack channels. To fuel its growth, OpenAI continues to extract resources from vulnerable populations who will not soon see any benefit from this technology. In her highly informative, readable book, Hao shows us the high cost hiding behind our seemingly limitless and victimless technology.
Empire of AI
Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI
Karen Hao
Penguin Press
$32 | 496 pp.
*
This chronicle of the 1970s arson wave in the Bronx and other cities in America puts to rest the misheld belief that Black and brown residents burned their own neighborhoods. It was landlords who ordered the fires, seeking claims on properties that federal mortgage and insurance policy had rendered worthless while the government funneled money to white middle-class suburbs. Historian Bench Ansfield’s exposé of racial capitalism turns out to be a page-turner, rich in firsthand accounts, buttressed by first-rate research and reporting, and supplemented with insightful references to the movies and music of the time. A section on the role of Paul Brant, a Fordham Jesuit who helped found the now-thriving Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, is a welcome reminder of the good that can come when committed, activist faith leaders collaborate with grassroots community organizers to fight disinvestment and economic injustice.
Born in Flames
The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Bench Ansfield
W. W. Norton & Company
368 pp. | $26.99
