Aging by the Book

Kay Heath, author of Aging by the Book: The Emergence of Midlife in Victorian Britain (now available in paperback), is today's feature interview on ROROTOKO. In the piece, Kay discusses the origins of our often unhealthy obsessions with aging. Here's a snippet describing the personal experiences that sparked Kay's interest in writing the book:

I became interested in writing about age as a “non-traditional” graduate student in my early forties. Not just self-conscious about being older than my classmates, I also couldn’t help but notice that sometimes I was older even than the professor. As we discussed race, class, and gender as key aspects of identity, I began thinking about age. My fellow grad students were finding life partners and wondering whether to have babies, but I was parenting teenagers and dating after the end of a twenty-year marriage. My life stage seemed just as important as my middle-class, white femaleness. I became fascinated with the ways midlife was portrayed—and overlooked—in the texts we were reading. I began researching this topic and found midlife anxiety in a wide variety of nineteenth-century publications: conduct books, medical texts, and advertisements, but especially in novels.

Who Controls New York City Mayors?

With election day fast approaching, Lynn A. Weikert's new book, Follow the Money, is especially timely. Especially if you reside in New York City.

This book explores the leadership of government on the local level. What goes on between the financial elites who control the nation’s purse strings and the political leaders elected by us, the citizens of New York City? What deals are made that affect the lives of ordinary New Yorkers? What compromises do New York City politicians make when dealing with the most powerful people in the financial world?

That's from Lynn's recent feature article over at Rorotoko. In the piece, Lynn explores the major themes of her book and takes hard look at the powerful influences of financial elites over New York City’s mayors. Her book presents some staggering evidence regarding the extent to which these elites have exploited financial crises and crippled the power of mayors over the years.

Read the rest of the article here and order a copy of the book here.

Author explores Van Gogh's spiritual journey

ROROTOKO's cover interview for today is with SUNY Press author Cliff Edwards and focuses on his new book, The Mystery of The Night Café, which explores the spiritual vision of Van Gogh’s painting The Night Café. Here's a snippet:

I hope readers will treat it as a mystery to be solved, and will evaluate each of the clues I find and present. Here we have one of the few paintings Van Gogh both signed and titled, a painting he described as “one of my only works with deep meaning.” The mystery is how one painting inside a café for poor workers and misfits can serve as a key to the artist’s spiritual journey.

Edwards provides a fascinating look into his approach to writing this book, which will surely whet your appetite to read the book and solve the mystery of The Night Café yourself.