Alan Scherstuhl

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Alan Scherstuhl

The multinational, intergenerational jazz quintet Artemis is, as they might say, bubbling. Last fall, it topped Downbeat magazine's reader's poll as jazz group of the year for the second time running. On Friday, the band released its third album, "Arboresque," which captures both the hard-bop strut of the most beloved 1960s recordings by its storied label, Blue Note Records, as well as Artemis's own fresh take on jazz tradition.

Dec 6, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Alan Scherstuhl

For all their wit and invention, what might stand out most in TJ Klune’s bestselling queer fantasies is the care with which the author invites readers in. Those invitations are to join in fantastic adventures; to witness tender, affirming romances that ignite between male characters—and, on occasion, a robot; and to nest with the found families that populate his books.

Oct 25, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Alan Scherstuhl

Since the launch of BookLife in 2014, we’ve witnessed phenomenal growth in the self-publishing world. The quality of indie books is no longer in dispute. We are honored to remain at the forefront of the indie book world, to shine a light on quality works from across all genres, and to promote the voices and perspectives of unsung writers. For our inaugural BookLife’s Best feature, we share some standout titles we’ve read this year throughout our many channels.

Oct 22, 2024 | nytimes.com | Alan Scherstuhl

Unlike most "lost" posthumous jazz albums, "Grande-Terre,"a release from the trumpeter Roy Hargrove and his bebop-goes-Havana band Crisol that arrived on Friday, is no live recording, rehearsal tape or leftover session scraps best suited to die-hard fans. The LP, recorded in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in 1998 as a sequel to "Habana" from the previous year, is an ambitious, studio-recorded, global jazz party, sun-kissed and island-hopping.

Oct 15, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Alan Scherstuhl

FICTIONThe Dispossessed: A Novel (50th Anniversary Edition) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Harper, 2024 ($35)A little more than halfway through The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin’s inexhaustibly rich and wise science-fiction novel about a physicist caught between societies, the protagonist, Shevek, born and raised in an anarchist’s collective, gets drunk (for the first time) at a fancy soiree in a capitalist society on a planet not his own.