The Weekly 5×5 is Southwest Contemporary’s top five picks of things to do for the next five days. At least that’s what it was until our to-dos became homebound during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re now sharing five things to enjoy from home. If you’d like to receive the Weekly 5×5 in your inbox, subscribe here.
This week we spoke to local folks throughout the arts community to find out what they’ve been reading lately—big thanks to our guest contributors for their five picks below!
Should you feel inspired to purchase one of the recommended books (or any other books, for that matter), as always, we suggest buying locally. Collected Works, Garcia Street Books, and op.cit books in Santa Fe, and Bookworks and Harvest Moon Books in Albuquerque are all open and providing curbside and in-store pick-up options. Happy reading!
Book of Delights, Ross Gay; Seasonal Associate, Heike Geissler; Notes from an Apocalypse, Mark O’Connell
“Three books for confronting a new reality: Ross Gay’s Book of Delights rejoices in mundane details without ever skewing sentimental. In Heike Geissler’s Seasonal Associate, a German writer takes the reader inside an Amazon warehouse, where she has a job that asks her not to be fully human. Mark O’Connell’s Notes from an Apocalypse addresses end-of-the-world anxiety head-on, from bunker communities in South Dakota to Chernobyl tourism.”
—Jenn Shapland, author of My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
“My New York community recommended this book to me. It’s been keeping me going through the Quarantine. I randomly choose poems and they always seem to speak directly to me or my present experience. It makes me feel closer to the people and nature that I am missing.”
—Robyn Rikoon, Artistic Director, Santa Fe Playhouse
Being Here Is Everything: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker by Marie Darrieussecq
“I read this beautifully written book in Dutch—which made me appreciate knowing another language. It must be exceptional in its native language—originally published in French in 2016. It’s a very inspiring life story about an exceptional woman artist whose passion was just to paint day and night like her male artist counterparts.”
—Doreen Wittenbols, visual artist
Four Decades of Prints: Daphne Odjig
“Four Decades of Prints: Daphne Odjig is an exhibition catalogue published in 2005 by the Kamloops Art Gallery, Canada. Included is an amazing essay by Morgan Wood about the history of one of Canada’s greatest Indigenous artists, Daphne Odjig, who is the first Native woman, non-Inuit to create art with the medium of print. This book is fascinating and a rare gem, providing invaluable information for a paper I am writing about Indigenous printmaking in Canada during the 1960s to 1970s.”
—Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, Assistant Professor of Art History, IAIA
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
“A neighbor turned me on to the Expanse books by James S.A. Corey, a shared pen name of collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who live in New Mexico. I’ve always enjoyed science fiction and I love the series for the smart science and vision of new worlds, but also the political and social complexities built into the narrative. A perfect escapist series for summer reading.”
—Joel Aalberts, Executive Director, Lensic Performing Arts Center
