Heavenly BODIES
The monarchy seems to have a fascination with the stars, from King Charles II’s founding of the Royal Observatory in 1675 to “royal astrologer” Debbie Frank, who became friendly with Princess Diana at the end of the ’80s. It’s fitting that French jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels, beloved by Princess Di as well as the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Grace of Monaco, has taken celestial inspiration for its latest collection: sapphire- and diamond-dotted bracelets to represent the life span of a star, brooches the size of a credit card that nod toward the planets, and this meteoric ruby ring that sparkles finger to finger with a comet trail of sapphires and diamonds. Make a wish. —Daisy Shaw-Ellis
Getting GONE
Four new books offer trips across time and space.
—By Keziah Weir
“A force was pressing up from under her,” writes Maggie Shipstead in Great Circle. “Lift. It was lift.” The epic ode to flight flits between the life of a pilot whose plane was downed in 1950 and the actor starring in her biopic some 70 years later, from Knopf. In other airplane nostalgia, Jodi Peckman’s Come Fly With Me: Flying in Style, out from Rizzoli, provides decades of airport fashions, from a 1998 Naomi Campbell, pictured here, to a pearl-laden 25-year-old Jane Fonda. Filed under voyages best taken vicariously is Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night, Julian Sancton’s tale of an ill-fated 19th-century voyage, from Crown. Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy is a bright amble through Hockney’s emails to (and context from) his old friend Martin Gayford on such topics as good countries for smokers and theories of perspective, with art by Hockney, pictured, and others. “The past is edited so it always looks clearer to us,” Hockney wrote Gayford in 2017. “Today always looks a bit of a jumble.”
In Hot Stew, Fiona Mozley’s bewitching follow-up to her dark fable of a debut, Elmet, a disparate cast—a sex worker and her companion, an ambitious developer, an underground cult—vie for space in London’s Soho. Here, Mozley tells V.F. her cultural touchstones.
directed by Melina Matsoukas
“Hot Stew also presents a (seemingly) lost cause and courageous last stand; I paid special attention to how the film subverted familiar narratives.”
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by Charles Dickens
“I found myself thinking about the ending—the mud reclaiming the slums and Bill Sikes being pursued by a baying crowd, led by his once-loyal dog.”
by The Howl & The Hum
“The album title was chosen long before COVID-19 gave it a cruel resonance. The music elicits feelings of nostalgia, camaraderie, and hope.”
SPEAK, MEMORY
A host of genre-blending nonfiction illuminates personal histories with illustrations, food, and reportage.
1. THE SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH
Alison Bechdel’s literary, illustrated dive into a lifetime of fitness fads—from skiing to karate to yoga—is characteristically expansive and profound. (HMH)
2. NOTES ON GRIEF
After her father succumbed to complications from kidney failure last summer in Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in America, “came undone.” In her remembrance of him, universal sorrow swells beneath particular pain. (Knopf)
3. TASTES LIKE WAR
Grace M. Cho’s memoir richly braids Korean meals, memories of a mother fighting racism and the onset of schizophrenia, and references ranging from Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to the essays of Ralph Ellison. (Feminist Press)
4. NOTHING PERSONAL: MY SECRET LIFE IN THE DATING APP INFERNO
V.F. contributor Nancy Jo Sales’s latest catalogs her foray into the seductive world of swipes and matches alongside interviews with experts and fellow lovelorns. (Hachette)
5. GOODBYE, AGAIN
In bite-size musings, stories, poems, and doodles, Jonny Sun explores his own anxiety and drive toward productivity, longing, and the care of cacti. (Harper Perennial) —K.W.
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