Allison Arieff
Allison Arieff is a writer and editor. Most recently, she was senior editor at City Monitor and was also the founding editor of Dwell magazine and had a regular opinion column in the New York Times for over a decade. Her work on architecture, design, and cities has appeared in numerous publications including California Sunday, the MIT Technology Review, Wired, and City Lab. Allison has co-written several books with her husband, including Airstream: The History of the Land Yacht and Prefab.
Allison was introduced by Jessica Helfand.
If you could recommend 3 books to anyone, what would they be?
City of Quartz by Mike Davis
I hated history class in college — all facts, no narrative. But then I took an amazing seminar on the culture of Los Angeles as an undergraduate at UCLA and thought, 'What?! Why didn't anyone ever let me know that history could be this?' I remember reading the fortress L.A. chapter of City of Quartz which talks about the privatization of public space and militarization of architecture and having my mind blown. Davis actually writes about how the "crusade to secure the city is the destruction of accessible public space.” I read this book a million years ago but am realizing as I write this, how much it has formed my work and point of view. I also love how it changed my experience of moving through cities, compelling me to notice things I wouldn't have before. Anyone interested in cities, and especially very current conversations about equity, access, and protest will find this to be incredible.
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin
OK, it was originally an essay...but it's just been re-issued as a book on the 50th anniversary of its publication (1971). I read this after college as I was figuring out how to do more intellectual work in the art world (I was what was then commonly referred to as a "gallery girl" and it wasn't working). I'd not really questioned the art world canon — or any canon really — until that point. Had always assumed that all the great books, great paintings, great leaders were men because that's what I was shown/taught. This book, combined with the amazing activism of the Guerilla Girls (artists who donned gorilla masks to publicly protest the lack of women artists). This book is still so important — sadly, really — because we're still having the same damn conversation! Anyone interested in art, cultural representation, feminism, history and how it is told, will appreciate it.
City of Thieves by David Benioff
OK, a book about two young Soviets trying to survive during the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad might not seem joyful. But maybe when you learn that they're given the chance to beat death if they can procure a dozen eggs for the wedding cake of their tormentor's soon-to-be-married daughter? I never met my Russian relatives but this book gave me a lot of insight into the hardships they faced. This book has some very scary dark spots but it is also so funny and also touching and ultimately life affirming. I've read it multiple times and what probably gives me the most joy about it is that I gave it to my then 13-year old daughter who loved it as much as I did. I'm not a fan of Game of Thrones; Benioff peaked here as far as I'm concerned.
What are you reading now?
I read A LOT to the point that it annoys my friends because when I recommend books to them, they always say, "How can you read this much?" There are weeks I read 3 novels (but there are weeks I put down 3 novels because life is too short to finish a book that's not engaging you). I just finished "Klara and the Sun" by Kazuo Ishiguro, Melissa Broder's crazy "Milk Fed," Joy Williams' despondent "Breaking and Entering," and Carmen Machado's "In the Dream House." I'm midway through "The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency" by Tove Ditlevsen. I am very eager to read "Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine" by my old pals Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley (could their timing have been better?!), "The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free" by Paulina Bren and probably 10 others books I'll remember after I hit "send" on this....Oh, and "A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines" which is en route from City Lights Books.
Whose reading list are you most curious about?
"I read a lot of book reviews in places like Bookforum and get all sorts of publisher and bookstore newsletters so I am acquiring new books all the time at a rapid rate. I love to go to Green Apple Books as much as possible to see what they're featuring. Bookstores and libraries are definitely my happy place.”
— Allison Arieff
