Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
Archive for December, 2003
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Sometimes, Bright Blue is Just Bright Blue
Posted on December 19, 2003 | No CommentsAnthony Lane on internal practice: “I tend to send my copy in on deadline, which by New Yorker standards is tacky. It has to go through three or four proofs.... -
Quick Links
Posted on December 18, 2003 | No CommentsApparently, self-publishing at the office pays off. Bruno Perara wrote a novel called Little Murders Among Partners. The book portrayed his co-workers for what they were. The firm fired him.... -
Wonder if George Knows His Thomas
Posted on December 17, 2003 | 2 Comments“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better... -
prose-aic
Posted on December 17, 2003 | No Commentsxmas prop a gander did we vote? ears calumniated by duplicitous speakers silent sales sandwiched between stale scrambled egg nog ick unilateral steel toe lapping blood hard red green bow... -
Why?
Posted on December 17, 2003 | 4 CommentsOn the Return of the King front, David Hudson has again outdone himself with some great armchair analysis. Beyond collating some ideas on what this might mean for the Oscars,... -
Howard and Clark
Posted on December 17, 2003 | No CommentsLetters from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith (via Quiddity) -
Move Over, Amazon
Posted on December 17, 2003 | No CommentsComing soon: print.google.com. [Sample results] [FAQ] (via Publisher’s Lunch) -
Dickens Not in Vogue
Posted on December 17, 2003 | No CommentsThis morning, I was shocked to learn of the news that Charles Dickens is “not in vogue these days.” While Boston Globe reporter Sam Allis’s statement was brazen, it is,... -
You’ve Got the Touch
Posted on December 16, 2003 | 1 CommentI stumbled onto this and was perplexed. But now I think I understand what goes on in the Upper West Side. And, yes, frankly, it’s a little weird to me... -
The Reluctant Tries to Remain Impartial Too, But…
Posted on December 16, 2003 | No CommentsThe BBC has banned its journalists from writing newspaper and magazine columns pertaining to current affairs. The m.o.? “Impartiality.” The ban extends to both staff and freelancers. There is at... -
Books I Did Not Read This Year
Posted on December 16, 2003 | 7 CommentsThis whole gambit reminds me of that moment in David Lodge’s Small World where academics confessed titles they had not read. I’ll see Crooked Timber’s list, and raise the ante... -
Forgotten Legacy
Posted on December 16, 2003 | No CommentsFrom Kevin Starr’s Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era: The Chinese had preceded the Japanese into the fields of California. By 1880 fully one-third of the state?s agricultural... -
Sad Old Men
Posted on December 15, 2003 | 2 CommentsMaud has a story about her father. “Now, standing before the stacks of Tupperware, I had two choices. I could clean out the kitchen cabinets to make room for the... -
The Cole Valleyites
Posted on December 15, 2003 | No CommentsCole Valley seems to be populated by a sizable faction of urban professionals who can kindly be described as Gavin Newsom voters, and can less kindly be referred to as... -
A Guest Column from Patti Thorn
Posted on December 15, 2003 | No Comments[Because Mr. Champion has become temporarily unavailable due to the holidays, Return of the Reluctant turns over the rest of today's content to Patti Thorn of the Rocky Mountain News.... -
On the Run
Posted on December 15, 2003 | 1 CommentMove over, Ali (Muhammad, not Monica). MIT scientist Michael Hawley has created the largest book. And he has the Guinness credentials (the record, not the beer) to prove it. Bhutan:... -
Heft, Hate, Outlines and Vanity
Posted on December 14, 2003 | 2 CommentsLooks like Vollman’s got competition. Muhammad Ali’s definitive life story weighs 75 pounds, runs 800 pages, costs £2,000, and includes over 3,000 photographs. The mammoth bio, however, is a team... -
Fact Checking Laura Miller’s Ass
Posted on December 14, 2003 | No CommentsIt’s bad enough that Laura Miller can’t refrain from mentioning films or television in her New York Times book pieces, but she’s also ill-informed on the history of Peter Pan... -
Bad Santa
Posted on December 14, 2003 | 2 CommentsBad Santa is a beautiful movie. It’s the kind of risk-taking, no-holds-barred razor held against a sacred cow that comes but once in a generation. I think Alexander Payne’s going... -
Literary Grandson to Launch Unexpected Career
Posted on December 13, 2003 | No CommentsIn response to the recent news that 25 year old John Buffalo Mailer, the youngest child of Norman Mailer, will be taken over the reins of High Times, Return of... -
Dale Peck Statistics
Posted on December 13, 2003 | No CommentsNumber of times the word “gay” is mentioned in the profile: Salon: 3 James Atlas’s NYT Profile: 3 The Guardian: 2 Gawker: 0 Word Count of Profiles: Salon: 2,629 James... -
Slow Fade to Black
Posted on December 12, 2003 | No CommentsJan Wong has some great tips on how to kill your journalistic career. “Try to come across as sympathetic, nice and non-threatening,” she says to aspiring journalists. Wong apparently reads... -
More Voices
Posted on December 12, 2003 | No CommentsNow that the New York Times has brought it up, BBC Four has a designated place for author audio. You can find Kingsley Amis, Agatha Christie, Robert Graves, Vladimir Nabakov,... -
The Voices of Authors
Posted on December 12, 2003 | No CommentsThe New York Times (user: dr_mabuse, pw: mabse): “When A. A. Milne reads from ‘Winnie-the-Pooh,’ his creations sound like Victorian gents ? soothing, paternal Victorian gents reading a bedtime story,... -
Putter Patter Silver Platter
Posted on December 11, 2003 | 2 CommentsHugh Hefner plans to auction off his black books. Among the entries? “Big blonde from ‘Wild Women of Wongo.’” Brian Stillman remembers Hal Clement. Stories from Eric Kraft at The... -
The Golden Scam
Posted on December 11, 2003 | No CommentsI don’t have cable. Hell, aside from a DVD every now and then, I barely turn my television on. But Gary Dretzka’s TV Barn column makes me wish I did... -
Rictus in Training?
Posted on December 11, 2003 | 1 CommentWhat disturbs me more than the mouth is that not one of his follicles is out of place. If ever there was a poster boy for pomade, Gavin Newsom is... -
Nureyev By Subway
Posted on December 10, 2003 | No CommentsWho’s Got the Biggest Balls of All? “Does one really need the perimeter of three subway seats to provide salvation for the sensitive seed?….Bizarre that the same boys who cringed... -
An Open Letter to Sara Bauer
Posted on December 10, 2003 | 16 CommentsDear Young Woman Who Writes Snotty and Unfunny Open Letters for McSweeney’s: The first moment I read you, I knew you were the same. The same as all those other... -
No More Politics Until March 1
Posted on December 9, 2003 | No CommentsSure, I’m a bit disappointed. Derek, meanwhile, is ready to draw blood in a post entitled “Motherfucker.” I should remind Derek that in the 1999 runoff, Ammiano lost to Brown...