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The 10 Most Recent Dispatches
- The Bat Segundo Show: Stephen Fry
- The Bat Segundo Show: Deborah Scroggins
- Komen for the Cowards: Betraying Breast Cancer
- The Bat Segundo Show: Susan Cain
- Forgotten Writers: Dorothy Uhnak
- Dwight Garner’s Revisionist Ignorance: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Forgotten Writers: The Novels of John P. Marquand
- The Situation in American Waffles
- The Bat Segundo Show: Elliot Perlman
- The Death of the Heart (Modern Library #84)
Modern Library Reading Challenge
On January 10, 2011, Managing Editor Edward Champion pledged to read the top 100 fiction books from #100 to #1. Read about his progress as he makes his way through the Modern Library canon!
84. The Death of the Heart (January 6, 2012)
85. Lord Jim (November 30, 2011)
86. Ragtime (October 30, 2011)
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Allen, Woody Archive
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Woody Allen’s Stalking Annie
Posted on January 19, 2010 | No Comments -
Jean-Luc Meets Woody
Posted on August 14, 2008 | 1 Comment(via Slapclap) -
Welcome to The Desert of the Surreal
Posted on September 1, 2006 | No CommentsWoody Allen interviews Billy Graham. (via Black Market Kidneys) -
Standup Manna
Posted on June 29, 2006 | 1 CommentTranscriptions of Woody Allen’s standup routines. (via Maud) -
PM Roundup
Posted on January 6, 2006 | No CommentsMIT asks why technology is so absent from the lists of great books. Vollmann has a great method of ensuring that his publishers keep publishing 800-page books. (via Scott) An... -
In Defense of “Interiors”
Posted on April 27, 2005 | 1 CommentI’ve put off seeing Woody Allen’s Interiors for years, largely because I had the misfortune of sitting through September and Shadows and Fog almost immediately after their respective release dates.... -
Woody Allen Downgraded from Multimillionaire to Millionaire
Posted on April 15, 2004 | No CommentsThe Post: “Sources tell The Post’s Braden Keil that the Woodman has gone to contract on his 40-foot-wide Carnegie Hill mansion for just $2 million less than his asking price... -
Out-Blog Blogging?
Posted on February 23, 2004 | No CommentsMilan Kundera’s in demand in Shanghai, enough to make him the best-selling foreign author in the city. Hybrid publishers are reported to be preparing Mao’s Little Red Book of Laughter... -
A New Woody Allen Film: Every Cineaste’s Miserable Yearly Duty
Posted on February 5, 2004 | 4 CommentsTerry can’t stand Woody Allen’s films. Can’t say I blame him. For my own part, Allen’s been the one auteur whose films I go to see, even though there’s about...