- The schedule is somewhat crazy, but it should bear intriguing fruit in the next few weeks. In the meantime, here are a few quick links.
- Ben Downing remembers Thomas M. Disch. [UPDATE: And another tribute from David Yezzi. (via Books Inq.)]
- Howard Junker exposes an ethical contretemps involving The VQR Poetry Series and the University of Georgia Press. [UPDATE: Here's some more investigation from Tim Brown.]
- Strunk & White revisited.
- Jeanette Winterston on how British booksellers can learn from the French. (via jafurtado)
- Mark Danielewski’s House of Pancakes. (via Jessa)
- John Scalzi on the Large Hadron Collider “destroy the universe” silliness. (via Jenny D)
- Hug your running mate, kiss your wife.
- James Franco as Ginsberg? (via Jeff)
- Bad enough that Olbermann and Matthews were fired as political co-anchors, but Joanne points out that Comcast is canceling MSNBC in multiple markets.
- Difficulties in judging the Booker. (via John Fox)
- Ortohofer lists the considerable Bolaño volumes up the pipeline.
- John Warner’s new strategy of promoting books. And guess what? It doesn’t involve newspapers.
- Is Francine Prose ODing on food metaphors?
- One of Robert Giroux’s last writings. (via Bookninja)
- VanderMeer gets a beer bath, among other fey photos. (via Enter the Octopus)
- Is Google primed to republish 244 years of newspaper articles? Can this compete with LEXIS/NEXIS and Factiva?
- And Noel Gallagher thought Canadians were nice.
- McCain campaign manager Rick Davis: “”She’s not scared to answer questions. But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we’ll do things on our timetable.” You know what? That sounds to me like a frightened candidate. (via Erin O’Brien)
Quick Roundup
– September 9, 2008Posted in: Roundup
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. (
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. (
House of Pancakes made milk come out my nose.
re: McCain campaign-
yeah that’s a great precedent of accountability to the voters!
Why oh why are they sequestering her so?
And the first interview with softball Charlie Gibson–bahh. Put her in front of Campbell Brown on live television.