- It’s good to know that some newspapers are playing dirty in the needless conflict between newspapers and bloggers. In this case, the St. Augustine Record is trying to smear a local blogger who is critical of local politicians, presumably because the Record reporters lost their ability to question years ago. (via Books, Inq.)
- If reading is at risk, why are teens now buying books in record numbers?
- Ed Brubaker is being hounded because of Captain America. (via The Beat)
- Publishing News: “The average author earns 33% less than the national average wage, according to new research commissioned by the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society. The study, conducted by Bournmouth University’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management and based on surveys of 25,000 authors in the UK and Germany paint a bleak picture of authors’ earnings.”
- Are page-turners classics? Does this question even need to be asked? (via Bookshelves of Doom)
- They’re so desperate to dig up dirt on Obama that they’re resorting to parking tickets. That’s nothing. I have it on good authority that Obama once ate the last slice of cake during a party. Can you trust a politician who does this? Didn’t think so. Clearly, the man is evil incarnate.
- If you need to waste hours of your time, you can do no worse than the 50 greatest local television commercials. Norton Furniture occupies the top five slots. And, oh man, there are some gems here.
- Matthew Cheney on Tideland.
- More on the pox called Vox from Maxine.
- And Annalee Newitz has the scoop on Kenneth Eng’s screenplay. Read the frightening results at your own peril.
Roundup
– March 9, 2007Posted 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. (