- Another day, another assault on chick lit. I didn’t realize that all the chick lit authors shared “stock protagonists shopping for designer handbags while juggling boyfriends.” Is there a secret society I don’t know about where chick lit authors meet in smoky dens and swap stock characters, relationship angst and recipes for chocolate cake? To examine a recent “chick lit” title, I didn’t enounter any designer handbags in Pamela Ribon’s Why Moms Are Weird, which actually deals more with family than “juggling boyfriends.” But I do see a story where a young woman pines for a man within Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Man of My Dreams. I wish Merrick would be honest with her damnations and simply castigate popular literature, which is where she (and perhaps her fellow contributors) seems to have the real beef with. (And for those interested, Lauren Baratz-Logsted had some words to say about this compilation last year.) (Also, noted by Carolyn, Bookburger sets up the prizefight.)
- Laila Lalami tracks the terrible toll.
- Jason Boog interviews Joel Derfner and learns how Derfner wrote books while working a full-time job.
- Laura Miller has the scoop on Lethem’s latest.
- John Freeman reviews Daniel Handler’s Adverbs.
- Scott uncovers this DFW essay on writing.
- Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We reconsidered. (via Languor Management)
- Nora Ephron has a new book out. (via Jennifer Weiner)
- Billy Bragg successfully lobbies MySpace.
- Kevin Smith will be a guest critic while Ebert recuperates.
- Ana Marie Cox has been named Time‘s Washington editor. Guess this means curtailing the assfucking.
- Malcolm Gladwell on blogging: “Even people who do not think of themselves as being influenced by the agenda of traditional media actually are: they are simply influenced by someone who is influenced by someone who is influenced by old media—or something like that.” (via Madam Mayo)
- “One Last Fuck”: a YouTube poem.
- Rick Kleffel on George Pelacanos’ The Night Gardener: “the most literary of Pelecanos’ oeuvre yet.”
- Another piece of the Melanie Martinez shitcanning puzzle: PBS head Paula Kerger says the new indecency fines would put PBS out of business. This may explain the uber-paranoia.
I didn’t know Carolyn sold mattresses.
As usual, I’m late to the party, Ed. FYI, the more positively titled This IS Chick-Lit, which I edited and contributed to, should be hitting stores soon to stand up against Elizabeth Merrick’s negatively titled manifesto.