- As everyone knows, the writers-to-general population ratio in Brooklyn is considerably higher than, say, the affluent liberal-to-general population ratio of Ross, California. Thankfully, publishing houses are picking up the slack.
- Sarah has the goods on the Dagger nominees.
- It’s an utter mystery why DC Comics didn’t explore this possibility years ago.
- Chick lit. Lad lit. Chica lit.
- This week in David Mitchell interviews: Arthur Salm. (See also Callie’s continuing series.)
- The infamous Bob Hoover talks with Richard Ford and gets very little outside of “It’s a big book, it’s an ambitious book and it’s also the last book I’m going to write about Frank Bascombe, so I want it to be as good as I can get it.” Thanks, Bob, for firing off those hardballs! See you in the batting cages after our game of mini golf!
- The Age contemplates Beckett.
- Canadian writer Charlotte Gill has won the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Prize for Ladykiller.
- The Companion to British History took 30 years to write, killed at least sixteen people, cost well over four million pounds, was responsible for that New Coke idea, has permitted Brett Ratner to find work, is responsible for the abject hot dog to hot dog buns packaging shortfall, has caused several Jack Russell terriers to be sacrificed to an unspecified volcano god, and is known to cause blindness.
- Ginsberg’s “Howl”: fifty years later.
- Beth Orton wants to write books. (via LHB)
- Details on the new Mountain Goats album.
- Yo, New Yorker, blog articles are so six years ago.
- And can we declare a moratorium on recognizing Katie Couric? You’d think that Couric was either a conversational genius or a former Senator, given MSNBC’s ridiculous spread.
The “It’s Tuesday Good Gravy!” Roundup
– May 30, 2006Posted in: Roundup
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. (
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.