From the Idioms Series comes a beautiful new book called Gateways; it features color reproductions of (and brief design notes for) more than 400 cover designs by more than 50 designers from more than a dozen countries.
I’ve been trying to read Muriel Barbery’s critically acclaimed novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and while I’m relishing many of the author’s ideas, they feel to me like just that–the author’s ideas, not ones that belong to the book’s characters; a wealthy pre-teen and middle-aged concierge spend at least the first section of Hedgehog (I’m on p. 114) hiding their gifted selves from everyone they know while sharing them, mostly in monologue/journaling style, with us. Their use of language is almost identical, as is their attitude toward (and analysis of) the world around them. So much of the book […]
On Preeta’s recommendation, here’s a great article from a mother who wishes she could still “read like a girl.” Do others (boys, too…this shouldn’t be so gendered) feel this way, that you can no longer really lose yourself in a book? I’d agree that it’s harder now, and that it depends on what you’re reading and the number of distractions in your life and whether or not you are officially enrolled in an MFA program at the time…but me, I can still read like a girl. What I can’t do, what I often long to do, is to write like […]
New Yorkish writers, take note: Where Edith Wharton grew up on 23rd St., there is now a Starbucks. On the one hand, I picture a quiet afternoon writing in this shop, imagining that Wharton once shared my same view of a (much changed) street. And on the other…I’m envisioning a new walking tour for NYC: “Starbucks and the City.” In my fantasy (wherein the coffee giant would not sue), tourists would amble from identical looking shop to shop whilst a green-aproned guide lectured on what once stood there or who once lived in the building. In addition to excavating layers […]
The book industry–hell, literature itself–is in jeopardy, and even some of the most avid readers are getting blamed. This has been a very traumatic season for publishing…even highly successful celebrity editors have been laid off from houses big and small, and some publishers aren’t signing any new books. It’s clear we need to think about change at every level of the industry; as publishers, booksellers, journalists, and authors raise the alarm, will we find creative ways to fight the fire or curl up on the floor of a burning house? Read how we might learn to publish without perishing, why […]
For every book you received this year as a holiday gift, consider donating $1 to the Book Wish Foundation, a nonprofit providing “reading relief” for Darfur refugees in Chad.
Earlier this fall, School Library Journal published an article called “Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?”, sparking a heated debate about criteria for what has long been recognized as the most prestigious prize in children’s literature. Are the latest Newbery medal-winning books really too “inaccessible” for kids? Should accessibility and popularity be issues in determining a winner? Are popularity and quality mutually exclusive? Does the Newbery tend to favor “good” books over “great” ones? What responsibility does the award have to young readers? What do you think?
Last week Henry Alford had a great essay in the NYT about the bizarre variety of things stored, lost, and found between book pages: Vanessa Redgrave’s lipsticked napkin, Sherman Alexie’s savings, David Bowman’s rejection letters, bacon, dead mosquitoes…
A quick and public apology: the Wood book was a casualty of frantic packing for my trip to Vermont, but there will be at least one more post (a wrap-up and hopefully prompt for a discussion of POV) once I’m back in New York on Monday. Hope everyone has the chance to curl up with a good book this holiday week!
Big congratulations to Uwem, for securing the #1 spot on Entertainment Weekly‘s best book (fiction) of the year list!! Here’s their list of 2008’s “10 must-reads”–and here is Jennifer Reese’s review of the book from June.
