“Let America Be America Again”:

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah discusses his family values in a new Guardian piece.

Timing is everything: Ian Halperin’s new book, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, gets scooped up by a major French publisher.

Iranian author Shirin Nezam-Mafi has been nominated for the 141st Akutagawa Prize, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, for Shiroi Kami (White Paper), which depicts a romance between two students during the Iran-Iraq war.

Children’s authors and critics share their recommendations for engaging young readers.

The Los Angeles Times’ Elizabeth Mehren profiles 91 year-old romance author Mildred Riley.

Ode to a charity shop: British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy pens a poem for Oxfam’s Bookfest.

And what of book festivals? The Telegraph’s Toby Clements charts the history of literary gatherings.

Andrew Seal, in the midst of his “infinite summer,” explores David Foster Wallace’s “specialist realism.” Exposito reacts.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1862, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) begin to tell three sisters the story that would become Alice in Wonderland.

“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

-Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Dystopian unease is the order of the day for Ninni Holmqvist’s UNIT, and it earns a good review from Bookreporter.com.

Aleksandar Hemon reaps more praise for LOVE AND OTHER OBSTACLES, this time from Slate Magazine.

Salon Magazine has a page of books they loved to help you refine your to-be-read list.

When a summer blockbuster treatment just won’t suffice, here’s SPIES: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE KGB IN AMERCA, by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev.

(via justia.com)

ORDER: Given the Court’s finding that Plaintiff is likely to succeed on the merits of its Copyright claim, as well as the presumption of irreparable harm, the Court preliminarily enjoins Defendants from manufacturing, publishing, distributing, shipping, advertising, promoting, selling, or otherwise disseminating any copy of 60 Years or any portion thereof, in or to the United States. (Signed by Judge Deborah A. Batts on 7/1/2009)

To view a larger version of the Order, click here.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER, that given the Court’s finding that Plaintiff is likely to succeed on the merits of its Copyright claim, as well as the presumption of irreparable harm, the Court preliminarily enjoins Defendants from manufacturing, publishing, distributing, shipping, advertising, promoting, selling, or otherwise disseminating any copy of 60 Years or any portion thereof, in or to the United States. (Signed by Judge Deborah A. Batts on 7/2/09)

To view a larger version of the Memorandum and Order, click here.

A look behind the scenes at NSU’s lit mag, “Digressions”:

(Hat tip: Rolando Andrés Ramos via Twitter)

The Internet Public Library has a compilation of the best-selling books of all time, with The Bible and Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book duking it out for the top spot.

The fiction list is interesting, however, as it represents an interesting mix of classic literature and more than a few pop-culture page-turners:

Bach, Richard. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
Blatty, William. The Exorcist
Benchley, Peter. Jaws
Caldwell, Erskine. God’s Little Acre
Heller, Joseph. Catch-22
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
McCullough, Colleen. The Thorn Birds
Metalious, Grace. Peyton Place
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind
Orwell, George. 1984, Animal Farm
Puzo, Mario. The Godfather
Robbins, Harold. The Carpetbaggers
Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye

Read deeper.

New York Books features a brilliant essay by Sam Anderson on Albert Camus and ‘the pleasures of literary obsession.’

Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah’s new collection of stories, An Elegy for Easterly, offer portraits from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

The Literary Saloon analyzes the slow-motion train wreck of the Sapir Prize.

New doubts arise in the forensic evidence that indicated remains found in Utah were those of poet and artist Everett Ruess.

One year after its launch, Faber’s POD branch Faber Finds is finding success, with 450 titles and another 550 on tap for the rest of the year.

Jet-setting lover boy and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford loses his book deal.

In the wake of Hoffman and de Botton’s outbursts, Lisa Abeyta offers up some tips to writers on how to “not burn digital bridges.”

The Justice Department makes it official: the investigation into Google Book Search is on.

Peter McEllhenney makes the case that the Harry Potter books may not be great literature, but they’re literature all the same.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1883, Franz Kafka was born in Prague.

“People do tell a writer things that they don’t tell others. I don’t know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.”

-W. Somerset Maugham

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The Boston Globe proclaims, MISSION TO THE MOON, fun, but likely only for trivia buffs.

HOME GAME, AN ACCIDENTAL GUIDE TO FATHERING, by Michael Lewis sounds pretty damned funny, if you’re in the right mood.  Bubble wrap the children first.

Now I’ll bet this is fascinating.  I’m a non-smoker, but I have a short fuse for some of the abuse hurled at smokers.  Christopher Snowdon gives us VELVET GLOVE, IRON FIST: A HISTORY OF ANTI-SMOKING.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón (with a little help from translator, Lucia Graves, for the English version) brings twists and intrigue with THE SHADOW OF THE WIND.

(Hat tip to Maud Newton, via Twitter)

Edward Champion at Reluctant Habits gets the first-hand story from Alain de Botton on his recent bombastic reaction to Caleb Crain’s review of his new book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. In Part 1, de Botton answers some questions about the dust-up. A taste:

Under what circumstances do you believe that a writer should respond to a critic? Don’t you find that such behavior detracts from the insights contained within your books?

I think that a writer should respond to a critic within a relatively private arena. I don’t believe in writing letters to the newspaper. I do believe in writing, on occasion, to the critics directly. I used to believe that posting a message on a writer’s website counted as part of this kind of semi-private communication. I have learnt it doesn’t, it is akin to starting your own television station in terms of the numbers who might end up attending.

Part 2 is an essay submitted by de Botton reflecting on his reaction to the review, reviewing in general and how authors ought (and ought not) to respond:

My altercation with Caleb Crain has attracted a peculiar amount of interest at heart because its nature as a private communication has been misunderstood, both by me – and those looking on. It has widely been taken that I have written back to The New York Times directly to complain. Instead I wrote to Caleb Crain to speak very directly to him and not principally to the world at large. I feel very sorry that this tiff has been broadcast so widely. The embarrassment is as akin to an argument with one’s spouse being inadvertently broadcast to one’s work colleagues or a private letter appearing on a widely-read internet site.

Check out the entire pieces (interview and essay).

Nick Cave’s new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, is slated for September publication by Faber and Faber. But for now, here’s a classic clip of the multi-talented singer/songwriter/screenwriter/author reading from his first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, in Central Park, circa 1992:

Former Writer’s Digest editor-in-chief Maria Schneider has listed out her “5 Qualities of Good Flash” at Editor Unleashed. Some good stuff here for those who work in short form. A taste:

4. A Seamless Mix of Narrative and Dialogue
Stories that are nearly all dialogue have the feel of reading a screenplay, not a story. The reader is left with an overall sense of something missing.

Check out the whole piece here.

Library trucks: Imagine a world in which this wasn’t considered quirky and eccentric.

The winners of the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton awards for worst opening sentence in an imaginary novel have been posted. The Guardian Book Blog’s Alison Flood wants more.

Cuban writer Normando Hernadez Gonzales rots in prison even as a delegation of the Norwegian Writers’ Union arrives to award him with the Freedom of Expression award.

Michelle Richmond celebrates literary mags as the path to publication.

The Millions looks at the most anticipated works of the year for 2009, “an epic year for books”.

The age-old question: Is reading easier than writing?

The Kenyon Review’s Sierra Nelson examines the history of self-referential poetry.

Grand Central Publishing to resurrect out-of-print Michael Jackson biography while the rest of the world waits for the superstar’s actual resurrection.

Oprah (excuse me… “O”) serves up her summer reading selections with ‘25 Books You Can’t Put Down’.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1961, Ernest Hemingway took his own life at the age of 61.

Sometimes you go looking for the story and sometimes, when you’re lucky, the story comes to you.

My breaking news item earlier on J.D. Salinger’s court victory today received a welcome visit from Andrei Mincov, a Law PhD with 13 years of experience as an intellectual property lawyer in Russia. Now studying law in Vancouver, Mincov leveraged his international perspective in a recent “100-page comparative research paper on the treatment of parody in the copyright laws of common law countries and selected European countries”.

He was kind enough to post a link to his article on the Salinger case “Why Courts Should Not Allow the Parody Exception to Make a Parody of the Copyright Law”, and we welcome the opportunity to give it a more prominent introduction. A taste:

With today’s attempts of the activists of the so-called “fair copyright” movement to use parody as a flagman ship to break the ice of protection that copyright laws afford, parodists seem to be in a win-win situation. If the author of the original work does not sue them, then they are left to parasite from the fame of the original work. If they do get sued, then the activists will make sure that the parodist becomes widely known as a martyr standing up for the rights of creators of transformative works, if not simply famous as a writer²⁷. If the parodist successfully defends the case, they will be able to sell many additional copies of the parody based on the fame attracted by the lawsuit. Even if the parodist loses the case and the distribution of the parody is enjoined, the newly acquired fame generated by the lawsuit will allow the parodist to sell whatever he or she writes next in their new status of celebrity.

Read the whole article here.

“In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.”

– John Gardner

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Tina Samuels over at Words Come Undressed has compiled some interesting quotes about that legendary pairing: writers and coffee. My favorite:

“Making coffee has become the great compromise of the decade. It’s the only thing ‘real’ men do that doesn’t seem to threaten their masculinity. To women, it’s on the same domestic entry level as putting the spring back into the toilet-tissue holder or taking a chicken out of the freezer to thaw” – Erma Bombeck

Check out the entire collection here.

Free book, or free with a nudge to pay it forward - Wesley Brown gives us WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE.

THE TWITTER BOOK, by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein, gets accolades from The Associated Press.

New Zealand’s National Business Review thinks Piers Bizony’s ONE GIANT LEAP: APOLLO 11 FORTY YEARS ON, is a fitting tribute.

HOUND DOG: THE LEIBER AND STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY is best sort of reminiscence at The Christian Science Monitor.

I haven’t had a chance to read the whole 37-page ruling on the Salinger lawsuit yet (will link to it once it’s available online), but here are a couple of nuggets from Judge Deborah Batts, via City Room:

On the “parody” defense:

“To the extent Defendants contend that 60 Years and the character of Mr. C direct parodic comment or criticism at Catcher or Holden Caulfield, as opposed to Salinger himself, the Court finds such contentions to be post-hoc rationalizations employed through vague generalizations about the alleged naivety of the original, rather than reasonably perceivable parody.“

On the “criticism” defense:

“In fact, it can be argued that the contrast between Holden’s authentic but critical and rebellious nature and his tendency toward depressive alienation is one of the key themes of Catcher. That many readers and critics have apparently idolized Caulfield for the former, despite — or perhaps because of — the latter, does not change the fact that those elements were already apparent in Catcher.

It is hardly parodic to repeat that same exercise in contrast, just because society and the characters have aged.”

So where does it go from here?

Mr. Colting and his lawyer, Edward H. Rosenthal, said they would appeal. The decision means that “members of the public are deprived of the chance to read the book and decide for themselves whether it adds to their understanding of Salinger and his work,” Mr. Rosenthal said.

However:

While the case could still go to trial, Judge Batts’s ruling means that Mr. Colting’s book cannot be published in the United States pending the resolution of the litigation, which could drag on for months or years.

By then, even fewer people will give a shit about reading it than is even the case now. Your fifteen minutes have expired, Mr. California. Enjoy the sweet kiss of obscurity.