“Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.”

-John Milton

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Nobel laureate José Saramago (as translated by Margaret Jull Costa) moves this reviewer of THE ELEPHANT’S JOURNEY.

The Christian Science Review revisits Discovery gunman’s inspiration, MY ISHMAEL by Daniel Quinn.

The Washington Times opines on the value of Richard Dawkins THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: THE EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION.

And here’s a look at what reviews Publishers Weekly set aside exclusively for their online readers.

Daniel Quinn gets dragged into the ugly mess of the Discovery Channel gunman. (FOXNews)

Maryann Yin recaps the finalists for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. (GalleyCat)

Neal Stephenson releases a serialized digital novel. (seattlepi.com)

Stuart Evers goes off on authors who get too long-winded in their acknowledgments. (Guardian Books Blog)

Laura Fraser officiates over a battle between chick lit and dude lit. (The Daily Beast)

Stephen Elliot sets up an audio interview with author Steve Almond. (The Rumpus)

M.A. Orthofer links to new issues of two literary magazines. (The Literary Saloon)

R.I.P. George Hitchcock, poet and publisher of kayak. (KansasCity.com)

“On this day in 1666, the Great Fire of London began, enkindled by the King’s baker when he failed to damp his oven properly. The Diary of Samuel Pepys provides a fascinating eye-witness account, from his first horrified sighting of “an infinite great fire,” to digging a pit for his best wine and cheese, to a final walkabout “with our feet ready to burn.”" (Today in Literature)

“Book love… is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.”

-Anthony Trollope

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LET’S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME: A MEMOIR OF FRIENDSHIP, by Gail Caldwell, chronicles the author’s affection for her dearest friend, writer Caroline Knapp.

Meghan McCain uncorks her opinion on DIRTY SEXY POLITICS.

The California Literary Review has great appreciation for Philip Ball’s THE MUSIC INSTINCT: HOW MUSIC WORKS AND WHY WE CAN’T DO WITHOUT IT.

The Christian Science Monitor isn’t quite ready to deify Jonathan Franzen for FREEDOM (nor for THE CORRECTIONS, for that matter.)  Here’s what they liked about it and what they didn’t.

From the Vimeo description:

Cindy Woodsmall - New York Times best-selling author of Amish Fiction - talks about what led her to write and her first interaction with an Amish girl in prep school:

Cindy Woodsmall Talks About What Led Her to Become a Writer from waterbrook multnomah on Vimeo.

The Seven Year Bitch author Jennifer Belle says writers should write what they want to write. (GalleyCat)

Steve Almond leads the charge in a “meditation on editors, ambition and angry dependence”. (The Rumpus)

Borders is shutting down its San Francisco operations. (San Francisco Examiner)

The Virginia Quarterly Review has temporarily closed its offices and canceled its winter issue after the suicide of Kevin Morrissey. (NYTimes)

Attention grammar police: June Casagrande gives fair warning about some changes in the new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. (Glendale News Press)

Justin Peacock finds the that today’s great social novels are being written by crime authors. (The Daily Beast)

Matthew Pearl reports from the front lines of the “novel wars”. (Huffington Post)

M.A. Orthofer offers some commentary on the relative editing skills of traditional publishers. (The Literary Saloon)

Carolyn Kellogg explores whether a hit book means a hit movie. (Jacket Copy)

Scott Butki chats it up with Body Work author Sara Paretsky. (seattlepi.com)

What’s the best position for reading in bed? (Reading Copy Book Blog)

Alison Flood adds her perspective. (Guardian Books Blog)

Georgie Williamson writes in defense of “old-world critics”. (The Australian)

“On this day in 1939 Germany invaded Poland, starting WWII. This gave moment to W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” one of his most famous poems, and one of many attempts to figure how “the windiest militant trash” could have us all “Lost in a haunted wood.” On this day two years later, the yellow star was made obligatory for Jews in Germany; and this day three years after would be Anne Frank’s last before learning her fate: the last train bound out of Holland for Auschwitz.” (Today in Literature)

“Heresies are experiments in man’s unsatisfied search for truth.”

-H.G. Wells

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Author Henry Kisor’s memoir asks, WHAT’S THAT PIG OUTDOORS?, the answer to which goes a ways towards bridging the hearing and deaf communities - and all in good humor.

Juliet Fortier reaches to take a new angle on the angst-template for heroines, JULIET.

YOU LOST ME THERE, by Rosecrans Baldwin, is reviewed by The Canadian Press.

And Library Journal keeps us all up to date on what new in non-fiction.

From the cosproductions YouTube description:

When Hemingway’s lost works, stolen in 1922 from his first wife Hadley Richardson, are recovered, they’re worth millions. The womanizing academic who found them is murdered, and Chicago Insurance Investigator DD McGil, aided by her antiquarian book dealer friend Tom Joyce, must recover them, if genuine, or prove they are fakes:

Okay. Finally, a literary mash-up that amuses me. (GalleyCat)

Regina Brett looks at the handwriting over a house where Langston Hughes once lived and wonders if it might be more important to instead preserve an appreciation for the author’s works. (cleveland.com)

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library will open soon. (Official site)

John Cusack to play Edgar Allen Poe in a new thriller film. (CBC News)

Luke Sampson chats it up with author and poet Ismail Kadare. (Financial Times)

JK Rowling donates £10 million to set up a multiple sclerosis research center in the name of her mother, who died from complications of the disease. (Telegraph)

Jonathan Jones sings the praises of eReading in the dark. (Guardian Books Blog)

Pynchon’s 2006 letter defending Ian McEwan against charges of plagiarism. (Letters of Note)

Bo Emerson talks to Jonathan Franzen. (accessAtlanta)

Tom Bissell defends Virginia Quarterly Review editor Ted Genoways in the aftermath of Kevin Morrissey’s suicide. (The New York Observer)

“On this day in 1946 John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” was published in The New Yorker. The article took up almost all sixty-eight pages of text space, an unprecedented and unannounced step for the magazine, taken so “that everyone might well take time to consider.” When Hersey died in 1993, one obituary called “Hiroshima” the “most famous magazine article ever published.”" (Today in Literature)

“I like to see life with its teeth out.”

-Janet Frame

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A pair of business books get the once over at The Dallas Morning News.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer checks out a new comic, AFTER DARK #1, by Fuqua, Snipes, and Nentra.

Author Craig Silvey is going to be pleased with this glowing review of his latest effort, JASPER JONES.

Kevin Guilfoile adds his work to the the high-tension puzzler novel shelf with a heavily-loaded mix-mash of legal thriller, superhero adventure, and mystical gauntlet in his book, THE THOUSAND.

Sari Botton chats it up with author and essayist Shalom Auslander. (The Rumpus)

Peter Stothard rounds up a new batch of the best in British literature. (The Daily Beast)

Rachel Cooke profiles Israeli author David Grossman. (The Observer)

Might eBooks be a good fit in a correctional setting? (corrections.com)

A woman has crashed her car into Stephen King’s security gate. (WMTW)

Alison Flood details some of the best modern literary book tours. (The Guardian)

Judith Rosen highlights some sleepers of the fall season. (Publishers Weekly)

Gary Dexter explains how Hugh MacDiarmid’s “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” got its title. (Telegraph)

Carol Rumens is back with a new poem of the week, Vona Groarke’s “Pier”. (Guardian Books Blog)

“On this day in 30 BC Cleopatra committed suicide. Death by self-inflicted asp was no whim: Cleopatra’s search for a painless exit caused more than one unfortunate to be experimentally force-fed this or that drug or snake. The dress-rehearsing done, came the final act: “Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have / Immortal longings in me. . . .”" (Today in Literature)

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

-Leo Tolstoy

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All of author Barbara Trapido’s editorial pacing and shouting seems to pay off in SEX AND STRAVINSKY.

Kathy Reichs is back with the next installment of her Dr. Temperance Brennan series (the one that inspired the hit TV show, Bones) and New Jersey.com has a look at SPIDER BONES.

My local paper makes a thorough case for a new children’s book, THE QUIET BOOK, by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska.

THE CROSS OF REDEMPTION, by James Baldwin, is a powerful collection of previously unpublished essays, edited by Randall Kenan.

Peter Stanford profiles prolific historical fiction author Conn Iggulden. (The Independent)

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will be the last. Thanks a lot, internet. (Telegraph)

Julie Bosman examines how Jonathan Franzen was chewed up and spit out of the pop culture machine in record time. (NYTimes)

Diane Leach looks between the covers of Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth. (LATimes)

Simon Winder laments the end of Penguin’s ‘Great Ideas’ series. (The Guardian)

Mark Sanderson rounds up a new batch of interesting literary tidbits. (Telegraph)

Dean Kuipers explores the environmentalist side of US Poet Laureate WS Merwin. (LATimes)

R.I.P. Jules Edward Loh, journalist. (AP)

R.I.P. Jackson Gillis, TV drama writer. (NYTimes)

“On this day in 1833, the Mills and Factory Act was passed in England, one of a series of measures to improve the “Health and Morals” of child laborers. The Act allowed a forty-eight-hour work week for children aged nine to twelve, but it brought many changes which the younger Dickens and William Blake’s even younger “Chimney Sweeper” would have welcomed.” (Today in Literature)

“And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, till the Devil whispered behind the leaves ‘It’s pretty, but is it Art?’”

-Rudyard Kipling

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