“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.”

-Zadie Smith

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Asheville writer and best-seller, Sarah Addison Allen, earns high praise for THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON.

The LA Times keeps current on the latest diet books and profiles, Susan B. Roberts and Betty Kelly Sargent’s THE “I” DIET BOOK: USE YOUR INSTINCTS TO LOSE WEIGHT — AND KEEP IT OFF — WITHOUT FEELING HUNGRY.

‘Tis the season for baseball books and Timothy M. Gay tosses one in - SATCH, DIZZY & RAPID ROBERT: THE WILD SAGA OF INTERRACIAL BASEBALL BEFORE JACKIE ROBINSON.

And Robert Perkinson gives us the compelling history of Lone Star incarceration with TEXAS TOUGH: THE RISE OF AMERICA’S PRISON EMPIRE.

From the Penguin US description:

Fonts. Obsessed? Couldn’t care less? Either way, they affect the way that you feel about what you’re reading. They’re an added layer of communication that we are often unaware of.

Mary Jane McKay looks at the global influence of Irish literature. (CBS News)

Carolyn Kellogg recaps the National Book Critics Circle awards. (LATimes)

Ian McEwan stands his ground in the face of accusations that criticism of Muslims is necessarily racism. (Telegraph)

Catch up on upcoming notable literary releases and events. (The Independent)

John Mullan surveys some of literature’s best men writing as women. (The Guardian)

R.I.P. Gerald Flamm, reporter and author. (San Francisco Chronicle)

“On this day in 1891, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts premiered in London, an event so “controversial and epoch-making,” says biographer Michael Meyer, that it is now regarded as “one of the most famous of theatrical occasions.” Theater historians report that the furor made Ibsen “a household word even among those Englishmen who never went to the theatre or opened a book.”" (Today in Literature)

“Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue.”

-Helen Dunmore

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Turn the coin, if you have the background knowledge, and The Washington Post will recommend Deborah Amos’ ECLIPSE OF THE SUNNIS: POWER, EXILE, AND UPHEAVAL IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Pomona College’s reviewing body wrangles Jodi Picoult’s HOUSE RULES.

Yahoo Sports brings up Peter Morris’ BUT DIDN’T WE HAVE FUN? AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF BASEBALL’S PIONEER ERA, 1843-1870.

Paperback Row from The New York Times lets us in on a look of what’s coming out in softcover.

From the Liverpool Daily Post YouTube description:

Watch our LiveRead video of horror writer Ramsey Campbell reading an extract from his short story, “Laid Down”:

Take a trip back through your childhood with this slideshow of 10 of the best heroes from children’s fiction. (The Guardian)

Jeff Rivera profiles literary agent Michael Bourret. (GalleyCat)

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, to be adapted for the stage. (AP)

Heather Struck chats it up with novelist Jonathan Ames. (Forbes)

Boyd Tonkin surveys the field on the long-list for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. (The Independent)

Vit Wagner looks toward the April 12 announcement of the Commonwealth Writers Prize winners. (thestar.com)

Jason Boog rounds up the results of last night’s National Book Critics Circle awards ceremony. (GalleyCat)

R.I.P. Miguel Delibes, acclaimed Spanish novelist. (AP)

R.I.P. Julia Urquidi, Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Aunt Julia.” (Reuters)

“On this day in 1901 Andrew Carnegie offered New York City $5.2 million for the construction of 65 branch libraries. Of the 56.5 million given by Carnegie for over 2500 libraries in a dozen countries, this was his largest single grant, part of a wider attempt to gainsay those who attacked his “Gospel of Wealth” and to live up to his famous dictum: “The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced.”" (Today in Literature)

“Never begin the book when you feel you want to begin it, but hold off a while longer.”

-Rose Tremain

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The New Republic looks at Bertrand Taithe’s, THE KILLER TRAIL: A COLONIAL SCANDAL IN THE HEART OF AFRICA.

LONELY HEARTS: THE SCREWBALL WORLD OF NATHANAEL WEST AND EILEEN MCKENNEY, by Marion Meade, gets the nod at The LA Times.

ANGELOLOGY, by Danielle Trussoni, is hailed ‘exquisite’.

Roger Rosenblatt gives us, MAKING TOAST: A FAMILY STORY, to good result.

Jennifer Gilmore chats it up with novelist Chang-rae Lee. (The Rumpus)

Wesley Yang profiles historian, author and academic Tony Judt, now two years into his battle with ALS. (New York Magazine)

Australian authors rally around novelist Robert Dessaix, who has been banned from entering China because he is HIV positive. (Telegraph)

AL Kennedy puts one word after another. (Guardian Books Blog)

Go behind the scenes and discover some of the more eclectic parts of the David Foster Wallace archive in Austin. (The Second Pass)

Will Google’s book project change copyright law as we know it? (San Jose Mercury News)

Penguin’s Portfolio imprint launches Current, a new imprint for science books. (GalleyCat)

Winners announced for Best Translated Book Awards. (Three Percent)

“On this day in 1923, James Joyce wrote to his patron, Harriet Weaver, that he had just begun “Work in Progress,” the book which would become Finnegans Wake sixteen years later. When Nora found out that her husband was “on another book again,” she asked if, instead of “that chop suey you’re writing,” he might not try “sensible books that people can understand.”" (Today in Literature)

“Live life and write about life. Of the making of many books there is ­indeed no end, but there are more than enough books about books.”

-Will Self

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The New York Times is reported to have its famous Book Review section in development to splinter off as an eBook subscription.  Being a Nook owner myself, I could very possibly get into that.

GOOGLED: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, by Ken Auletta, traces the history and projects the future trajectory of the internet giant, Google.

Jonathan Maberry’s THE DRAGON FACTORY is a countdown-to-destruction thriller that The California Literary Review recommends just the sheer fun of it.

And Kelly Corrigan pulls all the right heartstrings in her parenting memoir/commentary, LIFT.

The talk show host and comedienne discusses her third book, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang:

Alexandra Alter chats it up with Elif Batuman about her interesting debut novel, The Possessed—a “tongue-in-cheek account of her study of Russian literature.” (Wall Street Journal)

Kudos on 50 years to Phoenix Literary Magazine. (TNJN)

Canadian novelist and essayist Ralston Saul takes South Korea’s prestigious Manhae Grand Prize for Literature. (The Globe and Mail)

Better late than never: Mark Sanderson’s weekly roundup of tidbits in “Literary Life”. (Telegraph)

M.A. Orthofer posts the shortlist for the Best Translated Book Award, the winner of which will be announced tonight. (The Literary Saloon)

Actress and musician Hilary Duff to pen a YA series for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. (GalleyCat)

New York Times Book Review to be made available for eReaders. (Poynter Online)

Sam Jordison makes “the ecological case for ebooks.” (Guardian Books Blog)

Tom Roberge looks back at how Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke met and made history. (The Rumpus)

“On this day in 1948, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, and eight other patients were killed in a fire at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. This was eighteen years after Zelda’s first mental breakdown and eight years after Scott’s fatal heart attack — a world away from the Jazz Age they helped to define, and which helped to defeat them.” (Today in Literature)

Just got word that Christina Meldrum’s excellent debut YA novel, MADAPPLE, was released today in paperback.  I interviewed Christina back in the summer of 2008 for the hardcover release and was so impressed that I hunted her down for our ‘5 Minutes Alone’ segment last March.

MADAPPLE keeps rolling, and well it should.  Congratulations, Ms. Meldrum.  Looking forward to more from you, for certain.

“The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.”

-Jonathan Franzen

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The Washington Post mostly endorses Chang-rae Lee’s fourth novel, emotionally wringing as it may be, THE SURRENDERED.

Harry Markopolos claims to have tried to wave the warning over Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in NO ONE WOULD LISTEN.  The Wall Street Journal seems to find Mr. Markopolos a bit more interesting perhaps(and not for flattering reasons) than his intended target.

Environmental viral video goes inevitably to print: THE STORY OF STUFF: HOW OUR OBSESSION WITH STUFF IS TRASHING THE PLANET, OUR COMMUNITIES, AND OUR HEALTH - AND A VISION FOR CHANGE.

The Trades praises DC Comic’s release of a primer - DC ORIGINS UNIVERSE.

From the GalleyCat description:

So you think you can design a book cover? Just push play to watch the six-hour process unfold at superspeed.