And so it begins. Will it be enough to make them blink? Too soon to tell:
Kern said it was too early for her to comment on whether the book should be withdrawn. “That’s up to Martin, and I still need to absorb the fact that he was at risk. I’m just so glad he has not been hurt.”
It’s easy enough to say that no book is worth dying for. But what happens to free expression when that attitude prevails?
Quite timely, if you can stomach it, The Economist reviews Charles D. Ellis’ THE PARTNERSHIP: THE MAKING OF GOLDMAN SACHS.
Bookpage Magazine reveals its list of anticipated Fall fiction releases.
LOVE TODAY by Max Biller and translated by Anthea Bell is bookful of vignettes poised to make you look at the state of the contemporary human heart and laugh, cry, shudder and maybe even run away.
Turning Thomas Jefferson’s scandals on their heads, Annette Gordon-Reed, looks to show that what the keepers of history have done with the tale is more worthy of examination in THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO: AN AMERICAN FAMILY.
A MAP OF HOME is the debut novel for Randa Jarrar and a lively look at a teen looking to reconcile a topically charged heritage.
From the YouTube description:
“In honor of Banned Books Week, Gottesman library proudly presents The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1900-2000″:
Note: Each day that one was written, The Orwell Prize will be posting an entry from Orwell’s Diaries on the 70th anniversary of its composition. You can read the AuthorScoop preview here.
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Excerpt from today’s entry:
September 27, 1938 (Marrakech):
All the troops here are said to be standing by and ready to move at a moment’s notice. On the fortified hill immediately west of the town there are guns which command the Arab quarter “in case of trouble”. Nevertheless the local French show an utter lack of interest in the European crisis, so much so as to make it impossible to think that they believe war will break out. There is no scramble for papers, no one broaches the subject of war unless prompted and one hears no conversations on the subjects in the cafes. A Frenchman, questioned on the subject, says that people here are well aware that in the case of war “it will be more comfortable here than in France.” Everyone will be mobilized, but only the younger classes will be sent to Europe. The re-opening of schools has not, as in France, been postponed.
The 27th annual Banned Books Week kicks off today and runs through October 4.
SoCal rediscovers banned books
The American Library Association’s backgrounder.
Amnesty International’s listing of persecuted writers and updates on recent focus cases.
Banned books exhibit in Oakland.
Chicago events with Judy Blume and more.
(Read more of Anne Sexton’s poetry here)
Editor’s note: ‘Midnight Poetry’ is a showcase for work by poets across the spectrum—from the pantheon of literary giants to contemporary, underground and new voices.
If you would like to submit your work for consideration, please see our Submission Guidelines.
“If one wants to write, one simply has to organize one’s life in a mass of little habits.”
- Graham Greene
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If Salon calls it a must-read, we should at least take a look - Kate Atkinson’s new crime novel, WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS, is not to be missed, so they say.
“Flawed, biased and at best partial” but still worthy claims The Arizona Republic of Tom Moon’s 1,000 RECORDINGS TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE.
Bookreporter.com has compiled a lists of books to remember Yankee Stadium by.
I don’t know why, but I rarely find reviews of historical fiction. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough, but Foreward Magazine is featuring one that looks terrific, ALL THE TEA IN CHINA by Kyril Bonfiglioli.
A brand new two-part interview with QTV.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Hat tip to pixie stix kids pix for the laugh of the day.
Sure it’s mean-spirited, perhaps, but sometimes bad is just bad.
And LATAWNYA, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say “NO” to Drugs, my friends, is bad.
But don’t take my word for it. Read it yourself.
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Guardian Book Blog’s Michael Caines takes publishers to task for digging up classic authors’ B-sides.
86-year-old Buddhist nun writes a mobile phone novel.
The Washington Times‘ Kelly Jane Torrance examines the ethical dilemma of reading authors’ unfinished manuscripts without their blessings, in the process drawing an unlikely parallel between Stephenie Meyer and Vladimir Nabokov.
Newsweek profiles Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, wondering (as have others), why the hell—100 years after his death—he remains largely unknown outside of Brazil.
Laura Bush holds final National Book Festival this weekend; George reportedly will sit quietly in the corner and color.
CNN’s Roland S. Martin gives Christian bookstores hell for suppressing a magazine featuring women pastors on its cover.
MU professor proclaims that graphic novels are “contemporary literature”; slacker students no doubt rejoice and begin research papers on “Batman”.
Moscow’s “Big Communist Street” renamed “Solzhhenitsyn Street”; communists pissed.
David Barnett invites us all along for a literary pub crawl.
I Know a Man
(Robert Creeley)
As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking,–John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.
(Read more of Robert Creeley’s poetry here)
Editor’s note: ‘Midnight Poetry’ is a showcase for work by poets across the spectrum—from the pantheon of literary giants to contemporary, underground and new voices.
If you would like to submit your work for consideration, please see our Submission Guidelines.
“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the school-masters of ever afterward.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
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They say photos by Gavin Watson warrent a second look and you can do it conveniently in SKINS & PUNKS: LOST ARCHIVES 1978-1985.
Warcry.com may be a gamers site, but you don’t necessarily have to be such to appreciate artist Ben Boos’ new illustrated ode to SWORDS.
Amazingly, there appears to be still more ways to tell this story and The International Herald Tribune says that Mark Mazower has done it well in HITLER’S EMPIRE: HOW THE NAZIS RULED EUROPE.
Blogcritic’s James O’Neil was impressed with Amity Shales’ THE FORGOTTEN MAN: A NEW HISTORY OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION.
A 10 minute short on the history and aims of Dadaism:
via videosift.com
Charlie Jane Anders over at io9.com has put together an excellent retrospective of dystopian novels in which “conservatives have won” as a counterpoint to the recent look at those in which “liberals have won”.
The pieces are not without their subtle jabs at the current political landscape and are delivered with an undercurrent of humor while honoring, when warranted, the prescience of authors who have wrestled with speculative political fiction.
Enjoy:
Note: Each day that one was written, The Orwell Prize will be posting an entry from Orwell’s Diaries on the 70th anniversary of its composition. You can read the AuthorScoop preview here.
.
Excerpt from today’s entry:
The reason for the galls always present on camels’ joints is that these are what they kneel down on, usually on stones etc. Nearly all camels here also have galled backs. It is said that a camel can often only be managed by one man whom it knows, & that one must at all costs avoid beating them. Relative to size they carry a much smaller load than a donkey. Some of them have flies & maggots burrowing into the galls on their backs, without appearing to notice it. Children also pay very little attention to flies, which are sometimes crusted in sores all round their eyes.
The Washington Post has released the transcript of its chat with Neil Gaiman, talking about his new young adult novel The Graveyard Book.
Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr sets a record for Random House Children’s Books, but falls far short of Harry Potter.
Novelist Ayelet Waldman giving away grab bags of signed books by famous authors in exchange for donating to the Obama campaign.
Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery killed herself with a drug overdose at the age of 67, according to her grandaughter, who revealed the long-held family secret in a recent article for Canada’s Globe and Mail.
In what smacks of almost Orwellian propaganda, China says Tibet’s cultural scene is more robust than ever.
A Dream for Winter
(Arthur Rimbaud)
In the winter, we shall travel in a little pink railway carriage
With blue cushions.
We shall be comfortable. A nest of mad kisses lies in wait
In each soft corner.
You will close your eyes, so as not to see, through the glass,
The evening shadows pulling faces.
Those snarling monsters, a population
Of black devils and black wolves.
Then you’ll feel your cheek scratched…
A little kiss, like a crazy spider,
Will run round your neck…
And you’ll say to me : “Find it !” bending your head
- And we’ll take a long time to find that creature
- Which travels a lot…
(Read more of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry here)
Editor’s note: ‘Midnight Poetry’ is a showcase for work by poets across the spectrum—from the pantheon of literary giants to contemporary, underground and new voices.
If you would like to submit your work for consideration, please see our Submission Guidelines.
“Only a mediocre writer is always at his best”.
-Somerset Maugham
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