In the ongoing saga that is the debate over whether blog writers are parasitical hacks or legitimate voices, there’s a new article in the LA Times that sides with the bloggers. Jay Rosen, a professor at NYU (as an alumnus, I cheer), has taken issue with Michael Skube’s assertion that all blogs are useless attempts […]
In the September issue of Harper’s magazine there’s an excellent article on the recent Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk, written by Christopher de Bellaigue (also check out the photo essay of Turkey on the pages preceding it). Alas, it’s not available online or I would link. The article, “There is no East” is less about […]
O.J. Simpson’s quasi-confessional memoir about how he would have killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman, has found a home: Beaufort Books, a vanity publisher (although in this case, it’s not exactly vanity – more like debasement). If the book actually sells, Judith Regan will strut and feel justified. But […]
The Boston Globe checks out Jean Thompson’s new collection of short stories, Throw Like a Girl, a title that should not be mistaken for any flavor of chick-lit. Thompson excels at portraying characters too easily betrayed by those they hoped to love and be loved by, too unobservant or naive to notice the thunderbolts poised […]
Frank Conroy’s Stop-Time is being filmed. That memoir made me feel like I had much too wonderful of a childhood to become a real writer. Hope the movie makes it through all the Hollywood hoops. (via Earthgoat) Catch the discussion on Triangle by Katherine Weber over at the Litblog Co-op, and if you haven’t started […]
Greetings everyone. I’ve back from a very long and rather physically exhausting trip to South America, though I have the stories and Mrs. BookFox has the pictures to prove we had a good time (I will link to Flickr once we upload). Many thanks to my wonderful guest posters who held down the fort and […]
No one belongs here more than me. That’s what I kept telling myself while staring at the bright and shiny cover. Really, it was shiny. I could just about see my nose in the binding. An appeal to the reader—look I want you to read this book so much that I will show you how […]
Stephanie Harrison’s Adaptations Collection.This is an interesting book I saw awhile back. A collection of thirty-five short stories that have been adapted into classic movies. From “All About Eve” to “Minority Report.” I’ve always heard the idea professed that – in terms of adaptation – the worse the novel, the better the movie. The idea […]
To often I have been finding in my recent reading we focus on ‘invoking the muse’ rather than actually ‘being creative’. Everyday there is another book published about how to become or get creative. Rather than the fluffy titles that the books now have, they should read "How to be Creative in Just Three Easy […]
Mucho gracias to my witty and wonderful guest posters. I will just briefly interrupt their reign of wisdom to weigh in with another Dispatch From Abroad, this time with my promised post about Roberto Bolano. I have been reading Bolano in Chile, simply because he´s Chilean and I wanted my reading to match my travels. […]
