Readerville

The Neglected Books Page

Our Blog of the Week

If you’re familiar with our Ode to a Lesser-Known Genius series, you know we love an underappreciated gem. But then, what serious reader doesn’t? The beauty of literature is that it’s a seemingly bottomless treasure trove, always ready to be mined. But then, how does one mine a trove that vast? The Neglected Books Page — “Where forgotten books are remembered” — is here to help. The unnamed editor of the site is amassing recommendations gleaned from a wide variety of sources — books, essays, articles, roundups, small publishers, other blogs — so what you’ll find is a wealth of titles, excerpts, links and quotes. That it’s quirkily organized adds to the sense that it’s a bit bottomless itself, but clicking discursively around is a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

[To nominate a blog, email editor at readerville. Please do not send more than once, and please also understand that, due simply to volume, we cannot reply to every email.]

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Here are the first stills released from the set of the film of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Viggo as the father? Perfect casting. Pics from Premier (France) and Row 3. See also: At World’s End, Honing a Father-Son Dynamic.

Wyatt Mason’s in-depth commentary about the recent Franzen/Wood thing at Harvard. For someone who claims to disdain big corporate monopolies, Franzen spends a lot of time in the mainstream media.

Reimagining Henry James

The Odd Shelf #76
By Gayla Bassham

Who knew the life of Henry James would be such a hot commodity in the twenty-first century? The author known for long, discursive turns of phrase seems an odd fit with an era known for acronyms and emoticons. But since 2004, at least a half-dozen novels and short stories have been centered on James’ life and work. And pity poor Michiel Heyns, whose 2004 novel about James was never published because Colm Toibin and David Lodge had beaten him to the punch.

Hot Topics for 05.29.08

>> 800-word Harry Potter prequel to be auctioned
... along with miniature works by Doris Lessing, Neil Gaiman, Tom Stoppard, Margaret Atwood and others, each contained on a postcard.

>> Why we still need the spirit of the Sixties
Michael McClure on the lasting relevance of the Beats.

>> The book of revelations
Zadie Smith salutes George Eliot.

>> Wanna Buy a Book?
Why yes, I do, actually.

“Jack Gance” by Ward Just

The Year of Reading Politically | #5 of 12: the 1980s
By Paul Clark

Ward Just has written over a dozen novels that use politics or political service in one way or another as the skeleton for the plot. But his novels aren’t political thrillers or tales of espionage or roman à clefs about Washington, DC. In most of his novels — and Jack Gance is a good example — the characters’ lives swirl around politics, but the drama isn’t in the politics. It’s in how the characters interact with each other.

Jack Gance is a political coming-of-age novel, following Gance from his childhood in the 1940s to the late 1980s. His journey progresses from the stately setting of the university, to the smoked-filled rooms of downtown Chicago, to the august buildings of Washington, DC, and then back to slightly less smoked-filled rooms when he returns to his home state to run for office.

Hot Topics for 05.28.08

>> New James Bond book publishes today
Literary novelist Sebastian Faulks says he wrote the 007 thriller Devil May Care in six weeks. The Guardian reviewer likes it. The LA Times looks at the context.

>> McClellan Book Blasts White House
... as you’ve no doubt heard. But have you heard about Goodnight Bush? GalleyCat talks to the creators.

>> Harvard Book Store for sale
After nearly 50 years in charge, Frank Kramer seeks a new owner for the profitable store.

“A Handful of Dust” by Evelyn Waugh and “The Day of the Locust” by Nathanael West

Most Coveted Covers #176
By D.G. Strong
[Part 3 of 3]

Anyone who has ever taken even the most basic design class has probably heard the following criticism: don’t be so literal. Meaning that if a book is called The History of Cats, you don’t necessarily have to put a cat on it. It’s a philosophy I generally agree with; a little mystery in design is almost always a good thing. But! Sometimes the literal way to go is the only way, as evidenced by these two covers for New Directions by Alvin Lustig. The 1945 edition of A Handful of Dust and the 1950 edition of The Day of the Locust are almost laughably obvious — seriously, if you had told me that anyone could illustrate the cover of A Handful of Dust with, well, a handful of dust, I would have laughed in your face. Ask anyone who’s read it what The Day of the Locust is about and the first thing they say is “Hollywood.” So Lustig thought for what, five seconds? before glitzing up a few simple building shapes and then putting a swarm of locusts up there behind the light-bulb letters. It’s a sneaky decision on Lustig’s part because they’re borderline deceptive. Someone might pick up this edition of Locust and think, “oh, this should be glitzy and fun!” and then of course the opposite ends up being the case — it’s pretty much a stomach-punch of a book.

I think it takes a lot of confidence to design this way, so openly and illustratively. It’s almost the way a child would interpret the actual titles, only with an added veneer of sophistication. Like almost every project Alvin Lustig touched, the result seems almost inarguable — as tends to be the case with perfection.

Note: If you’re interested in seeing a wide range of Lustig’s work, this archive is essential. And will probably end up being the guidebook for the collection you’re no doubt about to start ...

—D.G. Strong is a regular contributor to The Readerville Journal and Forum.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

Hot Topics for 05.27.08

>> Hanif Kureishi slams creative writing courses
... calling them “the new mental hospitals.”

>> A thriller in ten chapters
Robert McCrum on the end of his 10 years as literary editor of The Observer.

>> Dazzling Effects and Welcome New Features in Delicious Library 2
Mac app lets you catalog books (and more) by simply holding them up to your webcam.

You Can Quote Me On This

Flashback | The Readerville Journal, November/December 2002
By David Masello

Illustration by Mignon Khargie

I live with someone who collects toy cars — 4,255 and counting, all parked in a one-bedroom apartment. I collect one thing: quotes I find in books, articles and letters. When I’ve finished reading something, I search out my marginalia brackets and record those passages in a quote journal. Even though I read scores of books a year, my single journal, begun a decade ago, is just half full.

I’m highly selective about what I keep. As my partner tells me, there are two kinds of toy car collectors: those who must have everything, and those, like himself, who collect only what they like. Although I’ll sometimes photocopy an entire Mary Oliver poem or write out a page from a Truman Capote novel, most of what gets recorded is no longer than a sentence. The quotes are my objects, albeit intangible ones, whose value and purpose lie in their intrinsic abilities to conjure.

The Week in Reviews

A compendium of notable reviews
by Kat Warren

>> “Dear American Airlines” by Jonathan Miles
from The Chicago Tribune
You might call this a just-in-time novel considering American’s latest luggage announcement.

>> “Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population” by Matthew Connelly
from The Economist
“The road to controlling population growth in the 20th century was paved with good intentions and unpleasant policies that did not work.”

>> “The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry
from The Guardian
“Joseph O’Connor is impressed by Sebastian Barry’s lyrical and energetic novel of troubled Irish memories.” [O’Connor is Sinéad's brother.]

Books in New York

Our first-ever Blog of the Week

Books in New York’s Erik Heywood describes the site as “an ongoing project, working to create a visual catalog of New York City’s bookstores, libraries and book collections, both public and private.” It’s one of those brilliantly focused and simple and still somehow idiosyncratic concepts that always make the best blogs. Heywood seems to know everywhere there is a find a book in NYC, and he’s sharing that knowledge in the form of photos and write-ups of everything from the Strand’s Central Park stalls to the Union Square B&N to street vendors and much, much more. With a linked list of locations, it’s the perfect guide for anyone in or visiting New York, and a vicarious tour for everyone else. It’s also just nice to see someone paying attention to the places that are still selling and promoting books, when there’s so much focus on those that are closing their doors.

[To nominate a blog, email editor at readerville. Do not send more than once and please understand that, due simply to volume, we cannot reply to every email.]

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Both Torque Control and The Valve posted fine summaries of the Science Fiction as Literature symposium that took place at London’s Gresham College on May 8th. The speakers were Neal Stephenson, John Clute, Dr. Roger Luckhurst, Andy Sawyer, Dr. Martin Willis and Professor Tim Connell. As usual, some of the most interesting points about the speakers’ papers appear in both blogs’ comment sections. Some may find it dry reading, but I found the discussions about Wells vs. James and the absence of a female presence on the panel of special note.

PBS has posted its video interview with Kurt Vonnegut. If you’re video impaired, the transcript is available. They also have an audio clip of the author reading from Slaughterhouse Five, links to his Guardian page, reviews and much more.

Hot Topics for 05.22.08

>> Who killed the literary critic?
Louis Bayard and Laura Miller “discuss snobbery, how to make criticism fun and the need for cultural gatekeepers.”

>> The dawn of the bookie prize
On the increasing prominence and significance of bookmakers’ odds on British book prizes.

>> When Harry met sexism
Does the world have a problem with female fantasy writers?

Fiction with a Spanish Accent

The Odd Shelf #75
By Kat Warren

For reasons many at Readerville tire of hearing, I’ve a penchant and a half for English-language fiction in which Spanish words and phrases enrich the text with lilt and grace. Do not take this to be comparable to erudite literature in which entire paragraphs of Greek or Latin are presented to the reader, who is then expected to translate on the fly. Most readers can’t, so we get all huffy about language stuff. No, this is the judicious use of words and phrases here and there that communicate to the reader that the world in the story is parsed in a different language — one redolent of accent and attitude.

Revisiting the Ebook Question

Whatever you may think of Amazon’s Kindle, it seems to have pushed the core reading population very near some indefinable tipping point, judging by the Readerville community. For years, we, collectively, have resisted the idea of ebook devices, clinging to our love of the printed book — a love that extends beyond that aspect (the actual content) that can be reproduced electronically.

Hot Topics for 05.20.08

>> Greats of US literature pressed into diplomatic service
The State Department and the NEA have put together a literary cultural exchange with Egypt — we’ll read one of their books; they’ll read three of ours.

>> Why I’m not allowed my book title
Lawrence Hill on how The Book of Negroes became Someone Knows My Name.

>> Lost Media, Found Media
Alissa Quart wonders what’s to become of the long-form literary-journalistic article so many of us love.

“The Pesthouse” by Jim Crace

Most Coveted Covers #175
By Karen Templer

I know, I know. If I’m not chastising people for the pretty-stock-photo-and-letterspaced-white-type approach, I’m praising them for it. What do you want from me? The fact is, it’s become a cliché because when it’s good, it’s really good. That doesn’t make it any less of a cliché! Anyway, The Pesthouse. The hardcover didn’t do much for me. It was literary, sure — it was also rather inscrutable. And though it tried not to be, it was a little pretty. All in all, a bit of a snore. The paperback, designed by Helen Yentus, may not be the most dynamic cover we’ve seen lately, but it gets the book exactly right. Where the other one was a tiny bit pretty, this one’s a tiny bit spooky. There’s no bird scene in the book, that I recall, but you can’t look at this and not wonder if something’s gone wrong, and if so what. Which is pretty much the book in a nutshell. The type is tasteful and confident; the embossed title is crisp in that way that requires you to run your fingers across it. I’m not sure it will find the book a flood of new readers, but a girl can hope.

—Karen Templer is the founder and editor of Readerville. She’s savoring The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

Hot Topics for 05.19.08

>> The quiet genius of Penelope Fitzgerald
New stories discovered, a book of letters on the way — will her reputation only continue to soar?

>> African-Canadian author wins Commonwealth prize
Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes) and Tahmima Anam (A Golden Age) are this year’s big winners.

Ode to a Lesser-Known Genius: Charles Portis

Flashback | The Readerville Journal, November/December 2002
By Douglas Cruickshank

Illustration by Jeff Crosby

It’s Sunday evening in Petaluma, California, the former Egg Capital of the World, the current World’s Wristwrestling Capital and the site of the World’s Ugliest Dog Championship. I’m eating supper in a gas station that’s been converted into a taqueria when in walks a big man wearing a black cap, black jeans and a black Harley-Davidson T-shirt. He is carrying a small child who’s wearing pajamas decorated with pictures of dinosaurs. The jukebox is blasting mariachi music. The man twirls around several times on his boot heels with the happy child then comes to a stop in front of the cash register. I watch this bit of choreography then go back to my chimichanga, and to Norwood, Charles Portis’ first novel.

A gas station that’s been converted into a taqueria is a perfect place to read Portis because it’s the type of establishment in which his odd, funny, profoundly American characters frequently find themselves in most of his five novels: Norwood (1966), True Grit (1968), The Dog of the South (1979), Masters of Atlantis (1985) and Gringos (1991). They are the books that moved writer Ron Rosenbaum to crown him “perhaps the most original, indescribable sui generis talent overlooked by literary culture in America” and the country’s “least known great novelist.” (Rosenbaum’s laudatory columns in The New York Observer and Esquire encouraged Overlook Press to put all of Portis’ novels back in print.)

The Week in Reviews

A compendium of notable reviews
by Kat Warren

>> “The End of Food” by Paul Roberts
from The New Yorker
Is the world’s food system collapsing?

>> “Netherland” by Joseph O’Neill
from The New York Times Book Review
Dwight Garner pronounces this “the wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction we’ve yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell.”

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

The audience of the NYT's Paper Cuts blog responds with some great quotes, ranging from Aeschylus to Dylan, when asked, “What song or poem, readers, has touched you when you were bereft?”

“A constantly updated and expanding list chosen by writers and readers, Faber Finds aims to restore to print a wealth of lost classics. Books of fiction, poetry, memoir, history, criticism, essays and anthologies — quality writing by authors of distinction, printed only on demand.” Check out the first selections for print, enter a contest to win 5 of the books, and then submit your own suggestions.

“Reprise,” a film by Joachim Trier

By Lisa Peet

Joachim Trier’s debut feature film, Reprise, opens at a self-conscious turning point: Phillip (Anders Danielson Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner), twentyish writers and friends since grade school, are about to drop their respective manuscripts into a yawning Oslo mailbox. The envelopes land inside, launching a rapid-fire, future-conditional, split-screen daydream of how they envision their brilliant careers from that point on: women conquered, literary revolutions sparked, expatriation and reunion, all in the space of a minute. “This is where it all begins,” says Phillip. In a nice touch, when their future-conditional novels are flipped over by an anonymous hand, the black-and-white author photos come to life and grin self-consciously at each other.

Hot Topics for 05.15.08

>> Writer Oakley Hall dies at age 87
The influential author and teacher's books include Warlock and Love & War in California.

>> “It’s All in My Head”
Slate asks: Did Truman Capote and Ralph Ellison have writer’s block — or were they just chronic procrastinators?

I Love My Cover

By Ellen Sussman

I love my book cover.

I’ve never been able to say that before. And damn, it feels good.

Writers dreams of the day when they’ll hold their book in their hands, when they’ll show it to friends, when they’ll see it on the front table of their local independent bookstore. And yet, so many writers I know have confessed a dirty little secret: They don’t like their covers. They’re not usually comfortable talking about this — after all, we’re the lucky writers who actually see our books make it into print. And our publishers are doing so much to make our books succeed (or so we want to think), how can we be unappreciative? Besides, what do we know about marketing? We’re the writers, not the publicists or editors or marketing and sales geniuses, all of whom spent many a long meeting trying to package each book in such a way as to lure every passerby to pick it up, run their hands lovingly over the cover and dash to the cash register.

Hot Topics for 05.14.08

>> Writers Pick Their Favorite Obscure Books
The Voice’s “favorite writers” on what to read this summer that’s not hot off the press.

>> Inherently Subversive
And speaking of obscure writers, Wyatt Mason pens and paean to Josiah Mitchell Morse.

“Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire

Most Coveted Covers #174
By D.G. Strong
[Part 2 of 3]

Lucky you! This week you get another Alvin Lustig masterpiece. There are worse things to have to look at week after week, let me tell you. Like “Two and a Half Men,” for instance! But as the kids say ... anyway. Lustig’s 1951 cover for Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil is, as far as I’m concerned, one of his half-dozen best covers. But I admit it seems silly to try to rank them; they're all fantastic. Flowers of Evil is one of his more literal approaches — he usually abstracted (or ignored) the title almost to the point of absurdity, but he approaches this one pretty directly. The little blobs pretty much look like, well, evil flowers. You get the classic oddball Lustig color scheme that only a crazy person or a genius would think of ... the kind of colors that you're seeing all over the place these days in catalogs, only instead of orange and blue, they call them “tanned hide” and “sea glass.” One reason I like this so much is that it reminds me of other artists who preceded Lustig, as well as some who followed him. It could be a twittery Miro doodle or even a detail of the anxious lines of a Roz Chast cartoon. It's vintage and modern. Vintage-Modern! Someone should start that movement. Oh wait, nevermind. I forgot about Domino magazine. Wait, what was I talking about?

—D.G. Strong is a regular contributor to The Readerville Journal and Forum.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

Hot Topics for 05.13.08

>> What the Times Didn’t Tell You About Steampunk
A spiked article on the same general subject took a closer look at the literary side of things. For fans of the genre, don’t miss our Steampunk Odd Shelf.

>> How to outsource the slush pile
“Just as MySpace allowed bands to succeed without the prior approval and investment of record companies, so [HarperCollins’ new website] will theoretically help separate the unpublished wheat from the chaff.”

>> Bradbury in bronze
Or, rather, one of his characters that is — on display in Pasadena CA.

>> San Francisco is crime central — on the printed page
“A case can easily be made that more crime fiction is now produced in the Bay Area than in any other metropolitan region in the world.”

Hot Topics for 05.12.08

>> “Nobel Prize was a bloody disaster”
Doris Lessing says winning the award stopped her writing. Don’t miss the dramatic photo!

>> Just Business: The fall of book publishing’s last don
On the fall of Peter Olson, “the godfather of Random House.” (They’re really working their metaphor.)

>> Sun never sets on Booker's six best
The list of candidates for the Best of the Booker prize has been narrowed to six.

>> The State of Biography
As seen by Readerville contributor Carl Rollyson.

>> Keith Gessen and Nicholson Baker
Audio interviews from Inside Higher Ed and The Guardian, respectively.

Trailing the Totalitarian Novel

The Odd Shelf #74
By Mara Wiley

The dystopian genre is as time-honored as Prada at the Oscars, with standards like 1984 and Brave New World drawing attention and triggering knockoffs with each high-heeled dig into that red carpet. But A-list dystopian novels of mid-20th-century fame aren’t quite enough for me. My fascination with oppressed individualism and the horrors of absolutism has me looking into the shadowy cordoned-off rows below the award podium. You know, to the “friends and family” section — the grandfathers, cousins and eccentric uncles of these dystopian icons. If "done to death" is the word on totalitarianism in literature, I deleted the memo, because when it comes to roasting The Man, I just can’t get enough.

The Week in Reviews

A compendium of notable reviews
by Kat Warren

>> “The Collected Stories” by Lorrie Moore
from The Guardian
All hail Lorrie Moore!

>> “Universe of Stone: Chartres Cathedral and the Triumph of the Medieval Mind” by Philip Ball
from The London Times
Read this, then see the real thing.

Nuala O’Faolain, RIP

>> Nuala O’Faolain, 68, Irish Memoirist, Is Dead
“Nuala O’Faolain, an Irish journalist who mined a rich vein of longing and childhood suffering in two midlife memoirs and an acclaimed first novel, My Dream of You, died on Friday night in Dublin. ...”

The Trove

Great reads and other finds for the literary-minded
Compiled by Pat D’Amico

Those requiring clarification after reading Denis Johnson’s riveting and ambitious, if sometimes mystifying, Tree of Smoke, might benefit from Philip Connors’ in-depth examination of the National Book Award winner. Denis Johnson’s Higher Power appears in the Winter 2008 Issue of The Virginia Quarterly. Besides being a rare inside look at the reclusive writer’s life, it’s a great primer for Johnson’s body of work. Connors makes a convincing argument for Tree of Smoke as prequel: “Tree of Smoke is many things — Johnson’s magnum opus, a pastiche of Vietnam novels and movies and nonfiction accounts, a philosophical exploration of military intelligence, an atmospheric thriller in the mode of Graham Greene or John Le Carré — but perhaps most interestingly it is the prequel we didn’t know existed to Johnson’s entire body of work. No fewer than eight of its characters have appeared in Johnson’s other novels ... .”

The Books of Summer, part 2A

Yep, that’s right, there’s even more to come
By Pat D’Amico

Early 2008 releases brought us: wonderfully imagined and researched fictional treatments of the lives of Aeneas’ second wife, Lavinia, and Lady Macbeth, a morality tale set among 19th-century fur trappers and gold diggers in British Columbia, a brilliant reimagining of the tragic and turbulent life of Robert Frost, a haunting tale of friendship with literary parallels, a violent night in backwoods Vermont, a bleak, visionary foreshadowing of post-apocalyptic New England, and a futuristic duel where the main character must outwit himself. Well, dust off those library cards, save up those Mother’s and Father’s Day gift certificates, and clip those bookstore coupons, because new and upcoming releases promise more great reading ahead.

Hot Topics for 05.08.08

>> Doubleday, Penguin Try to Revive Bond Series
Sebastian Faulks is the latest author to try his hand at picking up where Ian Fleming left off. Plus: Test your knowledge with The Guardian's Bond quiz

>> Another Happy Day!
In the wake of the latest Beckett staging, Rachel Donadio rounds up YouTube's varied Beckett-related offerings.

>> Magic triumphs over realism for Garcia Márquez
His plans to be done writing novels have been waylaid by a late visit from his muse.

The Lost Century

Excerpted from A Voyage Long and Strange
By Tony Horwitz

The Pilgrims didn’t think much of Cape Cod. “A hideous and desolate wilderness” William Bradford called it. “Full of wild beasts and wild men.” Rather than stay, a small party from the Mayflower sailed ahead, searching for a winter haven. In December 1620, they reached Plymouth, a place “fit for situation,” Bradford wrote. “At least it was the best they could find.”

On a New England road trip a few summers ago, I washed up in Plymouth, too. It could have been Dedham or Braintree or some other pit stop on the highway near Boston. But a Red Sox game pulsed on the radio, so I drove until it ended at the Plymouth exit. Stopping for beer at Myles Standish Liquor, I was directed to the William Bradford Motor Inn, the best I could find in peak tourist season.

Myth and Misadventure: An Interview with Tony Horwitz

By Peter Cashwell

Tony Horwitz’s unique combination of archival research with hands-on history has made his books on the Civil War (Confederates in the Attic) and the exploration of the Pacific (Blue Latitudes) critical and commercial successes. In his newest book, A Voyage Long and Strange, Pulitzer-winner Horwitz devotes his attention to the lesser-known aspects of North America’s exploration, conquest and colonization by Europeans. Giving overdue attention to the Norse and Spanish explorers, whose adventures are typically ignored in favor of the traditional tales of the settlement of Plymouth or Jamestown, as well as to the native peoples whose civilizations were displaced or destroyed by the likes of Columbus and de Soto, the book poses profound questions about the role of history and mythology in American life.

Returning to Readerville for the first time since his discussion of Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz chatted with me by email about A Voyage Long and Strange.

“The End of the Jews” by Adam Mansbach

Most Coveted Covers #173
By Karen Templer

I don’t know what it is about books that use photos of some part of a book for their covers, but it bugs me. Routinely and reliably. And yet, I’m reasonably certain this is at least the second occasion I’ve had to lodge that complaint while Coveting a book that does that very thing. I guess it’s like Padma Lakshmi giving the Quickfire win to whoever it was that made a steak-and-eggs lover out of her: make me like a thing I’m already convinced I don’t, and I have to commend you doubly. In this case, it’s the cover for Adam Mansbach’s The End of the Jews, which I like better and better every time I see it. It’s credited to “Rodrigo Corral Design/Ben Wiseman,” which I take to mean Wiseman did it under Corral’s commission and direction. What they’ve done here is taken book cover imagery and mixed it all up, but in an amusing and (most important) understated way. The front is the spine (cracked apart at its center), and the flaps are the insides of the boards. But the kicker is the spine: the book’s title and the author’s name written out in magic marker on the fore edge of the pages. In truth it’s the spine I love best, or the little joke Wiseman and Corral seem to have struck on: Displayed face-out, what you see is still a spine, but shelved traditionally, the book’s actual spine holds more appeal than the average front cover.

—Karen Templer is the founder and editor of Readerville. Today is the day she'll be cracking open The French Lieutenant's Woman.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

Hot Topics for 05.05.08

>> NBCC Announces the Spring 2008 NBCC Good Reads List
I await everyone’s thoughts on the picks.

>> Genetically-modified assassin takes SF prize
Richard Morgan won the Arthur C. Clarke award for his novel Black Man.

>> His Father’s Siren, Still Singing
A Times Q&A with Dmitri Nabokov about his decision not to burn his father's last work.

>> Cody's & Kepler’s Profiled in PBS Documentary to Premiere at BEA
“Paperback Dreams” will then air on PBS in the fall.

>> ABA Preparing for Tipping Point
Plans include revamping Book Sense, to the point of doing away with the name.

>> Random House Chief to Step Down, Executives Say

South of the Border

The Odd Shelf #73
By Paul Clark

If Mother’s Day is a holiday dreamed up by greeting card manufacturers and flower shops, Cinco de Mayo, like St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest, might easily be a holiday dreamed up by American bartenders. It’s not even a federal holiday in Mexico. No matter — Americans will flock to Mexican restaurants today, and sales of margaritas and tequila will spike. As the following list demonstrates, however, in popular literature Americans and Europeans have a variety of experiences — many of them bad — when they travel to Mexico. If your Cinco de Mayo revelry makes it difficult for you to concentrate on a book, rent the DVD! All but one of these books has been made into a movie.

The Week in Reviews

A compendium of notable reviews
by Karen Templer

>> “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” by Mo Yan
from The New York Times Book Review
The China issue leads off with this "wildly visionary and creative novel" that is "constantly mocking and rearranging itself and jolting the reader with its own internal commentary."

>> “Lavinia” by Ursula K. Le Guin
from Salon
Laura Miller: “In addition to not being one of those books in which a spunky young tomboy learns to kick-box and wield a sword, "Lavinia" is also not a revisionist fiction in which a minor character from a famous book (Mr. Rochester's wife or Dr. Jekyll's maid, for example) finally gets to correct the official record.”

>> “The House on Fortune Street” by Margot Livesey
from The Los Angeles Times
Martin Rubin says Livesey's latest starts well and gets even better from there.

>> “The Hakawati” by Rabih Alameddine
from the San Francisco Chronicle
This one's part review, part interview — about one of the more hotly anticipated books of the season.

And a good Sunday read:
An Original Adventure: The life of Elizabeth Hardwick