Unabashedly Bookish

The Great Mortality and the Specter of Popular History

L_Monty — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:46:20 GMT

Even capably researched history books with nary a fact wrong within them can run into trouble. Sometimes, the way facts are presented can give us the impression that they're crucially related. This kind of narrative "framing" is what can lead a good book about plague, pestilence and death to give you the sense that maybe, possibly... the plague had a motive.

The Sexual Convolution

Michelle_Buonfiglio — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:06:49 GMT

“Sexploit” novels like “Naked Came the Stranger” were panned, but for America on the brink of sexual revolution, perhaps they offered hope.

Reading as Self Defense

IlanaSimons — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:09:06 GMT

I get on the bus home from work at the psychiatric hospital around 4:30, when most of my coworkers also get on. I usually hold a text, which feels almost religious, or barbarous, like a shield in my palms. I'll read The New Yorker, nonfiction (recently: Philip Roth's account of his dying dad), or fiction (recently, short stories). Last week, the head psychiatrist, sitting beside me, caught my eye as I looked up. She said I often hide in my books on the bus ride home. "Why?" she asked. I felt put on the spot.

Who's calling whom a bunch of shrimps?! What to have when you're having more than one.

Ellen_Scordato — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:28:45 GMT

Cows and kine. Hippopotamus and hippopotami. Sheep and sheep. Runners-up and runner-ups. Mothers-in-law. Surgeons general. Yikes! Luckily, your plural questions will "sleep with the fishes" after this exploration.

Let's Have A Round for These Friends of Mine

Jill_Dearman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:43:14 GMT

Joanna Smith Rakoff ruminates on the art of friendship ...

My Own Mr. Right

LisaSteinke — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:40:49 GMT

For years, I devoured Chick Lit novel after Chick Lit novel and rooted for every heroine to find her Mr. Right. As I flipped the pages of those novels, I also hoped that I’d fine mine. After years of failed relationships and colossally awful dates, I hit my 34th birthday and felt like Charlotte from Sex and The City when she screamed, “I’ve been dating since I’m 15. I’m exhausted. Where is he?”

Milton's Last Will

Albert_Rolls — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:55:47 GMT

"The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having received no part of it: but my meaning is, they shall have no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and what I have besides done for them; .they having been very undutiful to me. All the residue of my estate I leave to the disposal of Elizabeth my loving wife."

The Appeal of Old Maps

Toby-Lester — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:15:10 GMT

Maps are a record not just of where we are in the world but also of the places we've been -- on the planet and in our imaginations.

Rhodi Hawk: The New Poet Laureate of Southern Gothic

paulgoatallen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:00:35 GMT

Rhodi Hawk’s debut novel, a fusion of psychological thriller and horror entitled A Twisted Ladder, is nothing short of a dark fantasy masterwork. Sublimely atmospheric, brilliantly plotted, simultaneously ghastly and lyrical, this is as much a work of literary fiction as it is genre fiction….

Hot Or Not? Does An Author’s Looks Influence Sales?

paulgoatallen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:45:36 GMT

Whether one chooses to admit it or not, a person’s physical appearance plays an increasingly significant role in numerous aspects of their life. We make countless snap judgments of people every day – the disheveled homeless guy laid out in the alley with an empty bottle of Thunderbird next to him; the stunning, six-foot tall woman walking down the sidewalk in front of you; the teenaged girl next to you on the subway with tattoos on her neck – it’s just part of being human. Just as we make conclusions about aspects of a person’s appearance, those same people are prejudging us in the same way – forming opinions based on our height, weight, clothing, hair color, demeanor, etc.

Tried by War: Lincoln, the Civil War and the Crisis of Civilian Command

L_Monty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:30:27 GMT

At the end of September, on the conservative website NewsMax, a commentator named John L. Perry began a column with the lede: "There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the 'Obama problem.' Don't dismiss it as unrealistic." Although this sort of rhetoric is deeply unsettling, it's not a unique curiosity in American politics, not even in living memory.

Naked Came the Bestseller

PaulH — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:39:10 GMT

Sex certainly sells, but how about really poorly written sex?

The Hamilton Case and Great Silences

IlanaSimons — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:18:34 GMT

One of the most annoying pieces of advice I've gotten in my effort to write fiction was to make everything more explicit. I was in a writers' group a few years ago, and I was often told to clarify all the physical details in my short stories (What clothes are the characters wearing? Where exactly are we standing in the kitchen?).

A shout out to Grammar Girl!

Ellen_Scordato — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:24:56 GMT

The Grammar Devotional, reviewed

Secret Agent Woman

Jill_Dearman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:49:59 GMT

Many authors, especially those trying to sell a first book would love to get some insight into the agent's mind.

Jane Austen and the Danger of Projecting a World

Albert_Rolls — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:44:01 GMT

On October 30, 1811, around six weeks shy of her 36th birthday, Jane Austen anonymously published her first novel, Sense and Sensibility. . . . Austen would go on to publish three other novels during her life, and others would appear after her death in 1817. What interests me at the moment is not what might seem her late foray into a literary life--thirty-six doesn't really seem as old to me now as it did some twenty odd year ago when I was first introduced to Austen--but her early start, for Sense and Sensibility, besides being a revised and improved version of "Elinor and Marianne," a novel begun in 1795, has its precursor in Austen's "Love and an Freindship," the latter word in the title often being spelled in modern editions as the young Austen, as well as others at the time, spelled it.

Phat Tuesday

Michelle_Buonfiglio — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:17:36 GMT

More than 70 new romance titles drop today. That's great news for you, the economy, and Edith Layton fans.

The Shape of Things to Come (Or, Will Our Future Be One Without Books?)

paulgoatallen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:17:56 GMT

The recent release of Barnes & Noble’s nook – a revolutionary advancement in eBook readers – has got me thinking once again about the future of publishing. Dylan said it best: “the times they are a-changin'.”

Built-In Bookshelves

Bethanne — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:29 GMT

At the moment we’re engaged in renovating our basement, although I hesitate to call it a basement because it’s already finished, and is really more like a second floor. It’s not exactly a “rumpus room” or a den or a separate apartment (for example, it has a bedroom and a bathroom but they’re not connected). It’s a lot of space, and we needed to make that space work better for our family.

Are Short Story Collections Becoming Obsolete? (Or, Can Nick Mamatas Save the World?)

paulgoatallen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:36:07 GMT

If you haven’t figured it out yet after reading my blogs, I’m old. Bald, gray beard, bifocals – the whole nine yards. I grew up in a world before the advent of cable television, video gaming systems, and male enhancement products. Our home phone was connected to the kitchen wall and had a five-foot long cord. For me, “high tech” was my mom’s water-powered toothbrush (it was called an “oral irrigator,” I believe.) I frequently walked to and from school. During the summer, I’d hop on my bike, meet up with a few friends and take off into the endless woodlands near my house to go exploring. We would search for salamanders, snakes, wild raspberry bushes, secret forts with hidden treasures… We would climb the highest trees and explore the deepest, darkest ravines… just as long as we were back in time for dinner.