Issue three of The Critical Flame has arrived. Richard Nash’s review of Ted Striphas’ The Late Age of Print is a highlight.
New Critical Flame
Branching Out
I’ve written before about Wolf in White Van, the new novel by Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle. But there’s another book out by a prominent artist in a field other than writing: Consumed by David Cronenberg, the director of A History of Violence. Sam Costello reviews the new book over at Full-Stop.
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New Hosseini Novel
Khaled Hosseini, author of both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has a new book coming out next May. And the Mountains Echoed will be “a multigenerational novel revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers”
Will the real Don Draper please stand up?
Chicago Magazine‘s charming 2009 profile of Draper Daniels, a.k.a. the real life Don Draper, written by Myra Janco Daniels, a.k.a. his wife.
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Antony Gormley, Suicide Artist
According to the New York Post, a new installation by British artist Antony Gormley–life-sized, cast iron sculptures of men placed on rooftops and building ledges around the city–has caused some New Yorkers and NYPD officers to take the sculptures for live jumpers. Oh, the price of art!
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Tangled Legacy
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of The Yellow Wall-Paper and Herland, is known for her feminist classics—but she was also a devotee of eugenics.
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Book Ninjas
On Monday we mentioned that the MTA has started offering free e-books underground as part of its Subway Reads program, but they weren’t the first to make books an integral part of the public transit experience. London’s Books on the Underground was first, but then came a more interesting development in Australia: book ninjas. Books on the Rails is a gonzo experiment started by two Melbourne residents who began releasing free books – actual, paper books – into the wilds of the city’s tram system. About 300 books are currently in circulation in what’s possibly the world’s most open lending library.
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