More lists of the top books of 2009 are coming out. Now up: Amazon’s favorites. Tops on their list is Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin, recently named a National Book Award finalist.
More Top Books for 2009
Revenge Book Trailer
Behold the creepy beauty of the book trailer for Revenge, Yoko Ogawa’s latest collection of stories. It’s a collection haunted not only by the shadow of Haruki Murakami, writes NPR’s Alan Cheuse, but also “the shadow of Borges.”
Unofficial
For Perry Link, it was embarrassing to read Eileen Chang for the first time, because her work revealed things about China it took him too long to learn on his own. In The New York Review of Books, he writes about how Naked Earth, which the magazine’s publishing arm is republishing in June, cut through the jargon of Chairman Mao’s regime. FYI, Jamie Fisher wrote an essay on the book for The Millions.
The Queens of Repulsive Realism
A new wave of "Repulsive Realism" features characters who manufacture and revel in their own mire and rebel against packaged femininity.
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Students and Reading
If we can’t teach students to read, should we try teaching more modern books?
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Douglas Stuart on Writing in Secret
The Shuggie Bain author grew up in a culture that discouraged boys from reading. His debut novel just won the Booker Prize.
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Crowdsourcing a Book
Important Indiegogo Alert: Kenneth James is editing the personal journals of novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany in a five-volume series. The first volume is complete, and James is asking for a bit of help to complete the second. Neil Gaiman has offered substantial monetary support.
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A Voice for the Voiceless
“Their reporting led to Mr. Weinstein’s firing and set off a national conversation about the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment.” New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey will publish a book with Penguin Press about the recent sexual abuse and harassment allegations that have rocked the country. From our archives: Hannah Gersen‘s essay about seeing and hearing women in film.