Hitchens elevates Hilary Mantel to “the very first rank of historical novelists” in a long consideration of Wolf Hall.
Hitch Hearts Hilary
Move It
“These days, nothing says amateur hour quite like an alphabetical bookshelf.” Sloane Crosley does not have packing tips for you, though she does have some book recommendations.
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Postscript
Just before he died earlier this year, Nobel winner Günter Grass completed his last manuscript, Vonne Endlichkait, “a literary experiment” that combines prose, poetry, and illustration. The book has just been published in German and will be available in English next year.
The Limits of Good Taste
In his review of a collection of rejected New Yorker covers titled Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant To See, Jeet Heer details the magazine’s history of straddling the divide between bourgeoisie complacency and bohemian angst.
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Soda Series
Tonight at 7pm in Prospect Heights’ Soda Bar: the 10th installment of the Soda Series. Short readings followed by conversation from Roberta Allen, Robin Grearson, John Haskell, and Kirsten Kaschock. The conversations will be moderated by John Dermot Woods and Greg Gerke. The Series also has a Facebook page.
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Hustle and Flow
“Notice how Malbecco, as Gelosy, lives outside of time, a death-in-life: he can ‘never dye, but dying lives.’ In other words, embrace a quality entirely—even, I would argue, a less pejorative quality, like hustle—and it overmasters you. You’re doomed.” Rowan Ricardo Phillips, basketball columnist for The Paris Review, on Edmund Spenser, hustle, and the New York Knicks.
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Best American Books On Sale
Pretty good deal on Amazon today: All the e-book versions of the “Best American” books are $1.99.
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