New from Stephen Fry: Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All, a book recounting his travels in America while filming the BBC series of the same name–enlighteningly and entertainingly reviewed at The Washington Times. Includes the shocking revelation that Fry very nearly became an American!
I’m an Alien
Granta’s Horror Issue
Granta‘s “Horror” issue was published just in time for Halloween, and I can’t think of a better way to whet your appetite than to read Daniel Alarcón‘s “The Ground Floor.”
In This Here Place
“In this here place, we flesh; … Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don’t love your eyes; they’d just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it.” Toni Morrison‘s Beloved as featured in a powerful essay by Allyson Hobbs for The Root about black life, Philando Castile, “and the trauma that remains.” See also: a consideration of parallels between Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic and The Odyssey.
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Never Before Seen
The world’s oldest multicolor print book has just been opened for the very first time, and what does one do with a never-before-seen artistic treasure? Scan and upload it to the internet, of course.
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Similes Like Bombs
Senior New York Times book critic Dwight Garner talked with Prospect Magazine about his career and the literary landscape. Of the new online critical publications, which ones did the interviewer single out for compliments? Answer: the LARB and The Millions. (Aw.)
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Beltway Books
Editors and critics at The Washington Post put together a sixteen-image slideshow of books “to help introduce” our nation’s capital. This seems like the perfect excuse to try out my new favorite thing on the internet: the Slideshow De-Slide-ifier by ClusterFake.
Bulletproof
“When a female politician’s worst crime is to be unlikeable and uncompassionate, how much rationality and coldness is acceptable for women intellectuals and artists? Just how tough is tough enough?”