In honor of the U.S. District Court’s striking down of Proposition 8, Carolyn Kellogg at Jacket Copy lists 20 classic works of gay literature. (via AuthorScoop)
20 Classic Works of Gay Literature
Join David Bowie’s Book Club
David Bowie was quite the avid reader. In his honor, his son, Duncan Jones, has launched an online book club that will focus on books Bowie enjoyed. The first book is Hawksmoor and the discussion is on February 1st. Will you be participating?
Strike Back
"What women do in the books mentioned here doesn’t consist of survival so much as sabotage. They throw bricks and rocks and flaming bottles into the chinks of the masculine world machine, then pick up a gun and fire into the turning gears. If rape and other sexual violence, religious servitude, and the politically determined inaccessibility of contraception can be seen as acts of war, stories like these may not just be a means of escapism. In the mind’s eye, they might be weapons, to be picked up, opened, and deployed." At the Boston Review, Elizabeth Hand looks at women who fight back in fiction, from Gone Girl to Medea.
“Put your right hand on the Kindle and repeat after me.”
The weird and fascinating history of books used in swearing-in ceremonies gets its latest entry: the new Ambassador to Switzerland just took the oath on her personal Kindle.
Abandoned Books
This holiday season may set a record for gift returns, and perhaps that's understandable given the economy. But what does it mean if you simply abandon your things instead? A recent survey by Virgin Atlantic reveals which books are most frequently left behind by their passengers, and it raises that very question.
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A Change in Tone
In an illuminating interview for Slate, James Wood revises his opinion on David Foster Wallace and discusses how aging can change critics. As he puts it, “At exactly the moment that I wanted really to write, and started writing poems and then trying to write bad fiction, I was reading with a view to learning stuff. I was reading poetry. How did Auden do his stanza forms? And I was trying to copy those. What’s a successful poem, what’s an unsuccessful poem? […] What’s a good sentence? I don’t think I’ve changed. I am as sincerely interested in novels that fail as I am in novels that succeed. I just want to work them out. It’s a pleasure for me actually.” Top it off with Jonathan Russell Clark’s essay on Wood’s The Nearest Thing to Life.
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Dystopian (Non)Fictions
Alexandra Alter traces how “a bleak, apocalyptic strain of post-revolutionary literature has taken root” in the Middle East following the Arab Spring.
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The Brits Are Wrong…
If you're not watching Masterpiece Theatre's toothsome Emma on Sundays, Jane Austen enthusiasts, you should be. No zombies. We promise.
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In America, the rich are hallowed.
Stephen King's expletive laden plea to pay more taxes.
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This is all very troublesome. Are all readers of literature supposed to be in line with the gay movement now? And what about democracy — that does not count, either? So the votes of 7 million+ Americans mean nothing? How about looking into the gay judge who did this? Oh no, never happen in the lemming-liberal lit’rary world. No wonder you’re irrelevant!
I would add “Martin and John” by Dale Peck a riveting book and a must read
I’d add Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson to Kellogg’s list (a commenter on her post already recommended it, which I’m happy to see–it’s one of the most mesmerizing books.)