Adam Levin, author of the years-in-the-making The Instructions, steps into the spotlight.
A Modest Debut
27 letters
Here’s a letter that no longer finds itself at home in our alphabet, & yet we use it everyday.
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We Can’t Wait to Compare It to Its British Version
Every now and again, book designers allow themselves a little fun. This is one of those times. Behold David High’s cheeky cover for Florence Williams’ Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, out this May from W. W. Norton & Co. (via)
Professor Díaz
Junot Díaz has criticized MFA programs for being “too white.” So what’s on his syllabi? Salon found the syllabi for the two courses Díaz teaches at MIT. In his fantasy world-building class, students read everyone from Bram Stoker to Octavia Butler. His advanced fiction course includes stories by Edwidge Danticat and Roberto Bolaño. Where can we sign up?
Football Book Club: Maggie Nelson’s ‘The Argonauts’
This week, Football Book Club is taking it to the next level: They’re reading Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts and posting about Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half. If you’re keeping score at home, that means this week is All Brosh, All the Time. Also, as per usual, they will not be watching the NFL and not liking it one bit.
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Revolutionary Word
Lewis Lapham, namesake and founder of Lapham’s Quarterly, has compiled a “revolutionary reading list.”
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First Lines of the New Gary Shteyngart
Here are the first lines of the new Gary Shteyngart novel, Super Sad True Love Story, forthcoming in July: “Today I’ve made a major decision: I am never going to die. Others will die around me. They will be nullified. Nothing of their personality will remain. The light switch will be turned off.”