At W, a first look at American actress Rooney Mara in character as Lisbeth Salander. The relatively unknown Mara, recently of David Fincher‘s The Social Network, has been cast as Salander to Daniel Craig‘s Mikael Blomkvist in Fincher’s American film version of Stieg Larsson‘s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The obvious question: does Mara have the chops to outshine Noomi Rapace‘s Salander?
The American Salander: Rooney Mara
The Essay Crown
Could James Baldwin be America’s greatest essayist? Ta-Nehisi Coates believes so — at The Atlantic, he argues that The Fire Next Time shows Baldwin committing “amazing acts of intellectual and emotional courage.” (Related: Buzz Poole paid tribute to Baldwin back in 2008.)
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Pun titles for the win
In which Jami Attenberg (whose forthcoming The Middlesteins made it to our big 2012 second half books preview) discusses the outright mockery of Jeffrey Eugenides’s pseudo-famous vest in the web advertising campaign (which–full disclosure–also ran on The Millions) for Jennifer Weiner’s The Next Best Thing: “Hit Me with Your Vest Shot.”
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The Visible Man Trailer
The book trailer for Chuck Klosterman‘s The Visible Man is intense.
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Another story altogether.
Michelle Dean on the love affair between Rebecca West and H.G. Wells.
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Sunday Reading
Booksellers from NYC’s famous indie bookstore McNally Jackson share 5 book recommendations with Harper’s Bazaar. Elsewhere, The Daily Beast has collected the best long reads of the past week.