The Observer profiles Baumbach père: Jonathan, that is, whose new novel, Dreams of Molly, is out in May from Dzanc books.
You Don’t Shoot the Beard!
Not Halloween, Halloween-ish
At The Hairpin, Edith Zimmerman tries her hand at spooky short fiction.
Seducing, Conquering, Discovering
An heroic L Magazine contributor read all 1,597 pages of Jan Kjaerstad's Wergerland Trilogy (brought to you by our friends at Overlook and Open Letter) to bring you this review.
Melatonin, Menthol Lights, Jungle Gyms
At Trickhouse's Back Room, Ian Ganassi lists life's essentials, along with a few I could do without.
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Google Hangout with Gene Luen Yang
If you like comic books, diverse characters and / or our recent article on Gene Luen Yang, pay close attention to the internet on Monday afternoon. Yang will be part of a Google Hangout on the 4th to talk about his book Boxers & Saints with a reporter TIME for Kids and BookUp, two outlets for young readers, and the chat can be streamed live beginning at 2pm EST.
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Whitman Illuminated
Speaking of innovative publishing, Tin House released a new edition of Whitman's "Song of Myself" illustrated by Allen Crawford on May 16th. There's a book trailer, and selected pages from the finished book can be seen here.
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The Humanity of Books
"To me a book is not just a particular file. It’s connected with personhood. Books are really, really hard to write. They represent a kind of a summit of grappling with what one really has to say. And what I’m concerned with is when Silicon Valley looks at books, they often think of them as really differently as just data points that you can mush together. They’re divorcing books from their role in personhood." Digital pioneer and theorist Jaron Lanier fears that the Internet might be destroying not just literature, but also the middle class.
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