Amazon just picked its 2011 “Best Books of the Year So Far.”
Best Books ‘So Far’
New David Mitchell Cover
David Mitchell’s anticipated novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, now has a cover. It appears rather dreamy and influenced by Japanese art.
●
●
Out of Service
Recommended viewing: Katrina Whalen’s short film adaptation of Charles Portis’s “I Don’t Talk Service No More.” Pair with our own Bill Morris’s review of Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.
●
●
Book Picker Book Picker Pick Me A Book
It’s time for NPR‘s Book Concierge again! The interactive site will help you sort the year’s releases by about a gazillion criteria, including “book club ideas” and the seriously great “seriously great writing.”
She was the shadow of the waxwork lain
A waxwork being billed as “the most accurate likeness of author Jane Austen” ever created has been unveiled at her museum in Bath, England.
●
●
History of the Most Widely Used Font
Katherine Eastland has written an interesting piece on the history of Times New Roman.
●
●
Catch ‘Em All
“I can locate the remnants of two or three abandoned cars that haven’t moved in a year, a couple of defunct pay phones, several tire piles, and at least one trashed couch that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.” Rob Walker on playing Pokémon Go in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.
Birnbaum and Giraldi
Robert Birnbaum talks to William Giraldi, author of Busy Monsters, about Val Kilmer, Diana Ross, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, among other topics.