The big literary new release this week is Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder. Also recently out is Gertrude Stein’s long-lost oddity for children, To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays. New in paperback is John Brandon’s Citrus County.
Tuesday New Release Day: Patchett, Stein, Brandon
Tuesday New Release Day: Lee; Jiles; McCarthy
New this week: The Boy Who Escaped Paradise by J.M. Lee; News of the World by Paulette Jiles; and The Hollow Men by Rob McCarthy. For more on these and other new titles, go read our latest fiction and nonfiction book previews.
Always Label Your Milk
Among other things he left out of his famous poem, William Carlos Williams failed to give us any details about the kitchen in which he ate plums. At The Toast, Mallory Ortberg rewrites the poem so it takes place in a communal dorm kitchen.
Lethem on Dyer
Jonathan Lethem‘s profile of Geoff Dyer for BOMB Magazine is available online for a limited time only.
A Community of Introverts
“What I want to know is, since when does making art require participation in any community, beyond the intense participation that the art itself is undertaking? Since when am I not contributing to the community if all I want to do is make the art itself?” Meghan Tifft gives voice to the struggle of the introverted writer in an essay for The Atlantic.
We’re Going with “Greatest”
“The actress and author of a new children’s book, The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, has contemplated throwing the writer Michel Houellebecq across a room.” Great NYT subhead or greatest NYT subhead?