The Seattle Times reviews The Will to Climb by Bainbridge Island mountaineer Ed Viesturs (with David Roberts), which chronicles what it takes to climb Annapurna, a particularly challenging Himalayan peak. Viesturs appears tonight at Town Hall Seattle.
The Will to Climb
Whaleship Essex to Become BBC Documentary
The true story of the Whaleship Essex – which was deftly recounted in Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 book In the Heart of the Sea – will soon be adapted into a 90-minute documentary for the BBC. As avid whale watchers already know, the plight of the Essex is what ultimately inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. You can get an overview of the disaster at Melville House’s blog, Moby Lives. (How appropriate!)
Rote She Wrote
At The NYT Mag, Virginia Heffernan's "Drill, Baby, Drill" explores the possibility that drills and memorization might not be quite as oppressive as some of the kinder, gentler pedagogues of our time suggest and offers a list of aps to help aspiring rote learners (Nota Bene: VerseByHeart).
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Faulkner and the Black Arts Movement
Frank Kovarik explores the controversy over whether Faulkner was racist and why Faulkner was singled out for these charges.
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Nobel Odds
Bob Dylan is a 25-1 dark horse, while Peter Handke looks good at 201-1; place your bets now. (via GalleyCat)
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More Praise for Alina Bronsky
Following up on our look at the German literary landscape, Three Percent publishes a glowing review of Alina Bronsky's Broken Glass Park.
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