Simon & Schuster has posted an excerpt of John Irving’s forthcoming novel In One Person.
‘I’m going to begin by telling you about Miss Frost.’
Books As Balm
The New York Times reports that actress Carrie Fisher's books have risen to the top of Amazon's bestseller lists following news of her death. Fisher penned the memoirs Wishful Drinking, Shockaholic, and The Princess Diarist, which just came out last month, as well as several novels, including the book-made-movie Postcards from the Edge. Our own Lydia Kiesling included Postcards on a reading list for her short-lived celebrity book club a few years back.
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Dead Father
Recommended Reading: Susan Choi on a resurrected stage adaptation of Donald Barthelme's novel Snow White.
A Necessary Delirium
"A dark and insane fantasy about the players large and small who populated our post-9/11 landscape, it's not just the book we've maybe wanted but possibly the book we've needed — a strange lens to help us understand who we were, what we've done and who we may yet become." Nathan Deuel reviews Mark Doten's The Infernal (which Adam Fleming Petty reviewed for the Millions here) for the LA Times.
An Opportunity to Recant
Every book reviewer has probably, at one point or another, savaged a book a bit too savagely. But if given the opportunity, would you recant? Would you admit that you’d overstepped? Would you feel good about doing so? At an event last month, Snowball’s Chance author John Reed hosted an event at which NBCC critics did exactly that.
Literary Threads
Literary-minded t-shirt purveyor Kafkacotton has a new t-shirt out. This one is a clever nod to Kerouac's On the Road.
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Writing About Oneself
Recommended Reading: Karl Ove Knausgaard and Sheila Heti discuss literary ambition and the price of success.