Word nerds will likely dig Slate’s new language-focused podcast, Lexicon Valley, with Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo.
Slate’s New Language Podcast
Very Short Story Contest
Want a chance to win $200 and a shot at glory? Consider entering The Coffin Factory’s “Very Short Story Contest.” The deadline is August 15th.
Wilkinson on Larsen
At the Washington Times, Emily Colette Wilkinson reviews Reif Larsen’s The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.
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Tuesday is New Release Time
A good week for new releases: John McPhee’s new, more personal collection of essays, Silk Parachute, Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask, and, of course, our own Sonya Chung’s debut Long for This World. All three of these books were on our “Most Anticipated” list for 2010. New in paperback today is Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn.
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The IMPAC Dublin Longlist
As of this morning, the 2014 IMPAC Dublin longlist is out, and the titles that made the final cut are an eclectic assortment. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (which we reviewed) made the cut, as did The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (which won the Pulitzer earlier this year) and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (which won the Booker Prize).
Pulitzer Playlist
Soundtracks make for excellent background music when writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Junot Díaz wrote his first book with the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack on loop, he said during an interview with The Daily Beast.
WWII-era NYC… In Living Color
These color photographs of WWII-era New York City may rival those color photographs of pre-revolutionary Russia.
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Quick Links
Patrick Reardon looks at 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die for the Chicago Tribune, and decides he wants to add his own favorites. Check out his eclectic list at the end of the piece. (thanks Steve)Maud mentioned off-hand that she abandons 95% of the books she starts before page 50. Sandra posted that this was “quite a failure rate,” and Maud responds in the comments that in this case she was “pining for a very specific kind of manic reading experience that happens for me maybe ten times a year now rather than every few days, as it did when I was a child.”Dogbert writes a book: “It’s part fake autobiography and part plagiarism” (via H2O)Pinky is about to start an MFA program at Pitt. The reading list looks excellent.Harper Lee will have an item in O of all places. According to the AP story, “a letter for Oprah Winfrey’s magazine on how she became a reader as a child in a rural, Depression-era Alabama town.” It’s for the July “special summer reading issue.”
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