Sheila Heti interviews astrologer Jonathan Cainer about his craft. He tells her, among other things: “So I can’t honestly say I have an intellectual understanding about how time works. I have a faith in how it works.”
I have a faith in how it works.
Mad Money
Modern day celebrities aren't the only victims of Photoshop. Paula Byrne, a Jane Austen biographer, believes that Austen has been "airbrushed" on her £10 Bank of England note. The portrait makes her look like "a pretty doll with big doe eyes" and diminishes her reputation as an author, Byrne argues.
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Defining American Writing
In TNR, Ruth Franklin attempts to debunk the "strangely antiquated definition of American writing" posited in Dalkey's Best European Fiction anthology. (via)
I’m Sorry?
In his review of Mike Goldsmith’s Discord and Katherine Bouton’s Shouting Won’t Help, Roger Clark Miller (of Mission of Burma) wonders how our world got louder. His analysis? Our use of loud noise as a weapon had something to do with it.
Visible Man
Want to reverse a book ban? Start giving away free copies of the novel at your bookstore. Earlier this week, we reported that Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was taken out of the Randolph County, NC school curriculum. But less than week later, the ban has already been lifted due to intense community backlash and a local bookstore undermining the decision. Board member Matthew Lambeth said, "I felt like I came to a conclusion too quickly."
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Sonya’s Favorite Novel of the Millenium (So Far)
At The Second Pass, check out my review of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, an unsung gem of a novel by Australian writer Carrie Tiffany.
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The Writing Life Game
How do you become a writer? The Los Angeles Times asked 200 writers participating in their Festival of Books how they got started and created a board game based on their responses. Roll the die to find out if you'll be a successful writer or not.
Custodian of Forgotten Books
Recommended Reading: On Brad Bigelow, a “Custodian of Forgotten Books.” Our own Claire Cameron traces the history of John Williams’s Stoner, which was first published in 1965 and became a bestseller in the Netherlands in 2013.
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