Looking for some new poetry? Inferno author Eileen Myles pens a ringing endorsement of Erica Kaufman’s Instant Classic. The book has “haunted and befuddled” her for over a year, she writes.
Inferno (A Poet’s Recommendation)
The Final Rounds of the ToB
Another week of literary contests has whittled the Tournament of Books field down to four: Freedom, A Visit From the Goon Squad, Next, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Today, the team offers more analysis, previewing and recapping. Up next: the semis, the Zombie round, and the grand finale.
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Who Wrote the Golden Plates?
For centuries, inquiring theologians have wondered about the authorship of The Bible. Now a writer at the LARB, William L. Davis, raises a related question: who really wrote The Book of Mormon?
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Beginning of the End
“As a speaker of a small language, it can be alarming to hear the rapidly increasing influx of new words from a dominant force. Back in 2000, linguistics researcher Sylfest Lomheim caused upheaval by claiming the Norwegian language wouldn’t survive the next century. Is this the beginning of the end?” On the Anglicization of Norwegian.
Tuesday New Release Day: Nguyen; McKay; Smith; Kitamura; Manguso; Omotoso; Lee; Darnielle
Out this week: The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen; Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay; Autumn by Ali Smith; A Separation by Katie Kitamura; 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso; The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso; Pachinko by Min Jin Lee; and Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
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New Releases: Foer, Coupland, King
Stephen King’s latest, Under the Dome, is out today. It’s 1,100 pages and is being compared to The Stand. Meanwhile, Generation A by Douglas Coupland is also hitting shelves. It’s a sequel to Coupland’s famous, influential debut, Generation X. Also out last week was Jonathan Safran Foer’s treatise on vegetarianism, Eating Animals, which picked up a mixed review in the New Yorker.
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What’s a Night with William Blake Worth?
William Blake’s cottage in Felpham, England is on the market for $970,000. Since Blake only lived in the place for three years, that means a single night of Blake’s time could be valued at about $885.
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