I’ll Have Another scratched from the Belmont yesterday, which dashed our hopes of seeing the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, but you can still get excited for today’s race by checking out this beautiful passage from John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Blood-Horses.
Get Excited For The Belmont!
Empty America Series
Director Ross Ching was so inspired by photographer Matt Logue’s “Empty LA” project, he decided to expand the idea. What’s resulted is the ongoing Empty America series, whose first two installments depict Seattle and San Francisco without any humans present. Coming up: Washington D.C. and New York City.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Kang; Moshfegh; Ronsino; Xilonen; Cusk
New this week: Human Acts by Han Kang; Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh; Glaxo by Hernán Ronsino; The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen; and Transit by Rachel Cusk. For more on these and other new titles, go read our most recent book preview.
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He Just Keeps Going and Going and Going
As the publication date nears for Robert Caro's latest Lyndon Johnson installment, The Passage of Power, it's a good idea to brush up on your history of Caro's career. Enter Charles McGrath and his great portrait of one of the most prolific biographers of all time.
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5 under 35
The National Book Foundation announces the 5 Under 35 Selections for 2009.
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What’s Next? The KGB Bar Run By the Real KGB?
Over at Salon, Joel Whitney explains how The Paris Review worked with the CIA and “served, in part, as a covert international weapon of soft power.” While the possibility is certainly tantalizing, it's necessary to read Whitney's article alongside Carolyn Kellogg's piece in the LA Times, which notes how "the threads of the article ... become unsupportably tenuous" as it carries on.
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Public Radio, Straight No Chaser
WNYC's Jazz Loft Project series is absolutely essential listening: a portrait of New York's bygone bohemia, complete with resident genius Thelonious Monk. And a book version is out this week from Knopf - a great gift idea for jazz lovers.