Rachel Syme set out to cover the failure of Dawn Powell’s diaries to sell at auction for the New Yorker and came away with a tender meditation on obsession, New York, and the business of biography.
a small, diamond-like space
Memories of Books
Writer Philip Graham reflected on reading after cataract surgery made reading (temporarily) impossible.
Tuesday New Release Day: Freud; Seskis; Baxter; Vaillant; Puertolas; Oates
Out this week: Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud; One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis; Munich Airport by Greg Baxter; The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant; The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by Romain Puertolas; and The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great 2015 Book Preview.
Hail to the Chief (Librarian)
During the riots in Baltimore following Freddie Gray's death, the city's chief librarian insisted her neighborhood branch remain open. Yesterday that librarian, Dr. Carla D. Hayden, was sworn in as the 14th librarian of Congress, the first woman and African-American to hold the position. We wonder what Dr. Hayden might make of our own Jacob Lambert's "Open Letter to the Person Who Wiped Boogers on My Library Book."
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That’s What She Said
"It is so chic to be an author. To be known for one's writing is to be truly known, do you not think?" Mindy Kaling states in the beginning of B.J. Novak's French New Wave satire book trailer. Novak isn't just Ryan from The Office, he also writes fiction. His short story collection, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, will be out February 4th, but in the meantime, you can read an excerpt at NPR.
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A Free Scotland
What would happen if Scotland seceded from the United Kingdom? Check back in 2014 to find out.
Thoughts of a Migraineur
“Stories are born unconsciously, but I think the writer determines whether the turn a book has taken is true or false through feeling, which is conscious. I shape my stories in this or that way because the story answers something that is emotionally rather than literally true for me.” At Full-Stop, Siri Hustvedt talks fiction with Tyler Malone.